Quiet Spell, McNerney Braces for the Races

Been a bit quiet around here in the 11th D lately, with things sorting out after the climatic June 6th primary. Nothing new on the Pombo side. His modus operandi is to glom on to a few no-brainer enviro bills about now so he can point to them at election time. Look for him to start dressing in green and putting out pictures of him and his family walking around forests and lakes. It is all just a head fake, but voters who don't pay attention will get his flyers or see his expensive ads on TV, where he blathers on about using "sound science" to bring "balance". People who don't know any better believe that crap.

Seems that sells better than the truth of slick oil, coal, timber, and mining execs and lobbyists stuffing millions into his pockets so that they can unleash their machinery on all those forests and lakes that Pombo, Annette, and the kids were walking around in those commercials.

The other inevitablity with Pombo is his effort to paint McNerney as A) a loser; B) an East Bay liberal; and C) tax-friendly. It gets so predictable, it is boring. It seems that Pombo knows what has worked to keep his supporters supporting him for the last 7 elections, and does not plan to change course. Gotta feed them some red meat with the words "liberal" and "taxes" stamped on it to get them growling and snarling.

McNerney on the other hand needs to be getting endorsements and money for the long trek to the South Pole. He needs a ship and crew and equipment to make the long run across the ice fields. Even with the ship and crew and supplies, he stills needs a strategy and plan. He does not want to get locked in the ice pack like Shackleton and have his ship crushed. He has to decide whether to use dogs or horses, whether to dress in native furs or modern synthetics, whether to use sleds or motorized vehicles. He needs good maps and navigation tools. He has to have luck and determination, and lots of money to pull this off.

As they say, "Many are cold, but few are frozen". Well, in the 11th District, the last 7 attempts at the Pole have left the contenders "frozen", with enough debris spread across the Antarctic that penguins still gawk at it. Now we have a rematch, where McNerney will once again try to plant his flag at 90 degrees South. The question is if he will follow the advice of the "experts", like Robert Scott did, or follow the ways of the natives, like Roald Amundsen did. We know how that one turned out.

(Hmmm, must be the heat, that is why I am talking about something cold. So maybe next topic will be about Global Warming. Just saw Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth". What a contrast to Pombo's (and Bush's) approach of "deny and belittle it". I wonder who will win that match -- the "truth" of global warming or the "sound science" of Bush/Pombo? The reality is more like we will all be losers!)

Tags: CA-11, Jerry McNerney, Richard Pombo