[free-sklyarov] RE:Congress No Haven for Hackers

[Ethan Straffin]

Edmund writes:
> Uhmm, there's not any chance of him moving to CA and running against
> Feinstein is there? OK, I know, I'm dreaming, but I just thought I'd
> ask...

You know, as much as I'd like to believe otherwise, I think the seat is
Feinstain's for as long as she wants it.  Here are my assumptions:

1) The state Democratic leadership will never select another candidate
over Feinstein.  That means that a Republican would have to defeat her.
2) A libertarian Republican would drive most social conservatives into the
Feinstein camp.
3) A social-conservative Republican would drive most libertarians into the
Feinstein camp.

(2) is probably the best chance we've got, and it failed miserably in
November.  Tom Campbell is a libertarian Republican and a great guy in my
book -- pro-choice, anti-drug-war, violently opposed to any government
regulation of the Internet, basically wants to get government the hell out
of our faces.  He lost by almost two to one.  Sure, one could argue that
he might have done better if the Republican leadership hadn't considered
losing to Feinstein a foregone conclusion and decided to spend its
campaign dollars elsewhere -- but actually *winning* was never in the
cards, and if Campbell couldn't do it, I have a hard time seeing how
anyone else is going to.

Ethan