The Political Landscape:

Disgraced hedge fund manager Bernard Madoff told investigators he knew Newport Beach resident and former Congressman Christopher Cox would be the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission a few weeks prior to his appointment, according to a new report from the agency.

The report, a result of an internal SEC probe into how the agency missed numerous chances to catch Madoff’s $65-billion Ponzi scheme, details his propensity for dropping names of high-ranking SEC officials to investigators.

The report alleges the fraudulent financier used his name-dropping to intimidate young, inexperienced SEC examiners who were acting on tips there was something amiss with Madoff’s firm.

“Madoff told them that Christopher Cox was going to be the next chairman of the SEC a few weeks prior to Cox being officially named.

He also told them that Madoff himself ‘was on the short list’ to be the next chairman of the SEC,” the report states.

The report faults the SEC’s actions since 1992 in the Madoff case, an era that spans the reign of five SEC chairmen, including Cox, who headed up the agency from August 2005 until his resignation in January.

DEVORE HOPES TO JAM SENATOR’S FAX MACHINE

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has hopes his new website will clog up Sen. Barbara Boxer’s fax machine with letters against cap-and-trade legislation.

It takes only a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse to send Boxer, who chairs the Senate environmental committee, a letter critical of so-called cap-and-trade legislation, which would put a cap on polluting air emissions.

The legislation would translate into “a massive energy tax,” according to DeVore’s new site, taxfax.us.

The site had generated 51,340 faxes as of Wednesday afternoon.

GADFLY GOADS COUNCIL TO ‘THIN OUT SLUMS’

Displaying a photograph of gang-like graffiti he found on a fence in his Mesa North neighborhood, gadfly Martin Millard chastised Councilwoman Katrina Foley for serving the homeless pancakes and asked the city officials to “thin out” Costa Mesa’s “slums” at the City Council meeting Tuesday night.

Millard also expressed anger about a program created by the Westside Costa Mesa nonprofit Share Our Selves that provides backpacks and school supplies to low-income families in the community.

Last week, Share Our Selves gave away 1,500 to 1,700 free backpacks for school children whose parents cannot afford school supplies.

“That may make your heart feel nice, but to me it’s an insult that I’m living in a city that folks from Corona del Mar have to come here and give backpacks to people in our city,” Mallard said.

Millard asked the council to “thin out” Costa Mesa’s “slums” by putting a series of small parks in Westside Costa Mesa.