From deep in his lair private residence, former Vice President Dick Cheney has surfaced to endorse Meg Whitman for California Governor.  And he did it in the OC Register, giving the typical endorsement pablum:

Meg is a leader who will not shy away from confronting the public employee unions. She has put pension reform at the center of her agenda. She is a firm believer in the power of tax cuts to strengthen small businesses and create jobs. She knows that welfare must be a temporary hand-up and not a way of life. She is committed to local control of education, and she has a strong and practical approach to securing the border and addressing the problems associated with illegal immigration.

But Darth Cheney is never quite so simple, he’s going to make this endorsement something noteworthy.  How so? By making it about Whitman’s support for the Iraq War, which Poizner opposed in 2004.

While I am always mindful of President Reagan’s 11th Commandment, there are issues of judgment that voters should consider before they cast their ballots in the Republican primary. … But I have concerns about whether he truly adheres to the conservative principles of our party. … In 2004, during the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, Mr. Poizner, who was then a candidate for the state Assembly, opposed the tax cuts that were the centerpiece of our economic recovery plan.

He also broke ranks with our party on national security and the “war on terror.” Mr. Poizner opposed the war in Iraq. To amplify his opposition to the national security policies of the Bush administration, he invited Richard Clarke to campaign for him in California.

I’m sure Cheney vetted this one with Whitman’s camp. That being said, this is one risky move for somebody who considers herself a lock for the GOP nomination.  Cheney is not popular in California.  The Iraq War is certainly not popular in California.

Credit where credit is due. Poizner did speak against the Iraq War in 2004. And he was right.  But, that won’t help in the GOP nomination battle royale.  This race is far from over folks.

Today, the oil companies behind the plan to repeal AB 32, our landmark climate change legislation, will submit their signatures to the Secretary of State.

California voters will decide the fate of the state’s landmark global-warming bill in the November election after a big-bucks battle that may break records for political spending on an initiative.

Today, a group heavily backed by Texas oil giants Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. plans to submit signatures for an initiative seeking to suspend AB32 until California’s unemployment rate improves dramatically. … AB32’s proponents call it a vital step in efforts to curb greenhouse gases and create green jobs. And with federal climate-change regulations stalled in Congress, the California law takes on added significance as a potential model for other states. (SF Chronicle)

Of course, the oil companies say that it “hurts jobs” without a whole lot of evidence. Of course, to the contrary, California stands as the world’s leader in clean tech. We stand an amazing opportunity to build upon that success. However, if we take a step backward, investors will shy away from the state when we are able to move forward in the future.

Look, at a time when we are facing an unprecedented environmental catastrophe, we just can’t be moving in the wrong direction.  And Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner as well as nearly every statewide candidate have all taken positions favoring repeal. I think Chuck DeVore is personally emitting extra hot air just to piss off the environment, which, according to DeVore is his to exploit.  

But, other statewide candidates seem to want to avoid the subject. Funny how some like to play every side of the issue.

Today is the second, and likely last, debate in the GOP Gubernatorial primary, and for Steve Poizner, this is his last best chance at scoring a knockout punch to the MegMachine:

After months of being bludgeoned by billionaire Meg Whitman in a one-way campaign, the former Silicon Valley entrepreneur is finally showing signs of life. And today, he again goes head to head against the former eBay CEO in the final scheduled debate before the June 8 primary.

Live from San Jose.

“It’s his last chance,” said Bill Whalen, chief speechwriter for former Gov. Pete Wilson.

“Poizner’s strategy has always been, ‘Don’t fire until you see the whites of her eyes,’ ” said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. “Well, here she is.”

Even when the largely self-funded candidate was 50 percentage points down in the polls – refusing to spend much of his bulging war chest – Poizner had a “what, me worry?” confidence. But in recent weeks, the underdog has unleashed his own torrent of ads, spending about $2 million a week to introduce himself to voters and join Democratic groups in bashing the free-spending Whitman. (SJ merc)

Poizner who has finally gone to the airwaves to combat Whitman’s months-long siege of the state of California’s ears and eyes must now hope that his very effective ads hit the mark and make enough of an impression before the ballots drop in a week or two. But while few will watch this debate live, many will see a few take-away points around the web and on TV.  Poizner needs to bust out with some notable sound bites on Whitman’s background with Goldman Sachs as well as tossing some meat to the right-wing base.

You can watch live on CalChannel on the tube or online. In the Bay Area, it will be on KTVU-2 at 5 pm, as well as statewide on the Comcast “hometown” channel. (repeated ad nauseum, I’m sure). If you want to catch it sans smirks and harsh looks, it will be on KQED and public radio affiliates throughout the state.

One of my favorite radio programs is This American Life. It’s especially good when driving to Sacramento, it pulls your cares away from what’s going on there.

