I have twice taken potshots at national pundits who have done everything they could (short of throwing California-born puppies in a blender manufactured in the Golden State) to pass themselves off as instant pundits on a California issue that has recently become a matter of national interest. I have taken a similar shot at one equally abysmal home-grown “expert” who writes for a newspaper that is physically present in California but operates in a world of its own. In all three cases, I emphasized that it’s hard to say intelligent things about polical issues local to an area other than your own. Now it’s time for me to eat crow.

Why, you might ask? Because I just got done watching a segment on Hannity & Colmes, in which California Congresscritters Dana Rohrabacher and Juanita Millender-McDonald debated the recall. Millender-McDonald, like most people with hyphenated surnames, is a throwaway politician who no one cares about, and who probably wouldn’t even have been invited on the show if either (1) she wasn’t from California, or (2) Nancy Pelosi didn’t have better things to do. Rohrabacher, on the other hand, is anything but that.

Thus, while I was not surprised to hear Millender-McDonald repeat the popular Democrat lie – five times, I might add – that “eight million” Californians had voted for Gray Davis last year (in fact, fewer than four million did), I was a bit disappointed that Rohrabacher didn’t call her on it. After that, hearing both of them screw up the names of two major candidates (Rohrabacher talk of Cruz “Bustamente,” Millender-McDonald of “Tim” McClintock) was only icing on the cake.

Here’s my unsolicited advice to those trying to understand the recall: if you heard it on national TV but haven’t seen it confirmed by any blogger, it’s probably not true. If Dan Weintraub said it, it almost certainly is true. As to the rest of us lowly bloggers, here’s a rule of thumb: if you heard it from me, Justene Adamec, Greg Ransom, Spooky, Stefan Sharkansky or Jeff Lewis at least 24 hours ago (and no one else on that list has subsequently contradicted it), then it’s probably true. Otherwise, your best bet is to email all of us. One or more of us will give you the straight dope within hours.

NOTE: The above list of recall bloggers was off the top of my head, so I probably missed somebody. I reserve the right to fix the entry anytime I want to correct this. While I have not formally subscribed to BLAP, I do try to conform to it more-or-less, most of the time.