SACRAMENTO — It was completely predictable but is still fascinating to watch: Once Democrats seized firm control of California's Capitol they wound up fighting each other.
Such is the combative nature of political animals.
In a rare twist, Republican lawmakers are siding with the Democratic governor.
The brawl is over prison crowding, which has driven a sharp wedge between the two legislative leaders: Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).
"If you don't have a good fight in this business now and then, even between allies, you're not pushing each other hard enough," Steinberg told me with a slight chuckle.
It's commanding everyone's time and attention — especially Gov. Jerry Brown's — as the Legislature drives toward adjournment of its 2013 session Sept. 13.
Expect the prison issue to be resolved before the lawmakers go home but not much else of importance that's less pressing.
Brown is under a federal court order to reduce the prison population to 137.5% of design capacity by Dec. 31. Three judges, ruling in a suit filed on behalf of inmates, declared that the lockups are unconstitutionally overcrowded, resulting in inadequate healthcare.
Brown has argued that the criminals get better healthcare inside prison than they would outside. But if the governor doesn't obey the court, he faces a possible contempt citation.
The court order was issued in 2009, and the state has been dragging its feet "in open defiance," U.S. 9th Circuit appellate Judge Stephen Reinhardt declared in April.
What does 137.5% of capacity mean? It's complicated, and numbers shift around.
The court seemed to order the state to reduce its prison population by 9,600. But Brown is aiming for 12,000 to leave some room for future convictions.
The administration's plan is to house 110,000 in state prisons and an additional 11,000 in private lockups — mostly out of state — and in local jails and fire camps.
Currently there are 133,000 incarcerated, down by 45,000 since 2006 and by 25,000 on Brown's watch, he told a news conference.
We're now down to the most hardened criminals, the governor believes, and he is refusing to turn any loose.
"If you let 10,000 people out, what happens if they decide they don't want to go to church every Sunday and instead commit serious crimes?" he asked reporters.
Pérez stood next to the governor nodding. "We are not, any of us, willing to release a single additional prisoner," the speaker declared.
That crosses up the court plaintiffs, whose agenda seems to be about freeing inmates as much as getting them better healthcare.
The governor's plan to spend $315 million this year and $415 million in each of the next two to expand prison space is "an incredible waste," contended Don Specter, the inmates' lawyer. "Without reform of the sentencing laws, California's prison population will continue to grow."
The governor himself several months ago denounced the notion of pouring "more and more money down the rat hole of incarceration." But his definition of rat hole obviously has changed.
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