OK, a small deviation from my normally produced stable of political blog posts. As I write this, I am sitting in my new "home away from home" — John Wayne Airport in Orange County. I arrived here at 6:45am this morning to catch a flight up to San Francisco. Little did I know that it would turn into the day from hell – literally.

Not disclosed to me and a couple of hundred other bleary-eyed early morning travelers was that we were being placed onto a "lemon" aircraft that he been having trouble the previous two days with its backup system that controls the rear flaps of the plane (I guess, and it makes sense, these plans have backup system for everything they can — no second chances at 30,000 feet!).

To make a long story long, we ended up taxiing out to the runway, and then back to the terminal, and then after an hour of waiting, we repeated the process again. Eventually the flight was canceled and I am on a Southwest flight in just a few minutes into San Jose.… Read More

Quote of the Day: "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” Sir Winston Churchill.

The budget, taxes, the economy, stimuli and TARPs: It seems this is all we have talked about and all we have done in DC this year. But there have been a few other interesting and important topics under discussion in the nation’s capital. Here are 3 subjects about which you may not have heard much about through the din of the recession, but upon which there has been some movement:

Obama surge: The war in Iraq appears to have largely been won and the troop withdrawals that began under President Bush continue under President Obama. But, somewhat quietly, Obama has agreed to a ‘surge’ of 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Al Qaeda and the Taliban are now regrouping in northern Pakistan and southern Afghanistan, and military officials think that this ‘surge’ is probably insufficient to do the job and more troops will be necessary later in the year. The President has said that he will consider sending those additional… Read More

Remember the $3 million that Duf Sundheim’s CRP irregularly borrowed from Larry Dodge to support the anti-tax re-election campaign of Arnold Schwarzenegger?

That saddled the new Chairman with debt. Interest payments were made and then the highly paid Sundheim convinced Dodge to use the loan to try force changes on the CRP.

One of those was to narrow the platform to one message: fiscal responsibility. Sundheim’s effort to use Dodge’s and others people money failed to alter much and the loan was paid off and forgiven. Remember those days?

Unfortunately, last Friday Larry Dodge’s bank American Sterling was seized by the FDIC. It became the 24th bank to be seized in this current environment.

One person told me it Karma for helping to elect the Governor. I kind of doubt that. Bad things would be happening to a lot more people than that.

I do hope that things turn around for Dodge, but I bet Dodge wishes the CRP still owed him the money now.… Read More

The California Republican Party announced they are launching a new initiative that fundamentally changes the way the Party conducts outreach and coalition building.

For all the years I have been involved in the political and non-profit worlds outreach efforts have focused on forming affinity groups internal to an organization. For example the "Asian Outreach Committee of the Republican Party" or the "Commercial Real Estate Network of the Jewish Federation".

These groups serve a purpose, but generally require someone to sign-up, attend and get involved in a "new" group. It takes them out of their comfort space, away from their core business or interest. While they support the Party or non–profit it can be an imposition to participate in another group.

Last week CA GOP Chairman Ron Nehring announced that he has been working on a very different kind of outreach effort, one that goes to the supporter rather than making them come to the Party. If executed well over time, it will mean that Party leadership and volunteers are integrated into outside organizations of every type throughout the state, on an ongoing and… Read More

The California Republican Party Initiatives Committee meet by conference call and voted by a vote of 9-4 to oppose Propositions 1A-1F as a package. The Committee also voted to endorse the Voter ID Initiative.

The recommendations need to be approved by the CRP Executive Committee tomorrow to be official.… Read More

Today Republican Congressman Devin Nunes in the Central Valley called on Arnold Schwarzenegger to resign his Governorship. "Why," you as? Details.… Read More

Assemblyman Mike Villines has sent out a letter to the State GOP’s Executive Committee meeting, predictably asking the State GOP to do what only seven Republican Legislators (our of 45) in the State Capitol have done, and that is to endorse Proposition 1A. FR readers will recall, quite easily, that Villines (along with Governor Schwarzenegger, Senate President Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, and then-Senate GOP leader Dave Cogdill) was an architect of the February budget proposal that purported to "solve" our state’s fiscal woes through cuts and tax increases. Villines was one of six Republican legislators to vote for a deal which has hatched these ballot measures, the most controversial of which is Proposition 1A.

1A is the measure where Villines asks you to support it (and the $16 billion in additional taxes on Californians that come with its passage) in return for a "spending cap" that he says in his letter below that 1A will, "provide a permanent solution to stop the spending madness and force our government to finally live within its means."

The problem is that we are forced… Read More

If the campaign for the next GOP nominee for Governor of California is going to be won over fairly obscure inside baseball arguments about Silicon Valley business deals, we have already lost the election to the Democrats.

Across the country and especially in California,the Republican Party and its brand desperately need redefinition. Voters need to have their confidence restored in our party, and the most important need right now is for voters to understand there is a difference between the parties, and that our party and its leaders unshakably stand for lower taxes and less government. Thisshould beone of the lessons learned as a result of the recent "Tea Parties" across our state and America, and as Grover Norquist quipped, "it should take only a mildly alert Republican candidate to get in front of that parade."

Steve and Meg: most voters in Republican voter rich southern California have no idea what Skype is, let alone whether their vote will turn on who made money or lost money on anything to do with it. At a time when the flooring is giving way in our party to recall witch-hunts, statesmanship… Read More