Right Thinking: Musings of a True Conservative
By Jon Fleischman
Special to Calbuzz
You kids get off my lawn! As a daily reader of Calbuzz, it’s easy to start calling Jerry Brown “Krusty.” But lately he really has been living up to the name.
Between the Goebbels-Whitman comparison, and telling reporters that he’ll talk about his economic plans after he’s elected, you get the impression of a codger who should be retiring and taking it easy. Certainly not someone running for the state’s top elective office.
Portsiders dominate the B minus: I was on a panel last Wednesday with Stuart Leavenworth, the opinion page editor of the Sacramento Bee, talking to a room full of Republican candidates.
It was rather amusing to hear him acknowledge to all assembled that the total number of Republicans on the Sacramento Bee editorial board is… zero. But then again, if you keep an eye on their editorials, that isn’t too surprising.
The doctor is in: If the California Medical Association backs a Democrat pickup of Assembly District 5, where Republican Roger Niello is termed out, that means only one thing: the CMA is pushing for a two-thirds Democratic majority in the legislature.
The fact that a doctor is the Democratic candidate really is irrelevant. The fact that Doctor Richard Pan is a hardcore liberal does matter.
Family feud: Either former Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines will be the GOP nominee for Insurance Commissioner, or he won’t. But if he is, he will have a big challenge ahead of him.
Most Republicans supported Brian FitzGerald because of his superior ballot title (“Department’s Enforcement Attorney” to Villines’ “Businessman/State Assemblyman”). But many Republicans voted against Villines because of his unrepentant role as an architect of the largest tax increase in California history.
Time for retirement: If we are going to solve our state’s public pension tsunami problem, two bold ideas are going to have to be on the table.
First, we need to move public employees to a 401(k)-style retirement plan in which the government, as an employer, pays out each year but is then done with its obligation; responsibility for the management of that employee’s fund, and for the decision of when it is valued high enough to retire, should be on the individual employee.
The other point: you can’t solve the problem by simply changing the rules for new hires. Current employees will need to have a new, less generous benefit for their remaining years of service, such as the 401(k)-style account.
Insiders and outsiders: The apparent victory of Minuteman founder Tim 
Donnelly in Assembly District 59 is heartening to conservatives.
Not only because it is cool to know that you can win the GOP nomination in a Republican seat with just $22,000 and a lot of volunteers – but because the voters will be sending a strong voice to Sacramento to oppose the kind of insider, tax hiking deal that led to incumbent Anthony Adams’ retirement in that very seat.
Coastal views: This Tuesday’s special election to fill the vacancy in Senate District 15 presents a stark contrast to voters.
Democrat John Laird is so liberal that he makes his moderate Republican opponent, Sam Blakeslee, look like a right-winger. What is the differentiating issue that matters? Laird wants to raise taxes so the government sector can grow (or shrink less), Blakeslee wants to keep taxes low, so that the private sector can recover and produce more jobs.
Memo to Frisco: A note to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who are implementing a new regulation out of concerns of radioactivity coming from cell phones: It’s not the phones, it’s the drugs and your status as an international magnet for freaky people that are the causes of strangeness in your city.
Kudos to a pal: Congratulations are really in order to my longtime friend Jeff Randle. Jeff and I came up in politics at the same time, though on different paths within the Republican Party.
All of these years later, I’m happily publishing a website. Jeff, on the other hand, is playing a lead role in the election of the next Governor of California. Very impressive, Jeff. You deserve much credit – the next round of beers are on you (what you do pays better than what I do).
Jon Fleischman is editor and publisher of FlashReport and Vice Chairman, South of the California Republican Party. His views are his own.
Is this guy for real? He criticizes Brown as being an old codger with the revelations of the Whitman family and their run ins with the law? And here’s another fun fact/prediction. Despite the conservative snarky comments against Jerry Brown, I will bet he prevails in November.
Then claims the SacBee is part of the liberal media since none of the writers are registered republicans? I’d like to point out two things. First off, it proves those writers are capable of thinking for themselves. Secondly, I would like Mr. Flash to link to an Op Ed piece that is supportive of organized labor, or that is pro-abortion. Two significant planks in modern day liberalism.
Lastly, he cites that public employees should be transitioned into 401(k) style retirement plans. Does that include military personnel? They are also public employees.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for a response.
These aren’t the musings of a “true conservative” but of a “pure partisan.” That’s not what CalBuzz is about.
‘True Conservative’ er ‘Tea Bagger’ er ‘Republican’ Whatever. Call it a Belching Pig. Can’t put wings on it in any case. ‘Bomb Throwers’ are what these folks are reduced to. Irrelevant is what they are. Can’t win elections, so they surface once in a while on blogs people actually read and toss a few turds around the room. Good luck in the future nonfactor.
Pretty underwhelming, Jon. (Except for the “you kids get off my lawn” line. That was funny.) There are plenty of better areas to criticize the Brown campaign’s execution than the joke he made about budget details.
I would have hoped you’d have brought some expertise to this post, instead of rehashing last week’s news.
“Frisco”? What state is this guy writing from? And what Republican isn’t a right winger, at least during the campaign?
Yes, the opening line got me, but we won’t be exchanging phone numbers, I’m afraid…
Pure fluff. Insider baseball. No wonder I don’t bother with FlashReport.
Sam Blakeslee IS a right-wing Republican.
He’s trying to pretend he’s not because SD-15 is no longer a majority-Republican district. But he became minority leader of the Assembly because the GOP caucus pushed his predecessors out because they were “insufficiently conservative.” This puts Big Oil Blakeslee somewhere to the right of Atilla the Hun–exactly where you’d expect to find a former Exxon Oil executive who wants to open up the California coast to offshore drilling and then lies about it. But I’m repeating myself.
Get Big Oil out of California government. Don’t let them buy this election. Go to JohnLairdforSenate.com today and volunteer to call voters. The state can’t afford for this sleezeball to win.
Further research reveals this this little gem.
Jon claimed to be an insider in the adminstration of an individual later convicted of federal crimes and having to resign in disgrace. If he was an insider and didn’t say anything, then we know all we need to know about Jon’s character. If he didn’t know, then we know he wasn’t all that much of an insider as he is a blowhard.
Apologies. The site is LairdforSenate.com
But you should still go there now! Thanks, Chris
RE: “Memo to Frisco: […] It’s not the phones, it’s the drugs and your status as an international magnet for freaky people that are the causes of strangeness in your city.”
Is this clown for real? And he gets paid to do this?
Gawdalmighty, but Jon Fleischman’s nothing but right-wing cliche and two-dimensional GOP boiler-plate. Sheesh, I could compose this sort of contrived pseudo-intellectual riff in my sleep – and I’m a liberal Democrat! No wonder the Republican Party has a hard time gaining any traction in the Bay Area and amongst people who can think for thermselves.
For far too long now, no-talent Republican shills like Fleischman have poisoned the country’s political atmosphere with this type of rancid and lowbrow discourse, and in so doing, they are precluding any chance for meaningful dialogue to occur. Rather than analyze and debate, they bi+ch and blame.
Now they’re trying to man up the poltical vanity production of a self-absorbed wealthy diva who thinks she’d like to try being a governor, even though for decades this corporate princess couldn’t even be bothered to register to vote.
The sheer affrontery of such patently obnoxious affectations have become a recurring insult to the collective intelligence of American voters, and the Republicans need to be called out on it.
Thumbs up to Donald from Pasadena ^^^