My wife, Los Angeles County Republican Chairman Linda Boyd, and I went to the annual Orange County Republican Party Flag Day Dinner yesterday at the gracious invitation of Orange County Republican printer extraordinaire Jim Bieber of Bieber Communications.

It was a great event with over 900 attendees and an all star lineup featuring dozens of Republican elected officials and two Republican Governors. One of them, Charlie Crist of Florida, is on the short list to be Vice-President of the United States. The other, Dino Rossi of Washington, was mugged by local Democrats and robbed of his victory in 2004 on the THIRD vote recount after hundreds of mystery ballots appeared in King County (almost all cast for Democrats). The Registrar-Recorder for King County in 2004? Dean Logan, now the Acting Registrar-Recorder for Los Angeles County. Bad choice - but I digress...

Crist launched into an enthusiastic speech punctuated every couple of minutes with a clear applause line, to which the audience dutifully responded with enthusiastic applause. I winced when he mistakenly said that our great Governor and President Ronald Reagan hailed from Orange County ( hint - the initials are L.A.).

The whole audience winced when Crist talked about the wonderful job being done by our own Governor Schwarzenegger. There was a smattering of quickly stopped applause and a lot of discontented muttering. Surprised, Crist momentarily lost his place and the murmuring continued. "OK, I get it" he finally managed and gamely continued on.

California Republicans are collectively wincing as we wait for the other shoe to drop in our unfolding state budget disaster. "Fee" increases are just fine says the Governor. There are increasing signs that even this fig leaf will soon be dropped as the lottery trial balloon gets filled full of holes and the projected deficit creeps upward daily. If only our Governor would "get it" - we need to cut spending and live within our means.

Linda and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to venture behind the Orange Curtain and see how the other half lives. You know, the one where Republicans run the county, all the cities, and comprise almost the entire legislative and congressional delegation. We have dreams like that here in L.A. County. Wonderful dreams...