Day: March 26, 2006

“I don’t even know, That is so not like me.”

GOP Rep. Katherine Harris’ bid to take the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson suffered another self-inflicted wound over the weekend:

Appearing at a gun show in Orlando, Harris said that Adam Goodman, her longtime media consultant, had told the St. Petersburg Times that he and chief strategist Ed Rollins were leaving the campaign.

The story, Harris said, was wrong.

“Ed is not leaving my campaign,” the Longboat Key Republican said. “Ed Rollins is very committed to my campaign.”

The two-term congresswoman, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, then accused Goodman of spreading the story.

“That article basically came from Adam,” Harris said, “and it was not accurate.”

Asked whether Goodman was still with the campaign, she said: “He is, is, uh . . . heh . . . no comment.”

Harris’ remarks were surprising, because Goodman has worked with Harris for years and is considered one of her closest advisers. The candidate’s words became puzzling when Harris phoned the Orlando Sentinel an hour later with a different story.

She said Goodman was still with the campaign and said “it was wrong” of her to say he leaked information.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” she said.

Harris could not explain the change or make clear why she had first refused to say whether Goodman was still working with her.

“I don’t even know,” she said. “That is so not like me.”

Ed Rollins is one of the very few Republican realists. He was Reagan’s campaign manager, but lately he’s been highly critical of the Bush team. I didn’t know he was working for Harris. That is rich. Here’s his take now:

“I’m still trying to help,” he said Saturday. “I’m going to try and make it work.”

Harris’ father died recently and a few weeks ago on Fox News, she told Sean Hannity that she was going to spend her entire $10 million inheritance on her senate campaign. But within a day or so, she retracted that statement. Now she says this about her 180:

“I guess, just because Sean and I were caught up in talking about my dad,” she said. “I didn’t quite realize it was coming out that way. I could have been more specific.”

It is safe to say the Harris campaign is FUBAR (Effed-Up Beyond All Repair). If she has any sense, she’ll put it out of its misery before the week is out.

May Be Largest Protest In City History

As an Angeleno, what is stunning to me about the photo above is the size of the crowd. We are not a protest-oriented town. The Times doesn’t say it explicitly but I suspect this was the largest protest ever in Los Angeles:

Attendance at the demonstration far surpassed the number of people who protested against the Vietnam War and Proposition 187, a 1994 state initiative that sought to deny public benefits to undocumented migrants but was struck down by the courts. Police said there were no arrests or injuries except for a few cases of exhaustion.

The national Republican Party has apparently learned nothing from the self-inflicted wound that hobbled the California GOP in the 1990s. Under Gov. Pete Wilson, Republicans used immigration as a wedge issue in the 1994 elections by putting Proposition 187 on the ballot.

It passed overwhelmingly, but the blowback was harsh. Prop 187 motivated thousands of Latinos whose families have lived here for generations to register as Democrats. Many of these new Democrats were culturally conservative Catholics, who would have been ripe for the picking by the GOP.

The immigration issue sent California Republicans into the political wilderness, where they will wander for 40 years, at least.

As a Democrat, I hope the GOP follows through on its plan to “nationalize” the immigration issue this year. Let them reap the whirlwind.