Talk about the silly season! Last month, right-wing clown Joe the Plumber won the Republican primary in Ohio’s heavily Democratic 9th Congressional District. Joe — whose real name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher — will run against veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who has represented the district for 30 years.

Now it appears that another Republican joke, birther queen Orly Taitz, could well win the Republican primary in the California U.S. Senate race in June. She is, by far, the best best known candidate in a field of 23, including 14 Republicans, who are vying to take on Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has served in the Senate since 1992.

Calbuzz got a quote on the matter from the poor sap saddled with the job of being chairman of the California Republican Party:

“We’re aware (Taitz) has name ID,” state GOP chair Tom Del Becarro, who’s doing all he can to boost the candidacy of little-known but party-endorsed Elizabeth Emken, told us bravely. “We think the party’s endorsement will carry the day.”

Ha! As if:

As Del Becarro suggests, it’s Politics 101 that the most critical factor in a big field of unknowns is name ID. And while there’s no good polling on the Senate race yet, Martin Wisckol over at Total Buzz reports on a robo-call survey, done by Rasmussen associate Pulse Opinion Research for another Republican wannabe, that shows the Moldavian Mad Hatter running first, far ahead of the establishment favored Emken, for just that reason:

Taitz is the best known of the candidates, thanks to her numerous (birther) suits against Obama, and polls at 19 percent among Republican voters, according to the poll by Los Angeles businessman Al Ramirez. Ramirez places second at 15 percent. Danville autism advocate Elizabeth Emken received the state GOP’s endorsement on Sunday but was tied for last place at 2 percent in the Ramirez poll.

Just to be clear: Al Ramirez and Elizabeth Emken are political unknowns among people who follow California politics as well as rank and file voters.

If Taitz wins the primary, it will be another blow to the hapless California Republican Party. The party is bankrupt, leaderless and bleeding registrations. Just last week, a youthful GOP power couple in San Diego — Assmb. Nathan Fletcher and his wife, former Bush official Mindy Tucker — quit the party and registered as independents. In 2010, Republicans failed to win a single statewide race, with their candidates for governor (current HP CEO Meg Whitman) and U.S. Senate (former HP CEO Carly Fiorina) losing by double digits, as did all the down ticket GOP candidates but one.

The prospect of Orly Taitz running against Sen. Feinstein would appear to be yet another nail in the state GOP’s coffin, with the potential of turning the party from the statewide laughingstock it is now into a national joke.