Republican Senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged during this morning’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor that, “barring a complete meltdown,” she will be confirmed.
** QUICK HITS. No problems emerged today for Judge Sonia Sotomayor in her first day of Senate confirmation hearings as President Barack Obama’s first appointee to the US Supreme Court. Which should be no surprise. The only problem was not for Sotomayor or Obama but new New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (Hillary Clinton’s appointed replacement), who rattled on so long in her co-introductory remarks for Sotomayor that committee chairman Pat Leahy had to cut her off. … It was a quiet day in California’s chronic-turned chaotic budget crisis. Talks are continuing but not in Big 5 mode as staffers reportedly are working on what was discussed late Friday and over the weekend. The sniping abated as well, except for an AFSCME claim early this morning that private contractors constitute $34 billion in state government waste. … For his part, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut a 60-second TV spot that will air tomorrow around the state talking about all the budget plans he won’t sign.
** BOXER ON TARGET. While Democrats go after ex-Hewlett Packard CEO and 2010 Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina for not registering her business and foundation with the state, and the far right Flash Report slams her and boosts far right Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore for the nomination, incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer is on target in her re-election campaign.
Boxer will report having more than $5.4 million in her campaign warchest on July 15th. She raised nearly $1.5 million in the past quarter. She has over 35,000 contributors.
At this point in her last election cycle, in mid-2003, Boxer had significantly less cash on hand, some $3.2 million, and went on to a landslide re-election victory the following year.
** GALLUP POLL: STEADY SUUPORT FOR SOTOMAYOR. With her Senate confirmation hearing underway, US Sureme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has solid and steady support in the new Gallup Poll.
As the Senate begins its confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor Monday, a new Gallup Poll finds Americans in favor of her winning Senate approval, by 53% to 33%. Since late May, shortly after her nomination was announced, the percentage in favor of her confirmation has changed little, but the percentage opposed has increased as the percentage with no opinion has gone down.
These results are based on a July 10-12 Gallup Poll, conducted in the final days before the hearings began. The 53% in favor of Sotomayor’s confirmation is in line with those for recent nominees who won confirmation, including Samuel Alito, John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Clarence Thomas, all of whose pre-hearing ratings were near 50%. It is higher than those of two nominees — Robert Bork and Harriet Miers — whose nominations were withdrawn or were defeated by the Senate.
There is not much evidence to suggest that Senate hearings change public support for Supreme Court nominees to a large degree. Gallup took readings for Alito and Roberts immediately before, and upon completion of, their Senate hearings. Support for Alito’s confirmation rose only slightly, from 49% to 54% in January 2006. Likewise, the needle barely moved (from 58% to 60%) after Roberts’ confirmation hearings in September 2005.
This lack of movement was true even in the case of Thomas, whose hearings attracted national attention after accusations that he had sexually harassed a former colleague. From the initial measurement in July 1991, shortly after his nomination was announced, until immediately before the Senate vote that made him a Supreme Court justice in October 1991, the percentage of Americans in favor of confirming Thomas to the Court did not vary much, ranging only between 52% and 58%. During this time, opposition to Thomas did increase, but only to as high as 30%.
President Barack Obama addressed the parliament of Ghana and many other guests on Saturday.
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
A consequential week in presidential politics and in California politics.
President Barack Obama, back from a week of summiteering in Russia, Italy, and Ghana, focuses in this week on his universal health care plan, the low-speed economic recovery, Middle East peace, and the confirmation of his Supreme Court appointee. And in California, a resolution to the state’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis may be in the offing, though a plan for long-term reform of the tangled tax code, expected this week, may get hung up. What a surprise.
On health care reform, it looks likely that Obama will have to forego the bipartisan approach. Not a surprise there. But he also has problems with a number of more conservative Democrats, who don’t want the so-called “public option,” i.e., the development of a parallel genuine national health service. If Obama is to meet his goal of passage in both houses by the August recess, he will need to take control of this from his allies in Congress, else the issue will drift.
Obama made it clear in his weekend video/radio address that he is not planning a second big economic recovery package. (Which also, presumably, made it clear to diehards in California that he will not bail out the state budget, which would leave things as they are.)
But the White House is focused on ramping up the existing economic stimulus as much as possible, though most of the spending is more backloaded.
