Right now we are in the midst of the two weeks that comprise the quadrennial national conventions of both parties. These events will suck up all the political wind until the gavel falls to close the Republican convention in Minneapolis. Congress goes back into session on September 8th, which will begin a 3 week sprint until we go home again to campaign for the November elections. By the way, this is a normal recess date particularly during presidential election years.

So, what’s going to be on the agenda for those 3 weeks? Not too much. The House could probably pass some stuff but the Senate will be the choke point. Since I have been in Congress, I have learned why so many things pass the House and then don’t pass or are never taken up in the Senate, regardless of which party is in charge of either house. First of all, in order to become law, all bills must pass both the Senate and the House. That means that Senators must do the same work to pass the same number of bills that we do. But there are only 100 of them and there are 435 of us. This means, for example, that although I am on 2 committees (many House members serve on only one), Senators usually serve on… Read More

Update: The Assembly session for Wednesday noon is canceled with no new session yet scheduled. Now that we have a new record for lateness for the state budget, perhaps we can get down to wrapping one up. [The true lateness record for a budget receiving a governor’s signature is Sep 5]

Both houses worked Sunday to finish the years legislation as the 31st was the last day to get ‘normal’, check that, ‘regular’ bills out. The Assembly finished about 5:30 PM and I heard the Senate gaveled down at 1 PM, right in the middle of a bill presentation, with others still on their file. Oh well.

The budget sides are almost as equally polarized between the Assembly and Senate Dems themselves as it is a Reep vs Dem thing. Now with the ‘distractions’ behind us of the Dem convention and the deadline for legislation, with the 2 houses holding the others bills hostage, exchanging a few at a time each day, the budget should be the only focus.

Lost in the stalling antics were the opportunity to… Read More

The Convention is now underway, and while I could write pages on what I’ve seen, heard, and learned, I’ve decided to give you all a pictorial report for Day One, because it’s almost 1 a.m. and I still have more emails to answer. (:

Here you see the California Delegation sign with "Country First" in the background. I love that slogan; it really makes you think about what politics is supposed to be…a way to serve our country. With Hurricane Gustav blowing in, and two more storms behind it, the California Delegation worked with the American Red Cross to set up a variety of ways for delegates to donate money, hotel points, frequent flier miles, and a number of other ways suggested on www.redcross.org. It’s been pretty cool to see delegates eager to help and serve fellow Americans.

… Read More

If you looked for the Eiland family, part of the California delegation, at today’s truncated convention session — you wouldn’t have found them. They ended up leaving to go to a local Irish pub to look for the most coveted and non-existant commodities at the Excel Center — food and beverage. Other than the finger food provided in the elite RNC members-only suite, there was none to be had. I don’t mean to make this the main point of a blog on the opening session of the convention. But…

By mid-way through the session, the circular walkway around the perimeter of the arena was packed with ravenous, parahna-like delegates, looking for anything to eat. The talk was that food intentended for delegates and convention goers had been diverted to the gulf coast.

I will always remember the look of relief on the face of Mindy Fletcher when incoming California RNC Committeeman Shawn Steel pinched a Diet Coke for her from the coveted and guarded RNC members-only suite.

At some point, towards the end of the session, someone wheeled out boxes of potato chips and chocolate chip cookies. If you can imagine a coy fish pond… Read More

Kevin Yamamura has the story over at the Sacramento Bee.

Wilson is like a bottle of fine wine. As he ages he only gets better and better.… Read More

I’ve just returned from the first delegation meeting at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel, the “home base” for the California Delegation to the Republican National Convention. Over breakfast, our delegation, many hundreds strong, was given an orientation of the week – which is to say that we all found out that everything is in flux. Right now, it is unclear how Hurricane Gustav is going to impact the rest of our week, but for today, we will be traveling by bus to the convention hall to take care of only the “must do” actions required under the RNC rules in order to nominate Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin as our official GOP ticket for the November election.

The Chairman of the delegation is former California Secretary of State Bill Jones (as is appropriate since he was a McCain guy back in 2000, and serves as his State Chairman for California this year). Jones welcomed the delegates, as did… Read More

I’ve just returned from the first delegation meeting at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel, the “home base” for the California Delegation to the Republican National Convention. Over breakfast, our delegation, many hundreds strong, was given an orientation of the week – which is to say that we all found out that everything is in flux. Right now, it is unclear how Hurricane Gustav is going to impact the rest of our week, but for today, we will be traveling by bus to the convention hall to take care of only the “must do” actions required under the RNC rules in order to nominate Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin as our official GOP ticket for the November election.

The Chairman of the delegation is former California Secretary of State Bill Jones (as is appropriate since he was a McCain guy back in 2000, and serves as his State Chairman for California this year). Jones welcomed the delegates, as did… Read More

Well, my convention guest, Erik Brown, and I just landed in Minneapolis airport. While we were generally disappointed no passengers on our flight in were carryinh stuffed red, white and blue elephants, we had a great trip out.

While we are tired from all of the cross-country travel, we’re not the most tired. Staring at an empty baggage carousel near ours, waiting for baggage after an even longer flight was the GOP Governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle. Erik and I said hello with a tired enthusiasm that she managed to meet.

We’re currently off to the Bloomington Sheraton, which will now be the satellite HQ of the FlashReport for the next five days.

This week I encourage FR readers to keep an extra eye on the FlashReport and this blog for fun snippits out of the Republican National Convention. As my friend Anthony York of Capitol Weekly pointed out in his DNC Convention coverage — no real “news” comes out of these staged events. So we’ll be looking to bring you some up-close observations. For my part, I will attempt to be sarcastic and insightful in my observations, as you would hope and expect!… Read More