Last night I tried to imagine what an urgent communiqué to the Speaker from the lead consultants of Fabian Nunez’ pending measure to extend his term limits, in light of the failure to pass a state budget. So this morning, I took a few minutes to craft one for them. This is a fictional account, and is not a real memo. But it isn’t hard to imagine one similar to this being sent… URGENT MEMORANDUM To: Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez From: Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd RE: Consequences of failure to pass budget on Term Limits Extension Measure … Read More

We admit that most of the time that we draw attention to an L.A. Times story, it is to point out something we didn’t like about what a reporter or columnist wrote… But I have to give an FR "shout out" to Times reporter Evan Halper, whose state budget update story "GOP members maintain their opposition but agree to offer a plan of their own" which ran yesterday contained a generous amount of "ink" on the FlashReport!

It’s at the end of the story, and excerpted below. You can read Halper’s full Sunday story here.

From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary…

Cindy by the Bay

I recently predicted that the independent challenge against San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi by peace activist Cindy Sheehan would cause the House Speaker no end of heartburn between now and the 2008 election. Democrats would themselves regret ever legitimizing the bombastic mother of a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq, once given a ready platform by Democrats as a way to embarrass President Bush.

It looks as if Ms. Sheehan is fulfilling that prediction. In a widely read op-ed published in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, she took a two-by-four not only to Ms. Pelosi for her failure to cut off funding for the Iraq War. Ms. Sheehan used her cudgel to whack the… Read More

California’s own Congressman Dana Rohrabacher will investigate claims of abusive prosecutorial misconduct by Johnny Sutton, the US Attorney for the Western District of Texas.Specifically, he wants to know to what extent the Mexican government pressured Sutton to prosecute the two border patrol officers, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Campean.

Rohrabacher (pictured), who chaired the Oversight Committee, when Republicans were in charge, will serve as ranking member. Unfortunately, Sutton has refused to testify at the July 31 hearing of the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Sutton has a lot of explaining to do.

Conservatives have long feared the Federal Government propensity for prosecutorial misconduct. There is hardly anything more frightening than the unlimited resources of a belligerent US Attorney.

Sutton, a friend of President Bush, and ambitious US Attorney, is charged… Read More

Assemblyman Rick Keene was one of nine Republicans in the lower house to cast a vote for the budget that passed out last Thursday night (or was that Friday morning)? He has submitted the following commentary to add to the discussion on the state budget:

War profiteer Michael Moore, who made north of $250 million exploiting America’s decision to fight terrorism by producing a movie, Fahrenheit 911, has reason to have a fever these days.

His latest attack on American industry, the movie "Sicko", isa bust. Apparently all the people in this country supposedly upset about our health care system aren’t so upset that they are going to see this movie. The gross to date is $19 million – and is going nowhere fast.

The World Health Organization ranks the US 37th in its healthcare system and the French 1st. Problem is, almost nobody from here goes anywhere outside the US for treatment. Oh, there are a few, but we are a net importer of people looking for great healthcare, which we do provide in this country to everyone who needs it, including millions of illegal immigrants.… Read More

The Money Flow 1… Is it okay if I call next year’s 75th AD race now? Short of George Plescia getting a Perata/Nunez term limits reprieve, Nathan Fletcher seems to be the heir, doing a "fair" job raising some dough:

State Assembly candidate Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego) released his campaign finance report showing that he raised more than $350,000 for his election and has over $300,000 cash on hand. The report, filed with the Secretary of State, covers fundraising from January 1 through June 30, 2007.

“With less than a year remaining until the primary election, Nathan Fletcher’s fundraising has been phenomenal,” said incumbent Assemblyman George Plescia, who currently represents the 75th Assembly District, and is barred from running for re-election due to term limits. Plescia, who has endorsed Fletcher, added: “The total amount raised from so many individual supporters clearly demonstrates a broad base of support for Nathan’s campaign.” If you simply must read what Nathan’s consultant and fellow FR correspondent Duane Dichiara… Read More

I could not be more proud of the fifteen members of the Senate Republican Caucus. Despite an immense amount of pressure, and an immature Democrat Senate President who "locked in" the entire 40 member Senate in their chamber overnight, they remained unified as a caucus, as Republicans. Going into this period of budget negotiations, Senate Republicans took a pact, made a pledge, took a vote — until a majority of our caucus is satisfied with the negotiated budget agreement, we will all refrain from voting from a budget bill. In doing this, Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Hollingsworth are significantly more empowered to negotiate on behalf of Senate Republicans. The reality, as spelled out by so many Republicans, is that the budget bill that was passed out of the Assembly is a bad one for Californians. Yes, Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines made a tactical call that in his opinion, it was as good as it was going to get given the GOP’s minority status (not to mention all GOPers being hamstrung when the Governor proposed a spending package so large that even the Democrats… Read More