Matt Lewis has post up at Townhall about the implosion of Barbara Boxer, perhaps the most detestable of all United States Senators.

Boxer, who ironically has a five letter last name that starts with a “B” just like the word that most accurately describes her, wants to use congressional power to harass the people who leaked the climategate emails. She does not, however, want to review just how damaging those emails are to the Church of Global Warming.

Likewise, Boxer has been screwing up talking points on health care in ways not helpful to her own cause.

The woman is a dolt. Her last remaining claim to fame is being a High Priestess of the Church of the Butchered Baby, but even her pro-abortion stance is not saving her.

As Lewis notes, “Boxer has been incapable, thus far, of garnering more than 50% support for her re-election in major polls. The two main figures vying for a chance to replace her, ex-Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, have been doing plenty to put a dent in Boxer’s odds of winning a fourth term. ”

Good riddance.

If Boxer was frustrated that Brigadier General Walsh failed to shower her the proper respect, how will she react when she sees how she’s being treated by the San Diego media?

Got that Senator Boxer? One job created in San Diego so far - at a time when the unemployment rate in California is 12.2%. You would think San Diego could have created more jobs than that merely putting up signs touting the expenditure of ’stimulus’ dollars - a practice that Boxer supports.

As Moe foreshadowed on Tuesday, SENATOR Barbara Boxer decided to make an end-run around Republicans on the Senate Enviromental and Public Works Comittee by voting on cap-and-trade legislation with no republicans present. The Briefing room reports today on the SENATOR’s rule-breaking:

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) today on Fox News said that committee rules dictate that at least two members of the minority must be present when meeting. Boxer held a vote on the legislation, which passed 10-1, but no Republicans were present for the vote.

Republican members of the committee have been boycotting the hearings all week because the legislation has not yet been scored by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“That was unprecendented, I think the bill is dead,” Inhofe told Fox.

Inhofe points out that SENATOR Boxer rammed this through despite objections from 6 ranking members of other committees. As Moe noted, there is virtually no chance Boxer’s bill will survive now. SENATOR Boxer may have torpedoed her own bill, so great was her lust to quash debate and mow over any republican objection, in keeping with this Congress’ current SOP.

All of which is pretty funny to have in the press day after the SENATOR’s office released the following statement on her website:

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We won the big statewide races yesterday, and now it’s back to work trying to win some more. The California Senate primary may not be until June, but when we’re faced with an entrenched incumbent like Barbara Boxer, we need all the lead time we can get.

Up until now, the DC types have all been supporting Carly Fiorina in our primary, even though she had not yet declared her candidacy, and had yet shown either an inability or an unwillingness to campaign to the Republican voters of this state. Thus, that early support had failed to move any dials as Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has raised money well, gained loyal grass roots support, and ran ahead of Fiorina against Boxer in polls. But now, with the fallout of Dede Scozzafava’s blowup spreading nationwide, events are moving more quickly.

The NRSC is conceding its positions in primaries, pulling a crutch out from under Fiorina’s already-limping campaign. Conservative DC types are taking advantage of the new neutrality, too, starting with Senator Jim DeMint endorsing DeVore, while Fiorina has the backing of South Carolina’s other Senator, Lindsey Graham.

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Does Carly Fiorina care what Republicans think at all? The very day after rejecting the option of taking day trips or making video addresses to Republicans gathered for the state party convention in Indian Wells, Carly Fiorina has begun making day trips to raise money. While this is a natural step for somebody who refuses to reach into her own deep pockets to fund her campaign, this does represent yet another stumble for a campaign that can’t seem to go a day without making a mistake.

It’s no wonder that polls show her running against Barbara Boxer no better than Chuck DeVore, despite Fiorina’s wide reputation of being a pro-abortion “social moderate.” One would think that a candidate who, in the public eye, neutralizes Boxer’s key issue of abortion would do better in the polling, but Fiorina’s failure to achieve anything in the polls is a testament to her failure to campaign effectively and to reach out to the Republican base. Republicans would be critical to her fight against the united front of the Democrat party, the unions, and the press. If she can’t get us on her side, she can’t win.

