Let me start with an admission of error.
I recently chastised Rep. Loretta Sanchez in this space for going to Spain earlier in the summer, instead of campaigning for the U.S. Senate. I argued that she needed to make a real full-time campaign, for her own good.
I was wrong to say that. Sanchez on the campaign trail is actually worse than Sanchez off the trail. She should get back to Europe–or to any place she can find far from California and representatives of any of its media outlets.
The more she talks, the worse she looks.
Her latest comment was a racist claim that President Obama endorsed Sanchez’s opponent, state Attorney General Kamala Harris, because both are black. I’m not going to dignify the comment by explaining here all the ways it’s wrong.
Suffice to say, a politician who would say such a thing – on top of earlier comments that went into matters of race and ethnicity – has no business representing California in the U.S. Senate. Remember: every day the Senate is in session is a bad day for California, because the two-senators-a-state formula penalizes us. So we need a highly disciplined senator who can bring the force of 10 senators to the floor—and fight and win a game rigged against California.
There’s no time for foot-in—mouth disease.
It’s no wonder that polls show Republicans favoring Harris, even though she’s running to the left of Sanchez. California needs a grown-up in the Senate. And it looks like there’s only one on the November ballot.
So you might as well take the rest of the summer off, Congresswoman.