She’s Carly Fiorina; “California’s Scozzafava”
The charge that State Assemblyman Churck DeVore is making; “don’t be fooled again”. California has its own Dede Scozzafava in the GOP’s newest candidate, Carly Fiorina.
On Thursday afternoon I spoke with Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, candidate for US Senate himself.
A day after Carly Fiorina’s launch into the primary race, DeVore reiterated his charge that she is a moderate, a centrist, and a pragmatic individual – who has waffled on major issues and decided that voting is something beneath her.
DeVore is ready to rumble; he made clear his charges that Carly Fiorina is a close proximity to New York’s establishment option named Dede Scozzafava.
HP’s famous Carly Fiorina is a political novice who has the weight of a severe termination from Hewlett Packard; and a campaign that will compel her to speak to economical factors such as adding jobs – when she is known for removing them while CEO.
There is a noticeable negative sediment from HP employees; I’ve had many callers to my show state that they are none to pleased with Fiorina’s managerial skills. Many callers reference her Compaq deal and decision to outsourcing jobs to India, while hundreds of American HP employees packed their boxes for the exits.
Fiorina has a voting record comparable to a 2004 naturalized citizen.
She has made comments that are seen to be supportive of President Obama’s stimulus, and bailout packages.
Worse yet, she has referenced the last frontier of true free speech – the Internet – as a territory that needs to be submitted to government oversight and regulation.
What Assemblyman Chuck DeVore lacks in millions of self-funding cash-on-hand, he makes up for in deposits of content. Today, a day after DeVore gained two major conservative endorsements, he joined me on my afternoon talk show to begin the assault on “Carly for California”.
On Carly’s entrance into the race, Devore called her an establishment Republican.
“Carly Fiorina was recruited by the establishment, for the establishment. She already has a $3.5 million house in DC, in the Georgetown region, that she bought back in 2005 – after she was fired from Hewlett Packard. She’s been measuring the drapes in the US Senate for some time now.”
“She’s a moderate, all the press accounts properly call her a centrist, a moderate, a pragmatist. Look at the people endorsing her. You’re going to get Olympia Snowe; you get Susan Collins, Lyndsey Graham. She’s backed by the moderate DC establishment.”
On Carly’s bailout and stimulus comments, DeVore states that she is supportive of Barack Obama and Barbara Boxer.
“This is John McCain’s chief economic advisor, at a time when John McCain suspended his campaign and went back and voted for the disastrous troubled asset relief program that bailed out Wall Street. And many political pundants believe that’s when John McCain lost his campaign, when he joined Barack Obama and George W. Bush in fundamentally overturning the free market system with money borrowed from China.”
Chuck DeVore has recently released this Internet video to make his point:
On Carly’s comments in the past, Devore references her columns in the business trade magazines.
“She says she’s against the stimulus, but if you read the trade publications that she has written for, she has said things like (about Obama’s stimulus) her comment that no money went to bio-tech and it all went to roads, or she also said that it was good that millions went to the broadband industry.”
On Carly’s support of “Cap and Trade”, DeVore references her bi-partisan stance with Senator Lyndsey Graham.
“She has said god things about “Cap and Trade”, and praised Senator Lyndsey Graham’s supposedly bi-partisan work with John Kerry, one of the most liberal members of the Senate, over his “Cap and Trade” energy tax; that Barbara Boxer is now pushing through Congress.”
On Carly’s support of government regulation of the Internet, DeVore mentions her desire for more regulations.
“She was very clearly asked by the interviewer; do you believe there needs to be more government control, and or regulation of the Internet? And you heard her – with her own words – that she is for more government oversight of the Internet.”
“There’s big difference between regulating content and free speech on the Internet and going after actual criminals. You see, anything that is illegal in real life is still illegal online, like child pornography. Is she intimating that women need protection from free speech online? Or that a woman that voluntarily agrees to be photographed in certain suggestive posses, that she needs protection from big government; to come in and tell her that she shouldn’t do that? With free speech comes personal responsibilities.”
While all eyes are on the GOP’s gubernatorial fight, if Chuck DeVore can raise enough money, and gain enough media attention, the GOP’s US Senate race may display the best fireworks.
Early on it is Carly acting like she is the only player in the elephant’s room, focusing her statements on Barbara Boxer. That’s good strategy. But DeVore will need to be addressed, He is well connected, well supported and he owns the Tea Party Patriots passion, and respect.
Let the games begin.
You can hear the entire interview by clicking each segment to load and play.
DeVore’s initial comments in segment one:
DeVore addresses Carly Fiorina’s battle with cancer and if it is a campaign issue in this segment:
I like Chuck DeVore and greatly appreciated the time he spent with me last February at the CRP Convention. He is a true conservative. Your characterizations and assertions about Carly Fiorina however give me concern as I believe them to be harmful to your stated purpose. For example, you mention that this campaign will, “compel her [Carly] to speak to economical [sic] factors such as adding jobs – when she is known for removing them while CEO.” Any thinking person would recognize that statement as a cheap shot meant to denigrate without a shred of substance. In reality (and objective fairness), her cutting jobs as a CEO may have been exactly what HP needed at the time to survive. Certainly we all recognize that our federal government needs to cut some jobs. Personally, I want a U.S. Senator who is willing to make the tough choices. If one follows your logic in the above quote, one would have to assume that every job is sacrosanct and should not be cut, after all the purpose of government is to add jobs?
I believe Chuck DeVore is uniquely qualified to be a U.S. Senator but his campaign must be one of substance. Assertions without support and typical political sideswiping will help him lose support to Fiorina.
Fair enough; but get ready for Boxer to pull out HP workers who lost their jobs over Carly’s management decisions…she (Carly) better be ready for Boxer, and her time to be ready is now in the primary. Thanks.
Another issue that Carly will face; “Can the engineers she brought in from India at half the salary to replace the engineers she laid off vote for her?” THese are comments from former HP workers, or even current workers, who see her as a fail CEO who wants to use her severence to become a Senator. I am not saying I support, or decline these charges. I am saying she will have to have answers for each issue. Her CEO at HP will become a major issue for her, everyday I have callers and emails from scorned HP employees who state problems with her. She needs to address this issue, especially running in California.
Fiorina loves the spotlight; she was a celebrity CEO, and garnered a lot of attention because she was a woman in a man’s world (high tech). But she left HP in disgrace, terminated after poor decisions cost the company in terms of revenue, jobs and morale. She was hated at the Roseville HP plant. Employees from top to bottom made no bones about it. Don’t you think she’s maybe a teensy bit jealous of Meg Whitman and her bid for governor? The last thing this state needs right now is another oversized ego who’s a political dilitante. As much as I detest career politicians, I don’t like the attitude of, “I’m done with my other career, so what else can I do that will bring me more fame, power, and glory?” Fiorina has not shown that she cares about California or its residents. Her lack of a voting record is evidence of that.
Chuck DeVore is a true blue conservative who, I recall, was able to be elected to the Assembly because he had the right stuff to defeat a “Clinton Republican” businesswoman who had more money than he did. The moral of the story: The candidate with the most money will not necessarily win an election.