All Hank, all the time.

[Sidd Finch]

I find it very, very interesting that you are pumping this guy.

Originally posted by Spanky
The question is how much it will help. Arguably, Mr McCloskey has always been a maverick within the Republican Party. He was the first lawmaker to call for the repeal of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that took America into Vietnam, and the first to call for the impeachment of Nixon. Today, he is proudly out-of-step with the conservative-dominated party. He is pro-choice, he supports stem-cell research and Oregon's assisted-suicide law, he favours withdrawing from Iraq within a year and he is a zealous protector of the environment (he was a co-chairman of the first Earth Day in 1970 and co-wrote the Endangered Species Act of 1973). In other words, he could easily fit into the Democratic Party; and although he admired the first President Bush, his disdain for George W. is such that in 2004 he endorsed John Kerry.

And will you follow his pledge?

His disdain for Mr Pombo is still greater. Hence his pledge, should he lose in the primary, to campaign for the Democrat come November. Would that be enough to unseat Mr Pombo in a district where 46% of the voters are Republican and just 39% Democrats? Maybe not, since in 2004 Mr Pombo beat the Democrats' Jerry McNerney by 61% to 39%. On the other hand, while the Pombo team are keeping their internal polls to themselves, the Washington scandals are taking their toll. A recent poll commissioned by the Defenders of Wildlife predicts that this time Mr Pombo would lose to the Democrat (either Mr McNerney or Steve Filson). As Pete McCloskey tells the voters, “Congressmen are like diapers. You need to change them often, and for the same reason.”