Since my commentary yesterday on statesmanship in the GOP, and those candidates during last weekend’s California Republican Party convention who had offered public congrats to their winning opponents, the comments and emails have been fast and furious.

This includes some added remarks of congratulations, although no coincidence between the following and my FR post of yesterday is implied or intended:

Dear Republican Leader,

I want to congratulate Laura Gadke on her election as the California Republican Party Vice Chairman for the Central Valley Region.

I believe both Laura and I ran a campaign based on wanting to help Republican Central Committees and volunteer organizations in our region. Our goals are the same: to help our Central Committees build better registration programs, expand Republican volunteer programs and our donor base.

I pledge to help Laura in her efforts and I look forward to working with her and our Central Committee members and volunteer organizations throughout the… Read More

During today’s debate on a non-binding resolution pertaining to the Iraq War, Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas) gave a speech which moved many of my colleagues and me. The resolution, which opposes troop reinforcements in Iraq, passed by a vote of 246-182. Rep. Johnson and I were among the 182 members who opposed the resolution. When it comes to talking about the War in Iraq, Rep. Johnson, who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and spent eight years a prisoner or war, has a higher standing than most if not all of my colleagues in Congress. A link to the speech is below.

… Read More

The fallout from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a married staff member continues as the SF Chronicle reports today that Ruby Rippey-Tourk received $10,000 in retroactive pay which city officials are having a hard time explaining. While all of this is occurring in the background, Newsom is trying to conduct his business as usual. Yesterday, he gave a speech in which he admitted to failing the city in terms of public safety and infrastructure maintenance. Earlier this week, he celebrated the third anniversary of his attempt to legalize gay marriage in the city (apparently, Newsom respects the solemnity of gay marriage, but not solemnity of the marriage of his… Read More

This morning the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (Which I chair) held their monthly meeting. The speaker was former Assemblyman and controller candidate Tony Strickland. He of course will run for McClintock’s seat in the Senate.

A lively discussion of Presidential candidates took place. Strickland is a Romney guy. Most interesting he predicted that this attempt to change term limits would fail. Tony says he supports some changes in term limits, but that voters are smart enough to reject the plan that Nunez has.

Tony won’t be able to run if he’s wrong.… Read More

Today Red County launched its third Red County blog — Red County/San Diego. San Diego is a natural place to launch a new RC blog, and we’re fortunate to have recruited an expansive — and still growing — blogpen of contributors, including:

Brian Bilbray: Congressman, 50th Congressional District Mark Wyland, state Senator, 37th Senate District Martin Garrick: Assemblyman, 74th Assembly District Barry Jantz: former La Mesa Councilman and longtime San Diego activist. Jerome Stocks: Encinitas City Councilman Jennifer Jacobs: award-winning partner in the Coronado Communications, a leading public affairs and political consulting firm.

We have a number of other contributors — some writing under their own name, and other who need to employ pseudonyms in order to blog freely. I invite all of our readers to check out Red County/San Diego, bookmark it and check it often to find out what is happening… Read More

One of the best barometers of statesmanship is sometimes exemplified by losing politicians who make the effort to congratulate their successful opponents.

At the national level, of course, such an act is considered a must, because of the media attention that goes along with the congratulatory phone call, often hand-in-hand with a concession. Whether the loser actually wants to congratulate—and personally concede to—a sometimes reviled opponent is irrelevant compared to the bad publicity that would follow for not doing so. In some cases, it is more important to look like a statesman than it is to actually be one. Perhaps more accurately, the threat of appearing to be a sore loser is more significant than whether one is in private.

Thus, I have always been deeply impressed by those on the short end of the election stick at the local level who take the time to congratulate the winner. In some cases, no media, no one watching, and no one knowing…short of the winner and the few that are told. Statesmanship, if it is possible to attribute that term to a non-elected, living person (and I refuse to use the "politically correct" bastardized… Read More

Shane Goldmacher on Capitol Alert reports the much anticipated proposal to lengthen term limits will be brought outwith submission to the Attorney General’s office today. Presenting it are Speaker Nunez’s consultant Gale Kaufman and Matthew Dowd of the Schwarzenegger campaign, giving it"bipartisan" cover.

The proposal as a selling point, calls for the "shortening" of total time served from 14 to 12 years, as we’ve been hearing, maxing at up to 12 years in one house. Here’s the funny part, if you are already in the Senate now, you can get an extra "transitional" term that allows up to 16 Legislator years…or,would it be18 if you served 6 years in the Assembly already and want to do 3 Senate terms? Or what if youcame inona half term in the Senate on a special election, maybe you get 14 Senate years then?

I’m not a Greek mathematician or anything but those numbers allseem bigger than 12 to me. Other details should be interesting too, like can previously termed out… Read More

One of the best barometers of statesmanship is sometimes exemplified by losing politicians who make the effort to congratulate their successful opponents.

At the national level, of course, such an act is considered a must, because of the media attention that goes along with the congratulatory phone call, often hand-in-hand with a concession. Whether the loser actually wants to congratulate—and personally concede to—a sometimes reviled opponent is irrelevant compared to the bad publicity that would follow for not doing so. In some cases, it is more important to look like a statesman than it is to actually be one. Perhaps more accurately, the threat of appearing to be a sore loser is more significant than whether one is in private.

Thus, I have always been deeply impressed by those on the short end of the election stick at the local level who take the time to congratulate the winner. In some cases, no media, no one watching, and no one knowing…short of the winner and the few that are told. Statesmanship, if it is possible to attribute that term to a non-elected, living person (and I refuse to use the "politically correct" bastardized… Read More