From the Wall Street Journal’s Political Diary:

Mel Who?

A parlor game among Republican activists in California for years has been to ask, "What would it take to convince Mel Gibson to run for statewide office as a Republican?" Given the success of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the box-office receipts of 2002’s "Passion of the Christ," interest in Mr. Gibson, a staunch conservative, has long been high. Last year, after Governor Schwarzenegger disappointed conservatives by tacking left on budget issues, California Republican Assembly head Mike Spence openly speculated about Mr. Gibson mounting a primary challenge to him.

That was then. Following Mr.… Read More

In Mel Brooks’ classic western comedy, Blazing Saddles , Brooks plays the corrupt western Governor William J. LePetomaine. When a report reaches him that a town faces a crisis, LePetomaine turns to his attorney general, Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) and exclaims, "We’ve got to do something to save our phony-baloney jobs!"

It appears the talks on legislators extending term limits are over for now. Good. Trying to slop something onto this year’s ballot would be very ugly and almost certainly defeated, as the voters would see through any sham cobbled together last minute, especially trying to fig leaf it behind redistricting reform. Reforming the corrupt redistricting methods we have will now have to wait, but sinceany reform likelywon’t take effect or be useduntil after the 2010 census, it’s OK on timeline.

This legislature can still try to get it right in an open process and put a quality reform package on the 2008 or even… Read More

It is being reporter over at the Sacramento Bee (and I am sure other places) that legislative leaders have scuttled any attempts at putting redistricting reform or term-limits loosening on the November ballot. Dan Weintraub of the Bee speaks pretty plainly over on his blog.

Make no bones about it, the redistricting process in California is hopeless broken. The reality is that the majority uses the currently system to artficially inflake and ‘lock in’ legislative districts that had predictable results in the last election with 153 partisan officeholders for State Senate, Assembly and United States Congress all getting re-elected (or in those cases where an incumbent was term-limited out or retiring, their seat was ‘passed’ to the nominee of their same political party 100% of the time).

The red herring in this whole process was this idea of tying redistricting reform to a modification of the term-limits placed on legislators with the passage of Proposition 140… Read More

The Los Angeles City Council is trying to squeeze outa third term for themselves by linking a change in term limits with so-called ethics reforms.

Of course it begs the question. If they are so corrupt they need ethics reforms than why should they get a third term?

Now some of the neighborhood council members are attacking the process. See article here. That is good. The process was horrible as is linking these two different issues, but the debate over term limits shouldn’t be clouded by process.

Is it good or bad. Period.… Read More

[The last month of legislative session is rife with behind-the-scenes action as many pieces of legislation are passed by the Senate and Assembly that should not become law. The FlashReport will be looking at a few bills this month that are poor public policy, and should be rejected…like this one that is a direct assault on private property rights!]

You decide you want to put a pool in your backyard. It wasn’t an easy decision. You and your family have been saving for years, but money doesn’t grow on trees. Still, you finally have enough money and you draw up plans and finally the big day has arrived. The work crews arrive en masse as the plan is to complete the whole project in just a couple of days — the most expensive part of this new addition to the home is the labor for these workers, who get paid for every day they show up. You watch as the hole in your backyard gets deeper, as the workers dig out what will soon be your new… Read More

"But the Emporer has nothing on at all," exclaims the little boy in the famous child’s story, The Emperor’s Clothes, by Hans Christian Anderson. The tale refers to a ruler who has no clothes on, but no one is willing to say anything except a small innocent boy.

That tale makes me think very much of former California Governor, now Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. He comes from a ‘Royal" family as the scion of the late great Governor Pat Brown, but his own time on the thrown was market by lunacy and liberalism gone awry. Years later, "Emperor Brown" is now the Mayor of one of the most crime-ridden cities in California. Yet he campaigns for office as if he has some sort of tough-on-crime record of which to be proud (as opposed to his real legacy, the appointment of anti-death penalty advocate Rose Bird to the California Supreme Court).

Everyone around Jerry Brown wants to be enamored with his family pedigree,… Read More

[The last month of legislative session is rife with behind-the-scenes action as many pieces of legislation are passed by the Senate and Assembly that should not become law. The FlashReport will be looking at a few bills this month that are poor public policy, and should be rejected…like this one that is a direct assault on private property rights!]

You decide you want to put a pool in your backyard. It wasn’t an easy decision. You and your family have been saving for years, but money doesn’t grow on trees. Still, you finally have enough money and you draw up plans and finally the big day has arrived. The work crews arrive en masse as the plan is to complete the whole project in just a couple of days — the most expensive part of this new addition to the home is the labor for these workers, who get paid for every day they show up. You watch as the hole in your backyard gets deeper, as the workers dig out what will soon be your new… Read More

It’s been a tough year for U.S. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto), who lost several skirmishes with fellow DemocratsculminatinginJune primary electiondefeat forhis two sons, Assemblyman Joe Baca Jr. in the 32nd Senate District primary and Jeremy Baca in the 62nd Assembly District.

It’s true that "Working Joe" has never beena favorite son of the Democrat party (he’s not considered liberal or effective enough, believe it or not). It’s also not unusual for a legislator, especially a congressman, to be accused of losing touch with the local political base. But Mr. Baca seems to take it a step further by demonstrating utter cluelessness about the goings on and operations of his own party.

For example, two days after Baca Junior’s Senate Primary defeat at the hands ofAssemblywoman Gloria Negrete-McLeod, Baca Senior told the Press Enterprise that Republicans were secretly backing the liberal Negrete-McLeodbecause she would be easier for the GOP nomineeto defeat in the November general election. Problem there was no Republican was running for the seat.

Another victorious candidate in the June… Read More