So why, then, does she snub us and instead turn to the deep pockets? Does she intend to run as a Schwarzenegger-ite “post-partisan?” Does she even have a plan for victory? Even Meg Whitman showed up to Indian Wells, made good speeches, and earned respect even from supporters of other candidates. She put pressure on her opponents, and Steve Poizner did not impress when he replied.

Senator Boxer will have to make a mistake if a Republican is going to beat her in 2010. I doubt Carly Fiorina is capable of applying the pressure to Boxer it will take to make that happen.

Recently I and others have questioned Carly Fiorina’s commitment to the race to defeat Barbara Boxer in 2010. She won’t fund her own race with her deep pockets, which was supposed to be a key reason to nominate her. She also won’t show up to the California Republican Party meeting in Indian Wells this month (starting today, in fact)*. Her candidacy so far has been characterized as “amateurish”.

Fiorina now says cancer treatment is the reason for her evasiveness so far. And while nobody wishes she would skimp on her cancer treatment, or hope for anything less than a full recovery for her, I join Pejman Yousefzadeh in being skeptical of this explanation.

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There are two candidates who have a chance to win the Republican nomination for Senate in June 2010. One is Chuck DeVore. One of our Fighting Four candidates this primary season, he announced last November his candidacy to defeat Senator Barbara Boxer. Term-limited from his state Assembly seat, he’s committed to victory.

The other is Carly Fiorina. A political novice, never having run for office before, she doesn’t even know if she’s running for this office yet. In big, black letters her own, brand-new website asks “Coming Soon?” It’s no wonder she won’t even fund her own campaign. Why spend that money when she might not even run?

Chuck DeVore is on Facebook. Chuck DeVore is on Twitter, and he’s active on both. Carly Fiorina’s webpage has placeholder, non-functional links to both services. She may, or may not, show up to engage Republicans, and will do so only when it’s convenient for her.

We have two choices in June, but only one candidate is there for us and committed to fighting Barbara Boxer, the dumbest member of the US Senate. The clear choice is Chuck DeVore. I hope we can give to him and good conservatives like him to help him fight for us and win.

I’ve been meaning to give praise to Mitch McConnell since last week when he began voting against appropriations measures coming out of the Senate. This is a rare thing for McConnell, who normally sides with the appropriators.

But he stood up and voted no last week, siding with the Senate conservatives. It was a bold move worthy of praise.

Something has happened this week too. McConnell did it again. He sided with Jim DeMint and California farmers against a small fish.

What is pathetic and sad is that both Barbara Boxer and Lamar Alexander sided with the fish over the farmers.

Jim DeMint offered up an amendment to the Department of Interior’s budget appropriations to sidestep stupid environmental studies about a minnow that a judge used to stop water flow in California’s Central Valley, where 50% of the US fruits and veggies are grown.

Senator Feinstein called DeMint’s amendment “a kind of Pearl Harbor.”

California’s Senators would rather their farmers be unemployed and crops left to die of thirst than stop a judge from siding with a minnow. Both Boxer and Feinstein sided with the minnow over the farmers.

Lamar Alexander sided with them.

That’s the funny thing about the United States Senate. Too many senators side with their fellow senators instead of constituents. The fraternity of appropriators in the Senate is a stronger bond than a Senator to his constituents. The people of Tennessee now know where Lamar Alexander’s loyalties lie.

And the people of California know that its Senators would rather save a non-voting fish, than voting, working farmers. Chuck Devore should be able to exploit this one.

Let me put it this way: after seeing the first part of the San Bernardino ACORN video - the one where the ACORN stooge is bragging about her husband’s death, the former running of her own brothel, and the way that she knows Senator Barbara Boxer - GayPatriot called up Boxer’s office*. He’s reporting that the Senator’s staff is pointing out in their responses that their boss voted to defund ACORN.  When Senator Barbara Boxer can see the writing on the wall…

DOOM.

Wonderful, wonderful DOOM.

*H/T Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: One of my colleagues has noted privately something to the effect that the problem with all of this is that Andrew Breitbart has raised the expectations of what constitutes a successful website launch to totally unsustainable levels.

