( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

(cross-posted at The California Courage Campaign)

On Friday, dday argued that the extremely productive (but ultimately 1-sided) legislative session that just ended portends The End of the Califonia Republican Party. But who knew it had gotten this bad. The LA Times reports that the Orange County Republican Party has taken to shaking down its incumbent candidates.

For the first time, the county's GOP is requiring incumbent candidates to join a special party association and pay a $200 membership fee if they want to receive the party's "early endorsement."

The designation would give the candidates an early edge against Republican challengers in local races, offering them official GOP bragging rights during the campaign and for fundraising. In local elections, where voters are often unfamiliar with the candidates and media coverage is scarce, a party endorsement is a powerful signal to voters.

The cool kids' club is called the Local Elected Officials Association and it's rubbing some local officals the wrong way.

"I understand the intention behind it in trying to get folks more involved," said Tim Whitacre, an elected member of the county party's central committee.

"However, it's not very well thought out because it comes across as more of a shakedown."

And…

"My problem is, it looks like extortion," said Alexandria Coronado, president of the county Board of Education .

"You have to pay, and you're not even guaranteed the endorsement. I find it reprehensible."

And…

Shelia J. Henness, an incumbent trustee in the Capistrano Unified School District , learned of the organization after she asked for the county party's endorsement this summer…

The arrangement appeared to be that "if you didn't join the committee, you wouldn't be able to get an endorsement," she said. "I was very surprised. I did join. I felt like I was pushed to join."

Despite the criticisms, party officials defend the practice.

[They] say the plan is intended to familiarize city council members, school board trustees and other candidates with the Republican Party's political ideals early in their careers and foster a GOP farm system of sorts to groom people for higher office…

"Number one, you don't have to pay any money to be considered for endorsement. Number two, the money that is collected for the association is unrelated to the campaigns in the fall. So if somebody is paying money just for the purpose of getting an early endorsement, they're missing out on 100% of the benefits the club brings."

Benefits you say? Do tell.

• Local Elected Officials Gatherings. Complimentary invitation to official County Party events, including a Local Elected Officials Breakfast, a ticket to the VIP reception at the Party’s annual “Flag Day Salute Dinner” and a briefing from Republican Leaders.
• Automatic membership in the Party's prestigious `400 Club.
• A Political Campaign Training Seminar designed to give you the tools you need to run more effective campaigns.
• Eligibility for Endorsement by the Endorsements Committee

Worst. Club. Ever.

(It is very disappoiting that Arnold is just like the other GOoPers, using the gays to throw red meat to his base. Second verse same as the first. Arnold=Bush=Arnold=Bush. They’ll both throw anybody they can under the bus just to stay in power a little longer to throw more power to their corporate masters. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Our dear governor is showing his true colors:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have barred textbooks from using language that would be discriminatory to gays, saying the state’s education laws already prevent discrimination.

More from Capital Notes:

Schwarzenegger has largely attempted to split the difference on issues affecting gays and lesbians, supporting some rights and protections, while rejecting others. And in his veto message, he again seems to be trying to strike a balance between liberal and conservative philosophies.

And Ahnold also will veto the universal health care measure:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Tuesday that he will veto a universal health care bill that is headed for his desk, claiming the measure would set up a “vast new bureaucracy” that would be too expensive.

When people tell you how moderate Ah-nold is, remind them he vetoed these two bills, both of which are progressive and needed in our state.

Amidst the consternation over the Governor’s veto of Sheila Keuhl’s universal healthcare bill, SB 840, many California political observers may fail to notice the death of a less famous but equally important healthcare bill in the State Senate last week.

AB 2754 would have compelled California hospitals to draft staffing plans for non-nurse caregivers.  Right now, nurse staffing at hospitals is governed by minimum nurse-to-patient ratios set by the Department of Health Services.  That’s a good thing for patient care.

Non-nurse caregivers, however, including housekeepers, unit clerks, nursing assistants, respiratory therapists and many others, are covered by no such regulations.  Without such rules, hospitals are free to continue to cut staff, just so long as the employees being cut are not registered nurses.  Then, with ancillary staff cut to the bone, it’s up to the nurses to pick up the slack.  That means more nurse labor hours spent answering phones, watching monitors, flipping beds and taking out trash, and less nurse hours attending directly to patients.  The effect is to make the nurse-to-patient ratios meaningless and to allow spending the night at the hospital to become a riskier and riskier undertaking with each passing year.

AB 2754 was a modest first step toward fixing the problem and putting hospital staffing levels in line with patient care needs rather than just the bottom line.

Senate Democrats could have carried the bill, but failed to muster the nerve to resist the pressures of the hospital lobby.  For the record, Ducheny, Florez and Machado voted against keeping you and your loved ones safe when you’re sick.  Lowenthal, Murray, Scott and Speier chose not to cast a vote in this critical decision.

