** CALI STEM CELL INSTITUTE TO AWARD FIRST GRANTS. California’s ground-breaking stem cell research institute, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the largest public stem cell venture in the country, will begin awarding research grants on Thursday and Friday at its oversight board meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area. Some 30 grants totaling $24 million are likely to be approved.
** GIULIANI SPEECH. Rudy Giuliani has a private speech in the San Diego area today. NWN hears that a certain East Coast newspaper is working on running down the amount and source of the fee, if any. Giuliani has reportedly regularly commanded $100,000 per speech.
** WHAT’S NEW WITH NEWSOM. You remember the MSM/blogosphere firestorm over San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s past brief affair with the wife of his now former campaign manager. Guess what’s new with that. Nothing much. Newsom is not resigning, not indicted, not sued, not withdrawing from his campaign, and is proceeding on as mayor. No one major has entered the race against him — he’s up for re-election this year — and his campaign headquarters opening last Sunday was jampacked with supporters and well-wishers. Shocking. Positively shocking …
On April 4th and 5th, there will be debates in New Hampshire for both the Democratic and Republican candidates. On February 21st, there will be a Democratic presidential forum in Nevada.
** NEW CALI REPUBLICAN CHAIRMAN. New California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring conferenced with political reporters this morning. While he acknowledged that some conservative activists and delegates are less than pleased with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he says he looks forward to working with the governor, who is expected to provide the heavy fundraising muscle the party needs to get out of an election year debt.
The 36-year old Nehring, for the past several years chairman of the San Diego County Republicans, has a background himself as a conservative activist, having worked with Washington conservative fixture Grover Norquist. But in his interactions with journalists this morning, he emphasized his technocratic side rather than ideological side. Since the chairmanship is a voluntary yet extremely time consuming position, Nehring has opened up a private consulting firm called Nehring Strategies. He won’t do campaign work, so as to avoid a conflict of interest, but will provide the usual sort of counsel to businesses and groups.
No word yet on the party sponsoring presidential candidate forums and debates, as Nehring says he is getting up and running. The Reagan Library will sponsor the first debate of Republican presidential candidates, on May 3rd.
** NOT SO SURE THE IRANIAN GOVERNMENT IS BEHIND IT. President Bush was not nearly so sure as the official military briefers a few days ago that the Iranian government per se is behind Iranian meddling in Iraq.
** NEW PRESIDENT OF TURKMENISTAN. The Central Asian natural gas power of Turkmenistan has elected a new president to replace its late president-for-life. The winner was the acting president, who has a close relationship with Russia. Turkmenistan used to be part of the Soviet Union. The winner had nearly 90% of the vote, an election with a 99% voter turnout. Russia, as noted here many times, is reasserting itself as a great power. Especially in “the near abroad” as core parts of the late Soviet empire are known.
** WOOD CHIPS AND WINDMILLS. Bush just talked again about using woodchips to make ethanol. I remember when Jerry Brown began talking about this stuff a few decades ago.
** BUSH PRESS CONFERENCE. As Congress debates an anti-Iraq surge resolution expected to attract significant Republican support, President George W. Bush is about to hold a presss conference. He’ll talk about Iraq, of course, and charges that Iran is supplying special explosive charges in Iraq. It seems the administration will back away from the brink of direct charges against the Iranian government. He’ll also talk about the nuclear dear with North Korea, which seems no better than the one that President Bill Clinton got, which the Hermit Kingdom proceeded to violate.
Meanwhile, the US military, after first denying it, has just admitted that that Marine helicopter that went down last week was shot out of the sky.
Rudy Giuliani talks about climate change and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth
on his successful Golden State tour.
Rudy Giuliani is wrapping up his opening California campaign swing today with the state Senate having just passed the early presidential primary bill and more top presidential contenders like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and John McCain heading this way. Let’s assess the first big campaign trip in the new reality of the California primary.
Notwithstanding his 9/11 celebrity, Giuliani doesn’t move around with a big entourage. When he arrives somewhere, he tends to simply walk quickly into the room without any particular fanfare.
The former New York mayor and federal prosecutor appears to be pretty comfortable on the trail and relaxed in front of crowds. He’s quick on his feet, thinks in terms of the broad sweep of history as well as more down to earth terms, and has a sense of humor.
His policy platform, if you will, is still emerging. Which is to say that at the moment, it’s quite vague.
His speeches tend to the discursive. Which makes sense given what he’s been doing since leaving office. He’s a high-priced corporate consultant and rainmaking lawyer who gives speeches for very big money.
You want to give your customers their money’s worth, which means go long.
But running for president, you have to focus more, edit it down, sharpen it.
