Category: Politics

— This letter to Andrew Sullivan epitomizes what the GOP is up against in terms of survival (www.AndrewSullivan.com – Letters)

THE TROUBLE WITH DICK RIORDAN:
I work in GOP political circles (and have for years) and have been following the California gubernatorial GOP primary race with great interest. You’re probably right that Riordan is the only Republican who can beat Gray Davis.

Let’s stop right here, GOP activist, because you’ve come to the end of your rational thought process. The party out of power has no ability to influence public policy, and with a 1/3 – 2/3 split in the legislature, you don’t even have a vote on the budget or urgency bills. If only one candidate has a snowball’s chance of winning, there’s no need for further discussion, unless losing is what you’re in politics to do. But he goes on:
Continue reading “California Republican Death Wish III”

The Nando Times: Gore holds first fund-raisers since contested 2000 elections

WASHINGTON (February 20, 2002 10:54 p.m. EST) – Former Vice President Al Gore is stepping up efforts to raise money for his political action committee, holding his first two fund-raisers since the contested presidential elections this week and scheduling money-raising events in coming weeks in Florida, New York and California.

Dropped on his head at birth, apparently.

— The Nando Times: McCain says he was ‘tainted’ by donations

LOS ANGELES (February 20, 2002 11:15 a.m. EST) – Although he has been “tainted” by donations from Global Crossing, Sen. John McCain says he never acted improperly on behalf of the troubled telecommunications firm.

Oh to be as holy as McCain and Jeffords. They do for morals what government cheese does for gastronomy.

Yahoo! News – Sen. Jeffords to Campaign for Dems

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Sen. James Jeffords (news – web sites), an independent who abandoned the Republican party last year, said Wednesday he’ll campaign for some Democratic Senate candidates because he wants to prevent an “abuse of power” by an unchecked GOP majority.

“If they have total power then they will be very, very different from what my beliefs are what the government’s function should be,” Jeffords said. “I think it would be very dangerous for the country.”

Of course he does, and now that the New England Dairy Compact is history, government cheese will be better than ever.

— The guest editorialist weighs-in in favor of term limits at The Edge of England’s Sword

And finally, term limits does what every politician in Congress does not want the campaign finance reform bill to do – actually limit their power. Because let’s face it, if the politician in question has a limited shelf-life then the money won’t flow in that direction. The ideal result would hopefully be that we’d lose the lifers and see more people running who are interested in serving the will of their constituencies.

Continue reading “In Love with Term Limits”

and well-supported is this one by JG Cole on the left’s death wish: Balloon Juice- Hot air and ill-informed banter

— We commented recently on the ideological purity-driven death wish of California conservative Republicans that’s made that party a non-entity for the past several years. That theme has been amplifed by John Fund in the Wall St. Journal and Andrew Sullivan. Former governor George Deukmejian’s vicious personal attack against Dick Riordan at the state convention figures prominently in this commentary, and Gray Davis is now using it against Riordan himself: Davis Ad Uses Deukmejian to Attack Riordan

[Davis’ ad] quotes Deukmejian–no friend of Davis–questioning Riordan’s character. “Former Gov. George Deukmejian says Riordan tries to be all things to all people and questions his commitment to principles,” the ad intones.

Continue reading “California Republican Death Wish II”

(CTA) is the name of the golden state’s teachers’ union, which wasn’t spelled out in today’s entry on O’Connell and Kuehl (Future dim for California schools.) Only a few hours after posting that, someone with the email address “[email protected]” dropped a snarky comment about it. His tone resonates with the remarks of the UCLA teacher trainer on Fox News to the effect that anyone who didn’t like the gay life program should “check out – of the world.” I don’t see the CTA’s critics leaving the state, or the planet, en masse, folks, so you’d best learn to deal with us, in all of our glorious diversity.

on politics is Spinsanity – Countering rhetoric with reason. These guys, Ben Fritz and Brendan Nyhan, take on the left and the right with equal relish whenever and wherever they see defective reasoning or distortions of fact. They’re pretty busy. Here’s a bit about Enron:

In the ongoing rhetorical war over Enron, both sides seem to be trying to establish false tropes and hoping they’ll work their way into the mainstream. Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings (D-SC) did it last week when he falsely alleged that Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels had been on the company’s payroll. And now two conservatives are falsely stating that former Enron CEO Ken Lay was an overnight guest in the Clinton White House.

They’ll e-mail updates to you if you like.

— I heard a discussion between the three leading candidates for California School Superintendent on the radio yesterday, and quickly reached the conclusion that things aren’t going to get better any time soon in this state. The leading candidate is state senator Jack O’Connell, and his chief rival is my assemblymember, Lynne Leach. Leach has her heart (and her head) in the right place, but she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning owing to the fact that she’s a Reep in a one-party Dem state. O’Connell has $2M in union money on his side, and legions ready to walk precincts, drive on election day, and work phone banks. The reason that we need to keep the money in politics, by the way, is to keep the scales balanced between the parties here.
Continue reading “Future dim for California schools”