Beep…beep…we now interrupt your regularly scheduled blogreading.  Ok I kid (and I rip of k/o’s humor).  This is nothing new.  Jerry Lewis is once again under investigation.  From the AP:

Federal investigators probing Rep. Jerry Lewis’ ties to lobbyists are looking into a land deal that put nearly 41 pristine acres in the congressman’s neighborhood off-limits to developers, The Associated Press has learned.

The land was given to the city of Redlands by Jack and Laura Dangermond, who have donated generously to Lewis, R-Redlands. The Dangermonds founded and run a company ESRI in Redlands that has gotten tens of millions of dollars’ worth of contracts through the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which Lewis chairs.

One government contract came months after the land donation.

The land, some of which sits directly across from Lewis’ home, is part of a scenic canyon in one of Redlands’ wealthiest neighborhoods. Keeping the land free of development helps ensure that property values remain high.(San Bernadino Sun 9/6/06)

So what’s new? Well, I guess it’s just one more example of the GOP corruption here in California and in DC.  Lewis just loves his little quid pro quo arrangements, passing out government contracts like candy to his supporters.  It’s really rather revolting.  It’s also another example of why we need the bipartisan legislation championed by Sens. Obama and Coburn to create a searchable online database of government contracts.  Sen Stevens, Remove this hold!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced he will veto the universal health care bill recently passed by both houses of the CA legislature. His announcement, said the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, reads “like a health insurer’s advertising dream, full of catch phrases that twist the truth in order to frighten consumers…”

FTCR also noted that the health industry boosted Schwarzenegger to nearly $100 million in campaign donations with a $125,000 burst of contributions in August alone. The industry has given him $4 million overall.”

The universal health care plan is solid, and everyone in California–individuals, families, small businesses, large corporations, hospitals, doctors, nurses–everybody but bloated private insurance companies–need this. Arnold has given Phil Angelides the issue he can champion. Phil needs to heed this call, and be the hero.

I don’t use the term lightly. “A leader, not an actor” may be a clever tagline for his TV spots, but like it or not, Phil Angelides is a major player in a political drama. An experienced Hollywood hand like his opponent, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, knows this instinctively: political campaigns are pure melodrama, and the successful candidate makes himself the hero.

Melodrama is emotional, it’s big and it’s black-and-white. There are no self-contradictory gods as in Greek myth, or heroes with fatal flaws as in classical drama. It’s the virtuous hero overcoming impossible odds to defeat the despicable villain. Melodrama means drama with melody: a musical soundtrack. It’s opera in all its forms—high, light, horse, space and soap. It is also the basic form of TV commercials, especially for politicians.

“The new politics of democracy,” writes political scientist Alan Wolfe, “resembles a daytime television melodrama more than an academic seminar: attention is captured when conscience is tempted, courage displayed, determination rewarded, wills broken, egos checked, pride humbled, and virtue rewarded.”

In terms of imagery and experience, Hollywood’s Schwarzenegger has the obvious advantage of having starred in melodramas, as both hero and villain. In fact the two distinct halves of his term as Governator replicate his most famous role as the Terminator. In the first movie he’s the Terminator for the powerful machines. In the second he’s switched sides to champion the human rebels. As governor, he represented the Bush Republican right, until his ballot initiatives were defeated. Then he became the champion of more moderate and even liberal measures. Can he be a political hero replicating what he did as a movie hero?

As for Angelides, even though he is unlikely to be cast in a Hollywood melodrama, all is not lost. Some heroes in melodramas of the past fought against injustice, for the little guy and the oppressed. They included reformers, workers, strikers and crusading reporters. There were many popular melodramas about social causes. Probably the most produced American play was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s abolitionist melodrama, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and other Frank Capra film favorites were melodramas, as were stage and film biographies of Abraham Lincoln and FDR.

Past and present political candidates have created their images and developed excitement around their candidacies with the melodramatic appeal of fighting for the little guy. Right now, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is enjoying stratospheric poll numbers in his race for Governor, as the corporate crime-fighting hero. (Wall Street furnished villains for many stage melodramas.) In Connecticut, newly victorious Democratic candidate for Senate Nate Lamont is the people-power, anti-war hero, defined in part by TV commercials crafted by the same Bill Hillsman who helped turn unknown college professor Paul Wellstone into a populist hero.

Health care is a dramatic issue, and the sides are drawn. This plan, as described by the San Francisco Chronicle,“would eliminate private medical insurance plans and establish a statewide health insurance system that would provide coverage to all Californians.”  The need is extreme:”as many as 7 million people are uninsured in the state, and spiraling costs have put pressure on business and consumers.”

  “We know the health care in place today is teetering on collapse,” said Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles. “We need to do something to improve it, to reform it, and this is what we are bringing to the table.”

Of course, as everyone in Hollywood knows, the real drama isn’t on the screen– it’s in the audience. Is this the year for a worker’s champion and a civil liberties, election reform, environmental and above all, a universal health care hero? It must be, win or lose. The only way to find out how this show will play is to mount it with clarity and conviction. And don’t forget the music.