C. K. Macleod: DeVore should take one for the team

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C. K. Macleod, from Hot Air's Green Room:

Chuck DeVore is a solid conservative, very well-qualified to be senator or to hold other important offices or positions, but he doesn’t seem to have a prayer of both overtaking Carly Fiorina and defeating Tom Campbell in the June 8 Republican senate primary. He should drop out and, following Sarah Palin’s lead, endorse Fiorina for the good of the conservative movement, the state, and the nation.

[...]

California conservatives, who, to say the least, used to be a major positive factor in state and national politics, have a reputation gained since after Ronald Reagan’s time, and especially since the ’90s, of preferring ideological purity and self-defeating gestures over success and influence. Chuck DeVore has a chance to show that they’re now capable of mature calculation and team play.

[...]

Currently, Campbell appears to have a solid but not insurmountable plurality lead over Fiorina, with DeVore’s third-place vote more than making up the potential difference.

Macleod says DeVore and his supporters need to put up or shut up. Show us the money and the polling numbers that show he can win the primary and give Boxer a run for her own considerable money in the general. Otherwise, it's to hang 'em up, endorse Fiorina, and stop the liberal Campbell now.

- JP

Some DeVore supporters losing patience

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Even some of Chuck DeVore's staunchest supporters are getting impatient with their candidate's failure to climb out of the cellar in the California GOP primary for the chance to challenge Sen. Barbara Boxer in the general election.

CNN contributor Erick Erickson, who has been promoting DeVore on his website RedState.com, said on CNN's "John King USA" tonight that if DeVore doesn't manage to surge in the polls in the next two weeks, "I'll be with Carly Fiorina because Tom Campbell is that bad":

You can view a video of the segment here.

DeVore is currently running fourth in a three person race. According to the lastest Survey USA poll, Campbell gets 35 percent of the poll, followed by Fiorina at 24 percent. 23 percent are undecided, and Campbell only manages 15 percent.

Many of Fiorina's backers are calling for DeVore to drop out of the race and join Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, the National Right To Life Committee and others by endorsing Fiorina. They fear that if DeVore remains in the race, he and Fiorina will split the right-of-center vote, allowing liberal Republican Campbell to easily win the primary.

- JP

Sarah Palin Won't Back Down

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Though some of her supporters aren't happy about it, Sarah Palin won't back down from her endorsement of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in the California GOP U.S. Senate primary:

"The governor is never one to go with the flow," Jason Recher, a spokesman for Palin said, explaining that the former Alaska governor respects the differing opinions but is sticking by her choice. "She is a very independent person, and she shakes things up in establishments -- including grassroots establishments -- all the time."

The former Republican vice presidential candidate made the endorsement on her Facebook page, saying Fiorina's experience running a major corporation is sorely lacking in Washington.

In the Thursday posting, Palin called Fiorina a "Commonsense Conservative" who has the potential to beat "liberal" Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November.

After some of her Facebook fans posted comments asking Gov. Palin to change her endorsement, she posted an update:

She listed reasons for her support, including the endorsement of Fiorina by National Right to Life and the California Pro-Life Council.

"She is pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-military and pro-strict border security and against amnesty," Palin wrote. "Carly is also a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Like me, she is a member of the (National Rifle Association), has a 100 percent NRA rating, and she and her husband are gun owners."

Fiorina is essentially in a two-person race with former congressman Tom Campbell, a liberal Republican who is leading in most polls. DeVore is lagging far behind, and his campaign is strapped for cash. This bodes ill for DeVore in a hypothetical general election match up with well-financed liberal Democrat Boxer.

- JP

Another reason Gov. Palin did not endorse Chuck DeVore?

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Sarah Plain's endorsement of Carly Fiorina in the California GOP primary for U.S. Senate is looking better with each passing day. TheRightScoop catches DeVore on video saying that the Taliban and Al Qaeda do not present "an existential threat" to the United States:



Is the very existence of Al Qaeda and the Taliban a threat? You betcha! Is this DeVore's Gerald Ford moment? Time will tell...

