Melanie Morgan

While the national political scene is riveted by the nearly trillion dollar bail-out plan that everyone is fighting over, California Republicans were busy with something more important – REVENGE..

For the record, I was "inside the bubble" near Disneyland with State Republicans in Anaheim, California...we came, we saw, we kvetched. Yeah, lots of talking, networking, meetings, workshops, speeches and drainkin', so all in all, the state GOP had a highly successful bi-annual convention.

I was honored to participate in an Alternative Media panel with Jon Fleischman of the FlashReport (a highly prestigous state political website) and to be able to speak to the California Federation of Republican Women. Although the Federation doesn't get the publicity of other so-called "women's groups" such as the leftist and socialist National Organization of Women, the National Federation of Republican Women actually supports women in the choices we make every day.

You know, if Republican women choose to work outside of the home (and we all know that every woman works full-time in the home even while carrying a full-time job elsewhere,) then we are still good Republicans. But the bra-burners on the left can't stomach the real choices that real women make every day. They prefer that women have one child, drive a Volvo with an Obama sticker on the back, and wear pantsuits that would look better on an undertaker than a woman.

But I digress.

I promised some inside stuff, gossipy items and my observations. So let's begin with the backroom moves of some conservatives to insert language into the official paper thingy-bob that deliberately snubbed Governor Schwarzenegger by not praising him. Yes, that is how it sometimes works at these conventions. The most conservative of the Assembly caucus members praised themselves for stopping any tax increase (well-deserved, I might add) but did not point out the Governor's role in the sausage-making of the budget this year (finally signed last week.)

Bottom line: The Governor doesn't like conservative Republicans, and conservative Republicans do not like him. While nobody was (publicly) supporting a Democrat sponsored movement to Recall Arnold Schwarzenegger, many of us are certainly tempted. However, the GOP has bigger fish to fry, and I smell some B.O. stink over the campfire right now. 

Although I skipped the Schwarzenkennedy dinner on Friday night because I really dislike our Governor -- his left-wing politics and global warming baloney chief among the reasons (and the fact that he won't even speak to the Republicans in his own party) I did enjoy a delightful dinner Saturday evening at the head table, listening to Governor Mitt Romney's speech.

I will admit that I was simply dazzled by Romney's speech which showed a far-ranging grasp of economic, social and foreign policy issues that I never heard during the campaign. Maybe because he's just too good looking. I will admit now, publicly, that I held that against Governor Romney. I figured that a candidate right out of Central Casting couldn't be that smart. Boy, was I wrong.

And I apologize to the entire world. Truly.

Romney is a brainiac, and I missed the boat. Damn.

Two final things of note. The GOP is going to be super lucky if we nominate Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner for California Governor two years from now.

Poizner has been quietly funding voter registration drives in California for the Republican party, when the CRP was too broke and distracted from intramural fighting to get things done on its own. Poizner is SUPER smart, very talented, and humble as well. Oh, and rich. He invented that GPS device inside your cellphone. He sold SnapTrack for one billion dollars.

But as the San Jose Mercury reports, its going to be a crowded field in 2010.

....First, Poizner will have to navigate a GOP primary. Earlier this summer, former Silicon Valley congressman and Schwarzenegger finance director Tom Campbell formed an exploratory committee. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a billionaire, is also believed to be interested in running for the state's top job. All three are considered social moderates and fiscal conservatives.

Count me on the Poizner band-wagon.

Finally, CRP Vice-Chair Tom Del Beccero is doing an excellent job organizing Republicans in this state, fund-raising as well as recruiting qualified candidates. In short, he's ready to assume leadership of the party when Ron Nehring steps down.

And that's all good. Because as California goes, so goes the rest of the country. And we don't wish ourselves on the rest of the country. It would simply be too painful.

Wrong on so many levels.