This edition of The Atlantic Monthly has an interesting article on Speaker Gingrich, who they point out correctly was always more of a futurist than a conservative. I’m not going to reprint it here, and I’m afraid many Republicans will be loath to actually walk down to the newstand and purchase this kind of magazine. See, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and Harpers are sort of “pornography” in the Republican activist community – material you wouldn’t want anyone seeing you purchse. I get my copies in a brown paper bag, sent to a PO box under the psuedoname Smitty Von Trap. The article also points the reader over to the Speaker’s website www.newt.org, which is worth taking a gander at.

I’ve always sort of viewed Gingrich and Delay – who were not exactly kiss on the mouth friends – as two necessary componants of our party… sort of a Janus type deal with two opposite heads. I viewed Gingrich as the idealist, the ‘big idea’ man who kept the Revolution from stagnancy… who kept our ideas fresh and forward thinking even if sometimes he sounded like your uncle the inventor after a couple of pops… Read More

Missed this article in the am – but it’s certainly significant. It’s by veteran columnists Phil Matier and Andrew Ross…

FBI jumpstarts Perata probe; police academy class scrubbed — no funds – Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross – San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, March 15, 2006 Theeeeey’re back! After months of relative quiet, the Justice Department has… Read More

FIRE ROB REINER The rallying cry is growing – Fire Rob Reiner! As we have written about several times on this site, Rob Reiner is an embarrassment to us all. Not only that, but his political philosophy is at the extreme left end of the Democrat Party. This is clearly not someone that we would want in any position of public trust, and now we know why. As head of the Prop. 10 Spending Commission for California, millions of taxpayer dollars were used to buy commercials supporting state-run preschool as an idea, while he was paying signature gatherers to help him qualify his initiative to tax wealthy Californians to create a state-run, centralized pre-school bureaucracy. A lot has been written on all of this. Well, State Senate Republicans have now penned a letter to the Governor, asking that Reiner be replaced (Reiner’s term has expired, and with the stroike of a pen, he is off of this influencial commission). You can do something about it, too. There is an on-line petition set up at www.firereiner.com where you,… Read More

FIRE ROB REINER The rallying cry is growing – Fire Rob Reiner! As we have written about several times on this site, Rob Reiner is an embarrassment to us all. Not only that, but his political philosophy is at the extreme left end of the Democrat Party. This is clearly not someone that we would want in any position of public trust, and now we know why. As head of the Prop. 10 Spending Commission for California, millions of taxpayer dollars were used to buy commercials supporting state-run preschool as an idea, while he was paying signature gatherers to help him qualify his initiative to tax wealthy Californians to create a state-run, centralized pre-school bureaucracy. A lot has been written on all of this. Well, State Senate Republicans have now penned a letter to the Governor, asking that Reiner be replaced (Reiner’s term has expired, and with the stroike of a pen, he is off of this influencial commission). You can do something about it, too. There is an on-line petition set up at www.firereiner.com where you,… Read More

Lee Baca has a problem. Did he break the law, by giving ID cards to campaign supporters? It sure looks that way. See here.So here is the big question. Will any of the candidates for Sheriff have the money to exploit this and his other failings? He could go down if the dollars are there. See my previous post here.… Read More

Confusion Over Gallegly Persists Local Support May Crumble By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff March 15, 2006 With Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) expected to announce that he will run for re-election, it was unclear… Read More

Well, I am at the airport in Sacramento, ready to head out. I ended up leaving the Capitol a little later than I had planned so that I could make a quick stop-by to visit FR friend Adam Mendelsohn, the Governor’s Communications Director. I’d last been in the spacial CD digs in the ‘Horseshoe’ (the Governor’s Executive Offices are called that because they are, in fact, shaped like a horseshoe!). Anyways, it was a busy couple of days in the Capitol – with lots of meetings, where I was diligently working to make and maintain all of those contacts that help me to stay ‘plugged in’ to the latest news. We’ll be writing more about it, but it was certainly a strange time to be in the Capitol. The dominant issue going on were the negotiations on the Governor’s Strategic Infrastructure Bond Plan. We’ve been talking a lot about that plan on this site. So what is the latest? Well, I was actually saying hello to Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman around 2pm when he headed into a round of negotiations, which apparently ended… Read More

Polling off the wire in Congressional District 50 (802 likely special election voters/Competative Edge Research). For those of you outside Southern California, Competative Edge is legit.

First Ballot:

Busby 33.5% Bilbray 14.8% Roach 7.9% Kaloogian 7.1% Morrow 4.7% Uke 3.6%

Leaning:

Busby 5.3% Bilbray 4.3% Roach 4.3% Kaloogian 2.7% Morrow 2.1% Uke 1.1%

What should concern observers the most is the surprising run-off numbers:

Bilbray 40.9% Busby 38.2%

Roach 35.8% Busby 35.2%

And here’s where it gets interesting…

Busby 43.8% Kaloogian 32%

Busby 40.7% Morrow 35.5%… Read More