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

At our next Republican Convention here in California, the most important vote we take may be the vote to close our primary elections, ensuring that people are Republicans before they can choose who will represent our party on the ballot. Since 1999 when we opened our primaries to those who do not join a party, we have had no noteworthy statewide electoral success from primary-nominated Republicans (our dear Governor Schwarzenegger, remember, bypassed the primary process in the recall of Governor Gray Davis).

So the benefits of the open primary have been shown to be minimal. Yet a certain coalition of Republicans will be fighting hard to keep our primaries open. Notable in that coalition are the backers of Meg “I’m a huge fan of Van Jones” Whitman, candidate for Governor; Carly “The fundamental objective [of HP is] to be a good international citizen” Fiorina, candidate for Senate; and of course Governor Arnold “Right-wing crazies” Schwarzenegger. See a pattern?

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In his bid for U.S. Senate, Republican Chuck DeVore has gone to great lengths to portray his primary election opponent Carly Fiorina as too liberal, particularly on the issue of abortion, but some California political observers now say the cash-strapped DeVore campaign is playing fast and loose with the facts.

Last week, Fiorina announced she took the first step in challenging Senator Barbara Boxer, and by proxy DeVore, by registering her campaign committee, “Carly for California,” with the IRS.

The DeVore campaign, certainly wasting no time, launched a cheeky website to “welcome Carly to the race,” asking supporters to send Fiorina one of four pre-scripted emails. Found among the original choices was the patronizing option to ask Ms. Fiorina, 54, to “make up her mind” on abortion, adding that “Carly Fiorina has never said whether she’s pro-life.” The DeVore campaign has since changed the wording to “suspect on life issues,” but the sentiment—that Fiorina is some sort of pro-abortion Manchurian Candidate—remains the same.

Following the launch of the website, DeVore allies began widely circulating an item from the Wall Street Journal that so matter-of-factly described Fiorina as “pro-choice on abortion” it reeked of poor campaign opposition research. Yesterday, the article was amended to show that Fiorina was, in fact, pro-life.

You should have detected a theme here.

Despite DeVore’s protestations, Fiorina settled on the contentious issue of abortion years ago. And contrary to the campaign’s constant refrain, she proudly calls herself a “pro-life, conservative, and life-long Republican.”

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Can someone fly in some Honduran soldiers to load Lamar Alexander (R-TN) up on a plane and fly in to Costa Rica? Get him out of the country. Come on — if this is the future leadership of the Republican Party, we need a coup*.

Jim DeMint has scored some damn effective points against Barack Obama this week by calling healthcare Obama’s “Waterloo.” It got under his skin so bad, Obama flubbed his press conference and saw his poll numbers dip below 50% for the first time.

Independent types should read that as “Jim DeMint is on to something.” Lamar Alexander reads it as “time to get on my knees and kiss the Democrats’ backsides.”

Behold this exchange on the floor of the Senate.

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Although even Rasmussen has to say “It’s California.”

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Boxer attracts 45% of the statewide vote while Fiorina, her best-known possible Republican challenger, earns 41%. Seven percent (7%) say they’d vote for some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.

In March, Boxer led Fiorina by nine, 47% to 38%.

Any incumbent who polls below 50% early in a campaign is considered potentially vulnerable. However, a Democrat running in a heavily Democratic state like California is often able to overcome weak poll numbers.

Which is very true: but it’s also Barbara Boxer. This is not a very good period of time to be reflexively supporting more taxes, less energy, and the imposition of health care rationing - and, given some of the topline results to this survey (MoE is 4.5%, by the way), you have to wonder how ‘heavily Democratic’ it is these days. On first reading, the results read as being more anti-incumbent than anything else: Fiorina isn’t even formally in the race yet, although these numbers are certainly encouraging enough. Chuck Devore (who is in the race) is probably finding them encouraging, too; people in California just aren’t happy with the status quo right now - and contra Rasmussen, you shouldn’t ignore sub-50 ratings if you’re a politician who wants to keep her job.

I’d assume that Senator Boxer is taking that into consideration, except, well.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Barbara Boxer might have a reason to feel touchy about her title of Senator, it seems. Not only is she facing a determined, conservative challenger in Chuck DeVore, but even her own caucusmates don’t think she’s equipped for the job.

In short, they think she’ll botch any job she’s given the responsibility for, so they’re taking responsibilities away from her.

