A candidate for obedience school. In its most dysfunctional moments, Spokane’s famously fractious City Council was downright decorous compared with the unruliness that would erupt in Tacoma when Will Baker showed up.

At least, Spokane’s council in-fighting and occasional badgering of public speakers never ended in arrests – something that happened repeatedly to Baker for shoving his way to the podium out of turn or against Tacoma City Council rules, shouting over other speakers and refusing to leave when so ordered. A couple of months ago, Baker was even held in contempt of court for the way he acted while representing himself on charges of disrupting a public meeting.

According to the Associated Press, Baker’s been jailed for such antics 19 or more times in the past 12 years. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer called him Tacoma’s “most vocal political gadfly.” You’d think he would be too conspicuous to overlook. Somehow, though, Washington state Republican Chairman Chris Vance did.

When no Republican candidate filed for Washington state auditor, Vance agreed to put Baker’s name on the ballot, later regretting it publicly. It’s an embarrassment he’ll have to live with through the election on Nov. 2 – hopefully no longer.

Reverse Psychology 101. School administrators and parents are relieved that more conservative styles are in vogue this fall. Hip-hugging pants, short skirts and tight “belly shirts” have triggered domestic turmoil and produced a less-than-scholarly atmosphere at middle schools and high schools.

The good news is that nothing stays in style for very long, so the oversexed look was bound to fade. The bad news is that the more conservative styles will soon be viewed as “so last week,” causing the fashion pendulum to swing back.

Fear not, school officials, a solution may be at hand. The last thing students want to look like is adults, so what if teachers wore hip-huggers, belly shirts and sagging pants? Kids would be clamoring for cardigans, slacks and pantsuits!

OK, maybe the cure would be worse than the disease. Never mind.