OC Blog News Roundup -- June 4, 2006

Today's top stories and commentary from behind the Orange Curtain:

OCR's Bunis on the worst excuse for a Senate in 230 years: Immigration bill hits constitutional wall.

OCR: Stanton keeps balance.  Sewage farm?

Register overkilled this story this weekend: Metrolink begins weekend service in Orange County.

OCR's Greenhut right on Moonbeam: Brown not cut out for top cop.

From the position of the attorney general's office, a crucial issue is capital punishment, something Californians widely embrace for incorrigible and violent criminals, but which Brown has a career of opposing. "I have shown over a long history a great fidelity to the law of California," he said, emphasizing that he would enforce the laws as they are written despite his personal views of them.  When deciding on a candidate, I'm a firm believer in looking at the total record and downplaying the last-minute conversions. Those conversions often are motivated – big surprise here – by the need to take the right positions as the candidate seeks another office.

It's time for Moonbeam to retire and rest on the memory of his eight-years of mis-management and liberalism which put California in the condition we enjoy today.

OCR's lead editorial picks up on the Reason analysis last week: Back to school for Prop. 82 backers.  Their conclusion,

To us, three things are clear. First, more research and debate is needed on the benefits and costs of universal preschool. Second, the Rand study was not intended to support Prop. 82, as Ms. Karoly noted, and using it as a justification is misleading. Proponents should stop citing it.  Third, Prop. 82 remains a flawed, expensive initiative. The key point: 66 percent of all children eligible are already in preschool. So the biggest impact of Prop. 82, which has an attendance target of 70 percent, would be to shift the funding to public dollars from private, as well as oversight. We continue to recommend a No vote.

And don't miss the way off-target Reader Rebuttal from another expert on Pre-School, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters here.  Go arrest an illegal, Chief -- oh, sorry, you don't know anything about that either.

OCR: Leaving off candidates as usual, the paper's election positions advice posted by Greenhut on Orange Punch last week: Register's official voting advice.

Do they TP each other's houses?  LAT's Pasco with a good piece on DeNimby vs. Bates: Politics Doesn't Get Any More Local Than This.  Lead,

Laguna Niguel Mayor Cathryn DeYoung has spent more than $2 million of her own money attacking the political fitness of Patricia Bates, her chief rival in a heated Orange County supervisorial race on Tuesday's ballot.  Bates, a former assemblywoman, has fought back by taking her foe to court and distributing mailers brushing off DeYoung as a hothead with little experience and money to burn.

Comments

[Lazy Steve]

I liked this comment from Greenhut,

Most of us at some point in our lives have had a job interview that has ended with the interviewer saying something to this effect: "Mr. So and So, while you have interesting skills, we don't think you are the right fit for the position or our company."

Why do I have a feeling he has experienced that more than the rest of us. Intellectual laziness will get you replaced at the companies I've for in the past. Maybe that is considered a qualifying trait at the OcR Op Ed Board.

[Hanna]

The 50th and California

Campaign calculus as complex as it gets

By Chris Reed
San Diego Union Tribune
June 4, 2006

(snip)

Then something peculiar happened. In recent weeks – between the congressional debate over the Bush administration's intense push for “comprehensive immigration reform,” the mass Latino walkouts and rallies over a tough enforcement bill passed by the House, and Bilbray's sharp criticism of the White House's immigration prescription – the two narratives essentially merged. For both Democrats and Republicans, a vote for either Busby or Bilbray became a proxy to express discontent over the ways of Washington.

“The angry white guy is still the most prevalent voter in the 50th, and he's [incensed] about both illegal immigration and what [Democrats] call the 'culture of corruption,'” says Orange County-based pollster Adam Probolsky. “The issues feed off each other.”

(snip)

Bilbray's braying over what he calls “amnesty” proposals will drive up turnout among conservatives infuriated by the president's and the Senate's immigration squishiness. But Bilbray's history of moderate to liberal stands on gun control, abortion and gays will keep many social conservatives home – and popular GOP blogger Jon Fleischman has kept the spotlight for weeks on Bilbray's apostasy.

(snip)

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060604/news_lz1e4reed.html

[Laer]

Gee, I guess Lazy Larry won't like what I posted this a.m. at Cheat-Seeking Missiles:

In California, Jerry Brown will always be remembered for his relationship with two women: Linda Ronstadt and Rose Bird. To put it bluntly, he screwed the former and screwed us with the latter.

[Karey]

Now lets see how long Matt from Sheriff Carona campain leaves this up here..
Carona does not even deserve the chance to be in the run off at all. He lied about the Amber Alert. He is quoted in one flier as saying he came up with the whole thing. He makes the Sheriff Dept. a political nightmare for the sworn officers that serve there.
Ralph Martin is a joke of a Commander that kisses up to his LA Sheriff as I have seen him quoting as his the most looked up to person. What’s that? I say a kiss up if you ask me. Why the LA Times is endorsing is way beyond me. They have no clue how we live here in Orange County at all. Look how messed up Ralph Martin has made LA!
So he wants to come here and do the same to us. NOT!
The rank and file is endorsing Lt. Bill Hunt. Why does everyone seem to forget and leave that out time and time again? The other one in the race withdrew and backed Lt. Bill Hunt.
If no one is going to listen to the Rank and File of the very dept. we are voting on then why is the Sheriff spot open for a political vote in the first place?
The Deputies want Lt. Hunt plain and simple. That should be enough for us to stand up for Lt. Bill Hunt with the Deputies in Orange County on June 6th and vote for him over Martin and Carona. Since we do not wear the badge they wear please vote for Lt. Bill Hunt!