Feinstein Urged to Run in Recall Race

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rick_reno

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You folks in Kalif. can send her a note urging her to run - go here http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html and drop her a note. Tell her she's the only hope for keeping the state in solid Democratic hands (or whatever BS you think might work to remove this monster from the Federal landscape).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93180,00.html

WASHINGTON — Two California Democrats in Congress urged Sen. Dianne Feinstein (search) on Tuesday to run to replace Gov. Gray Davis (search) in the recall election, shattering united Democratic support for the embattled governor.

Reps. Cal Dooley (search) and Loretta Sanchez (search) said Democrats must have an alternative to Davis on the Oct. 7 ballot and pronounced Feinstein the state's most popular politician.

"It is no secret that Gov. Davis is in trouble, and I seriously doubt that he can survive the recall effort," Dooley said. He made his suggestion about Feinstein in a statement.

"There are many who believe we should have a strong Democrat on that No. 2 question," Sanchez told The Associated Press in an interview.

Voters will face two ballot questions, whether to recall Davis and who could replace him.

The lawmakers' comments came as San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown convened a meeting of leading Democratic strategists to discuss how to defeat the recall. Keeping major Democrats off the ballot is a top goal because Davis allies believe that would give the governor a better chance of survival.

The deadline for getting on the ballot is Aug. 9.

Also Tuesday, recall proponents and representatives of potential Republican candidates were meeting at the Los Angeles office of Gerry Parsky, President Bush's top California adviser, to discuss how the state party can assist with the recall.

Meanwhile, a consultant close to Arnold Schwarzenegger said it was extremely unlikely the actor would run. As a result, attention shifted to friend and fellow moderate Republican Richard Riordan.

"If Arnold runs, I'm not running. If he doesn't run I will seriously consider it," the former Los Angeles mayor told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He said a decision would be made soon, but declined further comment.

In Washington, Dooley said Feinstein, who opposes the recall and has said she does not intend to run, offered no indication in a conversation Monday that she would. Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, said the senator would have no comment.

Like other California Democrats in Congress, Dooley and Sanchez publicly opposed the petition drive to put the recall on the ballot.

But Dooley said having no Democrat on the ballot is an unacceptable risk.

"There is significant apprehension among Democrats about embracing a strategy that is solely committed to defeating a recall," he said.

Sanchez called Davis a victim of the recall process.

"But having said that, the question is, if we lose that first question, what is the choice we give voters," she said.

Allies of Davis downplayed the comments.

"Look at the roster of Democrats across this country and across this state who are supporting the governor. It is as impressive as it gets," said Peter Ragone, spokesman for Californians Against the Costly Recall.

"And the Democratic Party is going to stay united because we all believe that no one should support an effort by the right wing of the Republican Party to have a recall election."

In a piece of good news for Davis, the state Assembly approved a compromise budget Tuesday, ending a weekslong stalemate. Davis said he will sign it this week.

"Clearly you can't say we have a $38 billion problem anymore," Davis said when asked how the budget resolution would affect the recall.

GOP businessman Bill Simon, who lost to Davis in November, took out nominating papers Tuesday that would allow him to become a candidate. He declined to say when he would decide whether to run, but said: "We're prepared to put together a big, strong campaign."

Also Tuesday, a federal judge struck down part of California's recall law, ruling that voters will be allowed to cast a ballot for a potential successor to Davis even if they do not vote on whether he should be removed from office.

Tuesday's ruling will change how the Oct. 7 recall election is carried out. Under the state law, voters could choose "yes" or "no" on whether Davis should be recalled. And only voters who cast a "yes" or a "no" could then choose a potential successor from a list on the same ballot.

In an interview with CNN, Davis said he views the ruling "as a positive sign for me. People now can vote yes or no or skip it completely and go on to the next issue."

The only declared Republican candidate so far is Rep. Darrell Issa, who funded the recall drive, while state Sen. Tom McClintock, is likely to run.
 
Not only that, but (assuming she won), as Governor of California, wouldn't she have the right to nominate her own successor as Senator? Can you imagine the kind of person she'd nominate??? Heck, she might even nominate Gray Davis!!!

:what: :barf: :cuss: :banghead: :fire: :mad:
 
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If you're out-of-state and urge DiFi to run for Governor of California, then damn you to hell.

Literally - the amount of damage she'd do here is NOT worth keeping her out of the Senate.

Don't even THINK about urging that trade.
 
Feinstein urged to run

Jim,

Yes - I am no longer living in paradise and I'd like to see her out of the Senate. Given the state she represents appears unlikely to end her littering the Federal landscape - I'd trade her Senate seat for one in Sacramento in a heart beat. I don't think Kalif. gun legislation could get much worse - and not living there (anymore) I confess I don't care much about what they do.

