OK, this is hilarious.  With wrong-track numbers at over 80% and the current President near historic low approval ratings, you’d think this would be a time of soul-searching in the GOP.  Not so.  In fact, the Lincoln Club of Orange County, which is about as close as you can get to the eliminate-the-income-tax, stop-the-fluoridation-of-water far-right nutters in this entire country, is stamping its little feet over the fact that nobody likes their failed policies anymore.  They are calling for more completely unpopular ideas or they’ll withhold all their money.

(keep in mind when reading that this is Novakula, and as a GOP propagandist his view is skewed, but he has good sources inside the party.)

The Lincoln Club of Orange County is telling the GOP leaders of both the House and Senate that it is too late to repent. They must go — or else lose big money.

The message: “Come Nov. 5, should the current GOP leadership in either house survive to lead in a new Congress, the Lincoln Club of Orange County will review the financial backing of all congressional Republicans, and we urge others to do likewise. A GOP caucus that would re-elect such leaders is not one we would likely continue to support. Because, simply put, we refuse to support a permanent minority.”

The Lincoln Club estimates that its nearly 300 members will together contribute $1.5 million to federal causes and candidates in the 2008 election cycle. The club is spreading its message to angry Republicans throughout California and around the nation. The ultimatum finds responsive members of the House (if not the Senate), who even now are preparing a housecleaning after the additional loss of seats in this year’s election […]

That’s the view expressed in the Lincoln Club paper signed by Rich Wagner, the group’s president, and Chip Hanlon, a board member. It deplores the refusal by party leaders to support a one-year moratorium on earmarks, whose 285 percent growth when Congress was under Republican control is “the perfect symbol of the GOP-led profligacy that drives us crazy still.” Earmarks “epitomize the fiscal recklessness that led to Republicans becoming a minority in 2006. . . . It’s no wonder the Republican leadership continued to fail on . . . entitlement reform and a reduction in federal spending.”

They really do think, even at this late date, that their minority status is entirely attributable to federal earmarks which have almost no impact on the overall budget (try reducing military spending if you want to make a difference) and failing to eliminate Social Security or Medicare.  Nothing to do with a failed war in Iraq, skyrocketing costs for food, energy and health care, the crisis of climate change, our hated position in the world, growing inequality and the great risk shift onto the middle class, etc., etc., etc.

Here on Planet Earth, it’s amusing to see this crack-up between separate factions of the Birch Society crowd.  Some of the GOP establishment know that their policies are unpopular, and they hope to put some lipstick on them in presenting them to the public.  The rest, including the Lincoln Club, want their version of Gilded Age conservatism, disaster capitalism, denial of science and xenophobia to take center stage.

Conservative activists are preparing to do battle with allies of Sen. John McCain in advance of September’s Republican National Convention, hoping to prevent his views on global warming, immigration, stem cell research and campaign finance from becoming enshrined in the party’s official declaration of principles.

McCain has not yet signaled the changes he plans to make in the GOP platform, but many conservatives say they fear wholesale revisions could emerge as candidate McCain seeks to put his stamp on a document that currently reflects the policies and principles of President Bush.

In fact, Bush’s name is on 91 out of the 100 pages of the platform, which means the rewrite will be a knock-down drag-out fight between the really conservative and the really really conservative, with all the attendant ugliness on full display.  

It is to laugh.

A lot of people are talking today about Sen. Obama’s stance against Prop. 8; it’s a recommended diary on Daily Kos.  We had this on Calitics two days ago and nobody noticed.  The Sacramento Bee reports on it and suddenly it’s on everybody’s lips.

I don’t begrudge the Bee writing about the issue; it’s newsworthy, and the result of a letter read to the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, not some secret.  I’m glad they picked it up.  But I’m very disturbed by the fact that progressive media is not supported to the point of being ignored, but when a dead-tree source goes with the same information it becomes a top story.  I expect that out of the traditional media, but not the blogosphere.  There is no question that Brian was the first person anywhere to report on Sen. Obama’s letter to the club.  And I can tell you that I did at least some behind-the-scenes work to promote the scoop to progressive media and blogosphere leaders.  Didn’t work.

I don’t care that the Bee didn’t report that Calitics was the first source to break this; would have been nice, but not totally necessary.  But could bloggers at least note that we had this two days before the traditional media?  If we aren’t self-reinforcing we’re never going to get anywhere.

Despite the McCain campaign’s rhetoric about contesting the election here in California, he can’t really be interested in our 55 electoral votes if this is what he is bringing:

Republican Sen. John McCain said Monday he supports lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling – a position that sets him at odds with most California officials, including his ally Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who see the ban as the best way to protect the state’s coast.

The announcement was a move to the right for McCain, who has courted environmentalists by opposing drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and backing climate change legislation. But conservatives have been clamoring for more domestic oil and gas drilling, and GOP strategists believe the issue plays well with voters as gas prices hit record highs.

So, this is the straight-talk? This is the man that wants America to think him a “moderate” with “practical solutions.” First, John McCain panders to the voters with his 2008 gas tax holiday, which he really can’t do anything to implement except drop a bill in the Senate and watch it die there. By the way, even Dick Cheney finds that one asinine.

Now this? Drilling for oil off our coasts will bring relatively little oil and do nothing to actually affect the price of oil.  This is a demand problem. We need to find new ways to reduce our reliance on oil, not stall the inevitable by 3 or 4 years by scarring our oceans with derricks.

Do you think the GOP National Convention will give away the flip-flops this year now that their candidate has donned them so well?

UPDATE: I’m reminded that back in 2005, the Assembly and Senate approved a resolution supporting a continued moratorium with overwhelming support. Several Republicans supported that resolution too.

The former field director for Barack Obama’s campaign in California will become Missouri’s State Director.

Buffy Wicks will be the Missouri State Director. She helped to put together the campaign’s winning primary field teams and served as field director in California and deputy field director in Texas. (Marc Ambinder)

I happened to run into her in both California and Texas, and she seemed quite competent.  Missouri is currently a toss-up state for the presidential election, so it’s an important gig.

I’ve always thought that the repeated assertions by the McCain campaign that California is somehow in play, despite all polling to the contrary, was just bluster, an effort to get Democrats to throw money at a perceived problem, reminiscent of George Bush campaigning in the state in 2000 as a way to unnerve Al Gore.  And the Huffington Post has obtained a Power Point presentation from the McCain campaign that suggests this is exactly what they’re going to try.  This slide includes the states McCain thinks he can contest in November.

The fine print reads: “McCain’s unique appeal to independent voters creates opportunity in CA.”

Those must be the independent voters that have a 42/48 favorable/unfavorable rating of McCain, compared to 72/19 for Obama in the latest Field Poll.  The independents who preferred Obama by 30 points in the last LA Times poll.

This is a common trick by the Republicans, trying to bait Democrats into spending money here.  All I can say is, please, please, John McCain, come campaign in the Golden State early and often.  I’ll do the advance work for you.    And be sure you go up with a week or two of commercials at about $3 million per.  I can think of no better way for you to waste your money back up your bold statements about victory in California than to focus all your efforts on this electoral prize.

And while you’re at it, pay a little attention to your own home state of Arizona, which you acknolwedge might be a loss.