Gilly,
There's no way Barry's going to rise from the dead, so why not give it =
up and invest all that energy finding somebody else worthy of your =
admiration that's still alive, kicking, and a remote possibility?

--=20
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

katysails wrote:

Gilly,
There's no way Barry's going to rise from the dead, so why not give it up and invest all that energy finding somebody else worthy of your admiration that's still alive, kicking, and a remote possibility?


You're right Katy. Trouble is there's no such person AFAIK.
Suggestions??

You're right Katy. Trouble is there's no such person AFAIK.=20
Suggestions??

Not yet, but I'm working on it. Pickins' is really slim out there, ya =
know. Wjat i want is for someone to rise out of no-where-ville and so =
totally astound us that we all can't help but listen and vote. That =
would probably turn out to be the Anti-Christ, though.

--=20
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

Do you think still voting for him is a wasted vote?


"katysails" wrote in message
...
Gilly,
There's no way Barry's going to rise from the dead, so why not give it up
and invest all that energy finding somebody else worthy of your admiration
that's still alive, kicking, and a remote possibility?

--
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

Do you think still voting for him is a wasted vote?
Yes. It doesn't even make a statement.

--=20
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

Title: Right-leaning 'ideologue' known for his commitment to principle
[McClintock]
Source: SFGate
URL Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
file=/c/a/2003/09/13/CONSERVE.TMP&type=printable
Published: Sep 13, 2003
Author: Carolyn Lochhead
Post Date: 2003-09-13 02:38:51

Right-leaning 'ideologue' known for his commitment to principle Carolyn
Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau Saturday, September 13, 2003 ©2003 San
Francisco Chronicle | Feedback


URL:


Washington -- Like British soccer fans, Tom McClintock's hard-core
conservative supporters sound like they would rather burn down the stadium
than switch their loyalty to Arnold Schwarzenegger, even if it means losing
California's governorship to someone who makes Gov. Gray Davis look like a
Republican.

"To get a victory just to have a Republican there and still lose all of the
issues that you feel strongly about -- what kind of victory is that?" asked
Sam Paredes, executive director of Gun Owners of California.

"I'm not going to vote for (Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz) Bustamante," said
former state Sen. H.L. "Bill" Richardson, "but that doesn't mean I'm going
to vote for Schwarzenegger. See, I've got another alternative. I can stay
home."

Bloodied by unremitting election defeats, many California Republicans
attending this weekend's GOP convention in Los Angeles say they are ready to
relinquish the ideological purity that McClintock represents for the
pragmatism of winning with the moderate Schwarzenegger.

Yet the former Boy Scout from Thousand Oaks who studied political science
and won a state Assembly seat at age 26 retains a deeply loyal base of
supporters -- built over more than two decades of unsullied devotion to
fiscal and social conservatism -- who are unlikely to abandon him unless he
tells them to end the fight.

With a Los Angeles Times poll released Friday showing McClintock rocketing
to 18 percent of likely voters, just 7 percentage points behind
Schwarzenegger and 12 points behind Bustamante, the state senator from
Ventura County seems unlikely to back down now, potentially turning the
convention into a party brawl.

"If he says, 'I'm going to fight till hell freezes over and then fight on
the ice,' they'll strap on their ice skates," said Republican consultant Dan
Schnur, who was advising Orange County businessman Peter Ueberroth before he
dropped out of the race. "If he asks them to join another candidate, most
will do that as well. But this is a fiercely loyal following. They'll follow
his lead all the way through."

McClintock, 47, is something of a classic, the rare political purist who
eschews compromise in defense of deep conviction, whatever the odds. He's
the kind of guy who friends say carries around Winston Churchill speeches
and probably has the Lincoln-Douglas debates memorized. And this,
ironically, is exactly why McClintock may choose to play the spoiler.

As pressure intensifies on him to drop out of the race, with GOP leaders
arguing his views can't sway a majority of voters in the heavily Democratic
state, those who know him say that if anything, such pressure is likely to
backfire.


'IDEOLOGUE AND STATESMAN' "He's an ideologue and a statesman," said Jon
Fleischman, former executive director of the California Republican Party.
"He is the kind of person that pressure, whether applied directly or
indirectly, doesn't affect. So if somebody gets in his face --
Schwarzenegger or a big donor or the chairman of the party or the leader of
the Legislature -- telling him what he needs to do, it has the opposite
impact of what they want to achieve. You can't tell Tom McClintock what to
do or Tom McClintock will tell you where to take it."

It is McClintock's unwavering conservatism that builds such devotion among
his supporters. His chief cause has always been lower taxes and smaller
government, with less emphasis but no less steadiness on social issues such
as abortion and gun control. In classic libertarian fashion, he pushed the
failed San Fernando Valley Secession bill to allow the valley to withdraw
from Los Angeles County.

"His role is the ideologue, carrying the pure principle and pure ideals of
the Republican Party, liberty and limited government," said Fleischman. "He
doesn't believe the way to achieve a goal is through compromise, but through
determination and bold contrast."

Conservatives view McClintock as "one of their true leaders," said Paredes.
"He's the guy carrying the flag out front. He doesn't waver. He's not
pragmatic. He doesn't bend to pressure. He stays true to his word and his
beliefs. That's very appealing to conservatives."

Former Sen. Richardson contends that McClintock especially deserves
Republican support now for his role on the budget issues that are at the
center of the recall campaign.

"He's been out front for us more than anybody else in the Legislature on
these very issues that we're worried about," Richardson said. "Tom was
complaining years ago about the fiscal problems we would be having if we
continued doing what we had been doing. He's solid as a rock, and the people
who care about those issues know it."

To such conservatives, Schwarzenegger poses an alternative almost as bad as
Davis, Bustamante, or more to the point, former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson,
whom they saw as a tax-raising sellout.

"Why trade one Democrat for another?" Richardson asked. "I'll predict right
now, Schwarzenegger will give us a tax increase."

That McClintock is a career politician does not ruffle his supporters,
Davis-haters all, who see this as an asset rather than a liability,
particularly against Schwarzenegger, an actor who has never run for public
office. They point to McClintock's deep knowledge of state budget issues and
his unpopular votes against such things as higher state-employee retirement
benefits early in Davis' term when the state Treasury was flush with cash.


BIG PROBLEMS IN STATE "We've got real first-class problems in this state,
monumental problems," Richardson said, "and they're not going to be resolved
by somebody who doesn't know what they're doing."

Some would prefer to let Bustamante win to show California voters just how
bad things can get and so -- the theory goes -- vote Republican next time
around, rather than having to fight one of their own to uphold conservative
principles.

"It's very difficult to fight someone from your own party who is a liberal
when they're sitting in office," said Paredes. "Wilson was a prime example
of that. It weakens what the party stands for. It no longer stands for
issues. It's nothing more than an associated group of people who are getting
together to play political games and to try to gain power."

The focus on California's economy -- coupled with Schwarzenegger's vagueness
on the budget -- is doubtless helping McClintock's poorly funded campaign
that so far has relied mainly on conservative talk radio.

"This recall election isn't about medicinal marijuana and same-sex marriage
and the death penalty," Schnur said. "It's about the fact that California is
facing an economic apocalypse. That provides Tom with much more running room
than he'd have in a traditional campaign in which social issues were more
prominent."



"katysails" wrote in message
...
Do you think still voting for him is a wasted vote?
Yes. It doesn't even make a statement.

--
katysails
s/v Chanteuse
Kirie Elite 32
http://katysails.tripod.com

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax
and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein