Further fueling speculation that he has national ambitions for 2012, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) had a prime speaking slot at the California Republican convention Saturday, and he used his time to slam Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders in her home state.According to a San Francisco Chronicle blog, Pence was the closing speaker at the convention dinner in Indian Wells, Calif. He warned that the Democrats in Washington, D.C., have brought an “avalanche of socialism— down on the country and used Pelosi as a foil for vowing that Republicans would take back Congress next year.Pence repeated the often-told joke about how a recession is when your neighbor is laid off and a depression is when you are laid off. But, Pence concluded to great cheers, “a recovery is when Nancy Pelosi loses her job.—“We will take this Congress back in 2010 and this country back in 2012 so help us God,— Pence said at the conclusion of his speech. The crowd, the Chronicle reported, gave him a standing ovation.