Bill Bradley, the normally diligent and well-researched author of the New West Notes blog, offers this factually inaccurate and lazily researched piece in the latest edition of LA Weekly.  Choosing to pander to LA Weekly’s liberal readership, Bradley ignores well-documented evidence to regurgitate the tired, out-dated themes of a new right-wing conspiracy. Yes, that same right-wing conspiracy that Hillary Clinton revealed over nine years ago and that has twice-elected "post-partisan" Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is both new and radically right-wing.    

Bradley’s flawed contention is that the Republican Party has been taken over by a new radical, conservative faction of Flash Report-blogging politicos. He cites “the rise of new, very far right party leaders: Fleischman, Tom Del Beccaro and Mike Spence” as evidence of his claim.

Never mind that Bradley’s article is laced with small inaccuracies to artificially bolster his argument, such as referring to Jon Fleischman as the “Southern California chairman of the Republican Party” (a position that does not exist and can be easily fact-checked at the CRP website), none of these leaders are new to the Republican Party’s leadership structure.

Straight from Fleischman’s bio, “From 1999 – 2001, Fleischman was the Executive Director of the California Republican Party, the state GOP’s top staff position.”  [emphasis added] Such the evil radical, he was even appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California Boating and Waterways Commission.

From Spence’s bio, “Mike Spence completed three terms as a board member of the California Republican Party. Mike is currently Chairman of the CRP Initiatives Committee. Mike has also been elected eight times to the Los Angeles County Central Committee.”

From Del Beccaro’s bio, he has served three terms as Chairman of the Contra Costa Republican Party. Since 2005, Del Beccaro has served as the President of the California Republican Party’s County Chairman’s Association.

With just a few minutes of research and the power of Google, even a B-level high school newspaper reporter would realize that the entire thesis that now “the party leadership has moved- and been pushed – to the far right” was inherently flawed.

However, Bradley’s worst error in the article comes from knowingly reporting false information. From the piece, “No one in the GOP camp wants to be quoted on the absurdity of Del Beccaro’s actions because they don’t want to be attacked by the right-wing bloggers.”

Despite Bradley’s assertion, the FlashReport did provide diverging viewpoints on the Brown lawsuit.  Over a three month span, FlashReport blogger Jim Lacy dedicated over 3,000 words in seven separate FlashReport posts offering a counterview to Del Beccaro’s opinion. 

Of course, Bill Bradley knew that FlashReport offered balanced and differing viewpoints on the Brown lawsuit because Bill Bradley commented on the FlashReport’s posts on the subject. Here on January 17th,  and here on February 11th.

Which is it, Bill, defective memory or deliberate misinformation?

Either way, it is disappointing to see a seasoned political reporter like Bill Bradley cater to the liberal, Democratic talking points. The fact remains: the California Republican Party represents the views of most Californians.

Governor Schwarzenegger won a landslide by campaigning on the single issue of not raising taxes. Jessica’s Law overwhelmingly passed by a Republican led initiative after the Democrats killed it in the Legislature. As they salute the Mexican flag, Democrats hand out driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. (H/T to Bob Salladay)

On taxes, illegal immigration, and public safety, is there any question about with which party most voters agree?