My friend Nathan Barankin who works for Attorney General Bill Lockyer has to be having a good 
chuckle after reading the latest post on the Los Angeles Times Political Muscle Blog, penned by veteran political reporter Bob Salladay.
From the Tales of the Bizarre comes this story about some long-ago history on Claude Parrish, the GOP nominee for State Treasurer. Apparently once upon a time back in the ’80s, when Parrish owned an ice-cream company, he bought a pricey sports car, and according to records unearthed by the Times, he proceeded to not make his payments. The story of what happens from their is, like I said, bizarre. I would try to summarize it here, but I have to say that Bob Salladay does a delightful job of sharing the story. But with players like Claude Parrish, the "Cheap Detective Agency." and a Mercedes-Benz SL380 Roadster — we know it will be interesting.
I will make two observations, and then send you on to read the sordid details…
My first observation is that I have to admit that this story is totally believable because Claude Parrish is so… odd. I have known Claude for decades now, and in all of that time, he and I have never spoken more than a brief greeting, and he always has been shrouded behind a cloud of social awkwardness combined with a odd ability to avoid engaging in countless numbers of drills to fight liberals, and then he crops up pushing odd things. And even then, when you look into them further, Claude seems to retreat into the dark like a spider afraid of the light. Again, these are personal observations of my own — and I am sure that in the sub-public world of the State Board of Equalization he must have some social graces and defined personality. But within main stream GOP circles, he is still virtually unrecognizable.
My second observation is that this story is a great example of the emergence of the importance of blogging by the main stream media. The substantial resources of an agency like the Los Angeles Times can find and research a story like this, and whereas there would previously been internal wrangling over whether this is a story worthy of the print edition of the Times, it is an easy call for them to throw it, after thorough vetting, into the blogosphere where websites like this one pass it along.
Anyways, we’ll see if Claude responds to the Times (or he is welcome to respond here). Anyone who wants to vouch for Parrish is welcome to comment below. From reading Salladay’s piece, you wonder if Parrish is in hiding, with a two-way radio, getting updates on his campaign from folks at his campaign headquarters (if he has one).
Ok, with no more ‘People Magazinesque’ pithyness from yours truly, you can read it all here… The post is called, Claude Parrish and the Repo Man.
P.S. It’s starting to become a bit more clear why Parrish does not want to publicly debate Bill Lockyer… Sigh.
P.P.S. In hindsight, perhaps Assemblyman Keith Richman should have had a large opposition research line item in his campaign budget in the primary.