Posted 5:42 PM by Robert

Davis Descending XIV: Fraying The Obvious

California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, one of the nations greatest repositories of bad judgment - who last figured prominently in her efforts to hold a party for attendees of the 2000 Democratic National Convention at the Playboy Mansion - now opines that Dianne Feinstein should step in as a Democratic "backup" candidate for Gray Davis in the upcoming recall election. Reps. Calvin Dooley, D-Fresno, and Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, joined her. O, and Senator Barbara Boxer also says that the party may need a "backup" on the ballot if Davis declines too much in the polls.

To some in the media this represents a "fraying" of Democratic support for Governor Davis.

Of course, the entry of a Democrat of any stature as such a "backup" candidate would be a disaster for the Governor - and for the Democrats, if it's not Senator Feinstein. But what's even more peculiar is that these suggestions of "fraying" are being made against the background of such developments as:

1. Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said: "At end of the day, there will be no Democrat on the ballot, other than Governor Davis."

2. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, has joined state and national party leaders in arguing that the best way to defeat the recall is to have no other significant Democrat running.

3. Dianne Feinstein has said she will not run - and she won't because she is not stupid and it's a stupid idea for her.

None of the above constitutes meaningful "fraying." If Mr. Davis plunges in the polls after bringing in the budget (an unlikely decline), he's in big trouble. If Senator Feinstein enters her name, that's a disaster (see above). None of that is new - and it's not "fraying" of Democratic support for a few Democratic office holders to say the obvious and a few loose nuts like Loretta Sanchez to suggest more. Nor is it "fraying" for Bill Lockyer to say that if the Governor runs a "puke" campaign again that some Democrats would "jump ship" - he's just not saying that he or they will enter any Democratic name as an alternate, he saying he doesn't want Davis to savage his and Eli Broad's friend Richard Riordan.

[By the way, we all know how serious Mr. Lockyer is about "puke" and "trash" stunts. Mr. Lockyer is the man who suggested that he wanted to "personally escort" Enron executive Kenneth Lay to a California prison cell so that Mr. Lay could become the victim of homosexual rape. Very delicate sensibilities in that man Lockyer, who, as a state senator, sponsored California's 1984 hate-crimes law.]

Sheesh.