CAN ANGELIDES TURN THE BEAT AROUND? HE'S GOT A GREAT IDEA... ABOUT IRAQ

I rarely get out. But last night I wound up at a dinner party with some very well-connected Democrats. I left at midnight and got home at 1 AM, a time I haven't seen in years. Between midnight and 1 AM I was really depressed. Maybe I just shouldn't go out any more at all. But as I rumaged around in my brain for the root causes of my depression, I stumbled across what was bothering me (most). Everyone there agreed, some rather too wholeheartedly, that Phil Angelides is not only going to be beaten by Schwarzenegger but that he would be beaten really badly and that he has no chance whatsoever. "No one will give him a dime," one of my dinner companions imparted with what seemed like a feeling of some kind of satisfaction. Put me right into a funk.

I haven't written much about the California gubernatorial race-- except when he made the fairly, and wonderfully, radical move to endorse the Clean Elections Proposition, 89. It's been kind of lackluster, with Schwarzenegger trying to pass himself off as progressive while footsie-playing-Democrats who want to run for governor in 2010 doing whatever they can to subtly sabotage Angelides. Angelides has had some good TV ads but the campaign doesn't seem to have taken off. It's what everyone seems to always talk about. But there was one thing that slipped out in the dinner chit chat last night and I'm pretty sure it wasn't told to me in confidence.

Angelides, they told me-- and they know-- is about the announce that on his first day as governor he'll call Bush and tell him he wants to withdraw all California's National Guard troops from the occupation of Iraq. Can this turn the race around? No one at the dinner party thought so. The mass media has been studiously avoiding Angelides' campaign and is 100% behind Schwarzenegger. Let's see what happens with the bombshell this week.


UPDATE: L.A. TIMES BEATS ME TO THE PUNCH

Within minutes of publishing the above, the phone started ringing and 3 calls in a row were about the L.A. Times scoop. Oh well... I hope it makes an impression.