Here's how I look at the swap of her Senate seat for gov. - you pick up a talking toad and it's says it's going to give you a big, ugly wart. The wart will get uglier every year, and some years it will be especially ugly. You have the choice of having the wart on your nose or on your butt. Where would you put the wart?

It's an easy choice for me.
 
I've been voting against that woman since she was local politician in SF :banghead: It's been difficult enough trying to recall Davis, why would I want to make things worse by encouraging DiFi?
The sad thing is she would be the favorite if she decided to run :scrutiny: My gut tells me that power hungry so & so would want the job! :cuss:
 
DiFi would do *incalculable* damage to California.

The first bit of good news: since the Dems handle money on a more "centralized" basis, "party loyalty" is more of an issue even for fish as big as DiFi. By going up against Davis, she would have to risk being seen as disloyal and that would torpedo any shot at the White House.

The bad news: look, the California Dems are split between the hardcore grabbers (maybe 30%), the ones that will tolerate more gun control to appease that rabid few (maybe 50%) and Dems that are to varying degrees pro-gun (maybe 20%). I don't know how accurate those guesstimates are, but I think they're ballpark close.

So far, what's been putting the brakes on is that any Dem who wants a shot at the White House one day knows they can't be seen as being among the "rabid grabbers". DiFi herself is an exception but ever since the Bush/Gore race, most of them (Gray Davis included) realize gun control is a loser overall. Knowing this, Davis has been putting the brakes on gun control.

Well once recalled, Davis' hopes of higher office went straight to hell. And let's not forget that the whole concept of a recall petition came from gunnies (the now very aptly-named "Vetothegovernor.com" movement started by Geoff Metcalf) which proved that an all-volunteer petition drive was possible and was the earliest trigger for THIS recall.

So if Davis is "still standing when the smoke clears", he's going to give the psychos like Perata and company the green light. We'll see an attempt at a total handgun ban, and more.

If DiFi gets in, it'll be exactly the same situation and pace of gun control.

Riorden would be almost as bad, but not quite.

Under all three scenarios, the only possible way to slow the flood would be to appeal to the non-rabid Dems, hoping they'll see that going along with draconian gun control now will hose their chances at higher office down the road.

Anyways. The two best pro-gun GOPers in contention at this point are McPherson and Simon. We have to get one of 'em to drop out in favor of the other - with the pro-freedom vote split between them, neither has a chance. If Condi jumps in, both must bow out in her favor. Issa isn't bad but he has no real chance.

It's going to be a four-way race no matter what, between Davis, whichever Dem jumps in, Riorden for the RINO vote and at least one pro-freedom candidate. If there's more than one pro-freedom choice, we're screwed. It'll be *ugly* regardless.
 
Let's start with Riorden. We have three problems:

1) He's fundamentally anti-gun.

2) He KNOWS he's got no shot at a higher (national) office, so there's no "brakes" on him doing gun control if he wins. That was the limiting factor for Davis - stress WAS, because once he actually got recalled, all hope died. (Read: we BETTER get his butt out of there, or we're toast. DiFi would be preferable, as horrible as THAT sounds.)

3) Riorden can't win. 'Kay, look: back during the GOP primaries, Davis took a pot-shot at him over the abortion issue and managed to take him out. (Falsely - Riorden is NOT a rabid pro-lifer.) BUT, if that first shot hadn't worked and Riorden had been the GOP pick, Davis would have spent his OTHER shot and it's both brutal and true: of all the various energy companies raping the California consumer during the "energy crisis", the absolute biggest Bucanneer on the electric main was *Riorden* - as head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. LA-DWP took in the *highest* average per-kilowatt price of any of 'em, beating out Enron, BC Power and all the rest. Davis would have (and WILL if he gets the chance) absolutely cream Riorden over that stuff. It's not a skeleton in the closet, it's a whole :cuss:in graveyard.

Simon vs. McClintock: well they don't come better than McClintock, period, end of discussion. But what matters is which can win...and that's a crapshoot.

Simon has one pretty good argument: the last election WAS stolen from him. The Dems in office reported the budget deficit as $24bil until practically the day after the polls closed, at which point they suddenly "realized" it was between 34 and 38 big ones. That's a minimum of $10bil in underreporting (by lesser Democrats, in an apparant conspiracy to support Davis) that probably would have made the difference and put Simon in office.

THAT has got to be Simon's main message. If it gets any traction, and McClintock is going nowhere in the polls as I fear will happen, McClintock should be encouraged to back down.

*HOWEVER*, McClintock is not without assets. He's been a big enemy of the jacked-up car tax, he's running an initiative effort to ditch it, and via that effort, might climb in the polls. We'll see. His general rep as a real fiscal conservative might actually play well.

