Whoa, Nellie!

From the San Francisco Chronicle - Lockyer's shocking choice in recall

Attorney General Bill Lockyer, considered a leading Democratic contender for governor in 2006, stunned a political conference in Berkeley Saturday by announcing that he voted for Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in the recall election.

That'll get the coffee going the wrong direction.

Lockyer's statement came at a conference sponsored by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, where academics and reporters examined the aftermath of the recall election. At the conference, California Democrats, still reeling from the stunning recall of Gov. Gray Davis, turned their fire on each other in a flurry of accusations and finger-pointing.

Another Angstfest.

But the most shocking comments came from Lockyer, who revealed that Schwarzenegger "is the first Republican I ever voted for." He said felt he had to back the GOP candidate because "I thought I was doing what made sense.''

Lockyer said he voted against the recall, but couldn't bring himself to back Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

"You know people in your profession really well,'' he told reporters after his lunchtime speech to a post-mortem seminar on the recall election. "You know who works hard and who doesn't. You know who's honest and who isn't. And that's all I'm going to say.''

Ruh oh! Sounds like his opinion of the Cruzer is much like mine.

That's not going to sit too well with the Democrat Kool Aid drinkers.

Lockyer's complaints are nothing more than "sanctimonious posturing'' that didn't help keep Davis in office, said an angry Garry South, a top political aide to the governor.

Of course, Garry was grumpy about just about everybody:

Lockyer and Bustamante weren't the only Democrats to catch fire from other party members. South also blasted Sen. Barbara Boxer, Rep. Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats for backing Bustamante on the recall ballot, which he called "an idiotic notion.''

"There was a lot of silliness out among our officeholders,'' he said. "It was like 'pick a candidate, any candidate' and Democrats would flock to it.''

The lieutenant governor's "No on the recall, yes on Bustamante'' slogan was a nonstarter from the beginning, South added, because Bustamante's real interest was in becoming governor.

"Cruz thought this was a way of sneaking into the (governor's) job with a fig leaf on,'' South said.

Cruz with fig leaf? That's gag inducing.

More California political notes by following the link.