Book excerpt: Politics is personal, Bill Bagley likes to say, and here is a personal journey through the politics of America's most extraordinary state. California's Golden Years offers tales of cash-filled envelopes, all-night poker games, and all the free liquor a legislator could drink. But the stories and the anecdotes offer more than mere fun -- they illuminate a larger lesson learned during Bagley's 14 years in the California Legislature. The personal relationships forged during a continuum of hosted bipartisan lunches and dinners are, in Bagley's view, the glue that ensures working relationships and pragmatic compromises. Those who play together, he writes, stay together. The Legislature of Bagley's era accomplished much for its state. With the population booming, California enjoyed the best schools, roads, and water systems in the nation. Today, as the Golden State faces unprecedented challenges, California's Golden Years offers both a look back toward a fondly remembered era, and an insider's explanation for why politics seemed to work better then than now.