A Schwarzenegger hangover saved California Democrats from a wipeout as the Tea Party wave washed harmlessly up the High Sierra’s eastern slope.  Democrats won eight of nine statewide offices, with the race for attorney general looking more Republican as the late ballots get tallied.  Democrats also racked up their largest State Assembly majority since the Watergate blowout year of 1974 (52 seats of 80).  And, the passage of union-sponsored Prop. 25 allows Democrats to enact a budget with a simple majority vote.  But for visual confirmation of this election’s connection to the failed “Republican” governor, one need only look at governor-elect Jerry Brown’s ad showing Arnold Schwarzenegger side-by-side with Meg Whitman uttering the same platitudinous inanities we’ve come to expect from self-funded dilettantes who neither have the time to vote nor the inclination to first seek a lesser office so as to gain political experience.

It isn’t hard to see where things went awry in California: just look back to the heady years of the historic 2003 recall of Gray Davis.  Davis was swept out of office due a massive deficit brought on by his rapid expansion of state government during the dot com economy combined with his mishandling of the state’s electricity crisis.  Candidate Schwarzenegger won on a platform of “blowing up the boxes” of bureaucracy while “cutting up” the state’s “credit cards” – Schwarzenegger did neither.  Instead, he gave California seven years of uneven leadership, veering from the right to the left while calling his erratic leadership “post-partisanship.” Schwarzenegger pushed through the largest state tax increase in U.S. history, expanded government spending, debt and regulatory hurdles while shrinking the sphere of liberty – curious actions for a self-avowed fan of the late Milton Friedman.  Schwarzenegger’s voter approval rating hit 22 percent this summer, matching Gray Davis’ recall-eve rating – something Davis, if he wishes to indulge in schadenfreude, might see as poetic symmetry.

While the Democrats had a great election night in the Golden State, there are some signs of hope for the majority of Californians who don’t take their ideological cues from San Francisco.

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With less than 24 hours until polls open in most of the United States, the media seems to have taken on the role of the young boy with his finger in the dike, doing their best to plug leaks that will hurt incumbent and liberal Democrat candidates so that voters will not have critical information to help them decide how to vote.

The media would have you believe that in California, former Governor Jerry Brown has already won with poll reports showing Meg Whitman trailing and Barbara Boxer surging to a low single digit lead over Carly Fiorina. Sources associated with the Whitman and Fiorina campaigns have indicated that internal polling actually shows Whitman and Fiorina to be much more competitive than the media would have you believe, and in some cases, beating Brown and Boxer who represent the relics of failed Democrat ideals.

Americans have come to understand the phrase “all politics is local” as immortalized by former House Speaker Tip O’Neill; however, all local politics are not reported equally.

I would like to share with you three examples where the media has been protecting politicians and an explanation of how the media is being influenced in their decision to not report these stories.

First, on October 19, 2010, with news cameras present in studio and rolling, it was revealed on The Rick Amato Show that Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA 51st) was having an inappropriate relationship with a Southwest Airlines corporate lobbyist. It was also revealed that Congressman Filner who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee agreed to sponsor legislation impacting aircraft maintenance.

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UPDATE:

From the Miller Campaign:

Now the media has gone from trying to create stories to openly lying. The audio was pulled directly from the voicemail message. Nothing was altered. “Everything that was recorded on my phone is what we released without change,” said Randy Desoto.

***

The following voice mail message was inadvertently left on the cell phone of Joe Miller campaign spokesperson Randy DeSoto.

The voices are believed to be those of the news director for CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA, along with assignment editor Nick McDermott, and other reporters, openly discussing creating, if not fabricating, two stories about Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Joe Miller.

The following is a transcript of a call recorded after CBS Alaska affiliate KTVA called Joe Miller’s Senate campaign spokesperson. The call failed to disconnect properly. It was later authenticated by McDermott, who sent a text to Randy DeSoto stating, “Damn iPhone… I left you a long message. I thought I hung up. Sorry.”

