Whistling Dixie

They just don't know when to shut up. Snip below.

Republican support began eroding Sunday for Bill Back, a candidate for the state party chairmanship, after an article lamenting the outcome of the Civil War emerged in an e-mail he sent party faithful in 1999.

Though Back apologized for having distributed the article, his chances of leading the state party were sagging. ``Back needs to get out of the race,'' said one Republican legislator who is neutral in the race. ``It's just not good for the party.''

At least one other Republican state lawmaker is expected to withdraw his endorsement of Back this week.

Back, who is 67, was unavailable for comment Sunday. He was duck hunting 40 miles from his home in Wheatland. His opponent, Palo Alto attorney George ``Duf'' Sundheim, was on his way to Washington, D.C., for a meeting at the White House and on Capitol Hill with members of the California congressional delegation. Sundheim had been told earlier that the Back controversy would be part of the discussion.

A review of dozens of Back's e-mailed newsletters made available to the Mercury News revealed no examples as controversial as the excerpt from ``What if the South Had Won the Civil War?'' by William S. Lind. Lind argued that two republics would have been better than a Northern victory, adding: ``The real damage to race relations in the South came not from slavery, but from Reconstruction.''

Oh, hell. Why doesn't the GOP just hold their 2004 convention at Fort Sumter and get it over with?