What am I missing here?

As I watch the Sunday television political pundits, they say that Ohio Representative John Boehner, currently the House Majority Leader (pictured to the right), is set to ascend into the top position for Republicans in the House, with the only higher ranking Republican, Speaker Dennis Hastert, "taking the bullet" for the team," stepping away from Leadership. But apparently his fellow leader, Boehner, doesn’t feel that he has the same obligation.

Well, with every offense intended, Republicans lost Congress not because the Democrats suddenly discovered some sort of great plan for America – but because voters, and especially the Republican base, lost any faith in the Republican majorities in the United States Senate and in the House of Representatives.

The… Read More

Lynn Daucher’s election to the California State Senate matters. Right now she and her Democrat opponent, Supervisor (and former Assemblyman) Lou Correa probably both feel a great deal of empathy for both President Bush and former Senator Al Gore — as election day for Daucher (pictured to the right) and Correa continues to go on and on. You see, in this Central Orange County Senate District, represented by term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn for the past eight years, the votes are too close to call. When all of the election-day ballots were counted, Daucher held onto a razor thin lead — but that was with over 20,000 votes yet to be counted (late absentee ballots, those who brought their AB’s to their polling place, and provisional ballots cast by those who had some issues at the polling place). After several days of counting ballots (with several more days to go), today Daucher sits with an 833 vote margin over… Read More

Lynn Daucher’s election to the California State Senate matters. Right now she and her Democrat opponent, Supervisor (and former Assemblyman) Lou Correa probably both feel a great deal of empathy for both President Bush and former Senator Al Gore — as election day for Daucher (pictured to the right) and Correa continues to go on and on. You see, in this Central Orange County Senate District, represented by term-limited Democrat Joe Dunn for the past eight years, the votes are too close to call. When all of the election-day ballots were counted, Daucher held onto a razor thin lead — but that was with over 20,000 votes yet to be counted (late absentee ballots, those who brought their AB’s to their polling place, and provisional ballots cast by those who had some issues at the polling place). **There is more – click the… Read More

Below is an email I received by up and coming conservative activist and tommy girl t-shirt model Meredith Turney.

CRP Needs New Leadership In the months following the primary election, I have sat in countless meetings with the Schwarzenegger campaign and CRP leadership. During these meetings, the campaign hierarchy assured conservatives that the Victory ’06 program would help down ticket candidates. The "CRP leadership", including Duf Sundheim, addressed conservatives’ concerns by stating that Tom McClintock, Tony Strickland, Chuck Poochigian and others would all benefit from the governor’s campaign. Around midnight on November 7 th, we realized that we had been lied to, not just once, but repeatedly.

In the days and weeks leading up to the election, conservatives expressed our frustration that Victory ’06 and the governor were not in fact focused on "the team" but on re-electing a man who continues to search for his core values. I can’t tell you how many fellow Republicans I talked to who said that… Read More

Kudos to Doug LaMalfa for his post this morning…he does an outstanding job saying what needs to be said, without saying what he can’t. That’s not doublespeak…a leadership change is a sensitive matter for all, and Doug handles it with grace.

With that said, I want to add my two cents on George Plescia. He is one of the finest individuals I have met in the political arena, someone I would be proud to work with anytime. He did what amounts to a tough job in difficult times. Politics aside, he is also a great person and a true and loyal friend, title by his name or not.

I hope none of us need to be reminded that winning and losing in politics is sometimes not — even rarely, perhaps— about one’s value as a person, or even their capabilities as a lawmaker or a leader.

My congratulations to Mike Villines. My thanks, as well, to George Plescia for all he has done for San Diego, for California, and for the GOP.… Read More

Today Bob Huff put out the following column on the Assembly GOP’s leadership change. It’s well worth the read…

Election Reinforces Need for a Leadership Change

By Assemblyman Bob Huff

Pundits will Monday-morning-quarterback the state election and its outcome for months, but it seems clear that voters like the idea of a bipartisan effort to wrestle with and solve state issues. In a move that ran counter to national trends, the California electorate rewarded a Republican Governor with a second term to govern with a Democrat-controlled legislature.

Contrary to the electorate’s expectations though, Sacramento will be a de facto one-party state – unless the Republicans in the Assembly work as a team and stand united. If we don’t, we will be nothing more than a wire fence with an open gate for the liberal agenda to pass through. And, all of the work we have done to be elected and serve our constituents according to our values and principles will be for… Read More

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of former President Ronald Reagan, has a nationally syndicated talk radio program, with over 5 million daily listeners.

Reagan has a column today in Human Events entitled, Republicans Lost Because They Lost Their Way, which is worthwhile reading for Republicans as we reflect on Tuesday’s loss of the Senate and House.

He writes, in part:

When a candidate runs for office with the right motives sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. But more often than not, candidates who run with the worst of intentions fail.

This was the case in the city of Orange where Newport Beach real estate agent Carol Rudat ran for city council in a city in which she did not live. Her motivation was to seek revenge on several of the council members (one of them who is now deceased) for firing her husband as city manager.

Rudat lost, badly.

Her chief opponent Denis Bilodeau (who won) by contrast is as planning commissioner in town, long time resident. His children go to local schools. He genuinely cares about the city and its residents.

Rudat, it has been suggested, actually ran the air conditioner in her Orange ‘residences’ all summer long–24/7 so that she could one day, if need be, show a judgethat she and her husband really ‘lived’ there–"just look, we used this much power." How obnoxious. The funny thing is that I’ve her water bill in the Orange home she supposedly lived in only showed gallons in water use over the same several month… Read More