Audio KTVA –

Clearly the reporters were conspiring to set up some type of smear of Joe Miller. With glee, they even cite a recent controversy over an incident involving the Rand Paul campaign, while discussing how they would spread the story via social media after whatever incident they had in mind came off. It also brings to mind another recent episode that ended with Jerry Brown’s California gubernatorial campaign being caught up in controversy when someone from Brown’s camp called Brown’s opponent, Republican Meg Whitman, a “whore.”

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During an interview on the program “CNN Late Edition” in 1992 Jerry Brown (D-CA) admitted that nearly everything he said in his first campaign for governor of California was a lie. Here are Brown’s rather candid remarks:

Interviewer: You said something a moment ago that I have to follow up on and I have to draw you out on. You said you don’t have to lie anymore now that you’re not a politician. What did you lie about when you were governor?

Jerry Brown: It’s all a lie. You’re pretending there’s a plan…

Interviewer: What did you lie about?

Jerry Brown: You run for office and the assumption is “Oh, I know what to do”. You don’t. I didn’t have a plan for California. Clinton doesn’t have a plan. Bush doesn’t have a plan.

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The title is truly a misnomer, because as you’ll hear, this group is anything but. Pat Caddell, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and National Review’s Jim Geraghty take no prisoners in a very spirited discussion about many of the important races around the country, whether or not folks in other states may get the chance to vote for the Governor, the Republican’s overall national strategy, the Tea Party, and a certain candidate in Delaware. For links mentioned in this podcast or to comment directly, please visit us at Ricochet.com.

After Barack Obama’s historic victory in 2008, many in the Democratic Party and on the political left argued that the GOP and the conservative movement were finished and that Democrats were destined to control, in perpetuity, the presidency, Congress, and culture, writ large. But then something unexpected happened–millions of sleepwalking, mall-shopping Americans finally woke up.

The activist left, which denigrated the previous president in a merciless fashion, took the reins of power with reckless abandon and shoved its brand of poisonous hope and change down the throats of the American people. So we the people, the reawakening silent majority, responded in the form of a grassroots movement that is turning into a juggernaut set to roll past November 2nd and become something transcendent and long-lasting. Our Founding Fathers would be proud that we have rediscovered the spirit and the essence of their ideas.

While the Tea Party has not been specifically partisan–many Republican carcasses lie in its rubble–this conservative and constitutional checks and balances has created a rejuvenated GOP, chastened and wiser.

This weekend I have the honor of sharing the stage with one of the Tea Party’s and Republican Party’s fearless leaders, Sarah Palin. Since her arrival on the national stage, the Democratic Party has recognized her potential as a political powerhouse and has worked in tandem with its partners in crime, the mainstream media, to wage an unprecedented personal campaign against her and her family. The Tea Party can relate.

But the power of Alinsky and the politics of personal destruction vis a vis the Democrat Media Complex has reverse effects when the object of the hate bravely stands up to the bullies and thugs. The Tea Party and Sarah Palin have given America a great lesson in standing up to the bullies who have co-opted the Democratic Party and the American media. (more…)

UPDATE: At 6:22pm, the Los Angeles Times published an article titled “An associate of Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a “whore” over pension reform (AUDIO).’”  At 10:58 PM, the Times published another article with the headline “Brown or Aide Is Heard Slurring Whitman.” When the Times first broke the story, they had only reported that a Brown “associate” had used the slur, but now they are acknowledging the possibility that it was Brown himself who called the California GOP’s gubernatorial nominee a “whore.”  A third possibility still is that both Brown and an aide used the offensive language to describe Whitman.

***

UPDATE II: Los Angeles’s KCAL9 news attributes the word “whore” to Brown:

A transcript of the conversation authorized by the LA Police Protective League and transcribed by a registered court reporter identifies the voice that said the word “whore” as “J.B.” for Jerry Brown.

***

From the LA Times:

In a private conversation that was inadvertently taped by a voicemail machine, an associate of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown can be heard referring to his Republican opponent Meg Whitman as a “whore” for cutting a deal protecting law enforcement pensions as the two candidates competed for police endorsements.

The comment came after Brown called the Los Angeles Police Protective League in early September to ask for its endorsement. He left a voicemail message for Scott Rate, a union official. Brown apparently believed he had hung up the phone, but the connection remained intact and the voice mail machine captured an ensuing conversation between Brown and his aides.