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Twenty-one minutes long, but worth every second: this Breitbart interview with Harry Alford was done over the phone, so you can safely stick it in the background and listen and not miss anything.

Mr. Alford, as you remember, went round and round with Senator Barbara Boxer* over some racial attitudes that the latter has yesterday; he expanded on this a bit more. Highlights from the interview:

• He and the NBCC are not shills for Republicans.  In fact, they’re going to be on the other side on the health care issue.  Mr. Alford himself is an independent.
• This level of racially-motivated condescension is all the more outrageous because he’s never been treated like this before, in over a decade of testimony.
• Mr. Alford’s - fully justified - outrage seems based on the fact that he was there to testify as a representative of a Black business organization, and Senator Boxer kept treating him as a Black representative of a Black (business) organization.  Who was Black.  Like all these other Black people who agree with Senator Boxer, so their Black opinions were just as relevant as Harry (Black) Alford’s.**
• So if you’re going to dispute a report being used by the NBCC, and you simply must get your own Black people to back you up, they’d appreciate it if you went and got ones who can at least address the issue from an informed state.
• And, oh yes: Boxer and staff ran away surprisingly quickly after the hearing.

Really, listen to the whole thing.

Moe Lane

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Promoted from diaries. And Chuck Devore was certainly on top of this one, wasn’t he? Contribute here. - Moe Lane

Boxer doesn’t actually say that, she just implies it. And the black male she’s questioning takes great offense. Chuck Devore is certainly going to have plenty of material to work with thanks to Boxer herself!

There is a rumor in Washington that Senator John Cornyn is desperately trying to get Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner to jump into the California Senate race against Chuck Devore in the GOP Primary.

Poizner is running for Governor currently.

Right now, the only Republican in the race is Chuck Devore. He is battling Mrs. “Ma’am” Boxer, the little lady who likes to be called Senator by men in uniform.

Chuck needs to have a good fundraising showing with the FEC. You can help. The more Chuck has, the less likely it becomes that the NRSC recruits some squishy leftist.

Do you know what a long, difficult road must be followed to become a one-star general? Or, how much training and leadership experience does it take to be the current commander of Task Force Hope, the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort supporting FEMA’s national response plan to Hurricane Katrina?

Brigadier General Micheal Walsh knows. His bio fairly bristles with educational excellence and impressive accomplishments of a fairly unglamorous kind. Just read that bio. Read. That. Bio. His previous gig was Commander of the Gulf Region Division in Baghdad - i.e., in charge of rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq that was run down under 30 years of war and dictatorship.

Yet while giving testimony the other day to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, this thoroughly competent leader and engineer was held up to mockery by the most shrill and arguably the most stupid person in the Senate.

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Goodness. It reminds me of a female colleague on my local city council who always gets on a high horse about wasting time on frivolous matters, then getting upset at a city employee referring to a “gentlemen’s agreement.”

Senator Boxer, you see, did not like being called “Ma’am” by a General.

So the men have no problem with “Sir,” but Miss Boxer does not like “Ma’am.”

We now must all start calling her “Ma’am,” and here are some delightful Dora the Explorer big girl panties (my 3 year old endorses them) you might want to send Senator Boxer.

The best address is 1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111. If nothing else, it’s San Francisco. If she can’t use them, I’m sure some guy in San Francisco can.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, Republican of Irvine, is running for Senate in the hopes of challenging and defeating Senator Barbara Boxer (Dunce-California) in November 2010. He’s gotten off to an early start, but he needs it, because he’s definitely an underdog. California has not elected a Republican Senator since Pete Wilson in 1986, nor have we elected a pro-life politician to a statewide office since Attorney General Dan Lungren won in 1994, and before that the re-election of Governor George Deukmejian in 1986. It’s been a long time.

Chuck DeVore has a plan, though. During a conference call today with online activists and ‘bloggers,’ which your reporter was able to listen in on, he said that he’s consciously attempting to mimic the successful strategies followed by Barack Obama in his underdog victory over Hillary Clinton last year. He intends to use the Internet and the grass roots to get more done than Republicans in his position have in the past.

He’s ready on the issues, too, and not just the tools of politics.

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