- JP

Erickson disses Palin in trying to make the case for DeVore

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This is a post we wish we did not have to write. Criticizing a friend and former colleague from our days as a RedState contributor brings us no joy. But after reading Erick Erickson's front page post "I’m staying with Chuck DeVore," we could not let it go unanswered.

The piece is so heavily laden with condescension that, frankly, we had to check the byline twice to believe that this stuff was coming from Erick. This seems so out of character for Erick that we wonder if someone else had posted it using his name. In the past, he has been both supportive and critical of Sarah Palin, but in every instance he was fair. Even when he slammed the governor for speaking at the National Tea Party Convention and SRLC instead of going with the flow to CPAC, he at least tempered his criticism with follow-up posts based on personal observations.

But Erick's DeVore piece directly insults Gov. Palin's intelligence:

"You can say all day that she doesn’t have the 'intellectual curiosity' to be President — which is to Palin as 'Cheney’s gravitas' was to Bush — but you cannot deny this woman is fundamentally conservative, Christian, and would be a heck of a lot better than the present guy in the White House. For all of you who deny her intellect, you cannot deny her gut is conservative."

Conservatives never look more ridiculous than when they mimic left wing memes, and the old "intellectual curiosity" fake pearl comes right out of the DKos/DNC plastic jewel box.

That Sarah Palin is intellectually curious is a fact that she has proven time and again. She been photographed holding one of her two copies of Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny, and lest one believe that book was nothing more than a prop, Gov. Palin has cited Thomas Sowell, the Cato Institute's Michael Cannon, Dr. Stuart Weinstein of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, Thomas L. DiLorenzo of the Mises Institute, and a number of Heritage Foundation scholars in her op-eds on Facebook and in newspapers from The Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post.

In her arguments, she has challenged and refuted President Obama and no small number of his surrogates, from Vice President Joe Biden to Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel on issues from energy security to health care rationing.

She has been praised for her intelligence by politicos from Charlie Black to Newt Gingrich, pundits from Fred Barnes to Camile Paglia, and intellectuals from Victor Davis Hanson to Yuval Levin.

We still can't believe that Erick even brought up the left's "intellectual curiosity" straw man when there was no reason to do so in the context of his argument. It was completely gratuitous and the sort of thing we would expect from The Huffington Post, not from RedState. When will conservatives learn that repeating leftist talking points, unless one is making an argument to refute them, only serves to do damage to the conservative cause? We know Erick is no elitist, so it is puzzling to see him going down the path already well worn by David Frum, Kathleen Parker and others of their ilk. We know that Erick is better than that.

As for his argument for Chuck DeVore, Erick never mentions that California is a blue state. It's not your father's California, nor is it Ronald Reagan's anymore. There are Conservative bastions there, but it has become difficult for a conservative to win an election of national significance in the land of fruits and nuts. No Republican was won a race for the U.S. Senate in California since Pete Wilson did it back in 1983.

You can safely bet that the Golden State's shift leftward was one of the primary factors Sarah Palin weighed in her decision to endorse Carly Fiorina. Just as Scott Brown was about the best conservatives could have reasonably hoped for in a U.S. Senator from blue Massachusetts, Gov. Palin reasoned that Fiorina is the best we can expect to defeat Barbara Boxer with in California. And defeating Boxer is one of the keys to prying control of the U.S. Senate out of the hands of the overreaching Democrats. Against Boxer, Fiorina's poll numbers are trending upward, while those of Devore and Campbell are in decline. This too, was likely part of the Palin political calculus.

All of the positive things Erick had to say about Gov. Palin in his diary were reduced to just backhanded compliments because he played the "intellectual curiosity" card from the bottom of the left's stacked deck. It's a place where Erick didn't have to go, and we are sadly disappointed that he felt the need to go there. As we said, we have always rated Erick as better than that, so we're at a loss to explain why he did it. If you can't make the case for DeVore without dissing Sarah Palin, then perhaps you have no case at all.

- JP

Bad form, Chuck

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The reaction of California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and his campaign to Sarah Palin's endorsement of Carly Fiorina, one of his opponents in the GOP primary contest to take on Barbara Boxer in the general election, demonstrates a clear lack of good form.