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Here is a prediction: Across the country, there will be races that some candidates will lose even though poll numbers, right now, indicate otherwise.

As you read this, at present, you should know that there are only seemingly disconnected anecdotal dots that are starting to connect. However, if the dots do fully connect, we may not know until well after the November 2nd election if, in fact, America’s democratic election process will have become the victim of the biggest fraud in our nation’s history. What’s worse, with early voting beginning this week in many states, it may already be too late to do anything about it.

In order to break this down, here are the disconnected dots that are detailed below:

• First Dot: The SOS Project
• Second Dot: The SEIU’s Shenanigans
• Third Dot: 11 Million Illegal Immigrants
• Fourth Dot: The Fake ID Industry & Meg Whitman
• Fifth Dot: Voter Registration
• Sixth Dot: Union GOTV Strategies
• Seventh Dot: Early Voting
• Connecting the Dots

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Last week the California Governor’s race was taken over by Gloria Allred, attorney, Democratic Party advocate, and protector of scandalous  ”other woman.” According to Allred (who was a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 2008), Nicky Diaz-Santillan worked “toiled”  Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Meg Whitman for nine years, and was fired in June 2009.

Ms. Allred, savior of the downtrodden “d-listers,” claims that Diaz was fired “for what appeared to be political reasons involving Ms. Whitman’s decision to run for governor.”  Ms Whitman, on the other hand claims,  says the former nanny falsely filled out immigration forms when she first applied for employment as a housekeeper and was not, in fact, a legal resident of the United States. The Republican candidate Meg Whitman replied that the reason for the termination was she discovered Ms. Diaz had lied about her resident status.

While browsing the “Antiques” category on eBay today, I came across a most remarkable ad. I had to do a double-take at first but on second glance I saw it really was true. Someone is actually auctioning off Gloria Allred, famed so-called victims’ rights attorney, on eBay. Incredible.

Here’s the verbatim listing, taken directly from the online auctioneer’s website:

“Item:  Sleaziest Lawyer in America

Current Bid: $2.50

Buy Her Now! price: $9.50

Condition: Slimy but still working

Item description:

Item is a 69-year-old American female attorney named Gloria Allred (nee Bloom), date of birth July 3, 1941. Item is a member of the California Bar Association.  Item has a long and checkered history of inserting itself into high-profile or controversial cases (O.J. Simpson, Scott Peterson, Roman Polanski, Tiger Woods) and—as events of this past week demonstrate—even at current long-in-the-tooth stage, item has lost none of its effectiveness at cheap publicity stunts.

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A game show host, a truck driver and a governor walk into a bar. No they don’t, they join us on the podcast this week: Pat Sajak, Dave Carter, and Governor Pete Wilson. It’s a wide ranging discussion from trucking to tea parties to an inside look at the Golden State, both in terms of the election and the future. All that, and the view from Prague.

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Democrat California gubernatorial nominee Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown mocked as ’silly’ the concerns raised by a retired Marine Corps colonel about Brown attending a fundraiser at the home of terrorist supporter and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. Speaking to reporters Wednesday evening at a campaign rally at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, Brown labeled the call by Col. Bucky Peterson to return the money from the fundraiser “dishonest” and “the sillies(t) thing I’ve ever heard.” Peterson’s statement was released by Brown’s opponent, Republican nominee Meg Whitman.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Brown’s comments.

“Asked about the fundraiser by Evans, who is also a co-founder of Code Pink, Brown said that he has no connection to that group. “That’s the sillies (sic) thing I’ve ever heard..Jodie worked in my (presidential) campaign,” he said. The weekend event in Los Angeles had “nothing to do with Code Pink. That was Jody and campaign workers over many decades and they came to her house.”

“For Whitman to distort that…it’s dishonest,” he said, charging that it was “within that same pattern of dishonesty” he has seen in the GOP candidate’s campaign.”

“Whitman’s campaign Wednesday released a statement from one of the GOP candidate’s supporters, retired Colonel Bucky Peterson, a 31 year veteran of the U.S. Marines, who called on Brown to return the money from the fundraiser.”

Contrary to Brown’s claim, the fundraiser was not a Code Pink event.  The entrance to the fundraiser was adorned with large Code Pink banners.

