Esquire magazine badmouths IE politicos

By Jason Pesick on October 22, 2008 12:49 PM

Esquire magazine has lately given some ink to San Bernardino-area politics, taking positions against both San Bernardino area members of the House of Representatives.

The magazine endorsed San Bernardino-area Democrat Tim Prince against Jerry Lewis, the Redlands Republican who has represented the 41st Congressional District since 1978.

Here's the mag's take:

"Lewis, the former chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, is under investigation for steering federal contracts to cronies in exchange for campaign cash, which renders his actorly speechifying on the issue of spending restraint particularly meaningless. But, hey, he's big in France."

The magazine also endorsed Fontana Republican John Roberts in his bid to unseat Rialto Democrat Joe Baca in the race for the 43rd Congressional District seat. Here's a hat tip to the folks at Red County, who clued this reporter into the fact that Esquire has also derided Baca as one of the United States' 10-worst members of Congress. The list ranks Baca among such well known names as Alaska Sen. Ten Stevens, (a jury has begun deliberations in his corruption trial) and Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, who gained notoriety after news stories on the (literally) cold, hard cash that was found in his freezer.

Read more at IE to DC.

andrew.edwards@inlandnewspapers.com