I am crazy busy between all of the projects I am working on, but this is too amusing to me not to write up.  Fred Thompson has now hired both Todd Harris and Karen Hanretty for his now official, not illegal presidential run.  Those two were key consultants on Arnold’s disastrous 2005 special election.  It was his aides that convinced him that a bunch of power grab measures and attacking labor was a good idea.  Wrong.  Oh so wrong.

Arnold is doing much better since he dropped the DC Navigators crew.  Indeed his former re-elect staffers were snapped up by other campaigns, way before Frederick got Harris and Hanretty.  BTW, anything that Mike Murphy says about Thompson should be considered coming from the campaign.  Todd Harris is a principle at Murphy’s firm DC Navigators. 

I have two favorite moments of Harris during that campaign.  The first was when he brought a bunch of interns over to CTA’s offices in Sacramento to “protest”.  Needless to say, Republicans are terrible chanters.  The kind teachers were worried that the kids needed some sustenance, so they brought out some cookies and milk for them.  The chant leader told them to stay away, lest they create a nice photo-op, but Harris couldn’t help himself.  Here he is chewing away.

The second one was the time he was caught by Warren Beatty taking pictures of his wife Annette Benning at a campaign stop.  Benning and Beatty were on a bus tour for us and high-jinks ensued.  Heh even Nehring is mention in Carla Marninucci’s blog post:

The Academy Award-nominated actress won over legions of fans, even on the GOP side. Holding her husband’s hand, she posed for photos with union members, talked up the election, and remained serenely gorgeous throughout the day, even after she and Beatty became the target of some decidedly nasty personal attacks from state GOP vice chair Ron Nehring, who dismissed them as “over the hill” and “B” actors.

Beatty, in an affectionate nod to his wife, addressed the crowd in admiration, saying: “Give me liberty or give me .. Annette Bening!”

Even Schwarzenegger spokesman Todd Harris couldn’t resist, snapping some photos of her. That’s when Beatty strangled him in mock exasperation while pleading, “Todd, join us!”

Harris instead rushed back to combat duty — on the press bus.

I was amused to see Maviglio defending Schwarzenegger’s star power today in Carla’s article on the hires, oh and even Gary South shows up:

And Maviglio said Thompson doesn’t compare with the California governor when it comes to star power.

“Muttering a few lines at the end of a ‘Law & Order’ episode isn’t the same as a multimillion-dollar blockbuster,” Maviglio scoffed. “It doesn’t translate.”

Garry South, the sharp-tongued former strategist for Davis, said Thompson has other problems.

Harris and Hanretty are “both really worthy additions to the (Thompson) team,” South said. But … the candidate is “an empty vessel into which (the conservative right) are pouring all their hopes. Fred Thompson is no Ronald Reagan,” or even an Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“He’s not an upbeat individual. He comes off like a grouchy, grumpy old man … Can you see the words ‘shining city on a hill’ coming out of Fred Thompson’s mouth?”

How many CA hacks can I tie into this story? sheesh.

Sounds like recipe for disaster to me.  South and Rob Stutzman along with GOP Attorney Tom Hitachk and Rick Claussen have teamed up to create a proposal in case Arnold and the legislature can’t come to terms. Salladay:

Broadly, the new initiative would require the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to create a citizens commission that would draw legislative lines (one version excludes Congress, another includes federal districts.) The five-member commission would hire six other people to create an 11-member panel.

Those additional panelists would include one member from academia with experience in redistricting, one attorney with the same type of experience, and four city or county elections officials – two from high-density areas and two rural. The membership would have to be balanced between Republicans and Democrats.

As Salladay points out, the FPPC is woefully underfunded as it is and would have a hard time administrating this.

Perata may be concerned that there are no other relatively minor sweeteners along with the term limits, but its just South who is teaming up with the Republicans to push redistricting.

But it doesn’t appear the FPPC option would make it to the February ballot – time is running out to collect signatures.