In his two major public speeches of the tour, keynoting the California Republican Party convention and addressing Silicon Valley’s Churchill Club, Giuliani had the crowds in the palm of his hand. They were eager to hear his talk of a long war on terror. In a third talk yesterday morning, at the opening of the World Ag Expo in rural Tulare, Giuliani also spoke of the Terror War, along with the importance of agriculture. A respectfully amusing AP report noted that he was in his standard big city mayor garb of black suit and loafers, not exactly fitting in with the Central Valley culture.
Although Giuliani arrived last Friday — he has a private speech and a private fundraiser in the San Diego area — he hasn’t been out and about much in public. He had a heavy schedule of private fundraising and meet-and-greets, along with some down time in the San Francisco Bay Area. His public events were mostly in controlled venues and press access was limited.
This may be because it’s a maiden voyage for a figure in transition to a full-fledged presidential candidacy. Or it may be how they want to conduct the campaign.
In any event, Giuliani got very favorable media coverage in California, where he leads the Republican presidential field in private polls. California, as he made clear — coming as it almost certainly will after Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina (unlike the Democrats, the Republicans have not moved Nevada to the front of the pack) — will be key to his bid to win the Republican presidential nomination.
He has a powerful friendly face in his old friend, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose campaign communications director Katie Levinson is now Giuliani’s communications director. Schwarzenegger is also friendly with John McCain, who has Schwarzenegger’s campaign manager Steve Schmidt as senior advisor and former rapid response chief Matt David as deputy communications director.
During his hour-long meeting last Friday night with Schwarzenegger, Giuliani was advised to talk about climate change in California, which he has done.
Giuliani met privately with state Assembly Republicans, who tend to be much more conservative, coming from carefully gerrymandered districts. Reports are that it nonetheless went mostly well. Although there was a classic moment when an Orange County assemblyman — staunchly anti-gun control — told Giuliani, who cites gun control as key element in New York crime fighting, that the late dictator Francisco Franco had done the same in Spain. And so it goes.
This apparent Al Qaeda video purportedly shows the shootdown of a
U.S. Marine helicopter over Iraq.
** DREIER BACKS GIULIANI. Southern California Congressman David Dreier has endorsed Rudy Giuliani for President. The Inland Empire Republican was chairman of the House Rules Committee when the Republicans had their House majority and remains the ranking Republican on the committee. He chaired Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team after Schwarzenegger was elected in the 2003 California recall election.
** WESTLY JOINS NEW TECH BOARDS. Former California state Controller Steve Westly, the ex-eBay honcho who now runs his venture capital firm the Westly Group out of the Kleiner Perkins shop in Silicon Valley, tells NWN that he has just joined the boards of two very promising technology firms. San Carlos-based Tesla is an electric car company that wowed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and others at the LA Auto Show with a stylish sports car that goes from zero to 60 miles per hour in four seconds. In other words, faster than a Porsche, Jaguar, or Aston Martin. Westly says the company has “stunning battery technology with a 250-mile range.” The pricey sports car is to create a halo effect; a $45,000 model is int he works. The cost of running the car is much less than a gasoline-powered model. Westly has also joined the board of Ultra, a Los Angeles-based alternative fuels company. That firm’s aim is to creat ethanol not from expensive corn but from agricultural byproducts. Westly is also a big backer of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as California co-chairman.
** CALIFORNIA SENATE PASSES ANTI-IRAQ “SURGE” RESOLUTION. The state Senate also passed an anti-surge resolution, on a party-line 22-14 vote.
** EARLY CALIFORNIA PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY BILL PASSES STATE SENATE. SB 113 by Senator Ron Calderon easily passed in the California Senate today on a 31-5 vote. The bill would move the California presidential primary election from June 2008 to next February 5th. The regular state primary election would remain in June. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
** CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY SPEAKER FAST TRACKS EARLY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY BILL. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez said at lunch today that he expected to get the early presidential primary bill shortly from the state Senate and that it will be “on the governor’s desk in 10 days.”
** NEVADA PRESIDENTIAL FORUM SHAPES UP. All the major Democratic presidential candidates, including frontrunning Senator Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards, will take part in next week’s first-in-the-nation forum, with the exception of Senator Barack Obama. ABC News commentator and talk show host George Stephanopoulos will moderate the Carson City event on February 21st.
Mitt Romney salvaged what became the successful Winter Olympics near Salt Lake City. As the Republican governor of liberal Massachusetts, he was a fairly moderate figure, embracing relatively liberal positions on abortion and gay rights and pushing a comprehensive health care program. As a presidential candidate, he seeks the support of the right. This sets up an interesting balancing act, to say the least, for the mediagenic Romney, who starts off a fairly distant third or fourth behind John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. He’s fourth if you include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who might run, in the mix.
** EARLY CALIFORNIA PRIMARY UP FOR VOTE. The California state Senate will vote today on moving the California presidential primary to February 5th.
