"Abel Maldonado gets his hearing in the Assembly Rules
Committee today, where he will face a lot more hostility
than he did in the Senate. Three members of the Assembly
Latino Caucus will hold a morning press conference
to call for Maldo's rejection before the committee
meets to begin the longest judgement process since Cerberus was in
charge. And sometime this week, we expect the Assembly and
Senate to magically bring some kind of multi-billion dollar budget fix to the floor. Don't blink,
or you may miss it...
Back to Maldo, George Skelton opines tubing the Maldoando nomination brings dangers for
Democrats.
"The Assembly, long considered the Legislature's kindergarten
--
especially under term limits -- is tilting toward playing politics.
He's not a member of that house, so there's no sense
of family loyalty.
The Rules Committee is scheduled to take up the nomination
Monday
afternoon.
"All I'm asking for is a fair hearing," Maldonado says.
"I hope it doesn't get personal."
All indications are they'll give him a "fair" hearing
and then erect the gallows. It won't be personal. Just
politics."
Hard to imagine the U.S. Senate race in the post-demon sheep era, but Seema Mehta has moved on. Today,
she looks at how the GOP candidates are stumping for the women's vote.
"Two of the major Republican candidates aiming to unseat
U.S. Sen.
Barbara Boxer made their case this weekend to the party's
most active
women, arguing that both Boxer's record and anti-incumbent sentiment
nationally have put momentum on their side."
In the governor's race, Ken McLaughlin looks at how
welfare is becoming an issue.
"Three decades after Ronald
Reagan catapulted the catchphrase "welfare queen" into
the political
lexicon — and 14 years after President Bill Clinton helped "end welfare
as we know it" — welfare has suddenly become a steamy political issue
in the California governor's race.
"GOP candidate Steve Poizner,
the state's insurance commissioner, first raised the
issue in October,
declaring that welfare should be a "transitional assistance
program,
not a permanent way of life." And last month Poizner's
opponent, former
eBay CEO Meg Whitman, made welfare reform the subject
of her first ad
focusing on a single policy issue."
Has the constitutional convention drive been blacklisted by signature-gathering firms? Propoents of the plan tell the CoCo Times they have.
"Repair California, the Bay
Area-based business group behind two initiatives that would
convene a
Constitutional Convention, has accused five firms of
blacklisting their
petitions, shouting down their volunteers, destroying
valid signatures
and intentionally submitting fake signatures.
"We have had
hundreds of reports from all over the state," said
Repair California
spokesman John Grubb. "I even received a death threat."
A couple other good reads for your Monday morning:
Dan Weintraub profiles Joe Simitian in the New York Times.
Cathy Decker looks at the surreal week that was in California politics.
Dan Balz puts California's budget problems in the national lens.
And finally, From our
Heart On for Haiti Files, AP reports, "A strip club in Ohio has raised $1,000 for Haitian earthquake relief during what was billed
as "
Lap dances for Haiti."
Marilyn's on Monroe in Toledo donated the $10 cover charges collected Saturday to ISOH (I-S-O-H)/IMPACT, an organization based in suburban Perrysburg
that provides food and clothing for Haiti.
"Marilyn's
general manager Kenny Soprano says his establishment
had been looking
for a reason to hold a charity fundraiser even before
the quake, as a
way to improve its image. He says you don't hear much
about strip clubs
giving back to the community."
Does that mean the lap dances are tax deductible?
