Playground

The race for the GOP nomination began this year as a three-man race between Meg Whitman, Steve Poizner, and Tom Campbell. With Campbell dropping out to run against Barbara Boxer, we had a two-man race. After today's events, we no longer have a two-man race. Rather, we have a race between a woman and a ninny: Poizner Seeks Federal Probe Of Whitman Tactics

On Monday, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner asked the FBI and the U.S. attorney, among others, to investigate his campaign rival Meg Whitman over a personal e-mail sent to his campaign by a top Whitman staffer that he says "puts in jeopardy the integrity of the electoral process."

In the e-mail to one of Poizner's top consultants, Mike Murphy, a senior adviser to Whitman, writes the Whitman campaign will "tear up" Poizner by spending as much as $40 million and asks if "there is anything we can do to get (Steve Poizner) to reconsider this race."

The e-mail notes that Poizner is 30 points behind Whitman in the latest Republican primary poll, and Murphy suggests Poizner consider running against U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2012 instead.

"This isn't just politics as usual - this is a threat," Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, said at a news conference Monday morning. He wondered aloud if tearing him up would mean interfering with his official state duties.

Now, first off, if one of Whitman's "top consultants" (oooooo!) is sending taunting emails, he should turn in his campaign guru badge. This is why professional consultants are such a curse. They can't resist becoming part of the story, and the press is willing to go along because they would much rather cover a no-name acting like an ass, rather than cover the substance of Whitman's campaign. But, as we learned from McCain/Palin, campaign consultants really lack any ideology, loyalty or common sense as soon as the checks stop coming, if not sooner.

But, really, Poizner is embarrassing himself here. The email is obviously the work of a loudmouth feeling his oats (and maybe nursing a drink). It is not a threat, and it certainly has nothing to do with interfering with Poizner's official state duties (he's the insurance commissioner, if you didn't know). In a world of dirty tricks, this hardly rises to the level of dust on a broom.

Poizner's problem is not that Whitman is using dirty tricks. It's that Poizner thought he could ride the "red meat" wagon to victory by being more conservative than the frankly moderate Whitman. But, Poizner's idea of red meat conservatism is like Michael Savage's version of conservative talk radio; it's almost a caricature of the real thing. In a speech at the state convention, he spent an inordinate amount of time discussing Iran policy, which is at the absolute bottom of everyone's list of things to worry about in CA. In another forum, he bragged about his plan to "send the National Guard to the border" to stop illegal immigration, as if it were 2006 again. And so on. Poizner can't even complain about Whitman's wealth; he's got as much $$ as she does, if not more. Yet, somehow he's 30 points behind. Must be the emails.

Murphy, for his part, has shown he has absolutely no plans to put a sock in it:

Murphy responded harshly to Poizner's action, going as far as to say, "I'm starting to worry about (the) commissioner's mental condition."

"Hopefully the commissioner was not serious about wasting taxpayer dollars by asking state and federal authorities to waste their time on such a silly matter of perfectly legal politics," Murphy said.

Wonderful. Whitman is in control of the race. Her message of fiscal rectitude is obviously appealing to the GOP base, which normally demands fealty to various social causes of the sort that would turn off a moderate like Whitman. And all we're hearing about in the state MSM is this pissing contest. This is literally the most news coverage the GOP campaign has received in weeks and - wouldn't you know it! - it's all about negative campaigning and dirty tricks. Not sure if Murphy is a sabateur, a fool, or if he honestly thinks this sort of thing is essential to winning the primary. All I know is: it certainly doesn't help the candidate.