“I have a number of responses to that argument,” Pawlenty said. “Minnesota ranks forty-sixth in terms of getting federal spending in relation to the amount of taxes paid — for every dollar we sent in to Washington, we get about 72 cents back. We’re a major payer of the federal government’s tabs, unlike many other states that I won’t mention. I say, when you’re paying to buy the pizza, it’s okay to have a slice. Now, if you were a liberal Democratic governor and you opposed military spending, are you not going to take National Guard funding? If you were a liberal who opposed No Child Left Behind, are you going to take federal funding in education? So I’m wondering why that standard is only being applied now to conservatives.”
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Tim Pawlenty is maturing as a national pol as is Bobby Jindahl. Watch out Sarah Palin.

California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested that his party is out of touch with average Americans on the issue of health care.

“You've got to listen to the people. If the nation is screaming out loud, ‘We need health care reform. We want to have universal health care. We want to have everyone insured. We want to bring the costs down. We want everyone to have access.’ I mean, that's what they want; that's what you do,” Schwarzenegger said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Arguing that California Republicans were out of touch with the majority of Californians who wanted to raise taxes to fix the state’s budget crisis, Schwarzenegger said it is “the same nationwide.”

olorado is blowing kisses and singing love songs to California companies and talent, hoping to woo those fed up with the state's budget and political troubles.

The Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. has taken to the skies, YouTube, snail mail and newspapers to tell Golden State execs that the grass is greener, the taxes are lower and the business climate is better in the Centennial State.

The flirtatious $95,000 advertising campaign has garnered national media attention.

It also comes as other states – such as Arizona, Nevada and Utah – also seek to capitalize on California's woes to lure jobs and workers.
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Many businesses will.

An interesting ramification from yesterday's news that President Obama will not seek to repeal the Bush tax cuts, and wait for them to expire at the end of 2010 — the justification for the policy shift is, "Officials determined that seeking to raise the taxes earlier during a recession was a bad idea."

Many economists were saying they didn't expect the recession to end this year, and that 2010 was looking pretty bad, too. I, among others, suspect that if the economy is still in the dumps in November 2010, the midterm elections will be awful for incumbents — and there are more Democratic incumbents than Republican ones.

But left unsaid by the Administration is that the goal it set for the federal budget deficit, $513 billion by 2013, is nearly $60 billion higher than the highest budget deficit recorded during the presidency of George W. Bush. During the presidential campaign, Obama called the lack of spending restraint during the Bush years irresponsible, yet his Administration championed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, and has proposed a $275 billion housing rescue program, all on top of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout that candidate Obama voted for and President Obama is now administering. That is a record of spending that would make George W. Bush blush, and which undercuts the president's new found fondness for budgetary austerity.
Obama will also have to propose either a dramatic increase in taxes or an equally dramatic reduction in spending. With the appetite he has displayed for federal spending in the first month of his presidency, it is little wonder which he will likely choose.

Former eBay Ceo Meg Whitman held her first big press conference as a GOP gubernatorial candidate today..and sidestepped deteails and follow up questions on abortion, state spending cuts, immigration and whether she'll release her taxes.

But she did have something to say about San Francisco: ''We need to secure our borders…ultimately, we must hold employers responsible for hiring…we must take a very hard look at sanctuary cities…what's happening in San Francisco and Los Angeles is just wrong,'' she said.

It was an interesting presser, not only for what was said, but for what wasn't. Whitman was accompanied by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who endorsed her, and Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista, who is also backing her bid.
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Meg Whitman is a rookie and hs not formed legitimate positions on the issues.

Two wealthy Silicon Valley titans courted support for their 2010 gubernatorial campaigns Saturday before riled-up party activists angry over taxes, fed up with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and distrustful of moderate candidates.

So state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner promised at a news conference that he would never raise taxes as governor.

And former eBay CEO Meg Whitman carefully explained to more than 900 state party delegates why she registered as a decline-to-state voter from 1998 to 2007 before re-registering as Republican.

Likening California's budget troubles to an earthquake, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday defended his decision to raise taxes and said his party's leaders in Washington should be "team players" with President Barack Obama.

And if that means violating the GOP's principles, he said, so be it.

"They should make an effort to work together and to find what is best for the people, because by derailing everything, it's not going to help anybody, and it creates instability and insecurity," Schwarzenegger said in an appearance on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

California Republicans cast about for ideas to revive their ailing party on Saturday, but struggled to define a clear vision for expanding their appeal beyond the dwindling ranks of older white conservatives.

At a glum gathering of Republican faithful, GOP leaders hewed to the party's traditional call to scale back government, even as many voters demand just the opposite to stop the economy's downward slide.

At the same time, the GOP leaders lamented their party's failure to win over more women, Latinos, African Americans and younger voters, a shortcoming that points toward more defeats ahead for a party long relegated to firm minority status in California.

"Right now the party is pretty aimless," said state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for governor in the party's June 2010 primary. "It's got no strong leadership, and that's got to be fixed."

