Morrow Jumps ship...

I just love these kinds of kinds of stories...There are quite a few on WHP

There is more at Words Have Power

It shows you how hollow the attempt on this was. A lone UCLA Alumni, Andrew Jones - hooks up with Bill Morrow in an effort to create a coalition and it ends up being ...pitiful.

Two peas in a pod...

[...]
Wade Teasdale, Morrow's chief of staff, said that the Senator agreed to become a member of the advisory board several months ago when contacted by Jones. However, he said, Jones "never asked for advice on anything." He added that the Morrow was "out of the loop" on the offer to pay students. The Senator's name disappeared from the Bruin Alumni Association website
midday Wednesday.
[...]

Sounds like Morrow is out of the loop in general. Alas, it is no longer conveinent for Bill Morrow...

Great story!

Mark Wyland - DeLay? OK!

This is newsworthy, if only for the reason that Mark Wyland voted against cleaning up corruption. Now he is on record for siding with big money politics like Cunningham, DeLay, and Abramoff.

[...]
"'Enactment of AB 583 would be a significant step forward to lifting the stain on our democracy and political system so evident nationally in the Abramoff and DeLay scandals,' said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, a key sponsor of the bill. Some two dozen registered nurses attended Tuesday's session in support of the bill, and nurses have been contacting legislators prior to the vote. 'In California, this vote, and the grassroots movement that has been building for the bill, symbolizes the growing voter revolt against two consecutive governors and the legislature for the embarrassment of cash register politics in Sacramento,' DeMoro said. Introduced by Assembly member Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), the bill next heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. As legislation carried over from last year, the bill must clear the full Assembly by the end of January. In addition to CNA, other supporters include the League of Women Voters, Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Gray Panthers, Sierra Club, and the California Clean Money Campaign. Voting for the bill today were Assembly members Johan Klehs (D-Hayward), Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), Mark Leno (D-SF), and Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys). Voting no were... ... Mark Wyland (R-Vista),...
[...]

Its good to see that Francine Busby is down for this kind clean up in the House. The name just fits - nicely.

Clean House Act

Busby's Odds Improve

Kansas City Star | 01/01/2006 | The buzz: "Upscaling the walls?

Could the downfall of former Republican congressman Duke Cunningham in a bribery scandal mean a Democratic pickup of his upscale San Diego district?

Francine Busby faces an uphill battle, thanks to California’s congressional map, drawn to protect incumbents of both parties. But the district was narrowly won by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, another Democrat.

“If Mars is aligned with the moon just right, yes, a Democrat, on paper, could win this seat,” said Allan Hoffenblum, who puts out a nonpartisan election guide. “Everything would have to go right for Busby, and everything … wrong for the Republican.”"

Issa endorses Bilbray in 50th district race

Issa endorses Bilbray? Poor Alan Uke, I thought they were friends!

[...]
"Rep. Darrell Issa endorsed former Republican congressman Brian Bilbray on Wednesday in the race to fill the seat vacated by Randy 'Duke' Cunningham.

Issa, a Republican who district borders on the 50th Congressional District formerly represented by Cunningham, also said he will serve as Bilbray's campaign chairman. Bilbray represented Imperial Beach in Congress from 1994-2000.

'When you are looking for someone who is trusted and proven and who has been in the arena and has been bloodied a bit you could not find a better person than Brian Bilbray,' Issa said.
[...]

If he is trusted and proven, then why is he out of office to begin with? Bilbray is coming back to politics after loosing his office in election cycle to Susan Davis in the 49th-CA. Oh wait, maybe its because he never left politics - I hear he was a lobbyist for anti-immigration reform for the past 3 years. Working with who? Abramoff. Even Fox news has this one - near the bottom.

[...]
Cunningham, a Republican, resigned in November after pleading guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes stemming from his dealings with defense contractors and others. He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 27.

Democrat Francine Busby, who lost to Cunningham in 2004 by 22 percentage points, is also running again. Busby said Wednesday that if she's elected, she would limit her contacts with lobbyists by eliminating secret meetings, refusing gifts and other steps.

'The current lax laws have allowed a system where lobbyists write legislation and taxpayer dollars are given away in backroom, secret meetings,' Busby said."
[...]

I think it just a good idea keep our elected officials away from lobbyists. Better yet - Don't elect a lobbyist to begin with.

Bye Bye Bilbray.

NCtimes chronicals Republican mischaracterizations of Immigration Debate

I love how the NC points this out. How Republicans have failed to enact and border protections or stop the flow of immigrants - yet they use this issue to rally hate and votes. It's a joke.

[...]
In a March speech, County Supervisor Bill Horn stumped for completion of a border fence to fight illegal immigration. In September, Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff waived legal requirements to the completion of 14-mile border fence south of San Ysidro.

And in November, U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, whose district includes Poway, Ramona and other portions of northeast San Diego County, called for building a double border fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. (FAILED)

In the weeks following now-former Congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham's July announcement that he would not be seeking re-election to his 50th District seat, several Republican aspirants for that job vied to position themselves as stauncher-than-thou supporters of increased enforcement of immigration laws. (FAILED)

In May, state Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Murrieta, kicked off a signature-gathering campaign to get an initiative on the ballot to create a state border police that would patrol the U.S. /Mexican border and conduct work-site enforcement to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Later in the year, that initiative failed when proponents failed to obtain enough signatures to qualify it for the ballot. (FAILED)

In August, state Assemblyman Mark Wyland, R-Escondido, wrote an opinion column for the North County Times in which he endorsed the initiative. At the time, Wyland was considering a run for Congress to replace Cunningham. While still not confirming whether he is in or out of that race, he has publicly stated that he will run for the state Senate seat now held by Morrow, who is leaving office due to term limits. (FAILED)

Besides Morrow's July participation in the border watch vigil, he organized a townhall meeting on illegal immigration in August that drew hundreds of anti-illegal immigration activists and featured as speakers a cast of nationally known anti-illegal immigration figures, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. (FAILED)
[...]

