I’m recovering from a long weekend in S.F. for a family wedding, realizing how absolutely perfect Golden State weather is this time of year–and how swampy it will be here in no time.

Two interesting tidbits now, and hopefully more in a couple hours.

The internecine battle between former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and his colleagues gets some additional fuel today in the Post. Longtime DC press hand and well respected former Hill flack Trent Duffy (a onetime deputy of McClellan) penned a blunt "Dear Scott" letter today.

Speaking of heated. WSJ had a great editorial today on the cap and trade proposal being pushed by California’s junior senator. Interesting read, here.

And, Roll Call writes on some new rules governing automobiles that lawmakers can lease with government funds. Previously, the amount of… Read More

You have to wonder what they are sprinkling in the Wheaties over at the Sacramento Bee. The editorial board there never ceases to amaze me. In the Bee’s lead editorial today, they have the moxie to start it by saying, "With one vote, California Senate Republicans on Thursday added $3.4 billion to the state’s $15.2 billion deficit for 2008-09…"

Right.

Read on and what you really have is yet another liberal editorial whining because Republicans have refused to sign on with the issuance of yet another $6.9 BILLION (yes, with a "B") of bonds.

What kind of screwy math do they use over there at the Bee? By their convoluted logic, the state’s entire overspending problem could just be solved by passing one big, fat bond measure, and shoving the burden for our state’s irresponsible overspending to our children and theirs.

The main premise of the editorial is that if the legislature doesn’t borrow billions for building more prisons (didn’t we already do that?) then some judge will simply order those billions straight out of the… Read More

Sometimes a picture (or in this case, a chart courtesy of the Heritage Foundation) is worth a thousand words. If Republicans in Congress have any trouble at all figuring out why we are facing major challenges as a party, and why we are no longer considered the party of fiscal conservatism, look at how much Republicans (with a Republican President, no less) INCREASED federal spending… We aren’t going to win with a slogan of: "Vote Republican — sure, we’ll increase spending, but not as much as THEY will…" [Orange = GOP control; Gray = Split governance but we could have stopped spending increases. See large chart here.] … Read More

One of the worst kept secrets in Sacramento is that many political insiders believe that the real reason Senate President Pro Tem Don (“The Golden Pig”) Perata launched the recall campaign against Senator Jeff Denham was to create an excuse to funnel money to Sandi Polka and members of his own family. Polka is the Senator’s longtime political consultant and very close friend – close to the point of actually being his girlfriend.

Now the East Bay Express newspaper, which has doggedly pursued Perata and done an outstanding job of aggressively exposing the powerful politician’s numerous ethical transgressions, has pointed to Polka’s financial well-being as the true motivation for the recall. (Their article is linked at the bottom of this post.) Perata spent more than $2 million to qualify the recall, launch misleading paid media attacks on Denham that failed miserably, and fund puppet replacement candidate and proven lightweight Simon Salinas. While Perata is a huge political loser because of the recall, not all of that campaign money appears to have been wasted from the… Read More

One of the worst kept secrets in Sacramento is that many political insiders believe that the real reason Senate President Pro Tem Don (“The Golden Pig”) Perata launched the recall campaign against Senator Jeff Denham was to create an excuse to funnel money to Sandi Polka and members of his own family. Polka is the Senator’s longtime political consultant and very close friend – close to the point of actually being his girlfriend.

Now the East Bay Express newspaper, which has doggedly pursued Perata and done an outstanding job of aggressively exposing the powerful politician’s numerous ethical transgressions, has pointed to Polka’s financial well-being as the true motivation for the recall. (Their article is linked at the bottom of this post.) Perata spent more than $2 million to qualify the recall, launch misleading paid media attacks on Denham that failed miserably, and fund puppet replacement candidate and proven lightweight Simon Salinas. While Perata is a huge political loser because of the recall, not all of that campaign money appears to have been wasted from the… Read More

Jim Lacy has been getting the same mail I have.

These Taxpayer Protection Committee people are all over the place. I got a piece of mail at home yesterday from the California Taxpayer Protection Committee supporting Frank Sieferman, Jr. for Woodland City Council.

This piece of mail follows an automated call for Sieferman as well as another piece of mail to the good people of Woodland telling them all of the great things he is going to do for the taxpayers of my city.

For those of you that don’t know, Frank Sieferman, Jr is a former County Supervisor that I was forced to run against and beat in 2006.

Sieferman was a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors when he voted to use eminent domain to seize 17,000 acre Conaway Ranch so that the government could do exactly what the private owner was doing with it. This seizure was one of the reasons that Prop 98 is on the ballot on Tuesday.

Sieferman supported John Kerry for President, redecorated his office during tough budget times, accepted and supported pay raises while in office, opposed the parental consent measure on the ballot, and supported a gay pride resolution on several… Read More

A multi million dollar campaign for Fresno County Supervisor between Debbie Poochigian and Clovis Council member Nathan Magsig has been full of fireworks for several weeks now, but on the final weekend a negative mail piece designedby former Assemblyman Mike Briggs and funded by SEIUis causing quite a stir in this hotly contested battle.

At issue here are two recently formed Independent Expenditure Committees, the "Friends of the Valley PAC" and "Citizens for Representative Government". "Friends of the Valley" is so new it doesn’t even have an FPPC number. It funded the hit piece on Chuck and Debbie Poochigian, with major funding by the SEIU, a close ally of Supervisor Bob Waterston. Waterston is vacating the seat under a cloud of ethics allegations, and has vowed to remain neutral in the race. But there is no question he knows what SEIU is doing. SEIU leaders have also hinted thatthat Mike Briggs firm, Creative Campaigns, did the work on the hit piece for SEIU. Briggs is closely aligned with Nathan Magsig.

"Citizens For Representative Government", formed on May 9th, received major funding from… Read More

Proposition 98 on the June 3 ballot is a much needed reform to protectfamilies from losing their homes to government eminent domain power. We all need to vote "Yes" on Proposition 98. For this reason, I do not understand why I received a mailing from the "Faith, Family and Freedom Association," a "nonpartisan voter guide that stands for mainstream American family values" that endorses a number of candidates for local office, but is entirely silent on support or opposition for Proposition 98.

What is going on here! I recently reported another outfit calledthe "California Taxpayer Protection Committee" did essentially the same thing,claiming to be an anti-tax group but failing to give any information on the Juneballot initiative sponsored by the HowardJarvis Taxpayers Association.

Karen England, a respected conservative lobbyist in Sacramento, signed a letter in the "Family" mailing requesting signatures on the "Save Our Kids" initiative included in the mailing. That is a good thing. But the failure to even mention Proposition 98 in the mailing is… Read More