The Skinny

The churn in the Capitol Press Corps these days is matched only by the turnover in the Schwarzenegger administration. Already this year, the governor has lost a cabinet secretary, Dan Dunmoyer, a legislative secretary, Chris Kahn, and a senior policy adviser to polcy, Daniel Zingale. Other recent defections include Dunmoyer’s top deptuy in the Cabinet department, Elizabeth Ashford. Add top speechwriter Gary Delsohn to the list. Delsohn, a former Capitol reporter for the Sacramento Bee, has taken a job as the vice president for communications for the Irvine Co. As the name suggests, the job is in Southern California, and the 20-year Sacramento resident will be relocating to the O.C. … We must say that we found it interesting the way the news of a budget deal worked out. It seemed as if one member of the Big 5 was talking relatively openly about the deal being done, while others were mum on specifics. But when the specifics did come, we noticed, it wasn’t the package of spending cuts that first leaked into the hands of the press. It was the car, sales and gas tax hikes that Republican lawmakers are going to have to answer for among their conservative constituents. Make of that what you will…And we were a bit disappointed to learn that the Meg Whitman For Dog Catcher drama has been put to sleep. Whitman’s tiff with Santa Monica blogger cybersquattter Thomas Hall was settled this week out of court. Which means that Whitman is free to update the Whitman for Dog Catcher site at her leisure. We can hardly wait…