While Obama was summiting last week with Russian and G-8 leaders and delivering a tough love address in Africa, his emissaries were meeting with Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab leaders to kick-start the Middle East peace process. At particular issue? An agreement on settlements by conservative Jewish religionists in the West Bank.
Obama is likely to have a simpler time of it, well, not just likelier, with his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The Republicans may be ready to fold on Sotomayor, whose Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings got underway early this morning in Washington and are likely to span the week.
In California, without presenting too many burdensome details that have been trotted out in vain many times before, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders say they are closing in on a resolution to the state’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis.
Adding to a sense of some urgency is the fact that banks stopped accepting the state’s IOUs on Friday. The last time IOUs were issued, in 1992, the impasse went on for two months past the deadline.
But as former Governor Gray Davis, then the state’s controller issuing the IOUs, noted recently, the difference is that San Francisco-based Bank of America, a longtime mainstay of the California economy, was horning the IOUs. Now BofA is part of a conglomerate based out-of-state, its Californian heritage a thing of the past.
One major reason for the state’s chronic fiscal woes is a goofy boom/bust revenue structure that is too geared to the fortunes of very high-income Californians, as well as an old industrial economic model. But a tax revision commission expected to come up with a proposal on Thursday may not come through.
Why? Partisan disagreement, naturally. One mistake of would-be reformers from the more conservative side of the spectrum is to flatten the income tax while broadening it.
It should be clear that lowering taxes for the wealthy while raising them for the middle class is a political non-starter. The top rate cannot go down.
Oh, and the 2010 California gubernatorial race, naturally, goes on. On the Democratic side, it’s a very one-sided contest between former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has described Brown as essentially the greatest thing since sliced bread.
On the Republican side, ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a national co-chair of the John McCain and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, continues staffing up with PR specialists while answering few questions of her own. Super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner continues to take pot shots at Whitman and Brown, while former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell, who has little campaign money, will issue statements on the budget and tax revision.
The Mexican drug wars flared up yesterday with a round of attacks by drug cartels forces against police.
** OBAMA TODAY. President Barack Obama is back at work in the White House following his near week-long series of meetings and speeches in Russia, Italy, and Ghana.
Obama has had his daily intelligence and economic briefings and met with senior advisors in the Oval Office.
He has just announced that Dr. Regina Benjamin, a family practitioner from Alabama who is African American, will be the new surgeon general of the United States.
At 10:15 AM Pacific, Obama meets with the leaders of a dozen labor unions in the Roosevelt Room to discuss health care reform, the economy, and their proposed “card check” legislation to make it easier to unionize.
At 11:20 AM Pacific, he welcomes the Columbus Crew soccer team to the White House in the Rose Garden.
At 1 PM Pacific, Obama delivers remarks at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Obama will also meet with Congressional leaders on health care reform.
He will also meet with leaders of major Jewish organizations.
Obama’s pick for the US Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, has her first day of confirmations hearings today before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senators are making an opening round of statements now. There are 12 Democrats and seven Republicans on the committee. That will last until around 10 AM.
Then New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand will introduce Sotomayor, at length, as you might suppose.
Around 10:30 AM Pacific, Sotomayor makes her own introductory remarks.
The actual questioning of Sotomayor by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee should begin on Tuesday and continue into Wednesday.
Outside witnesses testify on Thursday.
Unless Sotomayor trips up during the hearing, this looks like a relatively easy confirmation.
Obama is also monitoring a number of international situations, including a big outbreak of violence by drug cartel forces yesterday against Mexican police.
UPDATE: No Big 5 meeting today on California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis. Staffs are meeting to go over the details that have apparently been agreed on thusfar, as well as upcoming matters. The Big 5 will meet again tomorrow.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holds private meetings and discussions in in and aroud the Capitol, focusing on California’s chronic-turned-chaotic budget crisis.
He has no scheduled public events today.
Big 5 negotiations between Schwarzenegger and Democratic and Republican legislative leaders began again late Friday afternoon, continued over the weekend, and will continue today.
Progress is reportedly being made, but we’ve been down that road before.
** DIMINISHING RETURNS FOR OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING. President Barack Obama returned early Sunday morning from a near week-long international tour that took him to a key summit in Moscow, a G-8 summit, and his first appearance in Africa as president. But some suggested, with his poll numbers down a bit and media attention mostly elsewhere, that his summiteering is having diminishing returns.
Perhaps. But I think it has at least as much to do with the media culture.
