California: Carly Fiorina

Links a-plenty:

• Carly Fiorina has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I know she was considering a 2010 Senate run against Barbara Boxer.  I agree with approximately none of her policy prescriptions for the country, but I wish her the best.

• It's considered a great victory that the members of the California Congressional delegation are sitting down to a meeting together.  That's because it's the first one in two years.  Maybe they can talk about that proposal to split the state in two, therefore ending the need to have such meetings!

• This is truly incredible.  You may remember that Duf Sundheim, a former chair of the Yacht Party, started a group called "California Republicans Aligned for Tomorrow" (CRAFT, a synonym for yacht) designed to recruit moderate candidates and take back California for Christ the Republicans.

Hey Big Daddy,
As a Republican, a real Republican, I can’t wait until 2010. What’s your sense of the Republican gubernatorial field?
--Hopeful in Hanford

Dear Hopeful,

I don’t mean to undermine your very core, given your moniker and all, but I’m not sure I’d get my hopes up if I were you.
I will say this – I admire your spirit. Where else but California can you have a party that is quickly becoming marginalized and regionalized - a party that has lost its grip on the Legislature, most Constitutional offices and, given the events of last weekend, reality – and still think you’ve got a real shot at grabbing the brass ring?

I’m not saying Republicans have no chance in 2010, but it’s going to take some kind of pocketbook to make that happen.

Former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican National Committee "Victory 2008" chairwoman Carly Fiorina said she isn't ready yet to declare whether or not she will run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010.

And in a remarkable speech to Republican Party activists in Sacramento, the corporate chairwoman who was forced out with a $42 million golden parachute, said her party "can never defend greed and excess."

In a brief interview, after first saying she wasn't granting media interviews, Fiorina indicated she is at least mulling a U.

Barack Obama may have just racked up the biggest Democratic election victory margin in California since FDR. But that isn't stopping Republican Party A-listers from descending on Sacramento for this month's California Republican Party Spring Convention.

The guest list for Feb. 20-22 conference at the Hyatt Recency includes former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney, current South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and conservative author/pundit William Bennett.

The convention is also drawing top CA-listers actively plotting gubernatorial bids or mentioned as potential candidates. They include former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Rep. Darrell Issa and 2002 GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon.