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THE GREAT FALLING OUT — I have bittersweet feelings about the mounting opposition to the renomination of GOP Congressman John T. Doolittle. Bitter because the more Republican opponents he has in next June’s primary election, the better are his chances of holding on to the nomination. Sweet because (1) all this opposition might force the polecat’s voluntary retirement, or (2) even if he does win renomination, he’s sure to be beaten in November 2008, probably by Democrat Charlie Brown, who scared the daylights out of him last year. (Sodden thought: Pounding on the keyboard would be difficult for me with no JTD to kick around, but heck, c’est mon affaire.) The Republican congressional candidacies of Auburn’s Mike Holmes and Roseville’s Eric Egland have been known for some time, but now comes freshman State Assemblyman Ted Gaines, who apparently has chosen to ignore my sage advice about remaining in the Legislature’s lower house and instead has formed one of those “exploratory” committees for a “possible” run for Doolittle’s seat. I’m sure that Gaines, a pleasant fellow but hardly the brightest bulb in the lamp store, had plenty of advice before announcing his plans and making derogatory statements about Doolittle, his political mentor whose remaining defenders are likening Ted to Judas Iscariot and Jimmy “The Weasel” Frattiano.
His decision shores up the belief that polling — maybe by the Giuliani
presidential campaign or even the Republican Congressional Committee —
shows that Doolittle can’t win re-election due to the ongoing federal
investigation of his fundraising tactics and his close association with
crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who’s now doing a stretch in federal
prison and “cooperating” with federal gumshoes in the hope of getting
time shaved off his sentence. Even I was surprised at the sharp edge to
Gaines’s comments about the man he used to idolize. Gaines claims, as
do the other possible candidates, that the 4th Congressional District
voters have had it with JTD, especially so since FBI agents — with a
search warrant issued by a federal judge — raided his home last April,
plus the disclosure that he’d been allowing his wife to pocket 15 cents
of every campaign dollar she raised for her hubby. Gaines’s quotes in
the Bee underscore his break with JTD: “I believe the voters have lost
faith in his (Doolittle’s) leadership ability...When you lose the moral
ability to lead, you kind of have to re-evaluate. There are enough
questions around Congressman Doolittle that are causing a lot of
cloudiness in the 4th District.” Wow! Talk about biting the hand that
fed you! Doolittle was quick to counter-attack, saying that most 4th
District Republican voters remain supportive of his re-election. He
said of Gaines, the ingrate he helped groom for political office: “Ted
has let his political ambition and bad judgment convince him that he
will rescue the Republican Party. I will gladly place before the voters
my record of over 30 years of service to the Republican Party to Ted
Gaines’s less than one year.” Should Gaines end up with the nomination,
he undoubtedly will use unbecoming Doolittle-type rhetoric to thwart
the hard-charging Charlie Brown. Things like “Brown is nothing more
than a stooge of (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and you
know how those San Francisco people are.” He’ll use the “l” word
liberally to describe Brown, and the “l” word still goes over big with
rednecks up here in the sticks. And, naturally, he’ll put his lovely
wife and photogenic kids (six of them, I recall) to good use in all
those slick brochures. Good lord, the primary is nine months away and
here we are already in the thick of the campaign! I love it, especially
the internecine warfare among GOP pols who seem to have forgotten
Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow
Republican.” Ha! I’m reminded of one of the late U.S. Senator Clair
Engle’s favorite sayings: “When there’s a falling out among cattle
rustlers, there’s a darn good chance the ranchers will get their herds
back.” For you latecomers’ benefit, Clair Engle was this area’s
congressman before his election to the U.S. Senate in 1958. He died in
office in 1963. He was a Democrat.
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