He is a disaster.

I remember how he insulted Vice-chair Tom Del Baccaro as he had just won election as Vice-chair. He made some sort of slip about an issue that had come up during a bruising campaign that supposedly revolved around a police scuffle. I remember his hiring of an illegal alien to a high profile position at the California Republican Party, and his vapid blackberry emails from the Republican National Convention. I was thinking at the time, “what a loser, doesn’t this guy have something productive to do?” Yet all we do is just keep on losing!

If California Republicans really want to improve the party to win elections the California Republican Party (CRP) needs to change the leadership at the state and local levels. But as inviting as that idea is, it may be an impossible task.

The ultimate problem with the CRP may be that the only folks who are left to support the CRP are the people who support the extremely conservative policies of the CRP. So in a way, the CRP’s fate is sealed. Moderates/Liberals or Independents who are Republicans or are inclined to vote Republican are repulsed by the dogma of the current super conservative leadership.

These folks like the CRP or their local county central committee just the way it is. That is it. No room for anyone who is outside the lines of ideology. The results speak for themselves. The state and local parties continue to lose elections and voter registration continues to shrink.

You know what? I think it is just fine. Let the conservatives have their way. The CRP and all its local branches are a monument to a failed brand of conservatism where nothing is conservative enough.

So forget about changing the party. The cake is baked. Therefore the time has come to do something to celebrate the accomplishments of California conservatism. They should erect a Museum of Conservatism. The museum should be erected in Orange County, the citadel of right wing thought. There should be local branches or franchises in every county in California.

School children in California could have tours as part of California history. Imagine your children touring the Museum of Conservatism, with a Ronald “Ray Gun” section with a simulated Berlin wall for the kids to climb over and a simulated Missile Defense shoot down game where laser beams shoot out of Reagan’s eyes as they blast ICBM’s out of the sky.

There could be a George W. Bush tax cut monopoly type game where you could cut taxes and try to balance the federal budget via greater government spending. In Contra Costa, there could be a Contra Costa Museum of Conservatism with a wing dedicated to local conservatives. I am sure there would be a lot of folks we can all think of locally who could have their own wing or display to the “beloved” leader.

So I say, let the conservatives have the Republican Party. They have pretty much run everybody else out of the party anyway who does not toe their losing line. Now, when I run into these folks, I will be sure to give them all correct ideological questions so they feel comfortable and know that the party is in safe hands, and that even though the party will continue to lose both elections and members, there will always be a shining museum in Orange County or their local county where the fires of the faith burn brightly.

THE RON REPORT — PRE-ELECTION EDITION.

I know what you’re asking. What do they mean pre-election edition? The election was just held. True. But the real election doesn’t happen until February 2009 when Chairman Ron Nehring runs for re-election as Party Chairman. That election for President we just had was just the “warm-up” act for the main event.

And to start, Chairman Ron welcomes his Board of Directors to the newly minted Democrat county of San Diego on Friday for a Board meeting where he will attempt to explain the following:

A) How John McCain lost California by the largest percentage of an Republican presidential candidate in over four decades
B) How under his watch Republicans have lost five counties in voter registration to the Democrats, including the important counties of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino
C) How Chairman Ron presided over the defeat of two open Republican Assembly seats both in southern California, one of which in San Diego
D) Why Chairman Ron sat in his car playing with his Blackberry instead of knocking on doors with one of the loosing Republican Assembly candidates

Two years ago the Grassroots Champion promised us that we would have an organization worthy of our ideas. So what failed, our organization, our ideas, or our Chairman?

From the campaign trail…the Ron Report heard over and over from candidates and their staff that the Chairman didn’t want to go out precinct walking with the candidates, and when he did make the trip he wouldn’t even get out of the car. One such campaign official in Riverside noted… I couldn’t believe what I saw. Nehring came to knock on doors, but all he did was sit in his car and play with his blackberry. Maybe Ron was too busy or too shy to actually meet voters. Talking to real people can be scary.

Candidates are also complaining that Nehring refused to make a single donor call to help our targeted districts. As legislators and board members were out making phone calls, raising money, and trying to salvage some of these races, Nehring was jet-setting around the world teaching people what he refused to do…build an organization by rolling up your sleeves and working….living up to the true adage, “Do as I say, not as I do” or the other appropriate adage “You got a problem? I got a flight to Dubai. Goodbye.”

But back here at home, our Republican Women’s Federated organization continues to do the heavy lifting in voter registration. According to one of our Women’s Federated - the San Diego Party only registered 1200 Republicans in the past year. That’s what happens when your San Diego County Chairman is being the bell boy for the Robin Leach of State Party Chairmen.

All that foreign travel has paid dividends.

Under Ron’s leadership the State Party had to deal with an immigration scandal that made us the laughing stock in the nation, and the butt of jokes on late night TV shows. Somehow Chairman Nehring never understood that hiring an illegal alien who sued the federal government, and hiring a Canadian citizen to be the Party’s political director, would cause a problem. It’s no wonder the Party sunk into debt, and no wonder that Chairman Nehring refused to ever pick up the phone and make one phone call to ask a donor for money – even though he teaches fundraising at the Leadership Institute.

The only person who should be more upset than Republican activists and donors is our good friend Sam Hardage from San Diego. Sam is Ron’s mentor and “benefactor.” We hear Sam pays Ron $160,000 a year to build a grassroots conservative movement in California. Sam should fire Ron and demand his money back for lack of productivity.

And so should we.

California Party Chair, Ron Nehring, is accused by influential Republicans at the state level of organizational incompetence, and poor electoral performance.

We have been reporting the exact same symptoms here in Contra Costa County, where County Party Chairman and Vice Chair of the Republican State Party Committee, Tom G. Del Beccaro, in an apparent microcosm of the State party’s woes, has also managed to turn the Republican Central Committee into a Mickey Mouse Club.

Is it too late for the Terminator to step in and save the party’s chestnut (yes, just one) from the fire? Continuing with this group of Keystone Kops would certainly damage McCain in November, as well as Ahhnold’s Senatorial ambition, don’t ya’ think? As the line from T2 says: “Sarah Connor, if you want to live, come with me now.”