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California’s once-and-perhaps-future governor, Jerry Brown, is widely viewed as the most ambidextrous of politicians – a man of the Left who nonetheless tacks Right as often as necessary to assure his continued political future. Political junkies still marvel at how then-Governor Brown, an ardent foe of property-tax-limiting Proposition 13, instantly embraced the measure after its 1978 passage, or how, since being mayor of Oakland, he copped a law-and-order image that just happened to coincide with his ambition to be the state’s top cop.

Most recently, we’ve watched as Attorney General Brown – the man who signed the 1977 law that gave public-sector unions the right to collective bargaining and thus paved the way for the massive looting of treasuries by public employees – has taken a high-profile position with regards to the city of Bell. “The California attorney general’s office announced Monday that it had issued a new round of subpoenas to force nine current and former Bell officials to give depositions and to turn over federal and state income tax returns,” according to a Los Angeles Times report. “Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is also demanding personal records relating to pay and pension benefits, gifts the officials have received, and documents pertaining to bank accounts and business interests.”

This is Brown to a tee – despite his history as a virtual subsidiary of Government Union Inc., and his reliance on union independent expenditures to win him the governorship in November, he is able to use his political powers to catch the populist backlash against the increasingly publicized instances of public-sector plundering. This no doubt is giving fits to the at-times hapless GOP nominee, former eBay executive and billionaire Meg Whitman. Whitman had been calling for pension reform, but has been so careful in her proposals – i.e., exempting public safety officials from reform, and thereby putting the bulk of the problem off the table – that she allowed Brown to essentially outflank her on the Right. Even some ardent pension reformers wonder whether Brown might be able to achieve more than Whitman on the pension reform front given his ideological flexibility and Whitman’s risk-averse behavior.

Now Whitman is wisely countering with radio spots and a mailer pointing to Brown’s own pay and perk scandal under his watch in Oakland, and fortunately she has the cash to respond quickly to Brown’s taxpayer-funded bully pulpit at the Department of Justice. The Whitman campaign quotes from writer Heather MacDonald: “Despite repeated promises to keep salaries of top city employees under control, the number of city employees earning more than $100,000 has risen 47.5 percent in the past two years. Perhaps more startling is the astronomical increase – 740 percent – between 2003-04 and 2005-06 in the number of city employees earning more than $200,000.” This is a good rebuttal, but Brown has essentially muted his weakness on this issue by going after the loathsome Bell ex-city manager, Robert Rizzo, and the city’s cast of alleged crooks and miscreants. Even I’m glad to see him take on the scoundrels, regardless of the political shamelessness of his quest.

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Every successful revolutionary movement starts with an act of defiance – as ordinary people stand up against the tyrants who are ruling them. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 is an iconic example, as colonists dumped a shipload of tea into the harbor rather than acknowledge the right of the British Parliament to tax it. The tea party, of course, helped spark the American Revolution as its message of “no taxation without representation” gave voice to deeply held resentments throughout the American colonies.

The media have made much ado about the political Tea parties, started in 2009, that have had some level of success in protesting the government expansions under the Obama administration. Unfortunately, that movement – for all its many good points and despite the clarity of its Taxed Enough Already moniker – represents a mish-mash of ideas and has been plagued by factional disputes. The most successful mini-revolutions take place when the People are unified around a simple and clearly understood theme.

One of the best recent representations of that old defiant spirit can be found in the past couple of weeks in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell, a poor mostly Latino city of about 37,000, where about 2,000 city residents showed up and forced the resignation of worthless city officials after they learned about the way they had enriched themselves at the expense of city taxpayers. As one Bell resident said after a council member gave a self-serving justification of her $100,000 part-time salary (council members typically earn about $8,000 a year): “You were a crook yesterday, you’re a crook today, and you’ll be a crook tomorrow.”

That’s a simple idea most of us can rally around! The crooks are ripping us off.

The Bell situation garnered national attention because of the level of plundering. A city manager, Robert Rizzo, earned $787,000 a year from the impoverished burb – a place that has been cutting services and where 10 percent of the budget went to Rizzo, Police Chief Randy Adams ($457,000) and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia ($357,000).

