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The Watercooler ~ California Reeling

By: westcoastpatriette (Diary)  |  February 26th, 2013 at 09:41 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Thought I would cover a few items of interest taking place in and around California lately.

Part of my growing apathy with politics of late is the dismal future Republicans are facing here. But we got a brief reprieve from the suffocation of a supermajority of Dems in the state Senate when a rising star in the party suddenly resigned his Senate seat last Friday to take a job in the private sector. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, surprised everyone who knows him and his resignation leaves the Senate without a supermajority — which is required to raise taxes in California. That makes three Dems who have left the Senate since the elections.

Rubio is the third Democrat to leave the state Senate after former Sens. Gloria Negrete McLeod, D-Chino (San Bernardino County), and Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, resigned after winning seats in Congress last fall. The Democrats, who now hold 26 seats in the chamber, might regain their supermajority quickly, with special elections scheduled for Vargas’ seat on March 12 and Negrete McLeod’s on May 14. Analysts say both are expected to stay in Democratic hands.

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President Obama has until Thursday of this week to decide if he will file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the case to overturn Prop. 8. Experts say if he does, it will most likely carry little weight when the Supremes hear the case next month.

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Finally, Governor Brown is keeping a low profile leaving people wondering what his plans are for the future. His term in the governor’s seat will be up next year and no challenger is emerging who could take him on if he decides to run again.

Have a great day.

The Watercooler is always an open thread.

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COMMENTS

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  • mkeprof

    Supermajorities are never a good thing – on either side. While the situation in CA is surely dismal, I hope the local R outfits will provide at least a semblance of resistance.

    My main worry is not CA but the spread of CA’s malaise. Recent trends in VA, NC, FL, CO are not encouraging. Remember CA was just a few decades ago red enough to give us Reagan. We can’t have more states tumbling down the same path.

  • mkeprof

    This is an addendum to my last post.

    Dems are converting purple states to blue and red states to purple. They are actually on offense. In the last cycle – AZ was briefly mentioned for a Dem push. Now, Dems are putting some money in TX it seems. In last few cycles, NM has turned full on blue, CO is a bluish tinge of purple, NV is trending the wrong way… we are getting pushed. My question is where are we pushing back? Is there any blue state that we are close to converting – MI, WI, PA, NH – I don’t believe so. We desperately need to engage outside of our core states and halt the Dem advance. This is what makes the internal squabbles and caving in VA, FL, OH etc so very painful and ultimately harmful to our national aspirations.

    • westcoastpatriette

      I agree and I think the long-term solution is raising up new, dynamic leadership. Look at the old dogs we have here in California — Moonbeam is 76, Feinstein is in her eighties, and Boxer is not far behind. The problem here is the Dems are driving conservatives out of the state and you wind up with a self-perpetuating downward spiral that is not easy to reverse. But, I agree we cannot do it without outside help.

  • Jim_Riggs

    If I had to bet I’d say prop 8 and doma will go down.

    • Viet71

      My bet: Prop 8 survives, DOMA does not.

      Prop 8 can’t be faulted on Equal Protection grounds; the precedents just aren’t there. Gays can’t claim “strict scrutiny” for right-to-marry laws. (Sorry leftists, Loving v. Virginia involved race-based discrimination, which IS subject to strict scrutiny.)

      Prop 8 only can be faulted on some new notion of liberty fashioned on the Due Process Clause. The Court has found a zone of privacy inherent in the Due Process Clause (e.g., Lawrence v. Texas and Roe v. Wade); but Prop 8 does not go to privacy (e.g., to conduct in private between consenting adults). It merely goes to a state’s definition of marriage. Prop 8 survives.

      DOMA on the other hand allows non-recognition in State B of lawful gay marriage in State A. Seems to me DOMA violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause. If it does, DOMA goes down.

      • californiasquish

        You sound like a lawyer, Viet71. Just wondering, did you read both briefs? I did, but as a non-professional, they we’re mostly over my head.

        The Bois brief took the stance that constitutionally, the government doesn’t legally have the right to STOP gays from legal marriage. First time I’d heard that take.

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    I’ve noticed today that some posts don’t appear, or disappear, or show up in the comment count but aren’t there in the thread. Anybody else notice that?

    • westcoastpatriette

      Yes, I’ve noticed. Some days Disqus is glitchier than others. A couple days ago, it was taking thirty minutes for a comment to show up in the feed. Grrrrr…..

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    I’m going to keep hammering on the sequester. Republicans should always point out that even WITH sequestration, Federal spending will go up $100 billion in 2013, maybe more. If bad things happen, it will be because the Prez wants them to.

    • gmat

      Exactly.

      It needs to be made explicit in all these conversations about sequester that the reduction of however many dollars it is, is merely a reduction in the increase.

      I still don’t understand why, if the House is serious about deficit reduction, it doesn’t simply freeze real spending at current levels, and let GDP catch up to it.

      • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

        That would be better than anything else we’ve done. Late, but better.

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    The Republican Party and its leadership are taking lots of hits recently from well-known conservatives and libertarians. Talk about third parties and RINOs abounds.

    IMHO, we are gradually winning the battle for control of the Republican party, so I’d hate to see conservatives abandon it for a third party. I’d rather see folks like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and Rand Paul start trying to change the outlook of the RINOsaurs and move them to the right. If nothing else, it would give them practice at changing other people’s minds.

    Hard-right conservatives aren’t numerous enough to take over just the Rep Party. They aren’t going to win national elections in a third party. With old-guard support, however, they CAN win elections as Republicans, and within the party, too. I still contend that we’d have won a few more Senate seats if the old-guard Repubs who lost in primaries would have come out strongly in support of the new blood.

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    I see the sequester number has gone back to $85 billion from $44 billion after starting at $85 billion. Don’t the talking heads see the weirdness of that?

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    If all the programs the Prez is crying about were indeed cut back as he claims, the budget would be in balance next year.

  • http://www.TerriersOfTheRight.blogspot.com Flagstaff

    This week should be practice for the debt ceiling fight. Time to stand firm.