American media, especially cable TV news, is moving more into infotainment mode, stuck on a few areas. Geopolitics has never been its strong suit, and political coverage is mostly focused on food fights. Which was unfortunate, as following on to his addresses in Prague and Cairo, Obama gave the final two of his advertised four major speeches on his new geopolitics last week, in Moscow and in Accra, Ghana. …
** OBAMA DOES MOSCOW, AND VICE VERSA. Flying to Italy Wednesday morning for the troubled G-8 summit, President Barack Obama departed Moscow after a very intriguing summit with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
This was the so-called “Reset Summit” to bring American/Russian relations out of the neo-Cold War depths they’d sunk to last year. It certainly succeeded at that, and at some other things as well, especially with regard to sharp reductions in nuclear weapons, aid for the US effort in Afghanistan, and a pullback on NATO expansion, a longtime thorn in the side of Russia. But other sticking points remained, on a US anti-missile shield and on Iran.
All amidst some notable intrigue, some of it generated from the Obama side. …
Unlike most of the rest of Europe, Russia is hardly in the grip of Obamamania. He’s certainly more popular than George W. Bush or John McCain, but that’s damning with faint praise. … From my July 8th column.
** OBAMA’S CONSEQUENTIAL FIRST 4TH: NOKO, AFPAK, IRAQ, RUSSIA, PALIN (PALIN?!) Quite a consequential first 4th of July as president for Barack Obama.
Not only did he have 20 of daughter Malia’s schoolgirl friends over for a Camp David sleepover in honor of her 11th birthday on the 4th of July — just wait till her “Independence Day,” Dad — he had a few other things on his plate, as well as the barbeque for military families and the fireworks show. Not counting his inherited worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
North Korea was to have been the drama of the day. But it turned into a major fizzle. … From my July 4th column.
** THE GOP’S PALIN FOOD FIGHT: WHY NOW? You have to hand it to Sarah Palin. For a sideshow, she’s very good at being the center of attention. Even when she doesn’t want to be.
She had a few big controversies earlier this year — her on-again/off-again headlining of the big GOP congressional fundraiser, her pregnant teenage daughter, the usual Alaska stuff — but she’s hit the jackpot this week with a huge food fight among big name Republicans. What’s unexamined is this question: Why now? … From my July 2nd column.
** TRANSFORMATIVE: LE CINEMA DE MICHAEL BAY. I love the films of Michael Bay. In fact, they are so dramatic and compelling that …
Gotcha! I actually do not love the films of Michael Bay. I don’t hate them, either. And there are a couple that I like. But the fact that it is considered preposterous for a writer — a writer who writes about anything, even wallpaper — to not dismiss Bay’s work in the most vehement of terms points up a dramatic disconnect between the critical community and the movie-going audience.
Bay’s new flick, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, just took in an astounding $200.1 million at the domestic box office in its first five days of release. … From my June 29th essay.
** STAR TREK FIRSTS … 43 YEARS ON. … From my June 23rd essay.
** OBAMA AND THE AYATOLLAH. . … From my June 19th column.
** OBAMA’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT: NORTH KOREA, AGAIN. … From my June 12th column.
** REMEMBERING AMERICA: OBAMA’S D-DAY SPEECH AND TWO DAYS IN JUNE. … From my June 8th column.
** REPOSITIONING AMERICA: OBAMA’S CAIRO SPEECH AS THE ULTIMATE IN EVENT MARKETING. … From my June 4th column.
** TERMINATING THE DARKNESS: HOPE FLOATS, BUT ANXIETY ABIDES. … From my May 31st column.
** THE AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY OF CALIFORNIA’S PROP 8. … From my May 26th column.
** OBAMA: RIDING WITH HISTORY. (NOTE: As Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, this column was the featured column on the top of the front page of the Huffington Post.) … From my January 19th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti. While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM AL JAZEERA. With the US entangled in two wars in the region, it’s valuable to keep up with news and perspectives from the leading Middle Eastern-based TV news network. Based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, Al Jazeera is very influential and more than a bit controversial. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer. The NWN live link to AJ does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate last fall, prior to the global economic meltdown, with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included. Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
You can listen to my recent video webchat with Schwarzenegger here.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Having crashed over $147 for yet another record last July 11th, crude oil is trading around $59 per barrel.
