That’s the headline of OC Register editorial writer Steve Greenhut’s latest post on Orange Punch blog:

Yesterday, the President of the United States transmitted to the United States Senate the nomination of Sandra Segal Ikuta to serve as a Judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Since January of 2004, Ikuta has been serving as a member of the Schwarzenegger Administration, as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel to the California Resources Agency.

Prior to being tapped by the Governor, Ikuta had been an attorney in the Los Angeles office of the prominent law firm of O’Melvany & Myers. In the past she had clerked for former United States Supreme Court Justice Sanda Day O’Conner, as well as for Judge Alex Kozinski on the 9th Circuit Court.

Ikuta is a Republican, and specializes in environmental law.… Read More

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was "rebuffed" in his attempt toinstall former Assemblyman Richard Katz as head honcho of the powerful MWD. See the article hereand see my previous post with other links here..Look for him to use his MWD appointments and power to influence state water policy anyways.… Read More

Time to put the (Code) pink bandwagon back in the garage: anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan just announced that she won’t challenge California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who’s up for re-election this fall.

Sheehan’s logic: running for the Senate is not the most practical way to promote her crusade.

This isn’t a surprise. In fact, it’s typical of the lady’s fuzzy logic: rather than hit the campaign trail and try to win over skeptics in, say, the Central Valley and Inland Empire, she’d rather stay safely insulated in the cozy bubble that is the world of anti-war activists.

Too bad she’s not running. For one, it would have added some comic value to what otherwise appears to be a dreadfully dull race.

And it’d be nice to see if the Sheehan hype machine is more than a media fabrication… Read More

California is a very hard state in which to elect a Republican to statewide office. And by that, I mean ANY Republican. With occasional exceptions, we have seen Republicans of all stripes – conservative, moderate, liberal – lose at the polls to the most outrageously socialist Democrats. I can throw out Tom Campbell, Bill Jones, Matt Fong and Bruce Herschensohn (pictured) as examples of GOPers of all stripes who have lost – and these are just nominees for the United States Senate. We can debate the reasons for the losses, but I am just trying to illustrate that electing a Republican in California is a challenge. The fact that we have a Republican Governor in California is a great thing, and I don’t have to remind you of the convergence of amazing things that all took place to achieve this… Read More

California is a very hard state in which to elect a Republican to statewide office. And by that, I mean ANY Republican. With occasional exceptions, we have seen Republicans of all stripes – conservative, moderate, liberal – lose at the polls to the most outrageously socialist Democrats. I can throw out Tom Campbell, Bill Jones, Matt Fong and Bruce Herschensohn (pictured) as examples of GOPers of all stripes who have lost – and these are just nominees for the United States Senate. We can debate the reasons for the losses, but I am just trying to illustrate that electing a Republican in California is a challenge. The fact that we have a Republican Governor in California is a great thing, and I don’t have to remind you of the convergence of amazing things that all took place to achieve this… Read More

Back by popular demand, we continue with the OC Power Brokers Series.

This time, Media.

What makes an OC Power Broker? Well it is a little different for a member of the media than for the previous groups (lawyers, and parts one and two). For a journalist it means: 1) they have wide spread relationships with people in government, politics, business and community, 2) they can be trusted implicitly, if you have a tip that can’t look like it came from you or if they call for background, you can be sure “off the record” has meaning with them, 3) they have the juice to get something published, they can stand up to… Read More

The Schwarzenegger Administration really seems focused on the San Mateo State Campground and how it is impacted by the 241 completion.

Today, OC Supervisor Bill Campbell told those of us at the OCPAA luncheon that Caltrans Director Will Kempton flew down last week and met with Camp Pendleton officials (I’m trying to verify which day, but I believe it was Friday, because Kempton accompanied the Governor on his fact-finding tour the next day).

Kempton wanted to see if the proposed 241 alignment could be shoved south of the campground to the agricultural operation on the other side. You can see it on the background in this recent photo I took of this Garden of Eden.

USMC officials informed him that was a no-go, since the Marines had terminated the lease for the agricultural operation and would be using that area for training.

Now, since the Marines will be training next to the San Mateo State Campground, exactly what peaceful ambience are the… Read More