[Cross-posted from Red County/National Politics]

What is the difference between rats deserting a sinking ship, and anonymous McCain campaign leakers?

Rats can’t talk.

And another factor in the rats’ favor is they don’t point fingers and shift blame — they just bug out without a word.

The anonymous McCain staffers trying to blame their campaign’s failure on Sarah Palin could learn a thing or two from the rats.

The McCain campaign has no one to blame but itself, and the anonymous shanking of Gov. Palin dishonors Sen. McCain.

These leakers are behaving more like Daily Kos bloggers, not professionals, and they to face a few facts:

1) From the perspective of the Republican rank-and-file, the choice of Sarah Palin turned a funeral march into a real campaign. The grass roots were energized in a way they hadn’t been in years. Here in Orange County — the GOP heartland — volunteer headquarters were… Read More

Last Tuesday’s election was a terrible one for the Republican Party nationally. By a wide electoral vote margin, and a sizable chunk of the popular vote, liberal Democrat Barack Obama was elected President. In the U.S. Senate, Republicans lost at least five seats. House Republicans saw their number shrink by 20 seats. Clearly the message being delivered by Obama and Democrats across the country is resonating with a majority of American voters. And it is equally clear that the message of Republicans is clearly not attracting enough votes to translate to electoral victories.

As of today, the Grand Old Party stands at a crossroads. Why is the GOP losing “market share” amongst voters? Have we lost our way? What do we do now? What must the GOP do to once again be the majority party?

These are all critical questions, and must be the central theme for a serious discussion about where the GOP needs to go from… Read More

Two days after the election, and the vote counting continues here in the 4th CD. As of today, Tom McClintock is up 709 votes over Charlie Brown. There are still several thousand absentee and provisional ballots to count and it’s going slowly—election officials want to make sure they count accurately. I’ll post more updates on the vote count as the numbers come in…… Read More

Over lunch today, the "incoming" Assembly Republican class (which will apparently number 30) will gather over lunch to hold their biennial organizational meeting. Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines will be re-elected to lead his caucus — a strong statement from the GOPers that their resolve against raising taxes in Californians is still strong. In fact, according to our sources, Villines has made a rock-solid opposition to new taxes a cornerstone to his re-election pitch to his colleagues.

So the biggest question that may be resolved at lunchtime today will not be who will lead Assembly Republicans — but rather who will be Villines’ top Lieutenant going into the new legislative session. Since Villines ascended to his perch, his Caucus Chairman was Bob Huff, who has now been elected to the State Senate.

Unlike the post of Leader, which is elected by the caucus, the position of Caucus Chairman is "named" by the Leader. Who will Villines pick? Well, we here at the FlashReport have a pretty good idea… But, we make it a point, whenever possible, to NOT mettle into the specifics of intra-caucus politics.… Read More

Day after thoughts on some local “stuff”….

SD City Attorney… Aguirre is evacuated, victim of his huge mouth and even larger ego, mixed in with delusions of grandeur and a tad paranoia. Jan Goldsmith will make a great city attorney.

52nd Congressional… Congrats to Duncan D. Hunter (now simply Duncan Hunter). Registration was tough enough to beat, add the name factor and the combo was lethal. Virtually everyone knew this was over a year ago, except for a handful of Mike Lumpkin supporters that became constant commenters on GOP blogs. And, every moment spent trying to convince GOP activists on a center-right leaning blog that Lumpkin had a chance was time that could have been used with real swing voters. And, they say the blogs have no impact.… Read More

I started my day today the way I usually do…I read my Bible and prayed for all the people on my prayer list…until my kids starting fighting over the breakfast table, and I felt like I was in the middle of the Seinfeld episode with George’s dad running around saying, “Serenity Now!” In fact, the Serenity Prayer is printed on a coin I carry in my pocket: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” How apropos for the morning after this election. Last night, I was asking the question, “What happened?!”, and desperately trying to make sense of the past year and the outcome of the election. It was only leading me down a path of sadness and disappointment, because I’ve been so very proud to support Senator McCain all this time.

So this morning, I asked a new question, “What now?” And I asked it prayerfully, and not in hopes of finding the answer from another person, because we’re all… Read More

The 2nd District, Wally Herger’s, came thru strong, with nearly 57%. Dan Lungren did OK, too, in the 3rd with 49 to 44% in a 4 way race. I’m at McClintock HQ right now in Roseville, where the numbers are very close…much closer than this district should be but it’s obviously a wacky year. Right now it sits at a 500 vote lead for Tom with a bunch left to count in Nevada County, where they have quit counting for the night. The McClintock crew is on top of it, monitoring thecounty officeswhereneeded overnight and early tomorrow morning.Thisseat has no business falling into the wrong hands and should be ours at the end of it, as Tom feels good about how the numbers will break to him. What a night.… Read More

The elves all had other plans this morning, so I am busy trying to compile the main news page. Look for it around 9am. After that, I will start tackling the 15 or so short analysis pieces that I would rather be writing right now! But, first things first…… Read More