Today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail was so interesting, I thought I would post it up here. As a shout-out to the WSJ, let me encourage you to go to this link and sign up to get the Diary to your own email account. There is a small fee — but as you can see from below, well worth it… The last item below is California-specific. … Read More

No, I don’t mean Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but Internal Combustion Engines. They pretty much all run now on some refined petroleum product. But what about alternative fuels? There are a lot of alternatives out there, but each has challenges or else they would be in wide distribution already.

The most commonly know is E85, which is a blend of 85% ethanol with 15% gasoline. Cars in Brazil can run on 100% gasoline, 100% ethanol, or any mixture in between. Ethanol is most efficiently produced from sugar cane – something Brazil has a lot of. We don’t have much. So, we tend to produce it from corn. Virtually all gasoline in the US now contains 10% ethanol. We may be able to go to 15% without damaging existing cars. We cannot produce enough ethanol domestically to go entirely to E85 or even E25, and we currently have a 30% tax on imported ethanol. I have cosponsored a bill to remove that tax, which was initially intended to protect US sugar producers, but is now interfering with energy policy. Plus, ethanol has downsides. In addition to the fact that it results in more emissions than gasoline, it is corrosive and cannot be used at too high a… Read More

Am I the only one who has noticed that the only Republicans with the "cojones" to stand up to the Democrats are the women in the conservative movement? Even conservative men seem to be a little meek these days, with many of them running for the hills every time the Republican establishment announces that this race or that has to have a "moderate" Republican carrying the Republican banner in November. Conservative women say no, and fight the establishment to advance the movement. Thank you Sarah Palin, Sharon Angle, Christine O’Donnell.

I find it really ironic that many in the Republican establishment, not that long ago, were telling us conservatives that we were too "white" too "male" and too focused on the "social issues" to win in November. The Tea Party movement has been established, energized, and fought to defend the Constitution and has emphasized strict "fiscal" conservatism. Now we are being told that this emphasis on "fiscal" issues makes one too conservative to "win in November." Oh, and by the way, it is being advanced by a woman who… Read More

Unlike some well seasoned politicos in DC including the NRSC, Chairman Michael Steele is running hard supporting Christine O’Donnell. See below.

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In a dead even race, sometimes you have to wait for one candidate’s meltdown. After a lifetime of hyperbole, Jerry Brown may be fully embracing a "self-indulgent death wish", as Garry South, Gov Davis’ guru and major dem consultant stated yesterday.

Brown’s explosion against all things Clinton is just too good to be true. It seems almost scripted by Meg to inflict as much damage as possible to sink Brown’s support among those democrats who still worship Bill Clinton. Most democrats don’t consider Clinton the "Prince of sleaze"–but Jerry sure madea good point.

Sunday’s comments at a democrat party office may be remembered as the weekend of Brown’s precipitous fall. "I mean Clinton’s a nice guy, but who ever said he always told the truth." Go get him Jerry.… Read More

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