Just when you thought it was safe...

That must be what Dana is thinking, as he contemplates his next run for Congress. It has been a very long time since he faced criticism from inside the Republican Party, as the comments from Mississippi blogger Conservative Belle laid out.

Her criticism was a mild one. It was an effort to point out just how much earmarks and their use as a campaign tool give a lie to the conservative rhetoric about controlling spending and lowering taxes. If you can not control the amount of pork that is shipped to your own district, what gives you the right to talk about controlling big government. Maybe this should have been levied at Alaska's Senator Stevens or Representative Don Young. Both abuse the system much more that Dana. But Dana is the one that opened his mouth and gave her a good target for her scorn.

Now Dana has more than an irate Mississippi Belle to worry about, he has opposition in the Republican Primary in his own district. According to the Daily Pilot, Ronald R. St.John has actually decided to challenge Rohrabacher for the Republican nomination. You can check the status of all party candidates here.

Now, I don't know much about St. John. Neither, apparently, do the folks at Red County blog where he is only a side comment in a post about Debbie Cook.

Am I beginning to see parallels between what happened to Richard Pombo in 2006 and what is happening to Rohrabacher now? Like Dana, Pombo had a safe district. Like Dana, Pombo had surprising opposition in the Republican Primary. Like Dana, Pombo had an opponent with a reasonable base. Will Dana have to actually dig into his bank account and do some real campaigning this time? It is too early to tell, but Red County bloggers found that the speed with which Debbie Cook gathered signatures on her nomination papers to be "impressive."

Here are some things to watch.

• In CA-11, Jerry McNerney was able to pull in grassroot contributions from all over the country. The average contribution to his campaign was small, but he had a lot of them.
• What will the environmental community do? McNerney had strong backing from national environmental organizations, so does Cook locally. I have not heard that any of the bid spenders (Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife) are willing yet to pour money into this campaign. It will probably take several positive polling results to make that happen.
• Will Dana face more opposition from veterans? The war issue is a Republican strength but also a weakness. Treatment of veterans will make a difference. A Tom Lash issue now.
  
• Will Dana run a smart campaign? Pombo ran a campaign from a position of over-confidence, doing all of the same old things he always did. But, the times had changed and many actions backfired. The times have changed even more now and that can not be good for doing the same old things in the same old way.

This race is beginning to have the feel that the Pombo race had in early 2006. All it needs is for Rohrabacher's opponents to start believing that they can win.

What does a conservative belle think of Dana?

Well, one Conservative Belle is not too happy with him. I quote from her post today.

They frantically scramble for pork projects like they are starving and looking for bread crumbs to lap up. Greedy and desperate. But they have all the justification in the world when they need to defend their own projects, while hypocritically pointing fingers at other.

"I think the whole earmark debate has to be looked at with a skeptical eye on the part of the public," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, whose district covers parts of Long Beach.

Rohrabacher, who helped secure $16.9 million in earmarks, said he favors cutting spending and stronger disclosure rules.

But, he said, he does not want the administration to make the final decision about the flow of all federal dollars.

"If all we're doing is shifting the power to spread a certain amount of money from elected officials to un-elected officials ... that's no great benefit to the taxpayers," he said.
[...]
Waxman said he already has begun informing Los Angeles municipalities, hospitals, nonprofits and other groups that he will not be seeking money for them this year.

The 15-term lawmaker said he doesn't believe the decision will hurt his re-election efforts.

But some other local lawmakers said they don't intend to follow Waxman's lead and give up pet projects.

Rohrabacher, for one, called Waxman's decision "meaningless" unless Congress decreases the overall level of government spending. Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram

Right. By all means, do not lead by example, Mr. Rohrabacher. This 'do as I say, not as I do' rhetoric and behavior have nothing to do with the pitifully low ratings of Congress, of course. Americans have to be angry about something else, like how many steroids are being injected into sports players. Meaningless things like that provoke our ire.

And, as her final jab, our Conservative Belle lays it on the line like Scarlett O'Hara.

Hasn't Rep. Rohrabacher recognized that taxpayers are disgusted with their behavior? For crying out loud, even Henry Waxman gets it. Sheesh.

I guess Conservative Belle is not used to California ways and Ronnie's 11th Commandment. That is Reagan, not Nehring. The latter has not learned to count to 11 as his finances seem to indicate.

Ho-dad

I just found what purports to be the official Rohrabacher Website... or at least one that says it was paid for by the Committee to ReElect Congressman Rohrabacher. So, here is if folks: http://www.surfdana.org/ Even got a picture of someone on a surfboard. However based on his current official House of Representative web site photo, this must have been taken a while back.



Now, I talked about Dana with a surfer called "Birdlegs". Some of you from the Surfrider Foundation may know him. He called called Dana a "ho-dad". Must be something pretty bad.

Another thing I noticed is that the Surf Dana site looks pretty cheap. All three of the challenger sites look better. But, there have been rumors that the California Republican Party is having financial problems under the leadership of Ron Nehring. Could it be that Dana is having similar problems and has to rely on some middle school student volunteer to keep the site going?

Well that is about right. Ho-dad instead of surfer. Amateur web site instead of professional. Wonder how he is at being a congressman.

Debbie Cook Joins the Race

According to the Daily Pilot, Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook wants to get Dana talking. That should be easy. The problem may be to get him to shut up. He seems, with surprising frequency, to have foot in the mouth disease.

Unfortunately, that is also what makes him such a dangerous opponent for Cook, who can be a bit of a policy wonk at times... and the global warming / energy nexus is where she is far ahead of Crazy Dana. Dana, however, has managed to come off as being charmingly quirky rather than just _________: dumb? ideologically inflexible? in the pay of the bad guys... fill in the blanks yourself.

Now, we need to see just what kind of campaign Cook can wage. Maybe she should call Jerry McNerney for advice. Yeah, I know that the linked blog has not been active for a long, long time, but it is still around and show everyone that astounding things can happen when people get together to take back control of government.

Lincoln acted so that "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth." Crazy Dana claims to be from the party of Lincoln. You couldn't tell by what he is willing to do to the earth. I would think that Lincoln might given him to the Know Nothings. With Dana's anti-immigrant rhetoric, he would have been right at home.