A Flash is Panned

Buried in the coverage of Scott Baugh’s re-election to lead the Orange County GOP was the stunning upset of Flash Report publisher Jon Fleischman, who lost the first chairman seat to Villa Park council member Deborah Pauly, a Tea Partier who won the seat in a run-off.  Allan Bartlett finished a distant third.

Fleischman was the recipient of a glowing profile in Red County, but Fleischman’s loss underscores what we’ve been hearing about Johnny Flash in Republican circles in the OC for years — he isn’t well liked.

Our favorite part of this endorsement:

“California Democrats’ are ideologically bankrupt. They have no policy ideas other than the ones that drove this state into the economic ditch, and they are philosophically and politically incapable of doing what is necessary to revive California. They have complete ownership of the disaster, which means voters will be more inclined than they have in a generation to give a serious hearing to Republican ideas.

Right.  Consider the economic factors in California when the Flash Report was a leading proponent of the recall of Gray Davis.

Well, unemployment was about 6.7 percent when Gray Davis was swept out of office in 2003 and its believed to be over 12 percent now. But the Governor so glowingly promoted by Johnny Flash earned pitiful marks on his leadership.

The problem with California Republicans is that their idea of political compromise — compromise that is truly needed to govern — is that Democrats who hold majority positions throughout state government must govern according to Republican positions.  There is no such thing as a “half a loaf” with these guys.  It’s all or nothing.  And here’s a primary example of their approach.  This post on Red County last night is nothing short of hysterical. 

Tony Beall’s diatribe against John Alpay who in Beall’s opinion is a “dangerous, dishonest, unprincipled and unstable political opportunist — a RINO sellout willing to say and do anything in order to achieve his own selfish ambitions.  Quite frankly, I believe Mr. Alpay is a disgrace to the Republican Party and should be publicly censured for his wrongful actions.” 

On a Alpay’s many sins: running on a non-partisan slate with liberals against GOP endorsed candidates (never mind that those GOP office holders were train wrecks in CUSD). Of course, school board elections are non-partisan affairs and never mind that the recall slate won by huge margins.  But it paints a stunning picture of how out of touch some Republicans are when it comes to actually governing (winning electioons, I’ll concede, they are good at; governing…not so much).

On a separate note, Fleischman still needs to atone for what he knew about the corrupt and convicted felon disgraced ex-sheriff Mike Carona while Fleischman was Carona’s flack at the Sheriff’;s Office.

The Flash Report blog was pretty much created and run while Fleischman was a county employee.

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