U.S. Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the elected leader of House Republicans, according to every Member of Congress to whom I have spoken, is one of the nicest gentlemen in Congress. He is affable, he is pleasant, he is considerate, and unlike former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, he doesn’t push from the “top down” (Gingrich famously relied on his Lieutenants Tom “The Hammer” Delay and Dick Armey to push for party discipline). Boehner doesn’t insist the GOP legislators form up as a cohesive group – I can’t even think of one instance where a ranking Republican member of a committee was removed because they went counter to the course charter by Boehner and his team. I can see why as a House Republican, I there is good reason to keep Boehner around. There is no pressure on you to be part of a unified Republican Team – every GOPer can comfortably vote with the Democrats or their favorite third-house interest group, with none of the “inconvenience” of punitive results from your own party.

It is not… Read More

Senate Republican Leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines of Fresno today issued the following statement in response to Governor Schwarzenegger's proclamation calling a special session of the Legislature to address California's budget crisis and economic woes:

“Governor Schwarzenegger acted prudently in calling the Legislature back into session to focus on solving California's budget crisis and turning our lagging economy around. However, Republicans are very disappointed to see that his budget plan includes higher taxes. We need to open up state government ledgers to ensure tax dollars are being spent as effectively as possible, on necessary programs and projects that truly benefit Californians.Raising taxes is the worst thing we could do right now, it will devastate an economy that is hanging on by a thread, threaten jobs and hurt working families.

Instead of raising taxes so the Legislature can spend even more on bigger government, Republicans believe that our priority in the special session should be putting California jobs first and encouraging more companies to invest in our state and… Read More

Just moments ago, Mike Villines was unanimously re-elected Leader by his fellow Assembly Republicans. Congratulations, Mike!!… Read More

I've been up in Sacramento for a couple of days, doing the kind of networking that FR readers would expect in order to be able to bring you the insights and commentaries you've come to expect here on the FlashReport. As I sit in my hotel room at the Capitol Hyatt hotel, formatting some columns for tomorrow morning's FR, there is a roar coming from the nearby Capitol building. There is a crowd of protesters gathered there, I would say about 1500 people strong – all upset about the defeat of Proposition 8. They are all screaming, “We want it. Now.”… Read More

Today, the Assembly special session was convened, the budget mess being the purpose. Thetax ideas being floated to "fix" it include 3 ideas I’ll talk about here, [plus,there’s a new tax on services and a vehicle fee increase].

Let me put it this way: When you get in your car [with a higher reg fee? or higher repair fees?], you pay a newoil tax. When you get to the store, you pay an increased sales tax. When you find you have less to spend because government is spending it for you, you may stop at the local watering hole and pay an increased alcohol tax per drink. Even then you may realize that dying won’t get you off the hook as the Fed death tax increases exponentially when the death taxphasedown expires Dec 31 2009, but that’s a Federal issue that I’ll leave out of the rest of this post.

The oil severance taxapplies to domestically produced oil…a sure fire incentive to decrease our dependence on foreign oil,yeah!

The sales tax increase, only temporary you know, of 1.5% is a surefire winner for boosting the economy going into… Read More

I started my day today the way I usually do…I read my Bible and prayed for all the people on my prayer list…until my kids starting fighting over the breakfast table, and I felt like I was in the middle of the Seinfeld episode with George’s dad running around saying, “Serenity Now!” In fact, the Serenity Prayer is printed on a coin I carry in my pocket: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.” How apropos for the morning after this election. Last night, I was asking the question, “What happened?!”, and desperately trying to make sense of the past year and the outcome of the election. It was only leading me down a path of sadness and disappointment, because I’ve been so very proud to support Senator McCain all this time.

So this morning, I asked a new question, “What now?” And I asked it prayerfully, and not in hopes of finding the answer from another person, because we’re all… Read More

The 2nd District, Wally Herger’s, came thru strong, with nearly 57%. Dan Lungren did OK, too, in the 3rd with 49 to 44% in a 4 way race. I’m at McClintock HQ right now in Roseville, where the numbers are very close…much closer than this district should be but it’s obviously a wacky year. Right now it sits at a 500 vote lead for Tom with a bunch left to count in Nevada County, where they have quit counting for the night. The McClintock crew is on top of it, monitoring thecounty officeswhereneeded overnight and early tomorrow morning.Thisseat has no business falling into the wrong hands and should be ours at the end of it, as Tom feels good about how the numbers will break to him. What a night.… Read More

The elves all had other plans this morning, so I am busy trying to compile the main news page. Look for it around 9am. After that, I will start tackling the 15 or so short analysis pieces that I would rather be writing right now! But, first things first…… Read More