Former McCain lawyer Ben Sheffner notes on his blog, Copyrights & Campaigns, that a federal court in Los Angeles declined to dismiss Jackson Browne's lawsuit against McCain, filed last summer over the use of the song "Running on Empty" in a web video from the Ohio Republican Party.
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Jackson Brown is a has been moron. Just don't buy his crap songs.

"I don’t have any party buying me clothes," said Schweitzer, referring to the more than $150,000 that the Republican Party shelled out for the Palin family's wardrobe last year. "My wife buys my clothes at Costco."
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Montana's Democrat Governor sounds like a moron. No tourism dollars from me, Gov. while you are in office.

Holding signs reading "Stimulate Business, Not Government," "Families Against Porkulus" and "Say No To Generational Theft," protesters opposed to the $787 billion stimulus package have been mobilizing across the country.

It started last Monday in Seattle, then moved Tuesday to Denver, where President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. That was followed by another one in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama unveiled a mortgage rescue plan.

Another protest was planned for Saturday outside the office of Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, Kan. The Democrat voted for the stimulus. His office didn't return calls seeking comment.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced the proposition numbers for the seven measures appearing on the May 19, 2009, Statewide Special Election ballot and invited interested Californians to submit arguments to be included in the Official Voter Information Guide.
The next regular statewide election was scheduled for June 8, 2010. However, the Legislature and the Governor this week called a special election in 88 days and approved six measures for that ballot. A seventh legislative measure, which had qualified in 2008 for the next statewide ballot, will also be included.

You have until Monday — as in, the day after the day after tomorrow — to submit ballot arguments for or against the five propositions on the May 19 state special election ballot. These are the ones made necessary by this week's state budget agreement.

Rep. Darrell Issa fired a shot across the GOP bow Friday night at state Sen. Abel Maldonado, who cast the deciding vote in favor of a budget deal raising taxes.

Starting out by lampooning the Obama administration for appointing Democrats with tax problems to administrative posts, Issa poked fun at Maldonado in a speech at the opening dinner for the California Republican Party's three-day spring convention in Sacramento.

"Do you think Abel will have to pay those taxes now that he is an honorary Democrat?" Issa said. "He is going to go back to private life and discover that yes he does."
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Abel Maldonado's political career is over.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican National Committee "Victory 2008" chairwoman Carly Fiorina said she isn't ready yet to declare whether or not she will run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010.

And in a remarkable speech to Republican Party activists in Sacramento, the corporate chairwoman who was forced out with a $42 million golden parachute, said her party "can never defend greed and excess."

Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven't had to take such a drastic move for more than 15 years.

The situation could improve slightly if more rain falls over the next few weeks, and officials will know by mid-March if they can release more irrigation supplies to growers.

Farmers in the nation's No. 1 agriculture state predicted it would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which would have to be grown using expensive well water.

The jungle primary isn't just for Louisiana anymore.

In fact, it isn't for Louisiana at all, which has phased out the system for federal races. But the practice was recently adopted by Washington State. And if a State Senator from San Luis Obispo gets his way, it might be implemented in California, which will vote on a ballot measure on the jungle primary in 2010.

So what, you're probably asking, is a jungle primary? And what does all of this have to do with Joe Lieberman?

A jungle primary — political scientists prefer the term "nonpartisan blanket primary" — is one in which all candidates from all parties appear together on the same primary ballot. The top two finishers, regardless of party, then advance to a run-off election, which is held at the usual date in November. (In some iterations, although not California's, this second step can be circumvented if one candidate receives an outright majority of the vote on her first try).
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Not going to pass in California

A Pentagon review of conditions in the Guantanamo Bay military prison has concluded that the treatment of detainees meets the requirements of the Geneva Conventions but that prisoners in the highest-security camps should be allowed more religious and social interaction, according to a government official who has read the 85-page document.

The report, which was ordered by President Obama, was prepared by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations, and has been delivered to the White House. Obama requested the review as part of an executive order on the planned closure of the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
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Blame Booooooosh

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs jumped at the chance Friday to rebuke a CNBC reporter whose attack on President Barack Obama’s anti-foreclosure plan caught fire on the Internet.

Gibbs took on CNBC’s Rick Santelli in unusually personal terms after being asked a question about Santelli’s bracing critique during a regular White House briefing.
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Obama strikes back

The painful budget process at our state and local school district level calls out for reform of California’s dysfunctional budgeting process. It is time for a sincere and frank conversation about reform. Central to this conversation is the idea of throwing out the two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget and simply using a majority vote. Nearly every state in the nation and Congress, as well as counties, and cities use majority votes to pass their budgets. California should follow suit.

I understand that the minority party may feel that this would make them irrelevant to the process but, if anything, it would hold their majority party colleagues even more accountable.

Most importantly, a simple majority vote would protect our schools and districts from the instability they are forced to endure anytime the Legislature cannot reach a budget compromise.

It is time to bring about substantive changes to the way we do business in Sacramento — we owe the people of California this much.

This is, without a doubt, the best correction of the week. Okay, the month. Aw, hell, I'll say it: Best. Correction. Ever