I Like this Guy

Reason profiles the pro-civil liberties, pro-gay rights, pro-privacy, anti-war Republican who's running against Nancy Pelosi.

John Dennis seems like a perfectly affable guy, the sort of person that I'd be happy to sit down to dinner with. From the interview:

Pickell had a little joke. When he asked me to run I was honored and said, why me, do you love my positions, the way I deliver them, I’m such an amazing person? He said, “We like candidates with two first names.”

Significantly, he doesn't come across as a complete loon. Granted, he's running for elected office so inevitably he must suffer from some sort of neurological impairment but still...He seems like a nice enough guy with positions I can support.

On why Democrats should consider supporting him over Pelosi:

She doesn’t fight for the things they believe in. Democrats in San Francisco don’t want to be in Afghanistan. They want to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Democrats in San Francisco don’t want to be warrantless wiretapped, don’t want FBI agents writing their own search warrants, and Pelosi hasn’t stopped any of that, and in fact has been complicit with the wars and with the invasions of privacy. And then lastly, the economy is a disaster and the federal government extended this bust and Pelosi has been right in front of that because she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and we will continue in this downturn if we keep letting Pelosi lead. I’m a better fit for the city, the country, if they want someone to get out of wars, reduce foreign empire and wants people to respect privacy and fight for gay rights.

Nice! I don't know his positions on reproductive freedoms but so far, so good.

But he's doomed.

Conceivably, he could defeat Pelosi. I think it's unlikely that a Republican will take San Francisco but it is possible. However, can you imagine a Republican with his platforms surviving the RINO hunting purges that the GOP has disastrously inflicted on itself?

Here's a candidate that has clear appeal to independents and yet he can look forward to being cannibalized in the current political climate on the Right. It's a shame, it really is. But the GOP has done this to itself. It's opted to be a monolith rather than a party.