( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Barbara Boxer has politely suggested that Cindy Sheehan not run for Senate against Feinstein:

Washington — California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer on Tuesday urged anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan not to challenge the state’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, in the June Democratic primary.

But Boxer, a liberal former Marin County supervisor who strongly opposed the war in Iraq, said Sheehan might actually hurt her anti-war cause by jumping into the race against Feinstein, who is entering her 14th year in the Senate.

“I don’t think having (Sheehan) in the Senate election helps her at all,” Boxer told a roundtable of California reporters on Tuesday. “I think it might have the opposite effect.”
(SF Chron 2/8/06)

Well, I suppose Boxer’s protecting her friends, and I think Sheehan’s right.  Sure doesn’t sound good, very establishment.

(Don’t forget, the GOP taint certainly goes well beyond Doolittle. – promoted by SFBrianCL)

By now we all know that Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) has been going after the Endangered Species Act (for more info, see the wonderful blog Say No to Pombo).  Another of his favorate past times is to open up federal lands for mining of all sorts.  Yes, Mr. Pombo is all sorts of environmentalist.

And why was a developer so interested in opening federal lands for mining?  Why, he took a big donation from a mining lobbyist, a lobbyist who happens to have some of that Abramoff “taint”.  The LA Times did an excellent job covering the story. As I don’t have time to delve more thoroughly, I will reproduce a small portion here, just to tease you enough to check out the full article. 

WASHINGTON — Duane Gibson, a Washington lobbyist under federal scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff scandal, helped raise money for a California congressman who championed legislation that would benefit Western mining interests that Gibson represented.

Last fall, Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), chairman of the House Resources Committee, attached an amendment to a budget bill — without hearings or floor debate — that would have opened national forest and other public land to mining. The so-called Pombo provision passed the House, but was deleted from the bill in the Senate when several Western state senators and governors complained that it would endanger vast portions of federal land. (LA Times 2/7/06)