Since the early 1960’s the Orange County Lincoln Club has been a major player in local, state and national politics. Since it’s beginnings, launched under the leadership of iconic Orange County business pioneers like Walter Knott, the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm, Si Flour of the Flour Corporation and Arnold Beckman of Beckman Instruments, the Club has been an a key influencer in California politics. The Club played key roles in the successful candidacies of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Pete Wilson, George Deukmejian, the recall of Gray Davis and the subsequent election of Arnold Schwarzenegger. John Wayne was a member — need I say more?

The point I am trying to convey is that the Lincoln Club, with it’s storied history, and track record of targeted but meaningful political engagement, is a big deal in Orange County. So it was not a small thing when this group, which has a history of generally avoiding involvement in Republican on Republican primary races, a couple of months ago endorsed Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry for the State Assembly in District 74. And it’s a big deal that last week by a unanimous vote the group revoked their endorsement… Read More

Mention the words “Common Core” in any crowd, and you are sure to get a reaction.

Common Core is the federal government’s plan to try to bring “the same standard” to every K-12 public school in the United States. Through the Common Core, the federal government has imposed a single teaching plan on 15,000 school districts across the country, with principles of equity at the center of its implementation.

But is the initiative really about equitable outcomes?

Parents, students and teachers are frustrated and… Read More

Today on the House floor the release by the Bureau of Reclamation of more than 70,000 acre feet of water from dams on the American and Stanislaus rivers in Northern California was highlighted by Congressman Tom McClintock (R-CA).

The water releases were made to meet environmental demands that place fish above people. These releases were made in spite of a devastating drought and dwindling water supply where the water will be desperately needed this summer.

“We cannot demand that our people scrimp and save and stretch and ration every drop of water in their parched homes, while at the same time, this government treats our remaining water supply so recklessly, so irresponsibly, and so wastefully,” noted Congressman McClintock in his remarks. “This conduct utterly destroys the credibility of government demands for stringent conservation and sacrifice by our people, and it thoroughly undermines its moral authority to make these demands.”

Full House floor remarks: Putting Fish Before People

California is suffering one of the worst droughts in its history. More than a half-million… Read More

Once again it is time for taxpayers to get a good grip on their wallets because Sacramento politicians are looking to extend the “temporary” taxes imposed by Proposition 30, approved by voters less than two years ago.

There is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax. They are as immortal as a vampire and as nearly hard to kill. Take the “temporary” tax imposed in 1898 to pay for the Spanish American War. It remained on the books until 2006 when Congress discovered that the… Read More

As someone who stuck his political neck out to write op-eds warning California Republicans about Tim Donnelly six months ago, I am not surprised that events have caught up with me. The GOP heavies are weighing in now that Donnelly has—predictably—embarrassed the party.

But if powerful congressmen and former CRP chairs are cringing about Donnelly’s attacks on Kashkari for “supporting sharia”, they should be equally embarrassed by Kashkari. Kashkari had no business running. The base knows this if the brass doesn’t.

Kashkari’s political resume is thin to none. He is a semi-rich dilettante who represents nobody but himself, the political equivalent of a Hollywood Squares celebrity, famous because he was once famous, well known for being well known, only most of us had forgotten what it was he did because it wasn’t important enough to remember.

Kashkari ran TARP.… Read More

I have represented physicians, medical groups and Ambulatory Surgical Centers in matters of corporate, general business and regulatory compliance for the past ten years of my 17-year legal career. I understand medicine, and I know that California’s excessive regulation diverts resources from patient care.

This 2014 election is a war between physicians on one hand, and the double-headed Orthrus of the plaintiffs’ Bar… Read More

Ethics, even in politics, is based on adherence to moral principles. Honesty, integrity, loyalty, fairness, respect for others, lawfulness, pursuit of excellence and accountability, are principles.

G. K. Chesterton explained why: “Morality is always terribly complicated – to a man who has lost all his principles.”

The fundamental purpose of the American project was and still is individual freedom.

While many American freedoms have been eroded, we still hold the sanctity of the individual sacred in America. Americans believe that man is inherently free, whether a gift from God, or a fact of nature.

However, with freedoms and individual liberties increasingly plundered, many ask what the proper role of government is, as well as the proper role of the politician.

Especially in California, suffering under the cloud of recent scandals in the… Read More

Taken at surface value, there ought to be minimal identity of interests between these three special interests. But if you follow the money and power instead of the rhetoric and stereotypes, you will find this unhealthy alliance is alive and thriving. For example, unions use “greenmail,” the threat of a lawsuit on environmentalist grounds, to block developments until the businesses involved concede to union demands. Once they back down, the environmental problem magically disappears.

California’s much vaunted high-speed rail and delta tunnel proposals are also examples of the unhealthy rapprochement between unions (public and private) and environmentalists. Because the construction unions, God bless ‘em, want thousands of good new construction jobs, and the only big projects that are environmentally correct are these monstrosities. The unions have a choice – fight the environmentalists in order to lobby for public works that actually yield economic benefits to society, or enjoy their considerable support for a couple of misguided mega-projects.

Beyond obvious examples, how unions, environmentalists, and America’s overbuilt financial sector collude –… Read More