The conservative Washington Times is shredding Bill Simon's campaign efforts. The Republican Simon is running for California governor against unpopular incumbent Gray Davis, and making a fine mess of it.

It may be difficult for those of you who don't live in California to comprehend just how disliked Davis is. Yet, thanks to the efforts of the state's conservative wingnuts (who rejected a more electable and moderate candidate), a majority of the state's voters are poised to hold their nose and hand Davis a second term. And to think that Davis was once considered presidential material.

Anyway, the Times isn't thrilled with the peformance of its chosen candidate, and let's rip:

What can we say about Bill Simon, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in California? He makes every mistake, and then some. In November, we can write a postmortem on why Mr. Simon lost to Gov. Gray Davis. Or we can go public now, hoping someone will fix the mess.