** CONGRESSIONAL IRAQ DEBATE BEGINS. The debate in the US House of Representatives on Iraq and the new “surge” policy is underway today.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the moderate Republican who leads in a number of early polls for president of the United States, began the process of fleshing out his platform yesterday in Silicon Valley. His well received if discursive address to the California Republican Party convention on Saturday started getting honed down into a usable political document in an address to the Churchill Club at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.
This is the phase of a campaign in which a candidacy develops, or does not develop, its themes. The candidate presents his or her concept of the campaign. The policy details emerge over time, but we get a sense of how the candidate engages the questions of the day and what he or she views as important. And, yes, there will be plenty of time for gotcha.
Giuliani begins with the promise of an intellectually intriguing candidacy. In what may well be the most important presidential election since America was at the height of the Cold War, Giuliani, famed for showing leadership in the crucible of 9/11, began yesterday to flush out a candidacy that engages not one but two epic challenges to America’s future: the Terror War and climate change.
In his remarks to a rapt Silicon Valley audience, Giuliani recounted his experience as New York’s mayor on the day and night of the Islamist jihadist attacks of 9/11. We’ve all seen the video of the airliners crashing into the World Trade Center, and are very familiar from newscasts and now movies with the immediate aftermath. Giuliani recounted some of his own experience of that day, and what we have not seen, his ending that most traumatic of days at home reading a few chapters of a book on his nightstand, the latest biography of Winston Churchill.
It was the example of Churchill, rallying his country through the dark days of the Battle of Britain, says Giuliani, that inspired him in the immediate aftermath of the worst terrorist attacks to date on the United States. And it was Churchill who — in his “Sinews of Peace” address in Missouri in 1946 — presciently alerted the free world to what was to become the defining challenge of the next 45 years of American history. Interestingly enough, Churchill was condemned by many as a warmonger for identifying what he called an “Iron Curtain” between free world and communist world.
Giuliani sees the Cold War, rather than World War II or the Vietnam War, as the appropriate metaphor for what he calls “a decades long, actually, for the rest of our lives” struggle against Islamist jihadist terrorism.
World War II was, of course, the ultimate conventional war, main force on force, no nuclear weapons until the end, with terrorism as we know it a minor component. Vietnam, in Giuliani’s view, was “a battle” — or, more properly, a campaign — in the larger Cold War between the US, Britain, and its alllies, and the Soviet Union and its allies.
As Giuliani notes, there is a Cold War continuum from Churchill, who correctly identified the coming Cold War, and Ronald Reagan, who in many respects ended the Cold War in victory for America and its allies. “Reagan,” he says, “spent and manipulated the Soviet Union into oblivion.”
Giuliani sees a not dissimilar situation with respect to Islamic jihadism. Though the threat is more diffuse and more cultural, in his view, it is nonetheless similar in that it must be confronted in both a muscular fashion and a sophisticated fashion.
Europe, he says, decided more than 30 years ago after the murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics to “play defense against terrorism.” A critical mistake. “America must play offense against terrorism,” Giuliani says. The former New York mayor says he will always engage America’s historic friends in Europe, noting that he has “been to Europe 40 or 50 times in the last five years.” But when necessary, he says, America should proceed as it must.
Part of the confrontation with Islamic jihadism involves selling America around the world. Giuliani sees the idea of America as both powerful and undermarketed. He notes that “terrorism flourishes where technology and the Internet are not prevalent.” And he sees the technology emerging from California as key to transforming the world.
“Terrorism flourishes in places that are not plugged in,” says Giuliani, referring to the global web of the Internet. He says that all the world must become connected, using technology largely developed in America, an idea not unpopular, as you might suppose, with his Silicon Valley audience. He further notes the westernization of Dubai, which he says is the most “plugged in” of Islamic states.
He also sees change within America as key. His friend, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who he calls “one of the most progressive and important leaders” of the time, impressed his climate change agenda upon him in their private meeting last Friday night. Giuliani is embracing that message, not just to improve the environment, but to improve national security.
The greenhouse effect, says Giuliani, is real. And embracing the new phenomenon of “greentech,” now a major focus of Silicon Valley innovation, is key to combating climate change. That, he says, requires governmental action. Most people are “concerned when the price of gasoline is high,” he notes, but when it goes down is when it is important for government to continue development.
Only by diversifying America’s energy resources, by developing renewable energy sources and a new generation of nuclear power to generate electric power and new biofuels for vehicles such as ethanol, says Giuliani, can America gain a measure of energy independence.
While he does not talk about a specific link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, among other entities, he notes a “community of interest” among those in the Islamic world who have made themselves enemies of America.
