Rohrabacher voted for Lungren for House Minority Leader

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who represents the Palos Verdes Peninsula, voted for fellow California Rep. Dan Lungren for minority leader today.

Lungren lost to incumbent Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. Lungren's candidacy was considered a long shot, but evidently it gave some members -- including Rohrabacher -- to express their displeasure with the House GOP leadership.

These are tough times for the House GOP, having lost more than 50 members in the last two elections. Rohrabacher has made no secret of his belief that Boehner is not a true conservative, and is preparing to present his own ideas for the future of the Republican Party in short order. (Watch this space for more on that.)

Top of the agenda at the moment is a campaign to pardon two border agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are heroes of the anti-illegal immigration movement. Rohrabacher is pressing President George W. Bush to commute the agents' sentences of 11 and 12 years for charges related to the shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler as he fled from them.