Friday, February 24, 2006

I love a good race

I've been following California's 11th district Congressional race which looks to be at least as interesting as Tom Delay's . Richard Pombo, who authored and introduced legislation to sell off 10% of our national parks and legislation seeking to gut the Endangered Species Act and took money from Jack Abramoff, is currently up for reelection. His attack on public lands, endangered species, and apparent lack of scruples so roused the ire of former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey that Mr McCloskey, one of the original authors of the ESA, came out of retirement to run against him.
I'm pretty certain that if Mr McCloskey were about 30 years younger he'd be a shoo in.
Check out the credentials:
Former Deputy District Attorney in Alameda County
Former President of the Palo Alto Bar Association
Taught Legal Ethics and Political Science at both at Stanford and Santa Clara Universities
He has written four books: Guide to Professional Conduct for New Practitioners, California State Bar (1961); The U.S. Constitution, BRL (1961); Truth and Untruth, Simon & Shuster (1971); and The Taking of Hill 610, Eaglet Books, (1992).
As a Marine Second Lieutenant, Mr. McCloskey received the Navy Cross and Silver Star for heroism and two Purple Hearts for wounds received in action as a Marine rifle platoon leader in the Korean War. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 1974 with the rank of Colonel.

Additionally he was the first to call for the impeachment of Nixon and ran against him.

Honestly, can we clone the guy (-30 years) and run him in Texas ?
One thing is for sure. If the Dems manage to get the Navy Veteran Steve Filson onto the Ballot
Pombo is going to be in serious trouble. And that'll make me happy. Because if Pombo wins the real loser will be the people.