In that regard, he notes that Iran, under its current leadership, should be flourishing economically, awash in oil revenues. Yet it is not. Because, in his view, it is funding Hezbollah and other terrorist groups rather than spreading its oil wealth among its people.
The former federal prosecutor made it clear that California is crucial to his presidential hopes. He wholeheartedly endorses the all-but-certain move of the California presidential primary to February 5th of next year. Victory in California would counteract any early stumble in Iowa or New Hampshire, where he is locked in tight contests in early polling with Senator John McCain. It would also more than counteract a defeat in South Carolina. The Golden State is absolutely key to Giuliani’s success. If he wins here, he could be on his way. If he loses, it will not be at all easy for him to win the Republican presidential nomination.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani got a strong response over the weekend
at the California Republican Party convention.
An interesting weekend for California Republicans gathered in convention in Sacramento. They gave a tepid reception to moderate Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and a rousing reception to moderate presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. Then turned around and elected a very conservative party leadership.
Former New York Mayor Giuliani turned in an impressive performance in his luncheon keynote address Saturday. There in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park, Schwarzenegger’s state capital residence, as it happens, Giuliani received a much more rousing response than did Schwarzenegger Friday night at the convention’s opening banquet. Giuliani’s roughly 45-minute address was interrupted several times by standing ovations.
Giuliani did not formally declare his candidacy for president, a prevalent rumor beforehand, but made it obvious that he has every intention of running, joking after that perhaps he had actually announced, but would wait for the standard routine of announcing “in five places.” In fact, he is on a campaign swing though the Golden State that began last night with a fundraiser and private meetings and continues through Tuesday.
As a speaker, Giuliani is in transition from the high-dollar motivational speaker he became after his heroics on and after 9/11 and a full-throttle candidate for the presidency. His speech isn’t a stump speech yet, and is far too long for one — though the crowd of California convention delegates certainly didn’t mind — but it is clear that he has the makings of powerful themes. And that he is a very good performer behind the microphone.
While he dealt with a number of issues, including education reform, welfare reform, tax reform, crime, and the need to extend health care coverage, and did not not dwell on his moderate to liberal views on social issues, Giuliani made it clear that he sees the war on terror as the overarching issue of the election and of America’s future.
Giuliani said it is key to stabilize the situation in Iraq lest the strife-torn nation become a future haven for terrorists. He urged patience for the Bush administration’s new “surge” strategy and ridiculed weeks spent on fine-tuning non-binding resolutions against the move as completely unproductive.
Giuliani likened the war on terror to the Cold War as a long-term struggle requiring resolve and judgment and a more effective job of selling the idea of America to the world. In doing all that, he invoked the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Which is never a bad thing with the mostly very conservative delegates to this convention.
But while many Republicans in attendance, like veteran consultant-turned-California Target Book publisher Allen Hoffenblum, who called Giuliani’s performance “masterful, the work of the best Republican candidate available, one who can win,” not all were enthralled. New West friend Karen Hanretty, the frequent Fox News commentator and former California Republican communications director, acknowledged the 9/11 figure’s appeal to Republicans hungry for some hope at the national level but on her blog was not a huge fan.
“His speech, however, did not embrace all that he has to offer,” she said. “It was disconnected and at times uncomfortable. He does not speak of what it means to be a Republican with any sense of natural ease. For all his emphasis today about the war on terror, a theme he repeatedly went back to either because it’s a theme he’s most comfortable with or because he thinks it offers the audience the red meat they crave – I found it particularly interesting that he didn’t once reference radical Islam or in any way identify America’s enemy in the war on terror other than with the generic term, “terrorists.”
While Schwarzenegger’s relationship with the much more conservative activist delegates of his party dominated Friday, and Giuliani’s prospective presidential candidacy dominated Saturday, much more went on at the California Republican Party convention.
A familiar figure here, conservative Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman, was easily elected Southern California vice chairman of the Republican Party, defeating his challenger by two to one. Congratulations to Jon.
The much more contentious race for statewide vice chair of the party, key because that individual usually succeeds to the state party chairmanship four years hence, degenerated into a brawl.
One candidate dropped out, saying she feared that another candidate was about to release messy details of her divorce and child custody battle. That candidate denied any such intention, but in turn was dealing with the revelation of his drunk driving problem. He also suffered the indignity of having his lawsuit to disqualify former Governor Jerry Brown from being state attorney general unceremoniously tossed out of court by an Armenian Republican judge appointed by Brown’s Republican successor as governor, George Deukmejian. Meanwhile, a third candidate enjoyed the spectacle and hoped to be its beneficiary. There’s no business like show business.
Ultimately, of course, Republicans got a winner in that nasty race. It is the party chair of Contra Costa County, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Tom Del Baccaro made much of his lawsuit to disqualify Brown, the former two-term governor of California, two-time Democratic presidential runner-up, two-term mayor of Oakland, and Yale Law School grad from serving as California’s newly elected attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement officer.
