The San Jose Mercury News, a regular critic of GOP Rep. Richard Pombo's environmental policies -- or, more accurately, his opposition to any and all of them -- endorsed Pombo's Dem opponent Jerry McNerney today in a brutally hard-hitting assault on the seven-term incumbent which tells everyone to vote for his opponent:

The case for why Democrats and Republicans should support McNerney's candidacy in the sprawling 11th Congressional District goes far beyond Pombo's desire to sell off national parks, drill for oil off the Pacific Coast and make the Endangered Species Act extinct.

Pombo is a national disgrace to the Republican Party. His unseemly connections to scandal-ridden lobbyist Jack Abramoff should be an embarrassment to all Republicans. A Washington watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, put him on its list of the 13 most corrupt Republicans and Democrats in Congress. And his questionable connections to oil companies, gambling interests and mining companies have been well documented.

It's past time that mainstream Republicans let Pombo know there isn't a place for his kind of politics in their Big Tent....

Pombo is such a bad role model that even Pete McCloskey, Pombo's challenger in the primary election, couldn't bring himself to endorse his fellow Republican this fall. Declaring "enough is enough," McCloskey said he will vote for McNerney on Nov. 7. So should all voters in the 11th Congressional District.

Recent polls of the race have found it too close to call. The full editorial is here.