A mixed bag of beltway news today.

Atop the list, rising-star Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield – pictured left) joins two other prominent conservative House members to launch the "Young Guns PAC" to raise money for candidates in Dem-leaning districts. Roll Call has the story, here. (subscription required)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), during an extended interview on CNN‘s Sunday show"Late Edition" called the war in Iraq a "failure." Politico reports on the interview, here.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) waged a war of words yesterday with… Read More

I was inspired to write this when I read Adam Probolsky’s post earlier that OC Supervisor John Moorlach had endorsed AD71 candidate Neil Blais.

I’ve only met Supervisor Moorlach once – in 1995 – when he was the lone voice decrying Orange County’s bankruptcy. He wasn’t a supervisor then, but hisshining the spotlighton the shenanigans that the OC Treasurer was involved inwith municipal funds led to his successful political career.

From afar, I’ve always thought Supervisor Moorlach has been a solid public servant – especially because he knows how people can manipulate numbers.

So – I was a little surprised he endorsed Neil Blais today – especially because candidate Blais was caught "cooking the books" on his campaign accounting.

I’m going to reprint Eric Linder’s post over at the Red County blog. Eric does a very thorough job of dissecting the games being… Read More

Did anyone see the latest email from RNC apologist Tim Morgan?

Morgan’s campaign is now claiming that Tim Morgan will save us from terrorists…yes, really.

Not only is that a stretch, but its completely laughable. How does our national committeeman save us from terrorists?

Simple…he doesn’t. He’s on the national RNC committee, not the National Security Council.

The truth is, California GOP congressional seats are in peril because the national committee continues to abandon our state. So, more and more seats have been going Democratic as a result.

And, who has been signing checks at the National Committee, basically allowing this to happen? The RNC Treasurer, of course. And that’s Tim Morgan.

So, if we really want to do something about terrorists, lets elect more Republicans from California’s congressional seats.

But, that would mean first sending a stronger advocate to the national committee – an advocate who doesn’t ‘go along to get along.’ And, an advocate who will ensure that California is no longer dead-last on the RNC’s state support funding list.… Read More

An Urgent Message from California State Senator Tom McClintock To Young Conservatives

January, 2008

It is early 2008. You are a young conservative college student or recent graduate.

Many of your liberal friends have secured or are looking for positions in local, state or federal government. They see the public sector as a fulfilling potential career opportunity and a way to change the world.

**There is more – click the… Read More

SacBee’s email blast alerted most of us, and the LAT and SFChron both have headlines up in the last half 20 minutes. Long-time San Mateo Congressman Tom Lantos has passed away. His office has a statement, here.

AP’s Erica Werner who has long covered California and DC politics, has the story, here.… Read More

An Urgent Message from California State Senator Tom McClintock To Young Conservatives

January, 2008 It is early 2008. You are a young conservative college student or recent graduate. Many of your liberal friends have secured or are looking for positions in local, state or federal government. They see the public sector as a fulfilling potential career opportunity and a way to change the world.… Read More

Neil Blais, candidate for the 71st Assembly District seat announced that he earned the endorsement of popular Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach.

Assemblyman Spitzer who occupies the seat now is also supporting Blais as are most other OC electeds like Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and OC DA Tony Rackauckas.

Remember that this particular district is split between Orange and Riverside Counties, with the significant majority being in Orange County. As the only candidate hailing from Orange County, if Blais consolidates "The OC" behind him, it will give him a very strong "front runner" position in the primary. With Moorlach’s endorsement, on top of so many others, Blais is doing just that.

The campaign’s release is linked below

Note: Blais, Moorlach, Spitzer, Ackerman and Rackauckas are all clients or former clients of my firm.… Read More

I just finished reading a wonderful book about California and one of the biggest forces to ever impact California politics. Big Daddy:Jesse Unruh and the Art of Power Politics is a well written biography by Bill Boyarsky.

Boyarsky is perfectly positioned to write this book because of his background as a reporter and his personal interaction with Unruh.

Unruh did have an enormous impact on California policy. Some of it good. Some of it bad. The Lanterman Act, Unruh Civil Rights Act, and a full-time Legislature were all accomplished or driven by Unruh.

Boyarsky clearly seems to admire the policy accomplishments of Unruh. However, his word choice when describing the personal life of Unruh when in Sacramento left me wondering what he thought about the man.

Chapter 8 in the book is titled "Animal House". It describes the atmosphere of Sacramento during the time Unruh served in the Assembly. What I can’t believe is that with stuff like this being written… Read More