Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells Newsmax that the GOP must broaden its appeal to avoid becoming “the old white-guy party,” and recommends that Republicans create a “shadow government” to engage Democrats on important issues as the incoming Obama administration seeks to enact its agenda.

In a wide-ranging interview with Newsmax, the popular former governor and younger brother of President George W. Bush said the 2008 election was neither “transformational” nor a landslide. For example, he noted that Barack Obama's significant fundraising advantage over John McCain played a key role in Democratic success this year.
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Pay attention to demographics and technology.

Sadly, the most tangible legacy of the Schwarzenegger era so far is its explosive growth in state spending. It's up by $41 billion since Davis left, jumping from $104 billion in the 2003-04 budget (the last one that Davis signed) to $145 billion in the fiscal year just ended, 2007-08. That's a 40% increase, or 33% on a per-capita basis.

John G. Matsusaka, a professor of business and law at the University of Southern California, notes this fact in a recent article and asks fair questions: "Why does it seem like the quality and quantity of government is not all that different from 2004? How many of us feel like we are getting 40% more public services, 40% better schools, roads, parks and so on?"

The honest answer is that a great deal of this money went to make government and its employees richer, not better. For instance, California's teachers are among the highest-paid in the nation, but by any measure its public schools are far from the nation's best.

The land of bloated budgets and gold-plated public unions is collapsing. California has finally realized you can’t run up massive deficits forever. Now, GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a “fiscal emergency.” And you know what’s coming next. Get ready to fork over at least $7 billion in taxpayer-funded loans.
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Arnld couldn't deal with his own GOP base and the Democrats overran him.

As the Obama transition team reviews the federal government’s network of agencies, President Bill Clinton’s appointees and staffers are playing a major role.

Just how big? At least 85 of the 135-odd members of President-elect Barack Obama’s agency review teams served in the Clinton administration, a Washington Wire count shows.

That’s nearly two-thirds of the members of the working groups reviewing agency issues, and the Clinton resurrection has not gone unnoticed. “Here’s how you can tell the campaign is over and done with,” wrote Ben Smith and Carrie Budoff Brown in Politico. “Clintonites are everywhere.”

Some members of Obama’s transition teams are reviewing the same agencies they worked for in the ’90s: Pamela Gilbert, the former executive director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is reviewing the CPSC; Phyllis Segal, the former director of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, is vetting the FLRA; and Michael Camunez…
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Plus Ca Change

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, has tapped California Rep. Kevin O. McCarthy as his top deputy, cementing an already fruitful partnership between two rising stars in the party.

The selection gives Cantor a politically astute ally at the leadership table as he seeks to translate six years of potential into a real power base within the House GOP. The move, which will be announced Monday, also solidifies McCarthy as the next Eric Cantor.

There are 10 Republicans brand new to the Legislature being sworn in today. That doesn't include former Sen. Jim Nielsen, who served as GOP leader of the upper house in the mid-1980s.

According to the FEC, Giuliani's committee provided information "in the form of a sworn affidavit" that Singer was "expressly informed that he was not authorized to act on behalf of the Giuliani campaign when he contributed his own funds to the TIA."

Also, at the time that he made the contribution to the TIA, Singer was no longer raising money for Giuliani and hadn't been for three months. He was, however, still a policy adviser to the campaign.

In the end, the FEC found "no evidence that the Giuliani Committee established, financed, maintained or controlled TIA such that its activites would be imputed to Giuliani" and "no evidence of coordination" between the Giuliani Committee and CER."
Not a pass – clears his campaign.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.

There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.

"I assembled this team because I am strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions," Obama said. "I think that's how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in groupthink, and everybody agrees with everything, and there's no discussion and there are not dissenting views. So I'm going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House. But I understand, I will be setting policy as president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out, and I expect them to implement that vision, once decisions are made. So as Harry Truman said, the buck will stop with me."
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Team Obama is the epitome of GROUPTHINK or is it NEWSPEAK?

A Quinnipiac poll released this week shows strong support for the incumbent Specter. Specter leads 45 percent to Matthews’ 33 percent among overall voters. Among Democratic voters, however, Matthews leads Specter 55 to 25 percent.
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If Specter stays healthy, Chirs Matthews will NOT run.

A provocative point from First Read: "[O]f the three big national security posts, it's possible a President McCain could have picked Jones and Gates as well."

And Clinton, as my colleague Jonathan Martin points out, is hardly a sop to the left.
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The LEFT must be seething