Just as there are times that restore one's faith in human nature, there also are times that make one so sickened that it's hard to know what to say. Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting fits into the latter category - an event so revolting I only wish that all Orange County voters had been there to see and hear it with me.

I don't wish ill stomachs on my readers. But had every Orange Countian attended the meeting, everyone would know exactly how the county is run. They would have watched three supervisors - Chairman Tom Wilson, Bill Campbell and Jim Silva - acting as union shills, granting dramatic pension increases to government employees, in total disregard of sound actuarial advice.

And in direct disregard to the interests of taxpayers, who will have to work longer and harder to pay for the tax increases that will be necessary once the union's phantasmagorical financial assumptions are overcome by reality.

Somehow, I doubt Campbell, who once owned a franchise of fast-food restaurants, was as generous with his company's pension dollars as he is with the taxpayers' dollars entrusted to his care.

The meeting was a farce.

Campbell's faux-prosecutor shtick played well with the assembled union crowd, but reminded me of a kid play-acting. Campbell was carrying water for this pension spike, but needed to burnish his Republican credentials.

He made it clear that he thought the increase was a great idea. But he wanted to look tough and prove he is not the union patsy his critics say he is. So he pretended to be a prosecutor in a courtroom, and called up one union official after another to pepper them with "hard" questions. In reality, the questions were lighter than air, of the sort a lawyer might ask his star witness.

Campbell demanded to know from one union leader how much support the plan had within the union. Then he called upon another union rep and asked the same thing, and then another.

"That's darn near 90 percent," Campbell intoned, to the appreciation of the smiling union crowd.

In my view, if 90 percent of the union is thrilled, it's a sign the deal is extremely generous and might not be in the public's interest. Clearly, the taxpayers' interest did not weigh heavily on Campbell's mind.

Campbell also peppered the union reps with questions about whether the plan would cost taxpayers anything. Predictably, one rep after another said it wouldn't - and that was good enough for Campbell, who ignored obvious evidence to the contrary. Campbell was trying to establish that the union would continue paying for the benefit beyond the contract's length, even though any such concession is completely nonbinding.

"So, the risk has been shifted to employees," Campbell said at another point, pretending he had elicited some new and profound information from the union mouthpiece.

"He's trying to justify something that time won't justify," said one disgruntled audience member, laughing under his breath at Campbell's silly tough-guy preening.

Chairman Wilson thanked Campbell for his "quite thorough" questions and answers. Wilson argued that the Harvard-educated Campbell's questioning was proof of how tough the supervisors were when they negotiated with the union.

Actually, they got rolled. The contributions the union will make to pay for the deal will not pay for the deal if the fanciful financial assumptions don't hold up. And union promises only last for three years, whereas the county obligations last for three decades.

This is indefensible, especially given that almost everyone involved on both sides of the negotiations stands to gain a taxpayer-backed windfall following implementation. No wonder Wilson offered ad hominem attacks on critics, including Treasurer John Moorlach, instead of engaging their arguments.

The three duped supes refused to even support Supervisors Chris Norby and Chuck Smith's motion to delay the vote for two weeks to allow more investigation of a plan that will create an immediate $300 million liability in a system that already is $1 billion short of fulfilling current obligations.

Silva's behavior was self-serving. He talked about his longtime opposition to tax increases, conspicuously neglecting his support for big-government programs that will lead to tax increases or busted budgets (i.e., the billion-dollar-plus CenterLine light-rail boondoggle, "3 percent at 50" retirements for public safety unions, the Project Labor Agreement granting a price-inflating construction monopoly to labor unions).

At some point, Silva should stop talking about being a conservative and start voting like one.

I've heard some local Republicans lament that the board, now governed by a 5-0 Republican majority, will have a Democratic member after November because the runoff pits Democrat Lou Correa against Democrat Bruce Broadwater.

Who cares? How could any Democrat be more union-friendly than Silva, Campbell or Wilson? We'll at least have truth in advertising when a Democrat is on the board.

By the way, former Fullerton Mayor Jan Flory, a Democrat, spoke at the meeting about her city's experiences after adopting a retirement benefit spike for police officers and firefighters. CalPERS officials promised that it would be decades before the city could face any costs due to the increase, she said, but after two years the pensions were consuming 14 percent of the city's general fund - and the percentage is climbing higher.

Wilson, Campbell and Silva ignored that real-world warning, preferring instead the union's rosy projections. I'll take a responsible Democrat like Flory over these Republican chumps any day.

A few critics of the plan spoke early in the meeting, and then one union member after another came to the podium and praised the deal. They had the final say. Few supporters dealt with the financial specifics. Most, including the union leaders, relied on emotional arguments.

All county residents can sleep well at night, said one speaker, thanks to the sacrifices made by county workers. The union rep for the district attorneys association told supervisors the reason Orange County has such a low crime rate is because of his members' hard work. If they are not given huge pension spikes, they will leave their jobs and the county will become a cesspool of crime and degeneracy. I overstate, but not by much.

The room was filled with workers wearing union name-tags. When the deal was approved, many jumped up and clapped, hugged each other and gave high-fives. It was like a football game, except that the public will be paying for the tickets and refreshments.

Supervisor Norby wondered why public employees should be encouraged to retire at age 55, in their prime, rather than wait until an older age, as is common in the private sector. He asked other genuinely tough questions, but was rebuffed by a crowd with dollar signs in its sights and three union-label Republicans who were thinking more about their political futures than the public good.

Where's a good recall when you need one?