It is rare that I have something positive to say about the functioning of government — be it federal, state or local. Generally speaking, government is sluggish, unresponsive and inefficient — both absolutely and in comparison with the private sector.

Here in the beloved county of my birth, there is an exception to the rule: the Orange County Clerk-Recorder. I’ll illustrate my point with a couple of anecdotes.

Earlier this summer, I launched a blog consulting service called BlogAtomic. Naturally, that meant setting up a Fictitious Business Name (FBN) with the County Clerk-Recorder. The first time I went through that process was in the early 1990s — and it was a pain. It meant driving down to the Santa Ana office (for all you non-OCers, county, state and federal offices are located in downtown Santa Ana — far from freeway off ramps and close to slow-moving surface streets).

Then, you’d have to leaf through one of several giant, alphabetically organized volumes… Read More

I hope we don’t have to see those goofy Pombo on a horse spots again this year, but if we do…we’ll now know they won’t be paid for with Abramoff money. That’s right….Pombo has decided to join the other conservatives by giving back the tainted money. Pretty simple decision that too entirely too long to make…but he should be commended for making it. Maybe the TV spots the bad guys are running and the phone calls demanding he give the money back had an impact after all.

Has anyone heard whether Mr. Doolittle has changed his mind? Money…..it’s a hit ….politically that is.… Read More

One of the central hubs on the blogosphere in Orange County is the OC Blog. It has a "blog pen" of a lot of great folks – but no one knows who there are! Their leader, and site host, is "Jubal" (seriously). Jubal is quite the personality – he’s even been published in the Orange County Register.

The OC Blog makes news and makes a real impact on OC politics.

All of this to say that many readers of the OC Blog also come to this site, and Jubal contacted me, to ask that I convey the following message to his loyal readers:

"I wanted to let all our faithful readers know that TypePad, which powers OC Blog, is experiencing some big glitch. I can’t update it, readers can’t post comments, and it is only showing posts up until December 9.

Bear with us until TypePad resolves this problem.

Jubal"… Read More

Today in the Sacramento Bee, my friend, State GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim was quoted as follows after emerging from a closed-door, executive sesison of the California Republican Party Board of DIrectors, which included Governor Schwarznegger:

Assuming that Duf was quoted correctly, I am struggling with the big question of who is the "we" that "support his decision" to hire Democrat Susan Kennedy.

The members of the Board of Directors, I believe, have been done a disservice here. It is clear to me… Read More

Next week, California Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim will travel to Ramallah, Gaza, and the old city of Jerusalem, where he will declare the crisis in the Middle East to be over.

I like Duf, and I think he’s doing an excellent job as chairman of a party who’s natural instinct is to form a circular firing squad at every convenient opportunity. But he’s been put in a lousy position here, because while he and most of his board members know that there’s no way in the world that the governor is going to fire Susan Kennedy, they needed to make it clear to Schwarzenegger how unhappy the party members they represent have become. Duf put the right face on the board meeting afterwards by emphasizing the policy ground on which Arnold stands, but it probably would have worked better if he’d been able to walk out with a fiscally responsible bond package in his hand.

So I don’t blame him for coming out of the meeting yesterday and pronouncing the controversy to be a… Read More

This morning members and guests of the San Gabriel Valley Lincoln Club (I’ve been a member for over a decade) were to hear a post-election polling analysis from pollster Steve Kinney. He wasn’t there and Assemblyman Bob Huff was asked to fill in at the last minute or give off the cuff remarks if you will. Bob Huff represents parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. He spoke about many issues, but his comments on Kennedy are also worth noting. Bob has a 100% voting record on the CRA Score Card. See the rest here .He doesn’t sign off on pulling the pre-primary endorsement and wants the Gov. to win. Huff says he relayed to the Governor "that he knows no one in my district who supports this appointment.” Huff added that “Leadership is not just doing things, sometimes it is symbolic. And this was important”. Huff continued, “People can only hold their nose so much and that this is the point people are at.” He told the … Read More

During a news conference yesterday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in discussing the GOP’s unhappiness with the left-wing Democrat activist the governor has chosen as his chief of staff, asked his party faithful to not judge him by his hires, but by his actions.

Here is the problem. Schwarzenegger cannot and will not be aware of every decision Ms. Kennedy will make in his name. She will take action, on his behalf, that will not reflect the principles for which people elected him. This is a woman who has been a true-believer and a party activist for the other side. Susan Kennedy may have made big business happy during her term on the PUC and she may be smart as a whip, but in the end, she is a die-hard, committed liberal.… Read More

There was a great column by Shane Goldmacher in yesterday’s edition of Capitol Weekly. If you haven’t had a chance to read it, you should. I am biased though, because it prominently features this website, and talks about the influence that it is having on California politics!

Also prominently mentioned are the efforts of my long time friend, Steve Frank. Like me, Steve is a former President of the California Republican Assembly (though he is OLD, so his Presidency was like around Lincoln’s time, or something like that). In all seriousness, Steve and I were on the phone joking about the ‘Rise of the Jewish Right’ — pretty funny!

Here is the beginning of the article, with a link to the rest at the bottom: