Last evening, United States Senator John McCain raised over a half a million dollars at a fundraising event at the Irvine Hyatt Hotel in Orange County. I was invited by the McCain campaign to attend not only the reception, but also an exclusive round-table discussion that took place beforehand. As a Vice Chairman of the California Republican Party, I am officially neutral in the Presidential primary, but was very pleased to accept the generous invitation of the McCain Campaign. Even better, I got an ‘okay’ to bring along the new digital camcorder that I just purchased!

The event, which probably had about 200 or so people at it, was organized by some of Orange Counties heaviest hitters — former U.S. Ambassador to Spain George Argyros, Irvine Company owner Don Bren (who, according to Forbes, is the 80th richest person in the world), renowned developer General William Lyon, and former Secretary of State Bill Jones. Introducing Senator McCain was the Irvine Company’s Dan Young, who filled in for Don Bren, who attended but was sidelined with a bad case of laryngitis. After McCain’s speech, he was followed by fundraising guru Gary Hunt.… Read More

Congressman Buck McKeon represents part of Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties. He recently penned this column about school choice. Read it at Townhall here.… Read More

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Check out this humorous piece up on the Capitol Weekly site today! Democrat State Senators Correa, Calderon, and Negrete Mcleod were locked out of their Capitol offices by "The Don" Perata for attending a fundraising event for Democrat Caucus "moderates".

According to CW:

Perata declined to discuss the issue. "I never talk about the politics of the caucus," he said.

Hmmm.… Read More

A Flashreport reader would be surprised the LA Times documented something we’ve long known. The really BIG money in politics comes from very rich liberals.

The Times ran their piece back Feb 27 and we did a little of our own research. 68% of the largest individual contributors are liberal Democrats. Those donors gave over 61 million from 2003 to 2006. The very strange Stephen Bing, who inherited all his money,flushed at least 14.18 million into zany liberal projects and candidates. That14 million is but a part of his largess. We don’t know how many millions he gave to 527’s. For example, Bing just gave over $ 50 million for pass tax hiking Prop 87, the Oil Tax.

Someof the rich liberal elite inherited their money. They’ve never worked a day but they are ready to back candidates who will try to run your life.They include Ann Gerry Earhart [Getty heiress] , Susan Packard and Frank Orr [Technology heirs], Anne Bartley [San Francisco heiress], James Hormel [ food heir] and Julie Packard [ technology heir].

Of the 20 top contributors only 6 are Republican. Of the 6 only one family inherited its money. The others are… Read More

Today’s Commentary was filmed on the new FR "ActionCam" (I’m open to a new name for the cool all-digital Sony CamCorder I just bought). It is a two minute introduction to our four-column series on the candidates for the GOP nomination for the Presidency, that starts with this column from State Senator Mark Wyland on behalf of his candidate, Mitt Romney. Have a great day!… Read More

Today’s Commentary was filmed on the new FR "ActionCam" (I’m open to a new name for the cool all-digital Sony CamCorder I just bought). It is a two minute introduction to our four-column series on the candidates for the GOP nomination for the Presidency, that starts with this column from State Senator Mark Wyland on behalf of his candidate, Mitt Romney.

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More

In Jon’s, commentary on Friday he referenced a story in the Hill that talked about a big loophole concerning earmarks that the Democrats left in the rules package.

Here is what the rule actually states (From page 34 of the House rules):

9. (a) It shall not be in order to consider— (1) a bill or joint resolution reported by a committee unless the report includes a list of congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, and limited tariff benefits in the bill or in the report (and the name of any Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner who submitted a request to the committee for each respective item included in such list) or a statement that the proposition contains no congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits;

In the earmark section of the changes to the House rules that were passed by the Democrats at the beginning of this year, they inserted the section above in order “to bring transparency to the earmark process,” but it… Read More