This is up about $25 from the low of $34 per barrel prior to enactment of the Obama economic recovery program. But oil has been slumping over the past week or so from recent highs on fears that the global economic recovery is happening too slowly.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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| Comments (40) | 40 Responses to “Monday Morning Quarterback, And More”
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That’s a very good speech by obama in Africa.
The Mexican government looks like it’s having big problems with the drug cartels.
That’s a great speech by Barack on Africa!
Is there really a big deal?
Jonas Blane says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:34 am
The Mexican government looks like it’s having big problems with the drug cartels.
I love it!
BB:Oh, and the 2010 California gubernatorial race, naturally, goes on. On the Democratic side, it’s a very one-sided contest between former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has described Brown as essentially the greatest thing since sliced bread.
On the Republican side, ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a national co-chair of the John McCain and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, continues staffing up with PR specialists while answering few questions of her own. Super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner continues to take pot shots at Whitman and Brown, while former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell, who has little campaign money, will issue statements on the budget and tax revision.
I love those African colors.
That’s one helluva speech by Obama on Africa. Tough love and real help instead of handouts. That’s the ticket.
Jonas Blane says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:33 am
That’s a very good speech by obama in Africa.
What else is new?
onas Blane says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:34 am
The Mexican government looks like it’s having big problems with the drug cartels.
I’m watching a little of the Sotomayor hearing. She’s a shoo-in, right?
Yep.
It’s gotten much worse in the past year.
> Jack Aubrey says:
July 13, 2009 at 11:14 am (Edit)
What else is new?
onas Blane says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:34 am
The Mexican government looks like it’s having big problems with the drug cartels.
Uh, great.
> Len says:
July 13, 2009 at 10:46 am (Edit)
I love those African colors.
Not surprisingly …
> Capitol Boy says:
July 13, 2009 at 10:09 am (Edit)
I love it!
BB:Oh, and the 2010 California gubernatorial race, naturally, goes on. On the Democratic side, it’s a very one-sided contest between former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has described Brown as essentially the greatest thing since sliced bread.
On the Republican side, ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a national co-chair of the John McCain and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns, continues staffing up with PR specialists while answering few questions of her own. Super-rich state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner continues to take pot shots at Whitman and Brown, while former Silicon Valley Congressman Tom Campbell, who has little campaign money, will issue statements on the budget and tax revision.
It is quite a good speech.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 13, 2009 at 10:01 am (Edit)
That’s a great speech by Barack on Africa!
It is.
> Jonas Blane says:
July 13, 2009 at 9:34 am (Edit)
The Mexican government looks like it’s having big problems with the drug cartels.
Great new HuffPo column! The media is getting so trivial.
I’d missed that. The media doesn’t have the brains to cover half of what Obama does. You expect them to know about Russia and Africa? That’s a joke.
I thought the Huffington Post did the same thing.
It had as much about Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin as every old media outfit.
** DIMINISHING RETURNS FOR OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING. President Barack Obama returned early Sunday morning from a near week-long international tour that took him to a key summit in Moscow, a G-8 summit, and his first appearance in Africa as president. But some suggested, with his poll numbers down a bit and media attention mostly elsewhere, that his summiteering is having diminishing returns.
Perhaps. But I think it has at least as much to do with the media culture.
American media, especially cable TV news, is moving more into infotainment mode, stuck on a few areas. Geopolitics has never been its strong suit, and political coverage is mostly focused on food fights. Which was unfortunate, as following on to his addresses in Prague and Cairo, Obama gave the final two of his advertised four major speeches on his new geopolitics last week, in Moscow and in Accra, Ghana. …
From my new column.
Gruesome Newsom doesn’t know what he’s flapping half the time he opens his yap.
Oh, and the 2010 California gubernatorial race, naturally, goes on. On the Democratic side, it’s a very one-sided contest between former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has described Brown as essentially the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Linsey Graham said it, Sotomayor is a lock.
I was reading Dahlia Lithwick on Slate in re the Sotomayor lock. It mentions Senator Session’s moaning about gun rights, which evidently you can advocate for while not engaging in evil evil judicial activism of the sort Session deplores. Huh? The Republican pandering to a diminishing base is weird. They were gleeful at Roberts and Alito getting on the Court reflecting conservative views — Sotomayor is as qualified as them, but more centrist–I guess the Republicans see anything but far right views as beyond the pale. Most of the country doesn’t agree with that paradigm–the Reps are really out of step.
http://www.slate.com/id/2222575
lol
Boxer looks strong and the Repubs have no serious candidate. As JA would say, What else is new?