Californian Stacy Drake comments:

My opinion [of DeVore] changed today after Sarah Palin gave her endorsement to DeVore’s challenger, Carly Fiorina. It wasn’t Governor Palin’s endorsement that got me to change my mind about him, it was his reaction to the endorsement that served as a big red flag warning to this man’s leadership capabilities. Plain and simple, Chuck DeVore is no statesmen. The statement he allowed to be released by his campaign was immature and derogatory. It said:

“This grassroots movement is actually a grassroots movement,” said DeVore spokesperson Joshua Trevino. “Carly Fiorina thinks she can find the sheepdog to corral the sheep. Chuck DeVore knows they’re not sheep at all. They’re Americans. And they’ll make their own decisions.”

I was dumbfounded that he would let that be released in his name. It shows that he is lacking in class and maturity. Are we not electing leaders here? What kind of leader lashes out and let’s his staff lash out in this manner? I think they may be in ‘melt-down’ mode over at his headquarters but that is no excuse. This evening has really highlighted a serious character flaw in what I perceived as a good candidate.

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There is a certain way one can handle the various situations life throws at us. Character shows in difficult times and during difficult circumstances. Tonight I saw Chuck DeVore’s character and it wasn’t pretty.

And from Texas, Gary P. Jackson weighs in:

The bottom line on all of this is quite simple really. Tom Campbell is unacceptable, and Chuck DeVore is simply unelectable. So unacceptable is Campbell that leaving Senator “Don’t Call Me Ma’am” in office is almost more preferable! Campbell is more dangerous than Senator Boxer. At least Boxer has never taken money from a convicted terrorist Tom Campbell has! And despite her really long list of faults, Barbara Boxer has never failed to support Israel. Tom Campbell, on the other hand, sides with the Obama regime and share’s the disdain for our friends and allies.

In short…electing Tom Campbell would be a total disaster for the nation.

Sadly, for those who support DeVore, even after he and his supporters lack of class and professionalism, all you may succeed in doing is electing Tom Campbell.

With that thought in mind, we are enthusiastically endorsing Carly Fiorina and encourage our readers to do the same. Carly was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. She is the only one in the race who has ever had to make payroll. Not sure about anyone else, but I think we need more seasoned business leaders and a hell of a lot less trial lawyers and “constitutional law professors” in D.C. How about you?

But there's more. DeVore, who sounds like he needs some Wisconsin cheese to go with his California whine, posted this op-ed on RedState.com today:

If you didn’t hear, Sarah Palin posted a Facebook message earlier yesterday about the California Republican primary.

She bashed Tom Campbell.

She tried to ignore me.

And she announced her support of Carly Fiorina.

She called Fiorina a “commonsense conservative” and said Fiorina is “the only conservative in the race who can beat Barbara Boxer.”

I like Sarah Palin. I think highly of her. But she got this dead wrong.

[...]

I’m not going to lie to you, I would have liked Sarah Palin’s endorsement, too (and I look forward to getting it after I win the primary).

[...]

Based on the Facebook and Twitter comments, it seems a lot of Sarah’s supporters weren’t very happy about her decision to support Carly.

The rest of DeVore's RS opinion piece is a mixture of Fiorina-bashing and spamming for campaign cash. It's no surprise that DeVore chose RedState to pimp his message. DeVore campaign communications director Josh Trevino is a co-founder of RS, and he's a good friend of those who make RedState's decisions. He knows that the site has a strong anti-Palin contingent among its membership that would fuel a DeVore post with sympathetic, Palin-bashing comments.

This is how politics is played, and its not a game for the faint of heart. Still, by virtue of Trevino's "sheepdog" slap at Sarah Palin and the not-so-subtle sneering at the governor in DeVore's op-ed -- while insisting that he "thinks highly" of her -- the Assemblyman from California has revealed a character flaw that we find... disturbing. He may be the most conservative candidate in the race, but sometimes that isn't quite enough to qualify for an endorsement.

- JP