A Republican judge, as predicted, swatted the suit aside on Friday. It was originally dreamed up, as reported here last fall, as a last ditch bid to stave off the landslide defeat of the Republican nominee, former state Senator Chuck Poochigian. The court tossed the case aside then, only to have it come back, after the law firm handling the case quit, in amended form just before the state Republican convention.
Although the new state party chairman, elected unanimously on Friday, San Diego’s Ron Nehring, a veteran operative for conservative Washington fixture Grover Norquist, is also quite conservative — replacing moderate Silicon Valley attorney Duf Sundheim, who worked very well with Schwarzenegger — the convention continued in the somewhat schizy manner suggested by its relative embrace of Rudy Giuliani.
Despite much grumbling about the “socialistic” nature of Schwarzenegger’s comprehensive health care proposal, nothing much came of it. Two moves to formally criticize the effort failed in the party’s resolutions committee. For lack of a quorum. “Talking a walk” is a time-honored way to kill a parliamentary move without attaching one’s name to the warrant.
It’s also an exercise in realpolitik. Schwarzenegger is very popular with Republican voters, who across the state are significantly less conservative than these delegates. He is also a very powerful fundraising draw. The party needs him.
Senator Barack Obama, from his keynote address to the 2004 Democratic
National Convention.
** JERRY BROWN MAY BE GRINNING. California’s Republicans have a winner in their hotly contested, surprisingly nasty race for state vice chair of the Republican Party. It is the party chair of Contra Costa County, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Del Beccaro made much of his lawsuit to disqualify Brown, the former two-term governor of California, two-time Democratic presidential runner-up, two-term mayor of Oakland, and Yale Law School grad from serving as California’s newly elected attorney general, the state’s top law enforcement officer. A Republican judge, as predicted, swatted the suit aside on Friday. It was originally dreamed up, as reported here last fall, as a last ditch bid to stave off the landslide defeat of the Republican nominee, former state Senator Chuck Poochigian. The court tossed the case aside then, only to have it come back, after the law firm handling the case quit, in amended form just before the state Republican convention.
A pair of resolutions aimed against Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comprehensive health care proposal failed in the party resolutions committee for lack of a quorum. The party is heavily reliant on Schwarzenegger for its fundraising.
** NOT ALL ENTHRALLED WITH RUDY. New West friend Karen Hanretty, the frequent Fox News commentator and former California Republican communications director, acknowledges the 9/11 figure’s appeal to Republicans hungry for some hope at the national level but on her blog was not all that enthralled.“His speech, however, did not embrace all that he has to offer. It was disconnected and at times uncomfortable. He does not speak of what it means to be a Republican with any sense of natural ease.
For all his emphasis today about the war on terror, a theme he repeatedly went back to either because it’s a theme he’s most comfortable with or because he thinks it offers the audience the red meat they crave – I found it particularly interesting that he didn’t once reference radical Islam or in any way identify America’s enemy in the war on terror other than with the generic term, “terrorists.”
** STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Two unusual guests, say very reliable sources, at Friday’s Rudy Giuliani for President fundraiser at the Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento. A pair of famous Democrats, California First Lady Maria Shriver and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.
Nunez deputy chief of staff Steve Maviglio, apparently busy blogging on a Friday night, took till late Saturday morning to get back to NWN, and didn’t think it had happened. Actually, Shriver and Nunez were at an event nearby and decided to go see the Republican presidential co-frontrunner. Giuliani later met for an hour with Shriver’s husband, an old friend of the New Yorker, post-partisan Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
** OBAMAMANIA: IT’S OFFICIAL. Senator Barack Obama formally announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday morning at the historic old state capitol of Illinois in Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln honed his political craft before becoming president. I watched the announcement before heading down again to the California Republican Party convention.
Obama is a powerful speaker with more than a little electricity to his presence. The speech was very high-flown and thematic. The allusions to Lincoln, which in turns alludes to his own ethnicity, were clearcut, as was the consistent undercurrent of the “new generation of leadership” theme of Gary Hart, who as a challenger in 1984 had not benefited from the wave of adoring media on which Obama has been raised aloft.
Obama’s campaign begins with great advantages, as well as great challenges. He is a very intelligent candidate, a graceful writer, with an intriguing life story. His rather exotic ethnic background, and especially his African heritage, is a dual-edged sword in the end, but affords him a certain cover with most of the media. Which does not mean that a candidate of biography will not now undergo a scrutiny of that biography, from press and opponents and others in the new media.
And while every campaign has a sequence, his broad thematic approach will have to be fleshed out in the not terribly distant future with hard and fast ideas. At times yesterday, Obama seemed to eschew policy.
