ED ROYCE NEEDED AT THE HELM OF THE HOUSE INT’L RELATIONS COMMITTEE At the end of this session of the House of Representatives, conservative Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois will hit his ‘term limit’ as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Hyde has done an outstanding job, and whichever Member of Congress takes over his gavel will have big shoes to fill. More so now that at almost any time in history, the world is a complex and dangerous place. Now, more than ever, this important House panel needs to have solid leadership. We are all very fortunate that our own Californian, Ed Royce, has put his hat into the ring for the Chairmanship. Royce’s run for the seat makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, and I am pleased to introduce a column from Royce’s California colleague, FR friend Duncan Hunter, in which Hunter makes the case for why Ed Royce should be Chairman on this important committee. I had an opportunity to sit down with Royce recently and we spent quite a bit of our conversation talking about international… Read More

ED ROYCE NEEDED AT THE HELM OF THE HOUSE INT’L RELATIONS COMMITTEE At the end of this session of the House of Representatives, conservative Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois will hit his ‘term limit’ as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Hyde has done an outstanding job, and whichever Member of Congress takes over his gavel will have big shoes to fill. More so now that at almost any time in history, the world is a complex and dangerous place. Now, more than ever, this important House panel needs to have solid leadership. We are all very fortunate that our own Californian, Ed Royce, has put his hat into the ring for the Chairmanship. Royce’s run for the seat makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons, and I am pleased to introduce a column from Royce’s California colleague, FR friend Duncan Hunter, in which Hunter makes the case for why Ed Royce should be Chairman on this important committee. I had an opportunity to sit down with Royce recently and we spent quite a bit of our conversation talking about international… Read More

The Schwarzenegger campaign is pushing a story about how Angelides should refund some of the contributions he has received from doctors because they might have given the money after reading an email from some lawyers. That is as much of the story anyone needs to know.

But you can read John Howard’s story in the Capitol Weekly if you care to.

There are so many knocks on Angelides, it not very smart to attack him for something outside of his control. For instance I don’t think the Governor should return any contributions he might have received from Mel Gibson just because Gibson is a drunk driver and an anti-Semite.

I don’t care if someone wrote a check to the Angelides campaign at gun point. Unless they ask for the money back, I would recommend against it.

It is not the responsibility of the candidate to know the motivation of his donors. Some donors give because they like the guy, others give because they want something. It doesn’t matter as long as the candidate doesn’t make any promises for getting the money.… Read More

Pinky: Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight? Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world! Pinky: Narf! The Sac Bee’s Daniel Weintraub posted this afternoon about Phil Angelides’ Power Point presentation for victory in November.

“According to the campaign braintrust, Angelides is going to remind Democrats early and often that Schwarzenegger is a Bush Republican who campaigned for the president in Ohio and shares his values at crunch time…”

In other words, Team Phil is counting on the governor’s re-elect in California to play out like Senator Joe Lieberman’s re-elect in Connecticut. Does that mean Mulholland has a “kiss of death” photo/video with Gov. Schwarzenegger and Pres. Bush? Probably. Will it matter? I don’t think so.

Democrats in Connecticut are upset with Lieberman over his rubberstamp of the Iraq war. Try as they might (and will), there’s no… Read More

The Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign these days is like the Energizer Bunny on steroids. There isn’t a two hour block of time that goes by during the day where you don’t hear from the campaign, defining Scharzenegger, or defining Angelides (who keeps trying to redefine himself with little success). There is enough volume coming off of the Team Arnold transom that it is sometimes hard to appreciate all of it. But every once in a while, I get something from them that is worth passing along.

Today I got what may be their best "Typical Phil" release yet, themed around outrageous and Over The Top comments made by Phil Angelides or his lackeys (usually Bob Mulholland) about the Governor, or Republicans.

A couple of examples are below, but open the attachment to see all ten!

Way to go Team Arnold – this stuff is great.

OVER-THE-TOP #3: Angelides Compared Governor Schwarzenegger To Segregationists Angelides Compared Governor Schwarzenegger To George Wallace And "Many Other Segregationists." "By vetoing the Civil Marriage and Religious Freedom Protection… Read More

Interesting Hollywood’s outrage over Mel Gibson for stating that Jews are to blame for starting all the world’s wars while they remain silent about Hezbollah’s and Iran’s intention to wipe Jews off the planet.

As I read that Barbara Walters doesn’t think she wants to see any more of Gibson’s movies, the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" comes to mind.

Hollywood’s self-obsessed, therapy-addicted, pill-popping culture takes greater offense at the concept of words not directed at any Jew in particular than they do at deadly missiles aimed quit particularly at Jewish civilians in Israel.

Where is Sean Penn and why isn’t he on his way to Israel to show solidarity with a Jewish minority being attacked by terrorists? Why isn’t the Hollywood Community vocalizing support for disarming Hezbollah? Where are Tim Robbins and his lovely wife Susan Sarandon? Why aren’t they lecturing the International Community to make the Jew-hating Islamic terrorists put down their weapons and return the two Israeli soldiers Hezbollah kidnapped and is holding at this… Read More

OK, this is more ‘gossipy’ than substantive, but I thought I would share:

Necklace Envy By Mary Ann Akers Roll Call Staff August 2, 2006 House and Senate aides are buzzing about a late-night lobbying incident last week involving Rebecca Cox, the wife of former Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), who now serves as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.… Read More

There is a lot to digest in terms of California political news today – you might find yourself spending more time than usual perusing the news. WILL JAN SCULLY PUT ROB REINER IN FRONT OF A GRAND JURY? I have featured on the main page today the lead editorial from today’s San Diego Union Tribune because it highlights an important criminal investigation taking place that has managed to slide off of the ‘public radar screen’ – the investigation of Rob Reiner and his role with the state’s First Five Commission. You’ll recall that a lot of controversy swirled around this issue – eventually leading to Reiner stepping off of the commission. There was a lot of monkey business going on (things like Reiner’s Commission spending taxpayer dollars to run pro-preschool advertising on TV at the same time that Reiner was gathering signatures for his preschool ballot measure). Ultimately the criminal investigation into Reiner’s activities ended up in the lap of tough prosecutor Jan Scully,… Read More