Well I'm going to surf city, gonna have some fun

The Orange Country Register usually has a predictibly insane OpEd page, with such syndicated columnists as Ann Coulter, Larry Elder, George Will and corporatist tool John Stossel, and the vile scratches called Mike Shelton drawings.

Mostly a doctrinaire Libertarian rag, the Register veers toward hard core right winger ideology pretty comfortably, both in its reporting, and on the OpEd page. That's why it's refreshing to see them call criminal Repubs out:

Felony charges were filed this week against 12 signature gatherers accused of registering Orange County voters as Republicans without their consent – part of a criminal probe into voter flipping.

An Orange County Register investigation in April found that more than 100 people who thought they were signing petitions to cure breast cancer and punish child molesters were duped into registering as Republicans. The signature gatherers were part of an Orange County Republican registration drive that paid up to $10 for each "convert," especially in the heated state 34th Senate District.

In a joint investigation by the California Secretary of State and the Orange County Office of the District Attorney, each defendant was charged Tuesday with two to four counts of falsifying a voter registration card. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of three years in state prison. Many defendants had not been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.

News of the arrest warrants brought applause from a local Republican Party battered by scandal, most recently the investigation into a threatening letter sent to Hispanic voters by congressional candidate Tan Nguyen.

Applause? Not sure I believe that. Of course, crocodile tears would be shed by Repub leadership, but I'm pretty sure in private they're singing a different tune about the loss of registrations. And representing the petitions as being about breast cancer? 3 words: Die in Hell.

And about that Tan Nguyen fellow, another proud Orange County Republican. Looks like some bickering among the Repub Intelligentsia:

Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh has disputed GOP congressional candidate Tan Nguyen's claim that he had no knowledge of the mailing of a controversial letter erroneously telling immigrants not to vote.

Nguyen said earlier today in a statement that the mailing had been traced back to his campaign, and had occurred without his knowledge. Baugh disagreed.

Lest anyone mistake Scott Baugh as having some integrity, however, remember, he's this Scott Baugh:

Attorney General Bill Lockyer has dropped criminal charges against Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) stemming from a plot to plant a decoy Democrat in a 1995 Assembly special election. Though the state Fair Political Practices Commission may yet fine Baugh, Lockyer's move would pretty much wrap up a case that has been thoroughly dissected by the local media-except for one nagging detail: Orange County Register reporter Jean O. Pasco's effort to keep Congressman Dana Rohrabacher out of the scandal.

Bastard.