Other than the political fun of watching Jerry Brown insult Clinton and then Clinton accept his apology and endorse the guy, why should people care about this flap? Because it says a whole lot about Jerry Brown. 2010 gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown wants us to believe that he is not Governor Moonbeam of the 1970s anymore; he’s matured and grown up.Look, he’s even married now and his buddy Jacques Barzaghi is not hanging around. But his public mocking ofBill Clinton’s honesty and his “I did not have taxes with this state” joke demonstrates that Jerry Brown hasn’t changed much.Here’s a guy who is behind in fundraising and needs all the friends he can get.Instead, he’s sticking his foot in his mouth, having to apologize to a fellow he … Read More

Fox News has some interesting new poll numbers about the state of political affairs here in California. The September 11th poll found Whitman leading Brown by 6 points, and Fiorina just two points behind Boxer. Unsurprisingly, jobs and the economy are the number one priority for those polled, with 46% saying it’s their primary concern this year. Even more interesting than the election polling numbers were the results of questions asked about office holders that aren’t up for election this year. The Fox News headline says it all: “California Cools to Dems.”

Obama has only a 48% job approval rating despite winning California by a 24-point margin in 2008. In a ray of true hope, 35% say they think Obama’s actions have hurt the economy. And according to Fox News, respondents were evenly divided on whether to repeal ObamaCare. Only 46%… Read More

Yesterday I penned a column making the case for why Meg Whitman should endorse Proposition 23, the California Jobs Initiative that would suspend former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Regulatory Bill until such a time as California’s economy is doing a heck of a lot better than it is today.

Thanks to a lot of help from FR strategic partners (thanks, all!) that piece also went out via email to well over 100,000 people! I took the liberty of sending it out as an email myself to over 30,000 Republicans.

I can tell you that I was stunned by the response. There is no doubt that Proposition 23 is not only popular with Republican activists — its a major motivating factor for this November’s elections. I received countless e-mails from GOP grassroots leaders, donors (big and small), legislators, county supervisors, city councilmembers and many others.

Two things were obvious to me from all of the responses — the first is that a broad group of people are knowledgeable and… Read More

As I mentioned earlier, the greater challenge for energy policy going forward is in mobile source energy, meaning planes, trains, and automobiles. This is where the most urgent economic and foreign policy need arises, but where the technological barriers are also the most severe.

Weaning ourselves from foreign oil is an objective shared by almost everyone, albeit for different reasons. Some want to stop sending trillions of dollars to countries who don’t like us or our way of life. Some decry the economic harm caused by our trade deficit, of which oil imports are a major part. Others want to see those energy jobs here and not in Saudi Arabia or Indonesia. And, still others want to find less polluting alternatives. All of these are valid points. So, let’s just stipulate that eliminating American imports of oil sourced from outside North America is a worthy goal.

So how do we use our oil? Less than 1% of oil is used to produce electrical energy. About 30% is used in industrial processes, such as the making of plastics. That is obviously a significant amount. It is beyond the scope of this piece to get into detail about that, but suffice it to say that… Read More

In this column I will seek to spend a few minutes making the case for why Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman should endorse Proposition 23, the Jobs Initiative, appearing on this November’s ballot. This is the measure that would suspend AB 32 until the recession in California is fully in the rear view mirror. For those looking for a good general write up on Prop. 23 – the policy and the politics – let me point you towards this piece by Katy Grimes over at PRI’s CalWatchDog website. I apologize that this is a bit longer than what I would normally write – but I wanted this to be a comprehensive approach to an important issue.

In the meantime, it is my hope that Meg Whitman reads this column and that as you read it, you will carry its message to those people with whom you interact that can give input into Whitman and her campaign. PHILOSOPHY AND METHODOLOGY OF AB 32 EMBRACES THE TENETS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY

The type of… Read More

Just in from John Eastman… Please read it – and act! Acting Governor Maldonado: File the Appeal Today! Today is a huge deadline in the fight over traditional marriage. Last month, Judge Vaughn Walker, Chief Judge of the federal district court in San Francisco, ruled that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional. It was a truly amazing decision by a lower court judge, because it not only failed to distinguish but did not even bother citing binding precedent of both the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States itself, both of which have previously held that limiting marriage to opposite-sex unions is a perfectly rational and legitimate governmental purpose.

The Proponents of the Initiative immediately filed an appeal, of course, but here’s the rub, and one last card of mischievousness up Judge Walker’s sleeve. Denying the Proponents motion to put the ruling on hold until it could be… Read More

Over the course of the past year, there has been a narrative developing… Everyone makes light of the fact that "you never know what Jerry Brown is going to say" — which is certainly true. But as his eccentric behavior exhibits itself more and more often, and his campaign theme starts to become "Tales of the Bizarre" — I think that more and more serious people are going to question Brown’s core competency. I was in elementary school when Brown was last Governor, so I don’t know if these "behavior issues" were pervasive then as well (were they?). Whether comparing Meg Whitman to former Nazi propaganda chief and genocidal maniac Joseph Goebbels, or now beating the rhetorical snot out of long-time ex-President Bill Clinton…

Oh well, it does make for good blogging.

So the Whitman campaign releases this commercial, which includes great clips from the 1992 Democrat Presidential debate, where Clinton takes off the proverbial gloves on his then fellow Presidential aspirant Brown…

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The Steel(e) showwas front and center in Los Angeles Thursday night at the Jonathan Club for the LA County Lincoln Club ‘ s 13th annual Spirit of Lincoln award dinner. After an Invocation byBoard of Equalization Member Michelle Steel, Republican National Committeeman and Lincoln Clubs Secretary Shawn Steel introduced Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for a upbeat talk on how we are going to kick (donkey) in the November 2nd elections. Steele said… Read More