In any case: our tactics will depend on who's winning between them, whether or not Condi Rice jumps in (I'd pick her over either, as she's the equal of McClintock on RKBA/general freedom and in my opinion is more likely to win than either McClintock or Simon!) and whether or not an Uber-Dem like DiFi or Lockyer jumps in. If the Dems really do stand pat behind Davis, it'll be a lot less risky to split the GOP vote among several solid contenders. If a DiFi class Dem jumps in, it'll be suicide so some GOPers *must* be somehow convinced to bow out.

Something else: let's ponder the (huge) Latino vote a sec. Davis is now pandering to them by signing/supporting the driver's license for illegals law (sigh). But he vetoed it before, and the Dems in general have been REALLY rude to Hispanics during the redistricting. They're pretty pissed off.

BUT, California GOPers are struggling under the disasterous legacy of Prop187, which severely soured relations between the Pete Wilson-type California GOP and the Latino vote. Simon has very little of that taint on him, McClintock perhaps slightly moreso, while Condi Rice has absolutely none - she would partially inherit the mantle of solid relations with the Hispanic community built by Amigo Dubya in Texas, who speaks fluent Spanish with a Mexican flavor and has Latino *relatives*.

I cannot stress this enough: the Latino vote is up for grabs, and Condi can grab enough of it to matter.

It all really hangs on DiFi and other uber-Dems NOT jumping in. Seriously. As long as they stay out, we've got a chance even with Riorden stubbornly sticking it out in #2 or #3 among the GOPers and scooping up the "RINO vote". Riorden won't bow out to anybody except possibly Condi, and that's doubtful. With an Uber-Dem in play (other than Davis), I think only Condi can save us via that Latino connection, if enough lesser GOPers (Simon, McClintock and Issa, and maybe Riorden) duck out in her favor.
 
Feinstein

How about this scenario - Feinstein runs and wins, and appoints "Red" Davis Senator. I'm convinced, while the monster is a bad one to have in the Federal playpen, she'd be much worse to have playing in Calif. The goal is to throw "Red" Davis out. A nice to have would be to replace him with anyone less anti-gun.
 
Oh good God.

I didn't think of that.

It's not only possible, I'd consider it almost likely. It's how DiFi could ditch the "disloyal" label for running in the first place.

:banghead:

Most California voters wouldn't care. They'd see it as "justice" of sorts :scrutiny:. If DiFi manages to cut spending enough and if by some miracle the high-tech sector recovers some, she might even win re-election.

:barf:

After that, to get back to the Senate, she'd have to beat up on whichever GOPer kicks Davis' butt in his first race.

:uhoh:
 
California was occupied by the People's Liberation Army years ago.

What difference would it make who was governor of that Compassion-Fascist cesspool?

Riordan is just as anti-gun and anti-freedom as the next PRK politician.

If you're doomed anyway, why not do the nation a favor and get DiFi out of her senate seat where she does nationwide damage?

hillbilly
 
WE'RE NOT DOOMED!

Goddamnit, we're not. Don't believe me? Download and watch THIS:

http://keepandbeararms.com/video/AB1044.wmv (4.3meg file, in Windows Media Player from the KABA article of 6/27/03 - 14 minutes playing time.)

What you'll see is one of the three most powerful Dems in the state (Senator Vasconcellos) cleaning the CLOCK of the head of the California DOJ Firearms Division for his support of a sneaky gun control bill.
 
Jim, you are the resident expert on Cali politics.

The way I understand it isn't the winner of this election pretty much screwed. I mean, there is no transition time. All of their employees and staff would all be Davis staffers. There is no prep time. The legislature is still all Democrats.

So even if McClintock or Simon won, wouldn't they just get shafted around until the next election?

As for Condi Rice, I have not heard a thing about her be a possible contender until this thread. Personally I want her as President. :)
 
I agree with the people who are arguing that Feinstein will do less damage to 49 states as the governor of California than she currrently does to all 50 as Senator. I have no confidence that even Republicans who run are going to be true pro-gunners, so I'd rather have her out of the Senate. Even if she screws up in California and goes back to the Senate in a few years, she has given up her seniority. (That, plus the mess she inherits, are the reasons why I suspect she won't run unless everyone gets on their knees and begs her.)
 