“What’s stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What’s stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics — the ease with which we’re distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle big problems.”
A presidential candidate with scant national experience — just over two years ago, Obama was still a state legislator — and a thin portfolio of policy ideas will not pass muster in the end as a potential president. But he has some time, although the acceleration of the presidential campaign — so much for my idea I might get at least a few months of what used to be an off-election year — means that that time will be relatively short.
In addition to the right, which is already beginning to snipe at him — remember the ridiculous story that he was schooled by radical Muslims, which Fox News ran with to its immense discredit — there are his Democratic primary rivals, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Obama is already distinguishing himself from them on the Iraq War. They voted for it. He was still a state senator then, but spoke against it in 2002, before it began, somewhat presciently predicting that the occupation would be highly problematic.
** CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN DOINGS. While Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s relationship with the much more conservative activist delegates of his party dominated Friday, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s prospective presidential candidacy dominated Saturday, much more has been going on at the California Republican Party convention.
A familiar figure here, Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman, was easily elected Southern California vice chairman of the Republican Party, defeating his challenger by two to one. Congratulations to Jon.
The much more contentious race for statewide vice chair of the party, key because that individual usually succeeds to the state party chairmanship four years hence, degenerated into a brawl.
One candidate dropped out, saying she feared that another candidate was about to release messy details of her divorce and child custody battle. That candidate denied any such intention, but in turn was dealing with the revelation of his drunk driving problem. He also suffered the indignity of having his lawsuit to disqualify former Governor Jerry Brown from being state attorney general unceremoniously tossed out of court by an Armenian Republican judge appointed by Brown’s Republican successor as governor, George Deukmejian.
Meanwhile, a third candidate enjoyed the spectacle and hoped to be its beneficiary. There’s no business like show business.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned in an impressive performance in his luncheon keynote address today at the California Republican Party convention in Sacramento. There in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state capital residence, as it happens, Giuliani received a much more rousing response than did Schwarzenegger last night at the convention’s opening banquet. Giuliani’s roughly 45-minute address was interrupted several times by standing ovations.
Giuliani did not formally declare his candidacy for president, a prevalent rumor beforehand, but made it obvious that he has every intention of running. In fact, he is on a campaign swing though the Golden State that began last night with a fundraiser and private meetings and continues through Tuesday.
As a speaker, Giuliani is in transition from the high-dollar motivational speaker he became after his heroics on and after 9/11 and a full-throttle candidate for the presidency. His speech isn’t a stump speech yet, and is far too long for one — though the crowd of California convention delegates certainly didn’t mind — but it is clear that he has the makings of powerful themes. And that he is a very good performer behind the microphone.
While he dealt with a number of issues, including education reform, welfare reform, tax reform, crime, and the need to extend health care coverage, and did not not dwell on his moderate to liberal views on social issues, he made it clear that he sees the war on terror as the overarching issue of the election and of America’s future … More on PJ Media, with more to follow, including video.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger addresses last night’s banquet at
the California Republican Party Convention in this NWN video.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke last night at the California Republican Party convention in Sacramento. Five weeks after his “post-partisan” second inaugural address, the former action superstar was politely if tepidly received by the mostly conservative activists and politicians attending the dinner honoring outgoing state party chairman Duf Sundheim.
The lukewarm response from a crowd chock full of hyperpartisans might presage today’s appearance by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a fellow social moderate to liberal with whom Schwarzenegger later met for an hour in his suite upstairs at the Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park, his state capital residence. Or it may not. Giuliani, an all but announced candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is likely to remind convention delegates of 9/11 and talk about the Iraq War, although some conservative delegates oppose the new Bush policy there as well. Schwarzenegger actually gave the audience last night relatively little red meat.
Schwarzenegger called himself “a proud Republican” in the vein of being “A proud member of the party of Abraham Lincoln and the values of everyone having an equal opportunity to reach the American dream. A proud member of the party of Teddy Roosevelt and the values of protecting the environment and our economy. And a proud member of the party of Ronald Reagan and the values of individual responsibility and personal freedom.”
The many times Mr. Universe ran through what he sees as the accomplishments of his administration — a growing economy, greatly improved budget situation, keeping a lid on taxes. And his massive infrastructure bonds plan worked out with Democratic legislative leaders that passed last November after drawing heavy fire from the Republican right. But it was only when he talked about his plan to help alleviate the prison overcrowding crisis by sending some prisoners out of state that he brought the crowd roaring to life.
“Some people say we shouldn’t send prisoners out of state involuntarily,” Schwarzenegger said with anticipation. “They say we need their consent. They didn’t get consent when they robbed someone. They didn’t get consent when they raped someone. They didn’t get consent when they kidnapped someone. They didn’t get consent when they murdered some innocent victim. So let me tell you we will continue to send inmates out of state if they volunteer or not.”