Rizzo – who lives in fancy digs in Huntington Beach and has a horse farm in Washington state – boasted that he could have easily earned as much in the private sector, which is a load of nonsense and something that all city managers claim. Yet these managers, who typically make nearly $300,000 a year in California, manage basic city tasks in a bureaucratic monopoly environment. They do not run the equivalent of private, competitive firms.

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California is facing nearly The Toughest of Times.  We face historically high unemployment, perennial budget crises and more.  Don’t think it could get any worse?  Think again.  If Jerry Brown is elected, in one short stroke, he could deal a potentially crippling blow to the California economy before it gets a chance to get back on its feet.

Even for a committed political observer, volunteer and commentator such as myself, it seems implausible – but true – that the stakes for elections grow with each successive election.  For California, the 2010 gubernatorial election unquestionably could be the most important election ever – and not necessarily for a good reason.  If Jerry Brown is elected, he and his fellow Democrats could deliver a devastating blow to California.

We well know that California’s unemployment rate is above 12%.  We also know that well over 100,000 people are leaving California on a yearly basis.  Beyond that, California faces an exodus of businesses – large and small alike.  So it can be no surprise that state revenues have declined nearly $40 billion over the last three years as a result of the declining taxpayer base.

We also well know why California is having a tougher time than many other states.  In recent years, California is consistently ranked near the bottom of states in which to do business.  According to Joseph Vranich, president of JV Executive Consulting Inc. in Irvine:  “It’s no mystery what causes companies to leave California: High taxes, undue regulation, workers’ comp costs, a legal environment stacked against businesses and lengthy and costly construction permitting requirements.”  Indeed, California finished tied for last in the Country in Forbes’ Overall Tax Burden survey measuring tax burdens and structure.

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The focus of American politics is often on the East Coast.  The interplay between Washington DC and the major media outlets on the East Coast often results in West Coast politics being as much as an afterthought as  college sports are to eastern writers.  This year, however, is different because the West features some of the highest profile races in the Country – races that can be won by Republicans.

The races that are grabbing that attention – which attention is likely to grow – are: (1) the Nevada race for Senate pitting the Democrat Leader Harry Reid against newcomer and the Tea Party candidate Sharon Angle, (2) the Washington State Senate Race between the Democrat incumbent Patty Murray and a yet to be determined Republican , and in California (3) newcomer Republican Meg Whitman v. Jerry Brown for Governor, and (4) newcomer Republican Carly Fiorina v.  Democrat incumbent Barbara Boxer for US Senate.

In each of those races, the Republican has more than just a chance to win.  In California, the latest polling shows the Republican Whitman statistically tied with the Democrat Jerry Brown,(B) 44 – (W) 43.  Whitman is proving to be an incredibly determined candidate and is more than matching the spending on the Left in support of Brown.  How worried are the Democrats about that race?  The Democrats Governor’s Association, in a very rare move, spent money to attack Whitman during the Republican primary.  Perhaps more telling, the LA Times recently ran an article chronicling Brown’s troubles entitled:  “Brown’s frugal campaign may be too little, too late.”

In the race for Senate, Boxer’s slim lead over Fiorina is within the margin of error 44-41 – but within that Field poll is even more trouble for Boxer.  Her unfavorable rating jumped from 39% to 52% over the last year.  Combined with Boxer’s high name identification, that poll indicates that Boxer will have a hard time convincing the voters who already know her – and don’t like her – to vote for her in this anti-Washington, non-incumbent year.   Fiorina, on the other hand, has a big upside potential and is a dynamic candidate who will be better funded then any of Boxer’s prior opponents in a state favorable to women candidates.

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Recent polling has made it clear that the top concerns of the voters are the two sides of the same coin: out of control government spending and deficits.  For decades on end, the wise have warned that a reckoning day would have to come to deal with decades of fiscal mismanagement.  In California, that day is here.  We need a leader strong enough to tackle the problem head on – Jerry Brown has made it very clear, he is not that person.

Keep in mind that leadership is not a function of getting elected.  Indeed, the vast majority of those elected are not real leaders – even among Presidents.  Think about it.  How many great Presidents have we had over the last 100 years?  You should be counting four or less – and if you do, you realize that real leadership is rare.