The Governor has quite a bit of control over the executive branch budget. There's a huge number of committees which he directly appoints the members of, such as the coastal commission, fish & game commission and just tons more. A new governor could tell any of these commissioners "you WILL do this, this and THAT! or you're fired right now - which way ya gonna jump, little froggy!?" Me, I'd haul every single one of 'em into a huge conference room, call 'em up to the front of the room one by one, tell them what they're going to do next, and ask if they're going to do it or not. The first one that says anything OTHER than "yes" (including stammering or hedging his answer) gets fired on the spot, escorted to the door by waiting cops, stripped of all badges, government door keys and the like just INSIDE the door (for the rest to see), and chucked out. Basically, a Stalin-style purge 'cept without the corpses.

You're right, in that finding new commissioners would be a long, drawn out mess. THAT plan would take the better part of an afternoon. You wouldn't lose more than a few.

There's a LOT of fat to be trimmed in there...at a minimum, somewhere around $5 - 10bil. That's the *smallest* guesstimate I've seen. Why do you think the corrections officer's union is Davis' biggest campaign contributor? It's because of how much discretionary control the governor has over executive-branch budgets/projects, via his commissioners.

There's also scads of large "study commissions" with members paid over $100,000 for meeting a dozen times a year - these are basically "political plum assignments" to campaign helpers, currently out-of-work friendly legislators and anybody else Davis has no current use for but might down the road. Eliminating about $20mil worth of that crap within a day or two of taking office would be an immensely popular move and *should* be a campaign plank for McClintock, Simon and others.

McClintock has the experience needed to go in and clean house on that crap. Nobody, not even Condi, could do a better job. Simon might not be too bad either, if he's a fast study. Ditto Issa. But McClintock is the "Sacramento insider" who knows where it's all going on already...he'd be the fastest on the trigger. (But, come to think, Issa might be smart enough to consult his good buddy Ray Haynes, who knows as much as McClintock and is just as high-caliber an individual.)
 
I heard an interview with McClintock this morning on the radio. I dont know where he is on RKBA but he positively ROCKS! on limited government which is what we need.

I dont know whether it would be good or bad to get DiFi in on the race. I just know we need to get some dem to break ranks. If this recall ends up being Gray vs. 14 other canidates he'll win. I think once the first dem breaks ranks there will be a flood.
 
McClintock is one of the best politicians on the RKBA in the *nation*. He's on par with Ron Paul. Ray Haynes is another really good one, I couldn't pick between them, they're both "beyond excellent".
 
As to:

If this recall ends up being Gray vs. 14 other canidates he'll win.

That is NOT TRUE! The structure of the race is *different*. "14 toy poodles" in this case CAN beat the "big dog".

It goes like this:

You walk in, and first thing, you either vote to kick out Davis, vote to keep his sorry butt, or you withhold comment on that.

Davis either wins or loses that vote, and he's the ONLY candidate.

The people who vote "kick him out" or "no comment" then get to vote on who they DO want, out of a massively crowded field of, God, at this point figure 100+ candidates. Yes, I'm serious. Any fruitcake with $3,500 to spend and 65 buddies can get on the ballot. We'll see political "parties" that nobody's ever heard of before.

Doesn't matter. Whichever of that vast herd gets the most votes, even if it's like 7% of the total wins :eek:. Yes, I'm serious.

If the Dems run a major-grade candidate (DiFi or similar), they'll be guaranteed somewhere between 30% and 40% or more. Which means the GOP will have to consolidate down to one potent candidate (Condi, please God let it be Condi, 'cuz I don't think they'll consolidate around McClintock, Issa or Simon).

The good news is, the "major-grade Dem" will LOSE that part of the vote that went to *Davis* in the first round. Those people can't vote again! But if the choice is another serious Dem contender, I don't think Davis will get many votes. Maybe less than the Green party :what: which would admittedly be a fun way to end his career, but not worth it!

Listen: odds are, we won't get many GOPers dropping out to consolidate around one major player. So we better hope a major Dem doesn't jump in.
 
Run, Condi, Run!

(to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas")

You may talk of Rodham Clinton,
And Linda Ellerbee, but
The Yellow Rose of Stanford is
The only one for me!

Yeah, I'd rather have her for Prez, too, but Kali needs HELP!
 
some weeks ago, alec baldwin was on primetime glick... he joked about having a threesome with feinstien and some other woman, i dont remember who. anyone else see that?
 
Jim.

My point was that if its Gray vs. The Herd. He'll probably loose the first vote. But if the people that voted to recall him then split their vote across herd hell be right back in on the votes of the hardcore libs.

If Di Fi gets in the race then the HCL's will start to split their vote, but more importantly, if one Dem steps up to F' Davis, I'm pretty sure you'll see a whole herd of Dems (with a lot less to loose than DF) step forward to sink their dagger into Gray.
 
How about this for wishful thinking?

Recall Davis. DiFi quits the US Senate and becomes governor of California. Recall DiFi. Let her join the ranks of the unemployed.
 
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