Help Us Find Brian Bilbray

Representative Brian Bilbray (CA-50) is missing. Despite the fact that congress adjourned last week and, by the way, there is an election in less than a month, Bilbray has disappeared. Has he's pulled a Dick Cheney and moved to an undisclosed bunker, where he apparently plans to hide out until after the election.

Polls show Bilbray with a solid lead over Democrat Francine Busby in the 50th district race, but you would think that Bilbray would want to at least remind voters in the 50th that he is, well, their congressman.

Talk about a laid back approach to campaigning. Bilbray's campaign web site hasn't been updated since May 17th. I can find no evidence on the San Diego County Republican Party website that Bilbray is participating in any campaign events for himself or any other Republican candidate.

Isn't that odd? I mean, think about it, this guy was elected by a slim majority back in June amid charges that he was a carpetbagger who never lived in the district. And, in fact lots of questions were raised about Bilbray's actual residence of record during the campaign. It certainly looked like his ties to his home in Virginia were a lot stronger than his tenuous residency at his mother's address in La Costa.

Based on the fact that lots of 50th district residents see Bilbray as an outsider opportunist who jumped in when Randy "Duke" Cunningham's bribery scandal broke, you would think Bilbray would want to be seen and have contact with his constituents in the North County. But, there is no evidence that Bilbray is willing to attend any public forum in the 50th district. Bilbray has refused to accept invitations to several candidate forums and debates. Last week he was a no show at a debate sponsored by the AARP (pdf) after indicating that he might show up.

Certainly, Bilbray might feel better not having to stick up for the Bush Administrations botched Iraqi policy. He might not want to field questions about fellow Republican Mark Foley's predilection for sex chat with congressional pages. But, still you would think he would want to be seen and interact with the people who live in the district.

So, that leaves me with one more thought. Is Brian Bilbray afraid of something? Is there a question out there that Brian Bilbray doesn't want to come out in a public forum? It seems to me that the only people who hide out are people with something to hide. What is Brian Bilbray hiding?