THE OPENING FAULTLINES (via Mike Daley)

Davis is told: No trash talk (Gary Delsohn, August 1, 2003, The Sacramento Bee)

Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued a stern warning to fellow Democrat Gov. Gray Davis on Thursday: Run the kind of "trashy ... puke" campaign you did last year and a lot of prominent Democrats will vote to recall you and give the job to Republican Richard Riordan. [...]

"If they do the trashy campaign on Dick Riordan ... I think there are going to be prominent Democrats that will defect and just say, 'We're tired of that puke politics. Don't you dare do it again or we're just going to help pull the plug.'

"There is a growing list of prominent Democrats that, if that's how it evolves, are going to jump ship." [...]

Lockyer's comments infuriated Davis' longtime political consultant, "startled" the Republican strategist who would likely manage Riordan's campaign and gave rise to the notion that Democratic unity behind Davis may be crumbling.

About the same time Lockyer was making his comments, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Garden Grove, who has been urging U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to put her name on the ballot, suggested she might enter the race. [...]

GOP consultant George Gorton, now advising actor Arnold Schwarzenegger but expected to work for Riordan, said he was stunned. "Talk about breaking ranks," Gorton said. "What he's done is make it harder for Davis to attack Riordan."

The ugliest thing here actually isn't the comments, which are crippling, but Ms Sanchez's threat to enter the race. Once one Democratic alternative enters, they're all in--because a Democrat should win, so long as folks have a choice other than Davis, and no one with ambitions to the office will be willing to risk having to wait out the two terms of the other Democrat who replaces him. Of course, at that point, if the White House can just lean on Congressman Issa and whoever else to get out of the race and leave Riordan a clean shot at multiple Democrats, the Republicans will win the seat. It's too bad politicians are so incompetent at running government because they're sure as heck entertaining. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 1, 2003 12:21 PM