Daily Archives: November 14, 2006

Blog Roundup

Odds and Ends 11/14

Originally I had planned on only doing this until the election, but I’ve found it quite satisfying to just write a short pithy comment on each story and move on to the next.  Also, I felt that I had been ignoring so many issues out there.  These will probably be shorter now, but I’ll try to get these out daily during the week.  No guarantees though. 🙂

So, teasers: Waxman attacks?, Jerry goes to DC, the failure of the metrics, and the LA Times saga continues.  Plus more!!

  • Will Henry Waxman challenge President Bush?  You know as well as I that there is no love lost between these two.  Waxman wants to investigate some of the policies of the Bush administration, and that is his job as Chair of the House Gov. Reform Cmte.  There are issues of war profiteering that have never been answered, and those should be investigated.  But the “storm of subpoenas” that the conservatives have been talking about? Don’t expect it…unless of course Bush has a reason to stonewall the sunshine.  When Waxman had subpoena power, he issued NO subpoenas.  The same can not be said of the Republicans in the Clinton era.
  • Mr. McNerney goes to Washington.  No word on his new committee assignments, but expect him to push hard for a spot on the Energy Committee, where he can put his background in wind energy to use.  As he campaigned on making the 11th a district focused on renewables, expect him to push for more resources on biofuels, wind, solar, etc.
  • A friend of mine forwarded me this from the Capitol Morning Report, a subscription only service.  It is an op-ed of sorts by strategist Tony Quinn, one of the editors of the California Target Book, about the failure of the GOP GOTV machine that Duf Sundheim (CRP Chair) had been pushing so hard.  The GOP GOTV in California completely failed to extend Arnold’s coat tails.  In a year when Dems had a weak top of the ticket, when you would expect some level of push back from the GOP, they got nothing.  In California, the Rove strategy of motivating the base just won’t work.  Of course, that’s especially true when you have a president who is hated, even by his base.  It all added up to a very poor night for everybody except Arnold. And Poizner I suppose, but I think anybody not named Cruz could have won that race.  Here’s a portion of the article:

    The much-touted Schwarzenegger/Republican get-out-the-vote effort in this election turned out to be a big flop. It’s not the first time the GOP effort to turn out its own voters has failed; but this year the party convinced itself that it would make a difference.
         The Schwarzenegger campaign spent millions on phone banks and mailers, the campaign flooded Republican mailboxes with slick brochures and pestered voters with robo calls at dinner time, something Republicans call micro-targeting. (I received three calls from “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger” telling me to vote while hosting an early election night party at my home and I had voted weeks ago.)
         They said this would bring out Republican voters, but it did not. Why? There are several reasons. Certainly a factor was Republican disgust with Bush and Iraq that kept many of their voters home. A large number of safe Republicans saw their vote percentage fall from 2004 levels. For instance, Sacramento GOP Rep Dan Lungren received only 59 percent this year; two years ago, he received 62 percent. That three percent drop was stay-at-home-Republicans. All the robo calls in the world could not get these voters to the polls.
         But that’s not the whole story. Republican registration is just 34 percent of statewide voters, an historic low. Republican strategists seem to believe they can overcome their registration deficit by pushing a higher turnout among their loyal voters, thus the robo calls and slick mailers aimed at GOP voters.
         But they fail to recognize that an appeal to the GOP base alone is not sufficient to win any longer in California. There are simply not enough like-minded voters outside the Republican base to forge a victory. Just look at the difference between Schwarzenegger and the rest of the Republican ticket.

  • The LA Times and the Tribune Company, its parent, are the subject of several takeover bids.  David Geffen is rumored to be trying to buy the Times from the Trib, and several bidders are trying to buy the Tribune Company.  As to how this will all turn out? Who knows, but one thing that is clear is that LA and the Times would be better off without the Tribune Company and its conservative ownership involved in the day to day operations of the paper of record on the West Coast.
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    Doolittle out, Dan Lungren in for leadership post in GOP

    3 Comments

    Well, brace yourself dear readers.  John Doolittle has withdrawn his candidacy for the House Republican Conference Secretary. I previously noted John Doolittle’s attempt to maintain his status as a leader in the House GOP.  Apparently Doolittle feels that his narrow victory over netroots hero Charlie Brown should be a sign that he needs to lavish favors upon his district for a couple of years.  Oh yeah, I’m sure the GOP wasn’t thrilled by the corruption charges that will likely bring an indictment soon.  Other Republicans are likely to be wary of electing a man that is almost synonymous with corruption in his district. 

    So, why not turn to the Congressman next door, Dan Lungren? 

    Rep. Dan Lungren, who earlier this year moved to force elections for all of the Republican leadership positions in the aftermath of the Jack Abramoff scandal, is seeking election to head the House Republican Conference.

    The Gold River Republican said it’s essential that the Republican leadership adjust rapidly to the fact that the party was ousted from control of the House in the elections last week. He said he wants to see the assembly of House Republicans run more democratically, with members given more opportunities to shape positions on key policy issues.(SacBee 11/14/06)

    Well this idea of a bottom up organization sounds pretty un-GOP-like to me.  C’mon? You think John Boehner or his successor is going to want to let lesser members muddy his message?  Good luck on that Dan.

    Lungren, the former California AG and Gubernatorial candidate, doesn’t carry the baggage of Doolittle and is facing three Congressman from the South.  The possibility of a split Southern vote and no other Western candidates leaves Lungren in a good position to win the post.

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    SF Drinking Liberally TONIGHT

    UPDATE: Oops, forgot the time.  It will be at 7PM tonight.

    Hey folks, sorry this is late notice, but the travelling has got me pretty ragged.  Tonight there’s going to be a Drinking Liberally SF in the Mission.  Instead of the normal Zeitgeist location, it will be at Doc’s Clock – 2575 Mission btw 21st and 22nd.  Google Map.  As I understand it, Justin Krebs, one of the founders of Drinking Liberally will be at tonight’s event…drinking…liberally.