Earlier this year, FlashReport alumnus Karen Hanretty took off for Washington, D.C., in search of new challenges. As FR readers know, our former State Capitol Correspondent served as Communications Director for the California Republican Party, and has been regular contributor to the Fox News Channel (her appearances on Hannity and Colmes are too numerous to count).

Well, today it was announced by the Friends of Fred Thompson Committee (soon to be Thompson for President) that Karen has come onboard as their Deputy Communications Director, helping to oversee all aspects of the campaign’s national communications efforts, and also acting as a spokesman. Congratulations, Karen — we’re proud of you!!

Fred Thompson’s quite "Golden State heavy" when it comes to his Communications Team. Last month he brought on Todd Harris as Communications Director.… Read More

Sometimes you write about something on the blog so that you stop having to write about it over (and over) privately. For those who were unaware, last week Governor Schwarzenegger held a private meeting with some of my colleagues on the California Republican Party Board of Directors at the State Capitol. These members included Immediate Past Chairman Duf Sundheim, Republican National Committeeman Tim Morgan, County Chairmans Association President Keen Butcher, and Regional Vice Chairmen Jerry Maltby, Mark Pruner, and Aquinetta Warren. There were a couple of other non-CRP Board Members in the meeting as well.

I do not know what they discussed in their meeting. I do not know why this particular group of CRP leaders was chosen. I do know that I was not invited, nor were any of the CRP’s elected officers (Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer or Secretary). If you have any questions about this meeting, you may want to direct them to one of the attendees.

One hopes that this is the first of many intimate meetings that the Governor has with Republican leaders, and hopefully some others of us will have a chance to dialogue… Read More

Erica Werner over at the Associated Press is reporting that two senior aides to Congressman John Doolittle were subpeoned recently by Federal authorities who are investigating ties between Congressman Doolittle, his wife and jailed ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The existance of these subpeonas was announced today after the aides gave a required notification to the House.

Clearly this demonstrates that an investigation is still active and ongoing — presenting a serious, ongoing challenge to Congressman Doolittle’s ability to get past this issue, as he tries to make the case that he can be re-elected next year.… Read More

The Republican Party is never going to be able to make the credible case that we are the party of fiscal conservatism and government frugality if we are constantly dining heavily on a diet of Congressional earmarks. Remember, in the court of public opinion, perception is very important. Thanks to vast number of outrageous and egregious pork-barrel earmarks, the entire earmarking process is being viewed by the public, and certainly by Republican donors and activists as being corrupt. Earmarks that are awarded based on back-slapping and horse-trading, rather than through the creation of objective, definable and provable criteria are egregious, and should be stopped.

[How did your California Representative vote on fifty different opportunities to eliminate extremely egregious earmarks to appropriations bills this session? … Read More

In a success story of good ol’ American can-do, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge re-opened 11 hours ahead of schedule. It had been closed for the 3 day Labor Day weekend for refitting a major chunk at Yerba Buena Island, a 350 foot long, 6700 ton piece that is integral to the new east span, under construction now. This is the section most affected by the ’89 earthquake when a segment of the bridge collapsed.

Infrastructure specialist C.C. Myers Inc. is the same company that rebuilt the section of the MacArthur Maze [near Oakland] that collapsed earlier this year when an intensefuel tanker fire brought it crashing down. This in an amazing 18 days, from scratch, in one of the most traffic intense areas of the state. Also, they rebuilt a section of Santa Monica Freeway back in ’94 after the earthquake brought it down, [this in 66 days from an alloted 140] All these projects saving huge amounts of costs that gridlock oftraffic causes in time lost.

This is one example of what good can happen when everyone works together. It’s nice to know that in a crunch, there are folks that step up and get things done. In a time when we… Read More

The Republican Party is never going to be able to make the credible case that we are the party of fiscal conservatism and government frugality if we are constantly dining heavily on a diet of Congressional earmarks. Remember, in the court of public opinion, perception is very important. Thanks to vast number of outrageous and egregious pork-barrel earmarks, the entire earmarking process is being viewed by the public, and certainly by Republican donors and activists as being corrupt. Earmarks that are awarded based on back-slapping and horse-trading, rather than through the creation of objective, definable and provable criteria are egregious, and should be stopped.

[How did your California Representative vote on fifty different opportunities to eliminate extremely egregious earmarks to appropriations bills this session? … Read More

The crisis related to the mortgage industry or more importantly related to so many home owners is going to impact politics more than we might think.

We have yet to see the real impacts of a serious tightening in credit and a significant down-turn in housing prices. Until now, many sellers and home builders have held somewhat steady on price, preferring to hold on for a better deal rather than sell at a significant discount. That is changing. And as the months go by and what seems like a whole generation of first-time home buyers realizes that they have lost 10%, 20% of their home values, they are going to get angry.

People usually look for someone to blame when they get angry. President Bush is a likely target, the Congress is another. ‘Someone should have done something.’ ‘Someone should have saved the family of four who bought a house with zero down with a mortgage that offered zero interest for 3 years and then adjusted upwards swiftly, from themselves.’ …they will say.

Beyond the blame game, the issue of home mortgages and a credit crunch will most certainly, in a bigger way than it already has, become part of… Read More

The crisis related to the mortgage industry or more importantly related to so many home owners is going to impact politics more than we might think.

We have yet to see the real impacts of a serious tightening in credit and a significant down-turn in housing prices. Until now, many sellers and home builders have held somewhat steady on price, preferring to hold on for a better deal rather than sell at a significant discount. That is changing. And as the months go by and what seems like a whole generation of first-time home buyers realizes that they have lost 10%, 20% of their home values, they are going to get angry.

People usually look for someone to blame when they get angry. President Bush is a likely target, the Congress is another. ‘Someone should have done something.’ ‘Someone should have saved the family of four who bought a house with zero down with a mortgage that offered zero interest for 3 years and then adjusted upwards swiftly, from themselves.’ …they will say.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More