Why would Republicans actually vote to change immigration, when it fails at the ballot box - yet garners the electoral votes?!

Because the people of California understand the right way to fix the border. These Republicans are not mainstream and are out-of-step with their districts. This is merely a fundraiser for Republicans.

NCTimes learning "Lessons from the Cunningham case"??

This is a nice piece on how things did, or in this case, didn't evolve.

[...]
"It was a Copley News Service report in June that started the unraveling of Randy Cunningham's web of deceit.

Marcus Stern, in the news service's Washington office, detailed how Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense firm MZM Inc., paid $700,000 more for Cunningham's Del Mar Heights home that he would sell it for less than a year later. That purchase provided the cash for Cunningham to buy the gated mansion in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe.

Until then, rarely was there a negative word about Cunningham, who had won regular endorsement for re-election from this newspaper.

At the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank and center for continuing education, vice president and senior scholar Dr. Roy Peter Clark suggested that until Stern's report, the media may have lost sight of its role as a government watchdog.

Newsroom budget cuts over the years that have reporters covering multiple beats and lack of money to fund bureaus in Washington are one part of the problem, Clark said.

'Communities should hold their news organizations accountable,' he said last week. 'Not necessarily for some sort of ideological bias, but in terms of performance and level of public service.'

But the greater failing may have been in forgetting"

"Every news organization has to walk the line between skepticism and cynicism, and it appears there may not have been enough skepticism directed at this individual ---- anyone who looks at politics through rose-colored glasses is just a fool."

The adage "follow the money" wasn't done until Stern's report, something Roberta Baskin at the Center for Public Integrity said may have been the media's biggest sin.

"It's always about following the money," said Baskin, executive director of the nonprofit and nonpartisan center in Washington, which conducts investigative research and reports on public policy issues.

"You always need to look beyond what people say and what they do to see where the money is coming from and where it's going," she said.

Stern's story did just that. Until then, no media outlet in San Diego or in Washington had really taken a hard look at Cunningham and where he was getting his money and where it was being spent.

North County Times editor Kent Davy said that when Cunningham was running for re-election in 2004, the newspaper failed to look below the surface.

"If we had been much more aggressive about trying to understand his finances and his lifestyle, we might have stumbled onto the key to the story," Davy said. "The recommendations about following the money are dead-on, and that implies that we need to be doing routine record checks of people in the news so that things like the house transaction don't surprise us."

While not first with the initial story about the home sale, Davy said the newspaper "responded in a very credible manner which has significantly pushed the story along."
[...]

It seems more and more that Newspapers are waiting for the watchdog groups to do the footwork for them. This article points out that news organizations are falling out of the "watchdog" role because it is expensive and easier for them to wait for news to happen then report it. Unfortunately, it doesn't make a newspaper credible, trustworthy or unique. It makes them a tool of the advertisers and the groups that routinely hand out press releases in news format. What you end up with is local contrived propaganda. Hopefully, this segment outlines what NCtimes and the Union-Tribune should start doing, rather than what they don't do.

Bill Morrow veto happy...

I'm glad to know that Bill Morrow is happy about certain vetos...

[...]
"Despite some of the good things the Legislature accomplished in 2005, 'I am more happy that certain bills weren't passed,' state Sen. Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside said last week.

'I don't believe illegal immigrants should be rewarded by the state and given drivers licenses or anything else,' said Morrow, who is running for the 50th Congressional District seat formerly held by Randy 'Duke' Cunningham.
[...]

He also voted against increasing the minimun wage after this report was available.

This is the time...[Beware the woodwork]...

I agree with the following statements... This is the time.

[...]
The way I see it, a Republican could earn a spot in the June runoff with 16 percent to 20 percent of the vote. With such small slices of the pie, anyone – excluding the What-the-Hellers – could earn the showdown with Busby.

Given this hysterical fight to the finish, high-propensity voters in the 50th – and you know who you are, as do the campaigns – are destined to feel as adored as New Hampshire voters in a presidential primary.

Never before will so much money ($10 million is my low estimate) be spent to woo the willing in the predominantly North County district.

Think about it. This could be the year when the Republicans, reeling from one corruption scandal after another, lose control of Congress. A Busby victory would be a harbinger of a GOP collapse.

In Washington, the Democrats are licking their lips over a conquest as desirable as Helen of Troy. On the other side, Republicans will fight like Spartans to keep her.

Voters in the 50th might as well slip into something comfortable because they are about to be loved as they've never been loved before.
[...]

This is the time to create awareness... this is the time to back your leader... this is THE time in the 50th District.

more good news for Busby...

More good news....

[...]
"'Republicans will rightly become very nervous if she wins,' said Jacobson, a University of California, San Diego, political science professor.

Even if she loses, a strong showing by Busby could still spell trouble for Republicans nationally as the 2006 midterm elections approach. The Iraq war, President Bush's unpopularity, the indictment of top Republicans and other factors have soured the national outlook for the party. Republicans lost the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races last month, and California voters rejected the ballot measures pushed by GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In Cunningham's upscale district, history offers Democrats a glint of hope: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein narrowly carried it, as currently drawn, in her 2000 re-election. Another Democrat, U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, finished just 312 votes behind her Republican rival there last year. 'If Mars is aligned with the moon just right, yes, a Democrat, on paper, could win this seat,' said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan election guide. But, he added, 'Everything would have to go right for Busby, and everything would have to go wrong for the Republican.'
[...]