Except this week’s episode doesn’t do that at all. In fact, it goes into the lying sack of horse manure that is Steve Poizner’s book. In it, he criticizes Mt. Pleasant High School students for being “lazy” and “unmotivated.” But the facts are

Checking school records I learned that Poizner’s unmotivated, unambitious class included one of the school valedictorians, Charles Rudy, who graduated and went to college.

Could he be getting this so completely wrong? I wondered.   Could he have written an entire book misperceiving so thoroughly what was happening right in front of his eyes, and now is trying to use that book to run for governor?  It seemed too incredible. (TAL)

The program then goes on to document lie, half-truths and whole manners of rich white dude misinterpretation.  A tough neighborhood? Well, not really. High dropout rates? Again, not so much, graduation rates were actually substantially better than the state and national stats.

Rather than ruining the story for you, you can check it out here. Like Whitman, Poizner is entirely unqualified to run a modern, diverse state like California.

Usually when you come out with a campaign book, they tend to be banal. And they certainly don’t try to attack anybody.  But Steve Poizner has always been something of a wild card, so why not call students at the school that he taught kinda slow?  Here’s what he said about students at Mt. Pleasant High School

From an intellectual standpoint, I absolutely know not to expect Silicon Valley-type caliber ambition and smarts from East San Jose schoolkids.

This is offensive in the extreme, and a rookie political move. Look, money, and the good fortune of running against Cruz Bustamante have made him a formidable candidate, even with those poll numbers showing a huge deficit to Meg Whitman.  But, sometimes you have to marvel that he could get to where he is while saying some Bell Curve-y nonsense.

Poizner needs to apologize to these students, and to the entire community. America is supposed to be about the promise of tomorrow and upward mobility.  Poizner seems more interested in knocking those at the bottom rungs of the social strata off the ladder completely.  

Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman are scheduled to debate in about an hour and a half.  The debate is sponsored by California New Majority, so you are likely to see some full-on wingnuttery on display.  Watch it on CBS2, Ustream is down.

http://cbs2.com/

The folks at the California Accountability Project have even produced a Viewer’s guide (PDF) to all of the likely (mis)statements and half-truths.

Who’s making the popcorn?

UPDATE by Robert: I’ll be liveblogging here in this thread. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments!

The debate is being held in Costa Mesa, down in my old stomping grounds of Orange County. Interestingly enough, Costa Mesa is where former mayor Allan Mansoor began bashing immigrants a few years back. Already we’re expecting this debate to have lots of immigrant and Latino bashing, as we saw at the CRP convention over the weekend.

…I’m trying to liveblog, but this ustream feed is really buggy.

…Relying on the Twitter feed, Poizner and Whitman are fighting with each other over tax cuts – not whether they’re a good idea or not given their massively negative impact on the budget deficit, but on whether theirs are big enough. Poizner says Whitman’s cuts aren’t big enough, Whitman says Poizner’s will cost too much. The fact is both offer cuts that cost too much and are merely going to benefit the rich.

…Nick Velasquez of the California Accountability Project Tweets: “Hope someone can fix this feed. It’s spottier than Meg Whitman’s voting record.”

…Still can’t follow the feed. I guess Republicans don’t want people to see what their candidates have to say! According to Twitter, Poizner is attacking NPR listeners, as well as saying he wants a part-time legislature, without mentioning that only the rich would be able to serve in such a legislature. Then again, Poizner and Whitman both seem to believe only the rich should serve as governor.

…Whitman says she plans to “pour money back into” UC and CSU, but doesn’t say how. She says she wants “more money to go into the classroom” for K-12 – but how? Giving local districts control of money isn’t enough – the fact is districts don’t get enough money period. Ah, here we go, she wants more charter schools, even though they haven’t been proven to work. Looks like she embraces merit pay as well.

…Poizner says flaws in K-12 is due to Legislature taking control from teachers and local districts. But he doesn’t say that Prop 13 took control from teachers and local districts. Will he support majority vote for school taxes?

…Now Comcast is acting up. Back again. Whitman is dishonest on regulations: they don’t cause job losses, they prevent them, as both climate crisis and financial crisis prove. She and Poizner both support suspending AB 32, despite its devastating negative impact on job creation.

…Whitman takes the immigration question. Says she opposes amnesty. Does she think those who benefited from 1986 amnesty should be kicked out? Does she think Reagan, who backed amnesty, was wrong?

…Poizner thinks immigrants come here for government incentives. Um, no. They come here for work because CEOs like you and Whitman want them to do so. What a clueless moron.

…NBC4’s Conan Nolan asking some good questions here about the inexperience of both Poizner and Whitman, and how they’ll work with a Democratic legislature they spend so much time bashing. Poizner says he’ll try to work with legislators, but will go to voters if legislature won’t play along. Yeah, because that worked SO well in 2005 for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

…Whitman says “imagine what this state will look like with Jerry Brown as governor.” Um, look around.

…Whitman now attacks Jerry Brown as some kind of tax and spend liberal. I wish he were! His record as governor was actually very fiscally conservative and he’s not proposing new taxes.