Not wishy-washy about wishes

Alicia Robinson

Local legislators are simple people, at least if you look at their

holiday wish lists. Nobody wanted a private jet or world peace --

well, maybe world peace.

“I think in the grand scheme of things, locally I’m looking for a

very productive and healthy year for Newport Beach, and I’m looking

forward to serving as mayor,” Newport Beach mayor Steve Bromberg

said. “And I wish health and safety to all our [military] service

people.”

State Sen. John Campbell said he and his family quit exchanging

gifts on Christmas about 15 years ago, an idea he got from former

President George Bush and his wife Barbara.

Campbell does want something for Christmas, but it’s rather a tall

order -- a spending limit on state government.

“I’m typically a very low-maintenance guy when it comes to

Christmas,” 70th District Assemblyman Chuck DeVore said.

“I’d like to see a reapportionment initiative passed that would

cause the statewide design of fair [legislative] districts.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher wants a few extra sets of hands, because his

have been full with the triplets his wife had in April.

“I want all of my friends and family to continue volunteering to

help us with our triplets,” he said. “There’s no other gift that

would come close to bringing more joy into my life.”

And Rohrabacher’s GOP colleague, Rep. Chris Cox, has a twofold

wish -- that the Anaheim Angels make it to the playoffs next year,

and that he gets tickets to the games.

Back to homeland security turf wars

After some brief downtime for Christmas, Cox will head back to

Washington next week to continue hammering out the future of the

House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, which he

chairs.

Congress will vote Jan. 4 on making the committee permanent, and

Cox said he’s confident that it will be approved.

“The question is what we’ll be asked to vote on, and what will the

authority of that committee look like?” Cox said.

The problem continues to be whether other House committee leaders

will cede jurisdiction to Homeland Security. There are 78

congressional committees, and subcommittees have jurisdiction in

homeland security issues.

But the Transportation and Infrastructure and Judiciary committees

have complained loudest about losing power. Questions include who

will have authority over the U.S. Coast Guard and Secret Service.

“That is a very dramatic tug-of-war going on in Congress right

now,” Cox said. “If Congress reaches a political accommodation in

order to protect ancient turf, we will have made matters even worse.”

Cox is optimistic, because he has the support of the president as

well as the House speaker and several key committee chairmen, he

said.

Congressman checks in on election aftermath

In an effort to promote free and fair elections, Rohrabacher spent

the last week in the Ukraine, meeting with political leaders and

students whose demonstrations led the government to scrap an earlier

presidential election that international observers believe was

rigged.

The trip was made by a six-member Congressional delegation that

visited Ukrainian Parliamentary officials, campaign managers for the

two leading candidates and doctors for candidate Viktor Yushchencko,

who is recovering from being poisoned.

The most inspiring part of the trip was meeting with student

activists still demonstrating to keep the world’s attention focused

on their country until fair elections can be held, Rohrabacher said.

“It was freezing cold, and they’re camped out there, but their

idealism was enough to keep everybody warm,” he said.

The trip also had another purpose for Rohrabacher -- gearing him

up for leadership of a House subcommittee. His chairmanship of the

House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee has ended due to term

limits, but he expects to be named head of a subcommittee of the

International Relations Committee, he said.