Credibility is really important in our elected officials. After all, when they run for election (or re-election) much weight is placed on what they tell us they will do in office. I must tell you, as someone who endorsed, supported and encouraged others to do the same for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recall election of 2003, and his re-election in 2006, I am starting to feel like a chump. It’s not that I am mad at him, it’s more like I am hurt. I feel like he made a promise to all of us, and now he’s not keeping his word.

Arnold’s embrace of a large tax increase as part of a big state-government foray into the healthcare marketplace the size of which would make Milton Friedman cry was so unbelievable that I still am in shock. Worse yet was the ‘justification’ used — that raising actual taxes is somehow netted out by a reduction in a so-called "hidden tax" that Californians already pay. Combine that terrible method of justification with any liberal spending program and I guess you can justify tax hikes all day long. But it doesn’t make it right, and this is not the policy agenda of a… Read More

In response to one of the articles on the front page of the Flash Report today, I must vehemently disagree with GOP lawmakers who call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. The U.S. should not be guilty of making the games a political or diplomatic weapon. We have grown ups with big salaries who are supposed to be professionals at diplomacy. If they are so inadequate that we have to shield them with hard working, stellar young American athletes, then I say we need to clean house in the embassy.

I’m frankly aghast that GOP lawmakers would follow in the steps of President Carter. His Lilly-livered relationship with the Soviets in 1980 was a disgrace, and what we should have done was send our athletes to the Moscow games to kick some tail and break every record.

The U.S. should never shirk from being represented on the world stage the Olympics afford. Our lawmakers should insist on competent diplomats rather than sideline our young superstars.… Read More

Credibility is really important in our elected officials. After all, when they run for election (or re-election) much weight is placed on what they tell us they will do in office. I must tell you, as someone who endorsed, supported and encouraged others to do the same for Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recall election of 2003, and his re-election in 2006, I am starting to feel like a chump. It’s not that I am mad at him, it’s more like I am hurt. I feel like he made a promise to all of us, and now he’s not keeping his word.

Arnold’s embrace of a large tax increase as part of a big state-government foray into the healthcare marketplace the size of which would make Milton Friedman cry was so unbelievable that I still am in shock. Worse yet was the ‘justification’ used — that raising actual taxes is somehow netted out by a reduction in a so-called "hidden tax" that Californians already pay. Combine that terrible method of justification with any liberal spending program and I guess you can justify tax hikes all day long. But it doesn’t make it right, and this is not the policy agenda of a… Read More

Just a quick break from the excellent coverage of the California State Budget Debate of 2007:

News on a very competitive race forming in San Bernardino County’s Third Supervisorial District. The district, which includes the cities of Redlands, San Bernardino, Loma Linda, plus many rural and suburban communities. The longtime incumbent is controversial local political figure Dennis Hansberger, who has held the seat for the past twelve years (and did a stint on the board from 1972-86). Hansberger is being challenges by San Bernardino City Councilmember Neil Derry, who has vast public policy experience as an elected official and a top district staff member to then-Assemblymember Fred Aguiar of San Bernardino County.

No one else is expressing an interest to stand for this seat, meaning the race could be decided in the June 2008 primary. While the candidates are bringing their credentials to the electoral battlefield, the talent each team has lined … Read More

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Millions of WSJ Journal subscribers are reading this on page A12 of their WJS this morning – an editorial from the paper…

Arnold’s Health Flop After Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his universal health-care plan for California in January, almost everyone was laying down palms in Sacramento. Here was a Republican Governor putting aside political squabbling and "doing big things that Washington has failed to do," as Time magazine put it. What a change seven months later, with the plan on the cusp of collapse. There’s a lesson here about health-care "bipartisanship" when it’s merely a cover for bad policy. … Read More

Senate Republicans are doing the right thing. They are standing tall for fiscal responsibility. As FR Central Valley Correspondent Mike Der Manouel said so well earlier today, holding out for fiscal sanity in our state’s spending plan is something that Republicans should have been doing every year since 1999. So we applaud them for their efforts.

The California Democratic Party has actually tried from afar to start up a recall effort against one Senate Republican, Jeff Denham, for having the audacity to stand up for working California families who expect state government to live within its means.

Well, Senator Denham isn’t taking this threat, however incredulous, lying down. A new website has been launched, www.joinwithjeff.com, where you can go to voice your support for Denham. The Friends of Jeff Denham Against The Recall have launched a television spot across his district, which you can watch below, and you can listen to a radio spot that they put together by… Read More

The following is penned by Steve Baric, the President of the California Republican Lawyers Association. CRLA deserves much praise for their leadership on this matter…

On Monday August 13, 2007 the California Republican Lawyers Association, on behalf of the Assembly Republican Caucus filed a motion in Federal Court to prevent dangerous felons from being released back into our communities. The motion filed would allow Assembly Republicans to intervene in a Federal lawsuit where a 3 Judge panel will consider imposing a cap on California’s prison population. On July 23, U.S. District Court Judges Lawrence Karlton and Thelton Henderson ordered a three-judge panel be convened to consider setting a prison population cap in California. The Judges… Read More