EDITORIAL WHEELIN', DEALIN' RECALL BRINGS OUT THE SPECIAL INTERESTS WITH LOTS OF CASH!

REMEMBER California's do-nothing Legislature, the hapless body that couldn't pass the state budget for months and didn't fix anything when it finally did?

The Oct. 7 recall election has made those days a thing of the past, which has taught us an old but important lesson: Be careful what you wish for.

Suddenly, legislators are ready to get to work, and work hard, to crank out legislation at breakneck speed.

In total, Gov. Gray Davis stands to sign or veto as many as 1,300 pieces of legislation - that's more than 10 for every member of the Legislature - before his Oct. 7 judgment day.

And it's judgment day that drives the frenzy. Special interests of all kinds - business, labor, attorneys and more - know that Davis is desperate for campaign cash and so is everyone else.

With political leaders who wake up when there's cash on the table led by the king of cutting deals, the special interests see this time as a going-out- of-business sale - everything must go, no reasonable offer refused. This is their chance for once-in-a-lifetime bargains, deals that won't still be around should the state come under new management on Oct. 8.

So the special interests are busy lighting fires under the legislators, who are responding by preparing to send a mountain of legislation Davis' way. Davis, in turn, will no doubt judge each item thoughtfully and carefully, his mind focused on nothing but the best interest and well-being of all Californians - and how much the parties most affected by a particular piece of legislation have contributed to the anti-recall effort.

His defenders, of course, insist that politics and money have nothing to do with it. ``There's no connection between political contributions and public policy,'' swears Gabriel Sanchez, press secretary for Californians Against the Costly Recall.

That's a legally required disclaimer but hardly true based on past experience.

Consider, for example SB 60 - a poorly conceived, arguably dangerous bill that would give illegal immigrants a driver's license without a criminal background check or verification of identity. Davis had vetoed the measure twice in the past, but, eager to reach out to the Democratic base, he now backs it.

His supporters might call that a political decision, rather than a monetary one, but the two are hard to distinguish. Among SB 60's strongest backers are public-employee unions, which are rallying members, setting up phone banks, mailing out fliers and - yes, coughing up big bucks - on Davis' behalf.

And SB 60 is just one 1,300 pieces of legislation, bills backed or opposed by vested interests lobbying mightily for their point of view, spending generously on the various recall campaigns. Other bills relate to health care, workers' compensation, Indian tribal matters and other issues likely to attract the interest of Sacramento's money-changers.

Because business in Sacramento is done with a wink and a nod - rather than a quid and a quo - it's impossible for anyone to prove any actual wrongdoing except for those foolish enough to get caught on tape. But the signs are everywhere, and 1,300 new laws from now, it's doubtful that the lot of average Californians will be any better.

Sacramento is going from doing nothing at all to doing nothing worthwhile - and that may even be worse.