Update: There’s a debate coming at noon Pacific between the Republican candidates for Senate, which will be available online at ktkz.com live. Listen and judge for yourself if you like.

Senators Coburn, Inhofe, and Kyl have put out a letter explaining why conservatives should back Carly Fiorina for Senate instead of Chuck DeVore. I have problems with this letter. Here’s how.

This November, California will have an opportunity to call Barbara Boxer home and send a new conservative leader to the United States Senate. That new leader is Carly Fiorina. We are proud to endorse her as a fellow conservative who has real-world business experience and the guts and moxie to take on Barbara Boxer and win.

First off, you’re not a conservative leader until you’ve led. Fiorina has done no such thing, instead choosing to work with Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow/PUSH coalition, and so is not a conservative leader. Chuck DeVore is a conservative leader, having proven himself in the California Legislature. He knows what it’s like to fight against a Democrat near-supermajority.

Carly is not a Washington insider. She is a proven business leader who understands the economy and advocates a strong national defense. And, she is a tough fiscal and social conservative who:

• Signed Americans for Tax Reform’s “No New Taxes” Taxpayer Protection Pledge;
• Will fight to lower taxes, reduce the deficit, and cut wasteful Washington spending;
• Is Pro-life, unlike her liberal opponents, Barbara Boxer and Tom Campbell;
• Opposes Barbara Boxer’s Cap-and-Trade legislation;
• Opposes the radical “government takeover” policies that President Obama and Barbara Boxer support for health care and other sectors of the economy; and
• Supports a tough national security policy that prosecutes terrorists as unlawful enemy combatants before military commissions, not as civilians in our federal courts.

First off, it’s just nonsense for a team of DC insiders to insist that we listen to them, while at the same time telling us to vote for a non-DC insider. But wait, there’s more! None of the three candidates for Senate are DC insiders! The closest is Campbell, who used to be in the US House, but he’s been in Sacramento lately.

Second, Fiorina and her supporters ask us just to trust her that she’ll fight for lower taxes and spending. Chuck DeVore has a proven track record of doing just that in Sacramento.

Democrats fear Carly more than any other candidate in the Republican primary. That’s why Barbara Boxer has been using Carly’s name in fundraising letters for nearly two years, while the California Democratic Party employs two full-time staffers to follow Carly around the state, and why numerous union-funded groups have launched independent expenditure efforts attacking her.

Or maybe Carly is a total novice, doomed to make major mistakes on the campaign trail, and Boxer knows that using her name paints Republicans with her record of failure in business? Anyway, If you’re already resorting to talking to me about the Democrats, and you’re asking me to trust the judgment of Babs Boxer of all people, then you’ve already run out of good things to say about your candidate?

Also, if Fiorina is the candidate backed by more DC insiders, per your comments and logic shouldn’t she be the candidate we favor least if we want to bring substantive change to the Republican leadership in the Senate?

Carly Fiorina worked her way through undergraduate and graduate school, majoring in medieval history at Stanford University and earning two graduate business degrees from the University of Maryland and MIT. A self-made woman, Carly started her business career as a secretary and went on to become the first and, to date, the only woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, serving as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Hewlett-Packard Company. Most recently, Carly served on the Defense Business Board advising the U.S. Secretary of Defense on overall management of the department and as Director of Business Executives for National Security.

Wow, you actually opened that door. Did you know that at MIT, Fiorina advocated (in what she called a personal as well as academic pursuit) a total federal government takeover of high schools in America, and declared that the Constitution was a problem and obstacle to doing the right thing? How progressive of her.

As conservative leaders in the United States Senate, we know you can count on the principled leadership of Carly Fiorina. We are confident that she will stand with us and stand up for you against the liberal special interests that have kept Barbara Boxer in Washington for almost 28 years.

How do you know we can count on Fiorina’s leadership? Her lifetime track record is that of bleeding heart left-wing leadership, favoring increased government involvement in schools, working with Jesse Jackson to promote an agenda opposing equality of opportunity in America, and making feminist tirades in private meetings even on the campaign trail. Why should I believe you over my own eyes and ears?

This is a golden opportunity for the people of the Golden State to come together to elect Carly to represent them in the United States Senate. Please join us in supporting Carly’s campaign.

But can she win? Chuck DeVore has been working since November 2008 for this seat, building up contacts, raising money at a brisk pace for Republican candidates for Senate in this state, and establishing himself with TEA Party activists up and down the state, as well as across the country. He’s also proven he can keep his cool and win on the campaign trail, using aggressive surprise tactics where needed. Fiorina hasn’t proven she can win as dog catcher, and her campaign staff reacts with anger when surprised. Won’t Boxer just crush her and make her lash out before November?

TOM COBURN, M.D.
U.S. Senator (R-OK)

We at Red State support you, Sen. Coburn, but many of us are disappointed with your failure to back the man with the proven track record in this race. Step back, step away from the DC go-along, get-along club on this one.

JAMES INHOFE
U.S. Senator (R-OK)

JON KYL
U.S. Senator (R-AZ)

Should I be worried that Sen. Kyl, who has a track record of supporting legalization of illegal aliens in America, backs Fiorina? Should all opponents of mass, uncontrolled immigration into California be concerned? Why do I get the feeling that DC insiders just don’t care about that issue right now, and are going to lead us into trouble later?