[dead]

Of course the Republican Party wants those votes. I'm talking about McClintock's future, or lack thereof.

He did the conservative cause in California considerable harm by his stubbornness. He has emboldened the moderate forces in the party, merely to satiate his own ego.

If he had stepped aside when the GOP believed they desperately needed his constituency, he would have been perceived as a king maker with considerable clout. From there, he could have run a campaign with the entire GOP behind him in the future.

Instead, he acted bullheaded. His political career is dead in the water, and that is not good for conservatives. It was a stupid stupid play on his part.

[Sabertooth]

He did the conservative cause in California considerable harm by his stubbornness. He has emboldened the moderate forces in the party, merely to satiate his own ego.

The moderates have been emboldened for years here. Backstabbing is expected from them.

By his stubborness Tom McClintock put conservatism into the public square in California, at a time when liberalism has been discredited and people here needed most to hear it. It would not have happened without him.

If he had stepped aside when the GOP believed they desperately needed his constituency, he would have been perceived as a king maker with considerable clout. From there, he could have run a campaign with the entire GOP behind him in the future.

No, he'd have been played for a chump and dumped for Issa, Brulte, or any of a number of others when the time came.

Moderates have been burning bridges for years in California, and periodically, when they need conservatives, they holler from the opposite bank, "swim to us, the water's fine."