At the risk of being excommunicated by my pro-life friends I am going to comment on the Republican primary for Governor.

     There are several voting blocks in politics but Janet has done a very good job triangulating many of them. The chamber of commerce wing of the GOP is not too upset with Janet. In fact some may even like her soft on the border position for the cheap labor. Can’t win with that crowd.

     How about gun owners? This was the craftiest. Janet did veto a few NRA backed bills but she signed quite a few others. You cannot tag her as wildly anti-gun. Not a crucial winning issue this year.

     Abortion. Len owns this one. This is a very valuable voting block that has put many politicians over the top if they can get close enough. Problem is you need to get close to Janet in the polls and the life issue alone will not do it.

     The border. This is the one issue that could do in Janet this year. Don has been running consistently on this issue but Len was making some headway. Len’s best point was that we do not want to feed and house illegal immigrant on U.S. soil so they can work here, building a fence or not. Munsil had found a good distinction on the issues with that one. Just as I was agreeing with Len on that point he announces McCain’s endorsement. I immediately wrote about the miscalculation of that move. Sure McCain is weak on the border but for me it is his efforts at gun control and silencing political speech that infuriate me. McCain is the third rail of the Republican Party. Useful to have but not a good idea to directly touch it.

     Well Len touched the rail and is now upset that Simcox is making phone calls for Don. What did Munsil think the border crowd was going to do? Congratulate Len for playing footsy with Senator Amnesty. I keep hearing that Goldwater is not too bright. The implication is that Munsil is smarter. Couldn’t prove it to me. Not that it matters. I am not electing a physics teacher.

     Greg Patterson of Espresso Pundit has weighed in on the now infamous Simcox call, etc. See Going to the Source and Burying the Lede under September 11 th. Greg supports my original theory on the McCain endorsements. He points out “Goldwater is PAYING for phone calls to remind Republican that McCain is supporting Munsil.”

     Apparently the call from Chris Simcox did not include a disclosure about who paid for it. The call has been modified and now includes a disclosure. Speaking of modified I could swear that I read on Len’s blog that he hoped that Don found a job that paid better than events coordinator because he would be facing $10,000 fines over the Simcox call but I can no longer find the reference. Is Len modifying his blog to suit the moment without noting the changes? Interesting.

     And one more thing Len. I have been deer hunting near the U.S. Mexico over the past 20 years so I don’t need to see Don’s photos of javenlina hunting to understand what he is talking about. Those of us who spend time along the border as a part of our lives know that starting about 10 years ago things got much worse with the volume of traffic and the garbage in the desert. Add to that the safety of camping out in public lands with armed drug traficers transiting the area and we don’t need jokes about hunting photos. The game and fish department now warns about hunting there. This is U.S. soil. We want the issue resolved and don’t need jokes about when someone went hunting or joined the Minutemen because WE DON’T CARE. Fix the problem, period.

(My father was born in Tucson in 1925 and spent the better part of his life hunting in Southern Arizona. Please consider the above photo your picture of a hunting camp and move on to another issue.)

Monday 9-11-06, 12:15 am