Intriguingly, Schwarzenegger then segued into a pitch for his comprehensive health care plan, which includes employer mandates to offer health insurance or pay into an insurance pool. Which Schwarzenegger didn’t mention directly, instead pledging to bring down what he calls the “hidden tax” of unreimbursed care to the uninsured. He reminded the audience that over 70% of Californians say they favor his approach in a recent poll, along with a big majority of Republicans. Nevertheless, conservative activists hope to pass a convention resolution this weekend against the governor’s plan.
Then he went into the environment, discussing his fight against greenhouse gas emissions and his pleasure about winning a half billion dollar grant from BP, the former British Petroleum, to establish the first biofuels and alternative fuels research institute at the University of California at Berkeley.
To be sure, not the normal fare for these conventions.
But Schwarzenegger accomplished his objective. He survived. There were no boos, no catcalls, no demonstrations, and not much news.
In addition to hearing from Giuliani at a much anticipated luncheon address today, delegates are electing state party officers and adopting policy resolutions this weekend. Some of the internal politicking has gotten nasty and personal.
Yesterday, the party elected its new chairman, in an uncontested election. He is Ron Nehring, a conservative veteran of work for Beltway fixture Grover Norquist. The new chairman is more conservative than outgoing chairman Duf Sundheim, a Silicon Valley lawyer who formed a good working relationship with Schwarzenegger and the Team Arnold crew. That will be an interesting dynamic to watch.
Senator Barack Obama, announcing his presidential candidacy tomorrow in
Lincolnesque Springfield, Illinois, will be the only major Democrat to skip the Nevada
forum on February 21st. Here’s his appearance on Monday Night Football.
** JERRY BROWN RETAINS HIS OFFICE AS CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL. In what can only be described as a stunning development, Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former two-term governor of California and two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination, will remain California’s attorney general.
A state superior court judge this afternoon in Sacramento swiftly dismissed the suit to disqualify Brown from holding office. The judge, incidentally, is a registered Republican appointed by former Governor George Deukmejian.
Incidentally, I was being ironic in the second sentence of this item. Before anyone writes in.
** WESTLY AND OBAMA. With an early California presidential primary looming large, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Westly, the ex-eBay honcho and former California state controller who ran a near miss race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination last year, will be state co-chairman for Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Westly, as he and I discussed earlier this week, will be a spokesman for Obama doings in the Golden State. He’s already helping raise money for the celebrity Illinois senator, who announces his candidacy formally tomorrow in the historic state capital of Springfield, Illinois, former stomping grounds of Abraham Lincoln.
Obama will then venture to Iowa for a quick tour of the first-in-the-nation caucus state before returning to Illinois for a big rally in Chicago on Sunday afternoon. Then he goes to New Hampshire for a campaign tour on Monday.
** HEADING RIGHTWARD. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s losing running mate for lieutenant governor, conservative state Senator Tom McClintock, so upset that he won’t attend Schwarzenegger’s California Republican Convention banquet speech tonight, is setting up a new political action committee to push conservative causes. He discusses the move on the Flash Report.
** REPUBLICAN ACTIVISTS TRY AGAIN TO DISQUALIFY JERRY BROWN. As I reported a while back, the law firm representing a Republican Party activist seeking to show that former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown is not qualified to hold the office because he became an inactive member of the California Bar to save on membership fees while he was unable to practice as Oakland’s mayor in any event dropped the case. That left the activist, Tom DelBeccaro, the Contra Costa County Republican Chairman, as his own lawyer.
The case is up today in Sacramento Superior Court, coincidentally while DeBeccaro is seeking the state vice chairmanship of the Republican Party. He has gotten a former state Republican chairman, Orange County conservative Mike Schroeder, to argue the case this afternoon. It won’t take much of anyone’s time. As I reported when I revealed the suit last fall, when it was part of Republican nominee Chuck Poochigian’s last ditch effort to stave off the landslide defeat he had coming, it goes nowhere. Just as it did then.
** OBAMA SKIPS FIRST NEVADA PRESIDENTIAL FORUM. Senator Barack Obama, perhaps the most hyped of all the presidential candidates, will be the only major Democratic contender to skip the first Nevada presidential forum, in Carson City on February 21st. Obama cites the press of senatorial business as a reason. Actually, the Senate is not in session that week. And Obama will be at the Beverly Hilton the night before for a Hollywood fundraiser. To say that he is playing into the Clintons’ hands is to state the obvious.
