I’m sorry, I am still laughing my ass off over this one and it is really a serious subject. If you haven’t seen the headline by now, it’s because the Register hid it on the Watchdog page where only the political junkies hang out. I can’t tell you if it hit the print page because I stopped my subscription long ago (note to delivery department – you can stop delivering the Sunday paper). I actually got this off the Sacramento Bee website which referred me back to the Register story. See what I go through to get you the truth?

It seems the former California GOP Chairman and all-things-OCGOP honcho Mike Schroeder found himself in a bit of hot water a few days ago. And, he did it in our town Tustin. It seems he was casually weaving from side to side on the southbound 55 around 3am at Edinger Avenue when the CHP noticed he was taking up more than his  allotted number of lanes. The officer that stopped him noted all the usual stuff you will see in a report on someone under the influence: watery eyes, slurred speech and that ever-present strong odor of alcoholic beverage (the Register, like most newspapers says alcohol. But alcohol has no odor in itself – it’s the beverage the officer smells – LEO101). They gave him a field sobriety test which, according to the report, he did not perform satisfactorily (I guess there is liability in saying he failed the test). So, they hauled him in and gave him a blood test, the results of which are pending.

Schoeder is the husband of Orange County District Attorney Spokewoman, Susan Kang Schroeder, who has been called the “dragon lady of Orange County” in some circles. In other circles, she has been called much worse. She was implicated in the termination debacle of OC Supervisor-elect Tod Spitzer, who accused her of masterminding a plot on behalf of her boss, Tony Rackauckus and fallen Public Guardian, John Williams over Tony’s beloved who worked for Williams. Of course, like good Republicans, they all came out of the dungpile smelling like a rose.

Farrah Emami, the real spokesperson for the OCDA’s office (but not for T-rack), said the case would be turned over to the Attorney General’s Office due to the relationship of Schroeder’s wife with the DA’s office. This is pretty good, considering our Attorney General, Kamala Harris, is a hardcore Democrat, just left of Karl Marx. When Al Stokke, another political hack here in the Real OC and Schroeder’s attorney said Schroeder would “deal with it responsibly”, I wonder if he realized the implications.

We wait avidly to see the outcome of this case. Schroeder, who everyone says is the DA’s closest personal advisor, will have a hard time getting out of this one. On the other hand, lots of people get busted for DUI and go on with their lives. I am still trying to figure out how he lived down this photo of him and Susan published in the OC Weekly last year.