* Conservative Republican Bill Simon, Jr., who ran unsucessfully for Governor in 2002, was in NYC for an exclusive meeting of supporters of Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the Presidency.
* Milton Friedman was a noted economist and an ardent libertarian. I attended a dinner once where his talk centered around his opposition to the war on drugs and the need to decriminalize prostitution. Nice.
* Margita Thompson, who is departing as the Governor’s Press Secretary, is rumored to be leaving for Nepal, to trek up to the top of Mount Everest – time for her to take it easy.
* Clearly conservative Simon wouldn’t be attracted to Giuliani’s mold of East Coast liberal Republicanism. But Simon used to work for Giuliani as a prosecutor… They are close personal friends I am told…
* Former Schwarzenegger Campaign Deputy Communications Director Matt David is rumored to be in consideration to replace Thompson. That would be a great pick. I give Matt my strongest recommendation (sorry, Matt, I may have sunk your chances).
* Success or failure for legislative leaders, under this redistricting plan, must be based on how they do in the Capitol. Picking up or losing seats is nearly impossible. Ackerman and Villines will be judged by Republicans on whether they unified their causes against any expansion of the size or scope of state government.
* House Republicans today, in a bold move, shuffled around their existing leadership. This leads one to the conclusion that they must think the election losses weren’t their fault.
* Margita isn’t really going to climb Everest, just returning to L.A. But anything she does has to be easier on her sanity than the job she is leaving.
* We’re adding a whole new group of bloggers to the FR Blog as we gear up for the new political cycle. Among them are two more members of the State Legislature, to augment the fine job of Doug LaMalfa.
* Today is the birthday of newly re-minted House Minority Leader John Boehner. Pretty nice to be elected on your birthday. Too bad for former Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia that last Thursday wasn’t HIS birthday.
* President Bush could have saved the Republican Congress from itself had he chosen to veto the parade of spending measures that has grown government, and stripped the GOP of its branding as the Party of limited government. Perhaps he will veto big government bills sent to him from the other Party… We’ll see.