Among the many qualities required of leadership, vision ranks at the top – along with a plan on how to achieve that vision.  It turns out that if you want people to follow you, it is a good idea to tell them where you want to go.  If you are elected, a credible means to achieve your plan – and then resolve to see it through- are beyond necessary if you want to achieve your goals and maintain the support of the electorate.  In these days of an ever demanding electorate, the support a newly elected official receives is more easily kept than recovered and the only way to keep is to execute on that credible plan from day one and consistently.

Sadly, Running Man Jerry Brown simply does not have leadership qualities.  He loves to run for office – but once in office, he lacks the necessary leadership skills to succeed.  In the face of the exhaustive and  detailed plan of Meg Whitman, outlining a series of reforms to put California back to work and correct the fiscal problems of this state – Jerry Brown lacks the most elemental prerequisites of a leader:  a vision and a plan.

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We talk Turkey with Claire Berlinski, baseball with Ursula Hennessey, and California and national politics with Mike Murphy. Plus we answer member questions and ponder a certain candidate’s future. All this and more on this week’s Ricochet Podcast. Join the conversation at Ricochet.com or write us at podcast@ricochet.com.

Run Down:
00:40  No bull, it’s Claire Berlinksi live from Istanbul
22:20 Rob, Peter, and Claire discuss the  South Carolina politics, Sarah Palin, and the elections results from around the country.
26:57  Ursula Hennessey joins to discuss her family, the non-perfect game, and why we should care about the World Cup.
1:05:20  Mike Murphy on Meg Whitman’s landslide victory, Republican prospects for the fall, and the future of our favorite Democratic politician.
1:25:20 Wrap Up

The days of pausing between primary and general elections are over.  The stakes for election these days are simply too high.  Our problems are great and we need leaders up to the task.  Jerry Brown, in but two days, proved to everyone that he is not up to the task.

Going Negative Because Brown Has No Plan.

Ultimately, voters prefer to vote for something over voting against something.  The greatest of our leaders seek not just to get elected – but to get elected with a mandate for action.  In order to achieve that mandate, a leader must provide a clear road map of where he or she wants to take the state or the country.  To be sure, campaigns – especially between candidates of the same party – feature negative ads – especially down the wire.  But if we learned anything from the Whitman/Poizner race, it is something we already knew: if the voters perceive your first action is to go negative – then you will drive up your own negatives as well – and they may never know what positive you have to offer.

Before we get to Jerry Brown, it is important to note that there can be little doubt that Meg Whitman has a plan.  Months ago she published a stunning 48 page brochure on that plan.  It is stunning because most politicians don’t want to go on record with such exactitude lest they open themselves up to criticism.  Leadership, however, doesn’t pause for fear.

In that 48 pages, you can find Meg’s 3 point plan (1) to create jobs, (2) cut spending, (3) and fix education.  Those are incredibly pressing problems and her focused plans tell me that she already knows the first lesson of a new government executive:  don’t chase too many rabbits at once – lest you catch none of them – and so she plans to veto the hundreds and hundreds of yearly bills outside those 3 priorities.

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Plain and simple: Meg Whitman will be the next Governor of California.   After a long primary season, the general election matchup is set.  Brown v. Whitman.  Yesterday v. Tomorrow.

Here are your 7 reasons why Meg Whitman will be the next governor of California.

7.  Meg is News.   The news media follows, well, news.  New candidates, especially dynamic candidates, are written about and get on the news more than candidates that have been around awhile.  Jerry Brown is the anything but new – and hardly news.

6. Meg is Tireless.  Meg will be everywhere throughout this entire cycle.  Brown, by contrast, hasn’t been in a heavily contested statewide race in decades.  Many question whether he has another such race in him.  Brown simply will not be able to keep up with Whitman.

5.  Meg is Extraordinarily Determined.  Anyone that has spent any amount of time with Meg Whitman knows she is an extraordinarily focused person.  eBay wasn’t built in a day and it wasn’t built on hope.  Whitman proved in her primary campaign that she is goal oriented and categorically determined to meet those goals.  Losing is not in her vocabulary.

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