CRUSH ON RUSH: Conservative TV-radio commentator Rush...

CRUSH ON RUSH: Conservative TV-radio commentator Rush Limbaugh is one of those you either love or hate--and Ruth Calvert of Orange loves him. She’s organized California’s first Rush Limbaugh Club. . . . “He provides an important message, with a little bit of humor,” says Calvert. The group holds its first meeting today. One guest is state Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange), who has joined. Followers will also listen to his 9-to-noon radio broadcast during the meeting.

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HIS INQUIRING MIND: Another conservative who prompts love or hate emotions: Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), a 1996 presidential hopeful. His detractors use adjectives they’d usually reserve for, say the National Enquirer. . . . But wait a minute, here’s Dornan this week, writing about Medicare fraud, for . . . the National Enquirer. It’s wrapped around an ad for minimizer bras. Explains a Dornan aide: “If you can make it in the supermarket tabloids, you can make it anywhere.”

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CLEAR THE AIR? Buena Park Councilwoman Rhonda J. McCune, new president of the League of California Cities’ local chapter, worries about the recession, transportation and state-mandated air quality standards. . . . “How can you stimulate the economy and encourage business, and still work with the Air Quality Management District, which is driving business out?” she says. “What good is clean air or good roads, if we don’t have jobs and commerce?”

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GETTING AWARE: Barring an act of nature, there will be NO earthquake at the Brea Mall today. It will just look like one. . . . The mall is staging a simulated quake to test its emergency preparedness plan. It will be before stores open, but employees will be scattered about the floor, as if injured. Police officers, firefighters, and Brea Community and St. Jude hospitals will be involved too. If a real earthquake hits, says mall spokeswoman Susan Barben, “You would probably be safer here than at home.”