Oh, wait, Dana's just spending taxpayer dollars making town hall calls and sending out franked mail touting his environmentalism and concern for clean air.

No campaign office. No staff other than his wife, who's on his payroll as a full time employee. An upgraded campaign web site - oh no that was his taxpayer-funded congressional website he upgraded.

Just spending our tax dollars to run his campaign

Walking precincts or vacationing using campaign funds?

I suspect its the latter. Let's check her campaign reports to see just how much she spent on transportation, lodging, and dining while on the Island. My bet is that she stayed at the Wrigley Mansion B&B.

This is why the GOP has lost so many center-rights like myself (well, one of the reasons, where do I start?).

"Wild-eyed radical leftist talks to voters!" This is controversial? This is news? It's called campaigning, for the love of Mike, and paying attention to constituents.

While Vladimir Putin is trying to make John McCain look good so he can have a four-year free-pass in a world free of US influence, the GOP is complaining that a Democratic candidate is out talking to voters.

Please, stop. You're embarassing all of us who used to vote for the formerly-Grand Old Party.

Hey, Chris:

Whose complaining?

I wasn't. You might try re-reading the post before complaining "this is why I left the GOP, blah, blah, blah."

OK, then I just don't get your point. "Debbie Cook Walking Precincts...On Catalina Island". So, what's the story, if not the fact that she is walking precincts "..." on Catalina Island?

If she is a long-shot then she needs every vote she can get, and voters live on Catalina Island, no?

I will admit I'm so frustrated with the GOP that I can't see much good in it anywhere I look - today's GOP would make Reagan choke, much less Lincoln - but if your post isn't about how silly it is to go press the flesh (a former GOP strong point), then what is it about?

Chris:

There are hundreds of thousands of voters in CD-46. If you're a longshot candidate, you don't waste time going all the way to Catalina Island to talk to a few of them. She wasted at least 5-6 hours just traveling back-and-forth...5 to 6 hours that could be spent walking nearby precincts on the mainland.

I agree there's much about how the national GOP has behaved these last few years that would leave Reagan shaking his head, but I'm not certain you and I agree on what those things are.

But no way in this Earth would Ronald Reagan consider, for even a micro-second, supporting Debbie Cook.

Mr. Blask:

The point that Jubal - who is actually a seasoned political operative - was trying to make was that the 46th Congressional District is a huge constituency and the time Mayor Cook expended on traveling to campaign in an area that is so small and remote that it may not be the best use of the precious resource of time.

He's not suggesting she shouldn't engage in retail politics, but rather be more judicious in where she chooses to campaign.

But it's her race and she can do wahetever she wants.

Reagan may not have voted for Cook, but he's been turned into an Evangelical Intrusive Goverment icon (when he was neither). Lincoln would just hang his head in shame (could you *imagine* what he would say at the contention?).

Debbie Cook has a perspective and she is trying to get that across to people. You may not agree with her, but why all the garbage about what she is doing. Every candidate for everything is spending campaign dollars campaigning. It is extremely sad that all you complainers and whiners can't focus on any issues - if the "burn-up the world because I am more important than anything or anyone else in it and who the heck cares anyway if we kill off everything in the process" candidates do their job, they will get out there and campaign. Let's try focusing on the issues, not the fact that Ms. Cook is actually out there trying to push her perspective as our democratic system is supposed to support.

Chris:

You are forgetting who brought the evangelical Right into the Republican Party: Ronald Reagan.

Old Lady:

Thank you for trying tell a political blogger that he can't comment on politics.

From now on, we'll only talk about what you want us to talk about.

I certainly haven't agreed with every decision of the Cook campaign. And I have been particularly vocal about the wisdom of their use of the candidate's time. But, having said that, I don't have any issue AT ALL regarding their decision to send her to Avalon for a few hours 3 months out.
Last I checked, Avalon is a part of CD 46. And there are a number of voters there who might feel as if their current representative forgets them out there. How is it much different from driving a good hour from HB to Palos Verdes and back? And with 21st Century technology, an efficient candidate would spend time in the car returning calls or raising money. Perhaps review paperwork if the boat is out of cell range.
But I'm glad the folks here at OCBlog think enough of Mayor Cook to keep track of her campaign and complain. When you guys start going after Steve Young and Bill Hedrick, I'll have to reevaluate their viability.

Nicely done, Publius: spin criticism of a campaign's direction into fear of that campaign.

Let's see: an hour to get on the boat, an hour across to the island (if she caught the faster boats), and hour back, and another hour back to HB. If everything goes your way. All to knock on a few hundred doors in Avalon...maybe, if she works fast.

Genius.

With 21st Century technology, as you say, an efficient candidate would find other ways to communicate with the fine voters of Avalon and dedicate his or her time reaching out to voters who are more easily reached out to.

Have you heard about this????

