As Jon Fleischman hi-lited on the main FR page Saturday, the Union-Trib editorialized on the selection of Martin Garrick as the new Assembly minority leader, praising the decision, while asking a question in the headline:

Will he be the latest GOP leader to cave on taxes? Clearly, the UT gets it, or the editorial board wouldn’t be asking the question. They get the power of the GOP to hold the line on increased taxes and bad budgets, as long as Republicans stick together. They get the travesty of past budget votes, in which just enough Republicans were somehow enticed into a "compromise," thus leaving insignificant and meaningless the unifying clout of the rest of their fellow Senate and Assembly caucus members.

Even more clearly, the UT question is not meant as a question. It is meant as a challenge … to Garrick, hoping the result will be that the 74th District… Read More

These are some observations I have thought about writing down for quite some time. It is by no means a complete listing of all the truths I have observed, but they are true, as far as they go.

Truth No. 1

Democrats win power by making promises to grow government, then alienate voters by keeping those promises. Republicans win power by making promises to cut government, then alienate voters by breaking those promises. So it doesn’t matter who gets power, government always grows.

Truth No. 2

Democrats are intensely partisan when they enforce the law, and prove that partisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. Republicans want to prove they are nonpartisan when they enforce the law, and prove that nonpartisanship by only prosecuting Republicans. So it doesn’t matter who gains control of the law enforcement mechanism, only Republicans get prosecuted.

Truth No. 3

Democrats are intensely partisan when it comes to drawing political lines during redistricting, and they prove… Read More

I think its curious when State and local elected officials go to Washington DC to ask for money. Frankly, they seem to me quite like the sad blokes standing in the median of a busy street corner holding a cardboard sign.

Many State and local governments just haven’t done their job correctly in handling taxpayer dollars. They’ve negotiated stupid contracts with their employees, overpay for everything, and seemed genuinely stunned that there is a business cycle, you know, that period of time when tax revenues actually fall.

There may be nobody in America that has abdicated his responsibility worse than California’s Governor. Oh, he took a stab at reform, once, in 2005. After a crushing defeat, he never tried again. He is now a pathetic figure, flying back to Washington to beg for money, asking the feds to borrow from China and give it to California after laundering it through the bureaucracy.

This is all an attempt to get Washington to subsidize the poor performance of a Governor who should know better, and a psychotic Legislature, that even in the face of ANOTHER $20 billion deficit was STILL voting for single payer health care… Read More

This morning Governor Schwarznegger put out a statement in response to the climbing jobless rate, saying that creating jobs was his top priority.

With all due respects, Governor, that is a lie.

The job-killing regulations in AB 32 are hurting our state’s economy and pushing people out of jobs. When you championed this bad legislation, you put in a provision for its suspension in bad economic times, which you could do with a stroke of a pen.

You should correct your release to be more accurate. You mean that you are for politically correct "green" jobs at the expense of all of the other sectors of the economy. You are for a big government that in the midst of a recession seeks to use its powers to manipulate the market instead of leaving it free, so that we can recover.

Instead of putting out some misleading release about your support for "jobs" you should either suspect AB 32 or perhaps apologize to Californians for your role in increasing unemployment rates.… Read More

Andy Pugno is the legal counsel for ProtectMarriage.com and is the lead attorney defending Proposition 8 in Federal Court. Below is a column from Pugno worth a read… Pugno is blogging on the trial here. What First Amendment? By Andy Pugno, General Counsel, ProtectMarriage.com Over the last couple of days, we have been treated by the plaintiffs to astonishing intrusions into areas supposedly protected by the First Amendment, including religious freedoms and the political rights of… Read More

This may come as a surprise to some, but perhaps not to all — but State Senator Abel Maldonado, while fairly well known by Republicans, is not well liked by Republicans. Gee, I wonder why? Could it be his deciding vote to smack every Californian with higher income, sales and car taxes?

I have just reviewed a statewide survey for the Lt. Governor GOP primary taken by Smith Johnson Research, of 500 likely Republican primary voters and on a first ballot test, the results are pretty clear. When those surveyed were asked for whom they would vote for Lt. Governor, they responded: FIRST BALLOT Aanestad 20.4 Maldonado … Read More

8:30 am Update: Here is the Fox News take. See Jim Lacy’s blog post here on FR as well.

From the AP (click for the link)…

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on business efforts to influence federal campaigns.

By a 5-4 vote, the court overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said companies can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

It leaves in place a prohibition on direct contributions to candidates from corporations and unions.

Critics of the stricter limits have argued that they amount to an… Read More

Here is my executive summary on the Citizens United case and a sad prediction.

Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation (formed originally by my friend Floyd Brown) released during the last Presidential campaign a documentary movie about Hillary Clinton that was critical of her. It sought declaratory and injunctive relief in Federal Court on whether it would be subject to criminal penalties from the Federal Election Commission for distributing the movie. CU lost at the District Court level but appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts had previously decided some cases that marginalized the broad sweep of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, which placed additional restrictions of First Amendment freedoms in a Federal election context, most notably, the Wisconsin Right to Life decision, which scaled back McCain-Feingold to allow for unlimited "issue advocacy" by a corporation during an election campaign.… Read More