As a follow up to yesterday’s post on the South Carolina straw poll, in which Congressman Duncan Hunter surprised a few pundits, the SC Hotline Press says he has emerged as a conservative answer.

Classic comment from Hunter at CPAC on the upset:

You know, I woke up to … one of the commentators saying that the only reason that Hunter beat all those guys in South Carolina is because his Marine son has been there for a week. Well, I looked down at that army of consultants, everybody who was vertical in South Carolina was hired by the other guys, and I said, "You know, that is a good match-up: One Marine versus 550 consultants." We did have the advantage!… Read More

Earlier this week, legislation was introduced by Democrat Senator Darrell Steinberg and Republican State Senator Bob Dutton that would established a state-adminstered savings account for every child born in California starting in 2008, and deposited $500 of government funds into that account. Additional funds up to a certain amount per year could be placed into the account, and the account would draw some level of interest. The funds in the accounts would only be able withdrawn after the child turns 18, and only to be spent on education, a first-time home purchase, or to roll into an Individual Retirement Account. Reaction to this proposed legislation from a broad spectrum of Republican and conservatives around the state was quick, and overwhelmingly negative. Because of the startling co-authorship of this bill by a Republican legislator, Dutton, it received a high level of interest from the media, and in the blogosphere. Yesterday, just a day after the bill was introduced, Dutton sent out a media release withdrawing his support for the legislation. There are some who want to characterize that the main reason why the bill rose ire was… Read More

I’ve not been shy about the fact that I’ve been underwhelmed about the Republican candidates for President. This being said, Romney’s speech at CPAC hit the right notes. Here are some fairly accurate excerpts…

ROMNEY ON THE LIBERAL MEDIA “I know there are a few [people] here from the mainstream media and they’re probably surprised that we are here in our record numbers. They wrote our obituary last fall, after Watergate, after the 1982 elections, and after Bill Clinton post-election. The truth is, it’s their wishful thinking – their reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, I predict that we will be around a lot longer than the newspapers will be around.”

ROMNEY ON SPENDING “We have seen an embarrassing [increase in] non-defense discretionary spending. I am proud to be the… Read More

Hot off the press… the CPAC Straw Poll results are in:

First Choice

21 Romney 17 Giulani 15 Brownback 14 Gingrich 12 McCain

Second Choice

34 Giulani 30 Romney 30 Gingrich… Read More

Though Duane DiChiara has already "stepped-on" my reporting from the CPAC meetingby beating me in postingresults of the Presidential straw poll here at the conference, I’ll thank him for getting the information to you a few hours before I could get to a computer. I was delayed because I attendeda post-CPAC party at Grover Norquist’s house on Capitol Hill. I did not see DiChiara at the party, by the way, but did see native Californian John Fund of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages.

I can add a little of context about the CPAC poll, however. It comprised a total of 1,705 votes of the CPAC delegates. I talked to Grover (president of Americans for Tax Reform) about his take on the vote, and the following is an amalgam of our thoughts. It was interesting that Romney led with 21%. Guiliani did rather well himself, coming in with 17%. This is especially the case because Guiliani did not buy an exhibitors’ booth,have signs or campaign literature,or have paid staff working the entire convention, as did Romney. Sam Brownback surprised with 15%, and Gingrich was no surprise with a close 14%

The one surprise… Read More

Earlier this week, legislation was introduced by Democrat Senator Darrell Steinberg and Republican State Senator Bob Dutton that would established a state-adminstered savings account for every child born in California starting in 2008, and deposited $500 of government funds into that account. Additional funds up to a certain amount per year could be placed into the account, and the account would draw some level of interest. The funds in the accounts would only be able withdrawn after the child turns 18, and only to be spent on education, a first-time home purchase, or to roll into an Individual Retirement Account. Reaction to this proposed legislation from a broad spectrum of Republican and conservatives around the state was quick, and overwhelmingly negative. Because of the startling co-authorship of this bill by a Republican legislator, Dutton, it received a high level of interest from the media, and in the blogosphere. Yesterday, just a day after the bill was introduced, Dutton sent out a media release withdrawing his support for the legislation. There are some who want to characterize that the main reason why the bill rose ire was… Read More

Gary Kreep, the President of the Ramona-based United States Justice Foundation, has been a long-time California participant at the national Conservative Political Action Conferences in Washington, D.C. I had a chance to ask Gary about his observations on this year’s conference. Gary told me he was impressed with the high-level of turnout from college and high school age conservatives, especially those involved with some of the campaigns, such as Tancredo, Romney and Brownback. (I also saw plenty of youthful enthusiam for Rudy Guiliani during his speech!) ButGary said what he also appreciated were the dinner speeches last night by two leading Bush Administration conservatives: Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (and now American Conservative Union Board member!) John Bolton.

Gary said there was a good reason that Cheney received several standing ovations at his dinner speech last night: he told CPAC that the economy is growing, that 7.5 million new jobs have been created because of the tax cuts, that the Administration supports making the tax cuts permanent, and that it is essential to "stay the course"… Read More

Bad Bill Alert! (well, actually, silly bill alert)

Sometimes good intentions lead to really terrible laws. Everyone wants people to be responsible and save for the future. But making a law that gives $500 to every baby born in California (regardless of their parent’s legal residency status) in hopes they will save it is just plain silly.

SB 752 authored by Democrat Senator Darrel Steinberg and co-authored by Republican Senator Bob Dutton will give every newborn $500 – which will cost taxpayers a whooping $283 million per year – in hopes that their parents will be encouraged to save for their children’s future. Another nanny-state bill that believes that people aren’t capable of taking care of themselves, so the government should.

Notwithstanding this literally pays illegal immigrants $500 to come to California and have a baby, it also fails the math test. In an article in the… Read More