This is my Friday the 13th blog. Diane Dimond wrote a great book about Michael Jackson’s infidelities called "Be Careful Who You Love." Given the New York Times report today about Karl Rove’s emails, one could also say, "be careful who you email."

Pesky Congressional Democrats are seeking copies of Rove’s emails as further proof of misdoing regarding the U.S. Attorney scandal, which itself is a scandal, since the President has constitutional authority to appoint and remove U.S. Attorneys.

Nevertheless, Congressman Waxman (D-LA, CA) insists that according to the "Presidential Records Act," a sort of Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") applied to the White House, that he is entitled to copies of all of Rove’s emails, even those sent and received through a private RNC system set-up in the White House.

Who knows how this will resolve itself. It is all a bunch of foolishness from the Democrats anyway, since between 1933 and 1981 there are probably 50 years of incriminating interoffice memos between Democratic Presidents, Congressional democrats, and the DNCabout… Read More

Today, the FlashReport makes a humble request of Republican legislators in the State Capitol. Back up, and take a 30,000 foot view of what is going on in the State Capitol BEFORE you write your press releases. This time a year, faxes machines and e-mail accounts are being filled up with thousands of press releases from legislative offices touting legislation that has passed out of Committees. Note to Republicans: The Democrats KILL almost all truly meaningful pieces of legislation proposed by Republicans. This has led, over time, to a few things. First and foremost, less and less truly meaningful pieces of legislation are being introduced by Republicans, which is understandable. Were I in the legislature, I might say to myself, "Why bother introducing a bill to lower income tax rates in California?" given that we know the outcome — certain death. In addition, we see more and more bills being introduced by Republicans that make you scratch your head, and wonder, "Is this why we send folks to Sacramento?" Don’t get me wrong, many of these GOP bills achieve some important ‘technical fix’ or… Read More

As if newly elected OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen didn’t have enough to deal with (having just won by three votes and still facing a legal challenges to her seat) this morning the Capitol Morning Report pulled a two-year-old press release from the CalChamber web site talking about their support for Supervisor Nguyen’s run at Assemblyman Van Tran’s 68th Assembly District seat (even though Van is not termed out until 2010. NOT TRUE (well the part about the Chamber support is or was…read on).

Back when the jockeying for Joe Dunn’s 34th Senate seat was happening Assemblyman Van Tran was the likely GOP nominee and at that time then-Councilwoman Janet Nguyen was on track to run to replace Tran. Janet Nguyen a former local chamber government affairs exec. had the support of the CalChamber. When Tran decided to stick it out in the Assembly, the whole thing became moot.

According to FR publisher Jon Fleischman, who has been in contact with the Capitol Morning Report and CalChamber today, the correction will be published tomorrow.

While it might have been a fun war to watch, don’t count on… Read More

Today, the FlashReport makes a humble request of Republican legislators in the State Capitol. Back up, and take a 30,000 foot view of what is going on in the State Capitol BEFORE you write your press releases. This time a year, faxes machines and e-mail accounts are being filled up with thousands of press releases from legislative offices touting legislation that has passed out of Committees. Note to Republicans: The Democrats KILL almost all truly meaningful pieces of legislation proposed by Republicans. This has led, over time, to a few things. First and foremost, less and less truly meaningful pieces of legislation are being introduced by Republicans, which is understandable. Were I in the legislature, I might say to myself, "Why bother introducing a bill to lower income tax rates in California?" given that we know the outcome — certain death. In addition, we see more and more bills being introduced by Republicans that make you scratch your head, and wonder, "Is this why we send folks to Sacramento?" Don’t get me wrong, many of these GOP bills achieve some important ‘technical fix’ or… Read More

Earlier in the week, I posted on a decision by the Court of Appeals in Orange County agreeing to hear arguments on a writ filing on behalf of Trung Nguyen, who won the election day balloting for First District Supervisor, but in a recount, was deemed by the Orange County Registrar of Voters to then be the loser. Janet Nguyen was sworn in after being certified with margin of votes you could count on two hands. Anyway, I threw out an amazing statistic about how the Appeals Court only hears 1 in 100 or so writs that are filed with the court, and made it sound like that hurdle had been jumped by Trung’s legal team.

In another reminder of why we should let lawyers blog about this legal-beagle stuff, I was wrong. The Court has not agreed to hear the matter, they have agreed to take written testimony on why they should or should not hear the matter.

So while I would imagine it is not that easy to get even to the point where the Appellate Court wants to hear such arguments, Trung Nguyen’s legal challenge to the original Judge’s… Read More

Have you ever read the story of Chicken Little? An acorn falls on his head that he proceeds to whip up everyone in his land up into a frenzy that the sky is falling? I am reminded of that story when I read poll results that show many Californians so worried about global warming. Lately, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been like Chicken Little with a megaphone, so of course everyone is worked up. Eventually, in the story, everyone realizes that the sky, of course, is not falling. The question I have is how much freedom and liberty will be eroded because an acorn fell on Al Gore’s head? A reader pointed out to me that the Communications Director for the California Restaurant Association, Jordan Traverso, has left there to accept a new job with the Consumer Attorneys of California (formerly the California Trial Lawyers Association). Suggestion for the CRA — you should replace Traverso with someone who actually believes that trial lawyers bear much of the blame for the high costs of operating restaurants! There is a story today about hi-speed rail travel. I am sure I speak for … Read More

Currently held by Alan Nakanishi, the race in the 10th district is starting to come into shape. The strongest candidates making moves early on have been Paul Hegyi (Assemblyman Tran COS), David Sander (Mayor of Rancho Cordova), and Jack Sieglock (former San Joaquin County Supervisor). After a recent conversation I held with El Dorado County Supervisor Helen Baumann it now seems there are four at the head of the pack.

Baumann has hired consultant Jim Nygren and has strong ties in the wine industry which will help not only in Amador but in San Joaquin as well. If Baumann can make inroads into Lodi’s wine industry in San Joaquin it will make life much more difficult for Sieglock, who needs to have a solid win out of San Joaquin to win. Now the question is if Rusty DuPray, her colleague in El Dorado gets into the race. Two candidates splitting such a small geographic region could easily isolate them both.… Read More

Have you ever read the story of Chicken Little? An acorn falls on his head that he proceeds to whip up everyone in his land up into a frenzy that the sky is falling? I am reminded of that story when I read poll results that show many Californians so worried about global warming. Lately, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been like Chicken Little with a megaphone, so of course everyone is worked up. Eventually, in the story, everyone realizes that the sky, of course, is not falling. The question I have is how much freedom and liberty will be eroded because an acorn fell on Al Gore’s head? A reader pointed out to me that the Communications Director for the California Restaurant Association, Jordan Traverso, has left there to accept a new job with the Consumer Attorneys of California (formerly the California Trial Lawyers Association). Suggestion for the CRA — you should replace Traverso with someone who actually believes that trial lawyers bear much of the blame for the high costs of operating restaurants! There is a story today about hi-speed rail travel. I am sure I speak for … Read More