** WARMEST JANUARY ON RECORD.Last month was the warmest January on record, say Japanese meteorologists. So much for the simplistic carpings of diehard greenhouse deniers who mention that it is raining or snowing wherever they happen to be. Or wherever they happen to notice in their latest vain attempt to deny what is going on.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are up to $58 to $59 per barrel. They briefly breached the $60 per barrel level after an accident yesterday at California’s Elk Hills field.
U.S. Army helicopter operations get a rah-rah video promotional treatment.
(That’s AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”) The aircraft, however, are proving to be freshly
vulnerable in Iraq, with five shot down in the past three weeks.
** CALI REPUBLICANS MOVING RIGHT AS ARNOLD MOVES CENTER AND CENTER/LEFT? That is what NWN is looking into over the next few days in a series of in person conversations with key Republican players. Along with the nascent Rudy Giuliani for President campaign.
Iran just reported the successful test of a land to sea cruise missile with a range of over 200 miles. This would theoretically threaten US carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf, although current American anti-missile technology should be able to handle it..
Khamenei also derided Internet tales of his death, generated by the false “breaking news report” of his death over a month ago by neoconservative pundit and blogger Michael Ledeen. “Enemies of the Islamic system,” declared the very much undead ayatollah, “spread rumors about my health to weaken morale of the Iranian nation for a short term, but they did not know that they are not dealing with only one person in Iran. They are facing a nation.”
** ANNA NICOLE SMITH DEAD. In an absolutely stunning development, my future ex-wife, Anna Nicole Smith, suddenly died after unexpectedly collapsing earlier today at one of those generic Hard Rock Cafe/Hotel/Casino operations, an early variant of the Planet Hollywood scene once owned by various celebs including California’s governor, in Florida. I never met the 14 years past Playboy Playmate of the Year — a longtime stalwart of the utterly indespensable E! TV — but felt it was destiny, given her ultimate victory a few months ago over other heirs of her late 97-year old Texas oil magnate husband whose billion-dollar estate was in probate throughout the entire presidency to date of George W. Bush, her fellow Texan. Ah, it was not to be, cherie. Bonus points to the reader who identifies which movie that line comes from.
** GIULIANI ANNOUNCES MICHIGAN CAMPAIGN CHAIR. Rudy Giuliani’s exploratory committee hosted a conference call this morning with the former New York mayor’s pick to head up his effort in Michigan, Congresswoman Candice Miller. Michigan was a big presidential primary win for John McCain over George W. Bush in 2000, and the senator retains a strong organization there. But Miller expressed confidence about Giuliani’s prospects in what could be a pivotal Midwestern contest.
Miller hails from Macomb County, coming out of local government, having been county treasurer in the early ’90s. Macomb County is sometimes referred to as the home of the Reagan Democrats, and Miller expressed confidence that Giuliani would do well with such swing voters. And with more socially conservative voters such as herself. Prior to her election to Congress in 2002, Miller served two terms as Michigan Secretary of State, winning re-election by a state record margin.
Her bottomline reason for picking Giuliani, she said, is that she agrees with conservative commentator George Will, that Giuliani would be the best president in a fast-breaking national security crisis. The announcement of Miller’s appointment comes in advance of this weekend’s Michigan Republican Convention. McCain forces are expected to be strong there, but notwithstanding McCain’s primary win in 2000, Giuliani led him in an American Research Group poll last month.
Putin met yesterday in Moscow with the special envoy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and expressed confidence that the nuclear crisis will be successfully and peacefully resolved; he says without Iran gaining nuclear weapons.
** HELOS DOWN. Five American helicopters have been shot down in Iraq in the past three weeks, a dramatic acceleration in successful attacks against what has become — given the lethal effectiveness of bomb attacks against ground vehicles — the fastest and most efficient way to move men and materiel around the strife-torn country. Four of the downed craft belonged to the Army, one to the Marines.
While three of the doomed helicopters were transport craft, two Blackhawks and a Sea Knight, according to sources, two were Apache gunships.
What accounts for this alarming development? Some darkly intimate that Iran is behind it, providing more advanced weapons to knock the craft out of the sky. But two of the five downed helicopters were shot down by machine guns, not missiles, both of which are freely available on global arms markets. A third was hit by by a missile and brought down by machine gun fire. And a fourth that was brought down, one of the Apache gunships, was destroyed after the pilot’s wing man was forced to return to base after taking heavy machine gun fire. The doomed helo engaged the source of the gunfire and was brought down with a heat-seeking missile.
No matter how fast, maneuverable, or armored, helicopters are inherently vulnerable aircraft. They have a much higher rate of accidents than fixed wing aircraft. The dramatically increased tempo of attacks clearly seems timed to coincide with the new “surge” strategy in Iraq. Helicopters will be key to providing mobility and firepower support to the new units on the ground. Demonstrating this dramatically increased vulnerability for US forces in Iraq increases the level of uncertainty for new operations.
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