WHALEN ON WESTLY
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a lot of things going for him as he runs for re-election this year. But certainly one of the best things going is the poor quality of the two Democrats seeking the Democratic Party nomination – State Treasurer Phil Angelides, and State Controller Steve Westly. Last Monday, FR correspondent Dan Schnur wrote a great piece on Angelides, and today we feature a column penned by our own Bill Whalen on Steve Westly, who Whalen points out is ‘too cute by half’ – a definate ‘must read’ for today!
WILL THOMAS RETIRE? WE HOPE SO!
One can only hope that Congressman Bill Thomas will announce his retirement today. Like some sort of movie-star, this self-important politician has called a 9 a.m. press conference to announce whether or not he will run for a 200th term in Congress. Some signs he will retire: They named a local AIRLINE TERMINAL after him? Don’t you have to be dead (at least politically) for that honor? How about the failure of his sausage-factory-made Medicare Measure D plan? How about the hundreds of millions in pork spending he has been bringing home lately, making him a poster-child for a broken system. These are all great reasons for him to retire. The best one, of course, is that we are all tired of his tireless, endless medling in politics around California, valiantly fighting against electing strong conservative candidates in GOP primaries (with rare exceptions). We’ll see what the "King of Pork" announces in less than an hour.
THE CRA CONVENTION
The California Republican Assembly met in Bakersfield over the weekend. FR friend Aaron Park penned a fun Winners & Losers column on his website, which is linked from the main page. Also, Steve Frank wrote on the Convention at California Political News & Views (accessable through the FR "Blog Roll" above). We’re all hoping that CRA President Mike Spence, a regular FR contributor, will take a few minutes and give us his take (spin?) on his organization’s convention on the FR Blog (accessable above).
DREIER’S CALL
Look for the article on the main page today about David Dreier and his conference call with constituents. I was amazed at what technology can do today….
COMING TOMORROW
*Winners & Losers of the State GOP Convention* I know this has taken a while, but when you read Bill Whalen’s column today, you’ll agree I had to prioritize publishing that brilliantly written piece of work.
*The Bill Thomas decision* We hope to be writing the political obituary of the liberal Republican Congressman from Bakersfield. Fingers are crossed at the FlashReport.
Have a great day and if you missed the weekend’s issues of the FR, there are links on the main page.
Jon
PS: Congratulations to by brother, Rick, for winning our family "Pick the Academy Award Winners Contest."
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