Submitted to us by FR reader Andrew Russo of Monterey County…

Whither the GOP? Barack Obama’s election and the concurrent loss of additional Republican seats in the House and Senate are the direct and inevitable result of the destruction George W. Bush and his merry band of neo-conservatives wreaked upon a once proud and principled political party. George W. Bush – like his father before him, but to a much greater and more dangerous degree — repudiated the traditional small government philosophy that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and led to the Republican sweep in the 1994 congressional elections.… Read More

The last couple of weeks, we have featured a dozen columns from GOP leaders around California, giving their input on the future of the Grand Old Party in the wake of this year’s Presidential Election defeats. We will continue to feature more of these columns. But we have also been getting quite a few submissions from FlashReport readers on the subject, and we’ll start to run some of those today. If you would like to join in on the discussion, just send me your thoughts (up to 400 words) for publication right here on the FR Blog. Please include a one-sentence bio, and if you have one, a .jpg format headshot of yourself.

Jump in — the water’s warm!

(If you want to go back and peruse the columns we’ve already run, most of them are here. And there is one here, here, and… Read More

The last couple of weeks, we have featured a dozen columns from GOP leaders around California, giving their input on the future of the Grand Old Party in the wake of this year’s Presidential Election defeats. We will continue to feature more of these columns. But we have also been getting quite a few submissions from FlashReport readers on the subject, and we’ll start to run some of those today. If you would like to join in on the discussion, just send me your thoughts (up to 400 words) for publication right here on the FR Blog. Please include a one-sentence bio, and if you have one, a .jpg format headshot of yourself.

Jump in — the water’s warm!

(If you want to go back and peruse the columns we’ve already run, most of them are here. And there is one here, here, and… Read More

Many of you have pestered … uhh … I mean encouraged me over the last several days to get with it and tally the San Diego General Election Prediction Contest results and announce a winner. As I’ve said before, what do you want for free? In good time, nothing’s gonna change … well, except perhaps for the winner in Chula Vista (which, fortunately, wasn’t a question included in our little contest).

If you missed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (okay, twice per cycle, except when there’s a special election), here’s the prior post.

Just as in the primary, we had about 40 respondents. Before the e-roll, a recap of the questions, the correct answers and a brief analysis of the responses on each:

Question #1: A Taxing Question – Does Prop A, the Countywide Parcel Tax for Fire Protection, win or lose?

Correct Answer – LOSE. A solid 75 percent got this one right, even some of the folks in support of the darned thing. Good start.

Question #2: San Diego City… Read More

In two short months Republicans will lose their party leader when President Bush leaves 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The race is now on to fill the leadership void and provide direction for the GOP heading into the 2010 midterm elections. The contest to take over the Republican National Committee chairmanship is the most apparent test to determine the party’s direction. Several names have been floated, including Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele and other prominent Republicans. But one name being floated is better known to California Republicans: the CRP’s own chairman, Ron Nehring.

Most conservative leaders agree that the chairmanship of the RNC is a key position for rebuilding the party and they are keen on electing a true conservative who will welcome the conservative base back into the party. As possible candidates for the RNC chairmanship are discussed, Gingrich, Steele and other Republican luminaries are being mentioned, but Ron Nehring’s name is also being brought up. Could the CRP lose its party chairman to the national party? As Matt Drudge and his eponymous report would say, developing…

… Read More

House Republicans have some big decisions to make this week with Dan Lungren’s decision to challenge John Boehner for leader of the embattled minority. And amongst the incoming freshman class making such important directional decisions will be California’s Tom McClintock. The United States House of Representatives has recognized the inevitable fact that Tom McClintock won the 4th CD seat. It’s just a matter of days before McClintock will be declared the next representative for Congressman John Doolittle’s district. McClintock will arrive in Washington, D.C., tomorrow to begin freshman orientation and participate in House Republican strategizing.

After losing Congress and the White House, Republicans nationwide are considering the party’s future. This is a time of rebuilding the Republican brand by embracing conservative principles, not denouncing them. Congressman Tom McClintock will certainly be one of the most important leaders for the conservative movement on the national scene. Conservatives need his vision and voice not just in deciding new House leadership, but to re-earn voters’ trust. Look out, Washington Establishment!… Read More

Today Congressman Dan Lungren of California entered the race for House GOP Leader, the first to openly challenge the re-election of incumbent Leader John Boehner. Here on this site, we have devoted a lot of column "ink" to the idea that Boehner, while a nice guy, is not made of the kind of stern stuff that is needed to lead the GOP out of the wilderness. When Boehner became leader, the same "team" that overspent us into the minority under former Speaker Dennis Hastert stayed put — included infamous porkers like Jerry Lewis and Dan Young.

Lungren’s entrance into the race is a welcome change from what seemed to be like a coronation (you had a vision of everyone drinking at the bar voting for the guy who tells the best stories to be "King of the bar" — so to speak).

It will be interesting to see if Lungren’s just into the fray causes others to get into the race. Either way, his entry will cause people to have to stop, and think about the job… Read More

[Cross-posted from RedCounty.com]

Same-sex advocates, sore over their failure to defeat Proposition 8, are waging a campaign of intimidation against supporters of the winning initiative.

The latest target is Scott Anderson, business owner and a board member of the Lincoln Club of Orange County.

Scott was on Dennis Prager this morning talking about a threatening voice mail from "Kevin" Andrews received yesterday.

Click here to listen to the voice mail.

Two days ago, the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre lost his job for donating to Prop. 8. Now we have this "Kevin" threatening someone’s business for exercising his political speech.

Kevin’s boycott threat may just be empty, angry bluster, but should… Read More