EDITORIAL BEING FRANK.

THE worst thing about California's rigged legislative districts is that the public at large doesn't choose Assembly members and state senators in general elections; the party faithful do it in partisan primaries. The result is a Legislature filled with extremists on both sides who refuse to work together and who get little done.

The latest example of this unfortunate trend is the rhetorical thrashing that Glendale City Councilman Frank Quintero is taking in his race against Burbank school board member Paul Krekorian, a fellow Democrat, to succeed Dario Frommer in the 43rd Assembly District.

Quintero's ``crime,'' if you can call it that: Three weeks ago, in a debate, he mistook vouchers for interdistrict school transfers, and he said he backed the idea.

Never mind that Quintero has publicly expressed opposition to vouchers many times before or that he later retracted the inadvertent remark. His slip of the tongue was enough to set off the party's extremists.

The California Teachers Association, which backs Krekorian and apparently won't even tolerate unwitting dissent from its party line, went ballistic. So did Krekorian. Various other members of the party power base also chimed in.

All this because a loyal Democrat with a long history of public service and a commitment to education stumbled over his words. It's as though Quintero's offhand remark exposed a subliminal betrayal -- a thought crime to partisan extremists who demand ideological purity.

With fellow Democrats being this intolerant of each other, is it any surprise that our hyperpartisan legislators do nothing but bicker? This is the sort of extremism that has poisoned California politics.