I’m up in Fresno for a California Republican Party Leadership Summit with fellow Board Members, and County Chairmen and County Treasurers from all around the Golden State. We’ll be doing a lot of ‘roll up your sleeves’ work to prepare for the upcoming 2008 elections. At lunch, local Congressman George Radonovich will be talking to us, and we’ll see what word he brings from Washington (nothing good, I suspect). Anyways, FR’s former Managing Editor Nicholas Romero was on hand last night as the Orange County Lincoln Club (click their ad to the right for more info) hosted former Tennesee Senator and Law & Order Actor Fred Thompson at their annual dinner. It was a major event and their most well attended annual dinner in the Club’s history. Congratulations to the Lincoln Club for such a successful event. That said, I think all of the attendees were hoping to be on hand for the moment when Thompson’s ‘rumored’ and ‘wished for’ candidacy for the White House would become a reality. Alas, last night was not the chosen night for such an announcement. Still, if you make your… Read More

I’m up in Fresno for a California Republican Party Leadership Summit with fellow Board Members, and County Chairmen and County Treasurers from all around the Golden State. We’ll be doing a lot of ‘roll up your sleeves’ work to prepare for the upcoming 2008 elections. At lunch, local Congressman George Radonovich will be talking to us, and we’ll see what word he brings from Washington (nothing good, I suspect). Anyways, FR’s former Managing Editor Nicholas Romero was on hand last night as the Orange County Lincoln Club (click their ad to the right for more info) hosted former Tennesee Senator and Law & Order Actor Fred Thompson at their annual dinner. It was a major event and their most well attended annual dinner in the Club’s history. Congratulations to the Lincoln Club for such a successful event. That said, I think all of the attendees were hoping to be on hand for the moment when Thompson’s ‘rumored’ and ‘wished for’ candidacy for the White House would become a reality. Alas, last night was not the chosen night for such an announcement. Still, if you make your… Read More

This morning after dropping of my daughter at German school in Temple City, I went down the street to the 49th Assembly District Victory Elephant Breakfast (VEB). This meeting is held and has been held on the first Saturday of the month at the Denny’s on Rosemead Blvd since the 1980’s. I actually attended it back then and do so every so often. Today’s speaker was State Senator George Runner. He did a great job talking about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and answered questions. There were 30 or so people there. While what George said was valuable, more precious was his presence. The GOP nominee in 2006 got 28.90 percent of the vote. In other words Democrat territory. They have had some success electing and re-electing Republicans at the local level and work GOTV in the election years. George drove at least an hour one-way to do the breakfast. … Read More

The Homosexual lobby loves the word “tolerance”. They use it in many ways to gain special rights for homosexuals. What they don’t like is practicing “tolerance”. SB 777 sponsored by Sheila Kuehl includes language that would add state censorship rulesto screen out anything negative about homosexuality in textbooks, curricula etc. at all public and private schools and universities. (Like universities are really targeting homosexuality). It could go so far as to eliminate distinctions like Prom King and Queen and could require various restrooms for students “perceived” gender. The Governor vetoed a less expansive version of this bill last year. Two days ago on Fox Karen England of the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) debated the issue with a proponent of the bill. (See it here). The proponent refused to declare that the bill would not do the things Karen England … Read More

Today we feature a good amount of coverage on last night’s GOP Presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. We have post debate ‘spin’ from representatives of the three ‘front-runner’ candidates — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney — as well as a note from Duncan Hunter’s campaign. As of my writing this, a couple of members of our FR team have penned their observations over on the blog page, and we, of course, feature on the main page an extensive listing of articles from around California (and a few nationally) about the debate. I will make a few general observations about the debate.

With the field of candidates so wide (ten), there was not enough time in an hour-long debate for any one candidate to really take command and leave this debate in a substantially better position than before. I was really impressed with Sam Brownback’s performance. That was the most notable surprise to me. I think … Read More

Today we feature a good amount of coverage on last night’s GOP Presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley. We have post debate ‘spin’ from representatives of the three ‘front-runner’ candidates — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney — as well as a note from Duncan Hunter’s campaign. As of my writing this, a couple of members of our FR team have penned their observations over on the blog page, and we, of course, feature on the main page an extensive listing of articles from around California (and a few nationally) about the debate. I will make a few general observations about the debate.

With the field of candidates so wide (ten), there was not enough time in an hour-long debate for any one candidate to really take command and leave this debate in a substantially better position than before. I was really impressed with Sam Brownback’s performance. That was the most notable surprise to me. I think … Read More

Others have weighed in at length, so this will be brief….30 seconds at best, yes or no at most.

We’ve become a world of snippets — of 30-second sound bites — so I guess we could have hoped for no more substance than that, not even when it comes to the most significant issues of the day.

Complex issues and the resulting complex questions are deserving of more than 30 second snippets and Chris Matthews-forced, "I’ll have to ask you to give ayes or no"simple answers.

Yes, I realize that with 10 "debaters" (this was no debate, by the way)and limited time, there may have been few other choices than the format selected. As well, this early in the process, all of the potential players have to be invited, further forcing the format.

Yet, I have no sense now of anything more than before, except each candidate’s ability to package an answer succinctly. There was John McCain, often looking like the only one of the bunch concerned about federal spending, when the record tells differently. There too was Ron Paul, perhaps one of the few willing to address runaway spending from a constitutional… Read More

California Congessman David Dreier is a supporter of Rudy Giuliani.. Rudy Giuliani kicked off last night’s debate with an emphasis on optimism. It was an entirely appropriate emphasis given the setting of the Reagan Library. As Rudy said, President Reagan led with optimism and on the strengths of this great country. Over the course of the debate, Rudy demonstrated he is the candidate that can lead as Reagan did, with optimism and strength.

I believe Rudy can win California and the election in 2008. The polls look the way they do for a reason. Rudy’s lead is real and last night we saw why. He was thoughtful. He was authentic. And he made clear that he plans to take the Reagan conservative principles he used to tackle crime, cut taxes and provide forward looking leadership to the White House.

Legitimately putting California in play for our Republican nominee will be… Read More