When you stage as many failed runs for public office as Conservative Icon Tom McClintock has done, it can be awfully hard to keep straight the lists of who endorsed you, when, for what.
Seems that the Icon has a particularly bad one on his resume, however; in 2003, when running for Governor of California in the recall election to succeed Democratic Governor Gray Davis, McClintock "won" the endorsement of the Imperial Knights of America.
David Dayen at Calitics has the story:
It turns out that in 2003, when McClintock was running for his eleventy-teenth political office in the California governor recall election, he was endorsed by none other than the KKK.
From the KKK's press release at the time:
When interviewed, Mr. Chris Johnson (Grand Dragon or State Director of the IKA's California chapter) had this to say regarding the announcement, "While Mr. McClintock is not the perfect candidate for California Governor, we have more in common with his ideology than any of the other candidates. We are in congruence with his stand on illegal aliens infecting our land and his courage in standing up to the invasion." Mr. Johnson went on to say that, "Mr. McClintock echoes our anti-abortion stand, and our opposition to oppressive taxation."
They had more in common with McClintock's ideology than any of the other candidates, eh? That same ideology will now be presented to the voters of California's Fourth District as a qualification for office.
Now, the Conservative Icon obviously had little control over who endorsed him and who did not - no serious candidate for statewide office in California would welcome the KKK endorsement. But as David points out at Calitics, McClintock has never run away from it, either - he hasn't rejected the endorsement, hasn't disavowed it.
In fact, he targeted his opponents in the 2003 race for guilt-by-association...using the Klan itself as a reference point:
Nearly 30 years later, with Bustamante a candidate for governor, he has come under fire from critics who say the organization agitated for a separate Chicano homeland in the United States.
State Sen. Tom McClintock, a conservative Republican rival, recently likened the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan, also known as MEChA, to the Ku Klux Klan.
"It's like saying, 'Oh, I was a moderate member of the Klan,'" McClintock said last month on the San Diego radio station KOGO.
McClintock then called on his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, to renounce any association with MEChA...even as he himself enjoyed the endorsement of the Klan, and never renounced it.
McClintock is not a Klansman. He is, however, in sufficient ideological concord with the Klan to win their endorsement. He also has a history of using his opponents' associations against them, even as he sports some particularly heinous ones himself.
He's exactly the kind of guy that ought to be kept as far away from Washington as possible.
Fortunately, you can toss him a huge heavy anvil by donating to his Democratic opponent, Charlie Brown.
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