America’s “Wrath of Khaan” – The Truth About Condoleezza Rice

By J. Richard Hollingsworth

The facts fit together like a well-crafted John LeCarre spy novel. While some Americans speculate that presidential candidate Barrack Hussein Obama may be a “Manchurian Candidate”, a close examination of the facts points in another direction. History has shown us that the biggest threats to governments are often not the leaders themselves, but the confidants and closest advisors to the leaders. Consider these facts about American Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice:

• Her unusual name “Condoleezza”, we are told, is “Italian”. A similar sounding name, Khaandolizhad, is mentioned eighteen times in the Koran, the Muslim Bible. Roughly translated, the name means “(female) servant of Allah”. It is a common name among Muslim women in North Africa. Young Muslim girls with that name often go by the nickname “Khaan” or “Khaandi”, a homonym for “Condi”. Try as I may, I have yet to find a record of an Italian woman named “Condoleezza”.

• No one seems to know the middle name of Dr. Rice. The only information that general searches show is that it may begin with “H”. Tracing back her genealogy, we find several ancestors with the name “Hassan”. Hassan is a North African derivation of the common Middle Eastern name “Hussein”. This is similar to the difference between the English name “Smythe” and the American version “Smith”.

• Dr. Rice has a cousin in Los Angeles who still uses the original version of the surname “Rice”, before it was Americanized decades ago. The cousin, Edward Mustaffa “Rischad”, is a known member of a black Muslim organization in Los Angeles, California. The surname “Rischad” is a shortened version of the North African/Middle Eastern Muslim surname “al-Rischad”. Therefore, using her original names, Dr. Rice would be “Khaandolizhad Hussan al-Rischad”.

• Little is known about the childhood of Condoleezza Rice. Many of the records that would shed some light are not accessible through the Freedom of Information Act. They have been sealed due to Patriot Act restrictions. (Much of the Patriot Act was drafted by Dr. Rice when she was National Security Advisor). It is known however that as a young girl, Condoleezza Rice traveled widely and frequently outside the United States with her parents, often for months at a time. Much of her early schooling took place on foreign soil. She speaks several foreign languages, including Russian and Farsi.

• President George W. Bush had no foreign policy experience upon taking office in 2000 (it should be noted that he had never traveled outside the U.S. prior to his presidency). To remedy this deficiency, a small advisory group was formed to provide intensive education in foreign affairs for Mr. Bush. The group was headed by Dr. Rice. The main topic at most sessions concerned what Dr. Rice called “the growing threat of Iraq”. The threat of Usama bin Laden and al-Qaeda was not discussed.

• Secular Sunni Muslin Saddam Hussein was the sworn enemy of the Shiite Muslim Usama bin Laden.

• Iran was the sworn enemy of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

• In August of 2001 a memo titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S.”, written by then U.S. Chief of Counterterrorism Richard A. Clarke, was presented to the National Security Advisor (NSA), Condoleezza Rice. Dr. Rice never passed the memo on to President George W. Bush, citing later that the memo contained “no actionable intelligence”.

• While all air travel in the US was grounded on 9/11, all US based members of Usama bin Laden’s family were allowed to travel by air out of the country. This exception to the air traffic ban was authorized by the National Security Advisor, Condeleezza Rice.

• After 9/11, Dr. Rice was a major force in convincing President Bush that there must be a link between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and that war with Iraq was an absolute necessity.

Was Dr. Khanndolizhad Hussan al-Rischad AKA Condoleezza Rice in collusion with Usama bin Laden and the government of Iran, with the ultimate goal of influencing the President of the United States to use the greatest fighting force in the history of the world to remove the mortal enemy of both bin Laden and Iran? Just a theory, but one that should not be readily dismissed. And remember, insiders say that the most likely 2012 Republican nominee for President will be Dr. Condoleezza Rice.

J. Richard Hollingsworth is a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Oxford University. He is a frequent contributor to the weekly London Conservative magazine.

Gee Jubalo - try reading your own words. If this is a political blog, don't we all have the right to blog our opinion. But, I guess this is "your blog" so no one with an opinion that you don't like gets to weigh in. Paaaardon Me! Dry your tears, I will leave you your ball and move on to someone else's blog where heated opinions are encouraged and enjoyed...I always thought that was what it was all about. NO dissidents need apply here :-)

But, I guess this is "your blog" so no one with an opinion that you don't like gets to weigh in.

I'm amazed I even have to explain something this obvious, but when you type in your comment and click the submit button, you are actually weighing in with your opinion.

And look -- it's still here, undisturbed!

Dry your tears, I will leave you your ball and move on to someone else's blog where heated opinions are encouraged and enjoyed

Do what you like. If you want to decamp for environs where your ramblings are coddled and go unchallenged, then vaya con Dios.

Jubal,

Have you ever considered picking up the phone and asking Mayor Cook a question or two?

She might surprie you.

She might surprie us all November 4