It makes sense that Boxer wins easily. Fiorina was a failure as H-P chief executive. How many people lost their jobs? How many businesses internally failed? She was fortunate not to be indicted for illegal corporate spying.
I am happy about Boxer; I’m ecstatic about Sonia Sotomayor.
Sometimes it takes a wise Latina.
Boxer just hasn’t given the Reeps that much to work with over the years. She’s liberal, but conventionally so.
Boxer is actually one of the most liberal members of the US Senate. The Republican problem is they have bad candidates, and that Boxer is well-positioned as the fighter for California while DiFi is the worker for California.
At least, those are the roles tbey are playing …
I’ve never thought much of Fiorina as a candidate.
> marcos leon says:
July 13, 2009 at 4:15 pm (Edit)
It makes sense that Boxer wins easily. Fiorina was a failure as H-P chief executive. How many people lost their jobs? How many businesses internally failed? She was fortunate not to be indicted for illegal corporate spyin
Yawn.
> TRIATHLON says:
July 13, 2009 at 2:50 pm (Edit)
No, you see the Second Amendment is not legislating from the bench, it’s strict constructionism …
> Dana says:
July 13, 2009 at 2:22 pm (Edit)
I was reading Dahlia Lithwick on Slate in re the Sotomayor lock. It mentions Senator Session’s moaning about gun rights, which evidently you can advocate for while not engaging in evil evil judicial activism of the sort Session deplores. Huh? The Republican pandering to a diminishing base is weird. They were gleeful at Roberts and Alito getting on the Court reflecting conservative views — Sotomayor is as qualified as them, but more centrist–I guess the Republicans see anything but far right views as beyond the pale. Most of the country doesn’t agree with that paradigm–the Reps are really out of step.
http://www.slate.com/id/2222575
No name-calling.
> Truth Teller says:
July 13, 2009 at 12:28 pm (Edit)
Gruesome Newsom doesn’t know what he’s flapping half the time he opens his yap.
Oh, and the 2010 California gubernatorial race, naturally, goes on. On the Democratic side, it’s a very one-sided contest between former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco’s mayor, Gavin Newsom, who has described Brown as essentially the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Not untrue …
> Truth Teller says:
July 13, 2009 at 12:26 pm (Edit)
I thought the Huffington Post did the same thing.
It had as much about Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin as every old media outfit.
** DIMINISHING RETURNS FOR OBAMA’S SUMMITEERING. President Barack Obama returned early Sunday morning from a near week-long international tour that took him to a key summit in Moscow, a G-8 summit, and his first appearance in Africa as president. But some suggested, with his poll numbers down a bit and media attention mostly elsewhere, that his summiteering is having diminishing returns.
Perhaps. But I think it has at least as much to do with the media culture.
American media, especially cable TV news, is moving more into infotainment mode, stuck on a few areas. Geopolitics has never been its strong suit, and political coverage is mostly focused on food fights. Which was unfortunate, as following on to his addresses in Prague and Cairo, Obama gave the final two of his advertised four major speeches on his new geopolitics last week, in Moscow and in Accra, Ghana. …
From my new column.
Thanks.
> Capitol Boy says:
July 13, 2009 at 11:43 am (Edit)
Great new HuffPo column! The media is getting so trivial.
“The Republican problem is they have bad candidates” I have been astonished at the clay pigeons they have run against Boxer. This go-round looks to be a repeat performance. Chuck DeVore? My mind reels…
What new video today?
Right.
But it’s not as if she’s some sort of radical outlier. And, yes, she’s been lucky in terms of the Reep candidates. I have a fun what-might-have-been story from the final weekend of her first senate race.
>BB: Boxer is actually one of the most liberal members of the US Senate.
Love to hear that story!
Sotomayor, and Afghanistan.
> Jonas Blane says:
July 14, 2009 at 6:10 am (Edit)
What new video today?
Well, he is the Flash Report candidate for US Senate …
> Dana says:
July 13, 2009 at 7:25 pm (Edit)
“The Republican problem is they have bad candidates” I have been astonished at the clay pigeons they have run against Boxer. This go-round looks to be a repeat performance. Chuck DeVore? My mind reels…