"The only poll that counts is the one taken on election day." Not quite, there’s the pole day atDaytona. It’s racing season, yessssss!

Amidst all the talk of legislators getting others to do their term limit extension dirty work for them, while they allow Federal courts to do their dirty work of shortening terms for imprisoned criminals, and proposals for new Kevorkian Jr’s are being spawned to end terms of the living, let’s talk about something fun.

At the risk of incurring an ‘electronic towel snap’ from our FR chief, for talking about non-political stuff, I’ll mention what’s up this weekend in Florida. [I think Jon is out of town anyway, maybe he won’t notice]

Speedweeks at Daytona culminates with the running ofNASCAR’s Daytona 500 tomorrow… Read More

The big news in the Sacramento area in John Garamendi. Not the Lt. Governor..but his son. John Garamendi, Jr.

He has just recently closed escrow on a home in the 5th Senate District. This means he will likely challenge Assemblywoman Lois Wolk for the Democratic party nomination in June 2008.

Here are the facts–

Garamendi has a ton of name ID without spending a cent. That is a given.

He has been a great fundraiser for the UC Merced. He came to UC Merced after being the director of corporate giving at UC Berkeley.

When it comes to fundraising, this is a guy that can close the deal.

He and his wife served in the Peace Corps. That is a pretty good story for a Democratic primary.

Garamendi, Jr. helped build the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. That is a pretty good story for the people in Wolk’s base city of Davis.

While Wolk was thinking of what Republican she would face with Assemblymen Nakanishi and Aghazarian as possibilities, the real battle… Read More

The fallout from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s affair with a married staff member continues as the SF Chronicle reports today that Ruby Rippey-Tourk received $10,000 in retroactive pay which city officials are having a hard time explaining. While all of this is occurring in the background, Newsom is trying to conduct his business as usual. Yesterday, he gave a speech in which he admitted to failing the city in terms of public safety and infrastructure maintenance. Earlier this week, he celebrated the third anniversary of his attempt to legalize gay marriage in the city (apparently, Newsom respects the solemnity of gay marriage, but not solemnity of the marriage of his… Read More

During today’s debate on a non-binding resolution pertaining to the Iraq War, Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas) gave a speech which moved many of my colleagues and me. The resolution, which opposes troop reinforcements in Iraq, passed by a vote of 246-182. Rep. Johnson and I were among the 182 members who opposed the resolution. When it comes to talking about the War in Iraq, Rep. Johnson, who served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and spent eight years a prisoner or war, has a higher standing than most if not all of my colleagues in Congress. A link to the speech is below.

A friend sent this to me, and I wanted to share it with FR readers…

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and was very much in favor of the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed.

Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition tohigher taxes on the rich and the addition of more government welfare programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which… Read More

Nothing appears more plausible at first sight, nor more ill-founded upon close inspection, than a scheme which in relation to the present point has had some respectable advocates, I mean that of continuing the chief magistrate in office for a certain time, and then excluding him from it, either for a limited period or forever after. This exclusion, whether temporary or perpetual, would have nearly the same effects, and these effects would be for the most part rather pernicious than salutary. – Alexander Hamilton “Federalist No. 72”

Mr. Hamilton frames this debate well. He is quick to point out that proponents of term limits are “respectable advocates” while concurrently suggesting that “close inspection” reveals the folly of term limits.

In this vein, I hope to pen a number of posts concerning this subject and, hence, no one post should be considered my final word on the matter. So to that end, let’s begin here:

In no other arena but politics would experience and expertise be dismissed and rejected as a prudent decision. Imagine the lunacy of suggesting that the skilled and experienced surgeon be replaced by the inexperienced… Read More

Since my commentary yesterday on statesmanship in the GOP, and those candidates during last weekend’s California Republican Party convention who had offered public congrats to their winning opponents, the comments and emails have been fast and furious.

This includes some added remarks of congratulations, although no coincidence between the following and my FR post of yesterday is implied or intended:

Dear Republican Leader,

I want to congratulate Laura Gadke on her election as the California Republican Party Vice Chairman for the Central Valley Region.

I believe both Laura and I ran a campaign based on wanting to help Republican Central Committees and volunteer organizations in our region. Our goals are the same: to help our Central Committees build better registration programs, expand Republican volunteer programs and our donor base.

I pledge to help Laura in her efforts and I look forward to working with her and our Central Committee members and volunteer organizations throughout the… Read More

This morning the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (Which I chair) held their monthly meeting. The speaker was former Assemblyman and controller candidate Tony Strickland. He of course will run for McClintock’s seat in the Senate.

A lively discussion of Presidential candidates took place. Strickland is a Romney guy. Most interesting he predicted that this attempt to change term limits would fail. Tony says he supports some changes in term limits, but that voters are smart enough to reject the plan that Nunez has.

Tony won’t be able to run if he’s wrong.… Read More