So, remember how retired Republican lawmaker Pete McCloskey, an environmentalist who co-authored the Endangered Species Act, was going to challenge enviro bête noire Dick Pombo in the CA-11 primary? And the environmental community was going to help him? Yeah, well, he got crushed.

The national Dem establishment didn’t get what it wanted either, namely pilot Steve Filson (Filson’s a veteran, and the DCCC is pushing hard to get Dem veterans on ballots across the country). Instead, wind engineer and grassroots favorite Jerry McNerney whomped Filson 53 to 29 percent.

Dem talking heads are sticking with forced cheer about McNerney’s chances in the general, but given that he’s already lost to Pombo once, and given that voters don’t seem all that exercised about Pombo’s alleged ethical lapses (much less his environmental lapses), I wouldn’t put any money on it.