It does actually get interesting in California. Right now Democrats are fighting to **keep** their lowest-rated, most universally disliked politician in their multi-century history **in office**!Say what you will, the Democrats did **not** expect to be spending money defending their worst politician on their own home turf in 2003. Truth be told, the Democrats need all the money that they can muster just to stem their predicted Senate losses nationally in 2004, much less to fight their House fights and run a competitive Presidential campaign.
And the more that they spend contesting the 2003 recall, the better. California law says that any citizen may request a recount, but that citizen has to pay for it out of her pocket. So let Bing spend his money on a recount that will still put Arnold in the governor's mansion; that's just so much less money that he'll be inclined to donate to national Democratic Party candidates in '04.
And what's their upside? Remaining stuck with their lowest rated, least popular governor Davis still in office even if they "win" today?!
Moreover, the Democrats are going to have to fight the referendum against SB60 that is coming up in California. They could concievably lose two major battles on their home turf in a matter of only a few months apart. And winning that battle to give licenses to illegals is going to cost the Democrats dearly in more Conservative parts of the country, so again, even **winning** their SB60 fight will have grave repercussions for their Party.
Strategically, the Democrats are repeating their 1998 mistake of supporting Bill Clinton at all costs. The costs are dear. Fighting every battle is seldom wise. Most success stories come from those who pick and choose their battles rather than from those who fight everyone everywhere everytime. The Democrats should have stabbed Gray Davis in the heart with a political stake. They should have run him out of Sacramento, never letting the recall get far enough to gather enough signatures to qualify. Bustamante would have been a national hero if the Democrats had done that one thing, and in one fell swoop the Democrats would have replaced their least popular governor with their new Hispanic hero.
Thankfully, the Democrats in power inside the Party itself are all amatuers now, so such strategy remains beyond their grasp.
So should the Democrats suffer grievously in today's recall election, and should the Democrats get crushed backing SB60 against the Republican referendum, then it will come time to increase our own funding for the Greens, such that Camejo and Nader draw in 1/3 or more of the newly demoralized Leftists in California; a move that would slice up the Democratic Party into bites small enough for our Elephant to tastily munch upon for a few decades.
