Category Archives: Democratic Party Chatter

Good Morning, loyal readers! Getting ready to head over to the convention and check out the morning’s circus. Scheduled to speak are California’s illustrious statewide officers, includind the now infamous Bill Lockyer, and Steve “I’m with Doofinator” Westly. It will be interesting to see how both are received by this rabid pack of Democratic partisands.
Big noise rumbling amongst delegates continues to be the constant attacks on Dean and its effect on his standing in Iowa polls. If things continue to get nasty, or Washington Insiders claw their way to the top via a bloody negative race, it could be bad news for everyone, including the Insider that wins.
More later…Since the CDP has no lockable storage for my Powerbook I’m locking it up here at the Fairmont, and will update at lunchtime. Hopefully by then there’ll be something fun to report.

News Flash! The CDP Convention is being broadcast live via the Internet! See the proceedings (if you find yourself with LOTS of free time) at http://www.ca-dem.org
State conventions are not usually hotbeds of excitement. However, with the presidential race being what it is, and the aftermath of Arnold-mania still leaving some Democratic officials in shock, there’s a little more excitement. A little more.
This morning’s CDP roster had all of the statewide elected officials (i.e. Lt. Governor, AG, Treasurer, et al) giving their speech. Some were clearly angling to be the gubernatorial nominee in 2006 (Angelides, Lockyer) while others were just there to fire up the crowd (Assemblyman Herb Wesson, D-Culver City and current Speaker).
However the most emotional moment of the morning was not from some elected official but from some good people on the front lines of the grocery strike in Southern California. Sean Harrigan, UFCW vice president, had Olivia Costano and Matthew Hart, UFCW members, tell their stories to the assembled delegates about the fight they’re facing to try and keep what they already have and have been promised by management for years – health care coverage for them and their families.
Olivia Costano spoke extemporaneously, describing her experiences on the picket line. Spit at, shouted at, and physically attacked, she still stays on the picket line. Most disturbing was when she told the crowd about the time she was pushed down to the ground by a large individual, and injured her back. When the police came to take the report, they asked her if she wanted an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Despite her pain she said no. Why? Because she had no health insurance.
At that moment the “gasp” you heard coulda knocked the wind out of anyone. Definitely an emotional moment. But also one that brought home what all the rhetoric and the talking points and the buzz are allegedly about: real people’s lives. It was a moment where people took a few minutes to forget about the sniping attacks on Dean, the back and forth between partisan about What To Do About Arnold, and thought.
It was a great moment, and UFCW VP Sean Harrigan deserves a pat on the back for his work, not just at the convention but for all he’s done for the locked out/on strike workers in Southern California.
Other notable moments: Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante had one of the strangest (and shortest) speeches of the morning session, reading off a “Top Ten List of Reasons Bill Lockyer Might Not Have Voted For Me” to the crowd.
A truly odd mix of humor and bitterness, Cruz rattled of the reasons as follows (and for the record I’m not making this up – this is what Lt. Governor Bustamante said, and any verbal missives about the content of said list should be lobbed at him):
10. Bill was worried Cruz would change the motto from “Eureka” to “Ay Chihuahua!”
9. (can’t read my notes dammit)
8. Bill thought Arnold had better hair – and the fact he had hair at all
7. Bill feared Cruz would appoint Cheech and Chong to the Board of Prisons
6. Bill was worried Cruz would replace the bear on the California Flag with the Taco Bell chihuahua
5. Bill thought Bustamante would install slot machines in the Capitol Lobby
4. Concerned about Bustamante opening a drive up DMV in Tijuana (this got booed and hissed a bit)
3. (got distracted by the press secretary for Dean’s folks….)
2. Didn’t want Richie Ross appointed Lt. Governor (Ross was Bustamante’s campaign manager)
1. He wanted someone who looked more like Superman and less like Shrek
Anyway, you get the idea. Not exactly the most rousing speech, that’s for sure.
Treasurer Phil Angelides had scores of staff prepping the hall with signs and supporters in advance of what was billed as a call to action by the anti-Arnold of the Democratic Party. While a good speech, it was a bit underwhelming after all the buildup. Steve Westly, state controller and co-chair of Gov. Doofinator’s $15 billion credit card debt ballot initiative, gave a polite, well-meaning, and meandering speech, and was met with polite, well-meaning applause.
However, the most rousing partisan moment was Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson’s loud and forceful speech contrasting his (and the Party’s) values with Gov. Doofinator. It was a fiery, funny, and replete with quotable comments;
-On Gov. Doofinator’s promises regarding waste, fraud and abuse in CA gov’t: “He’s playing to the cameras. He thinks helping children, education and our seniors is a waste, his budget is a fraud, and the only abuse here is the abuse Arnold has with the truth.:
-On Democrats who voted for Gov. Doofinator: “Many Democratic voters and some leaders were starstruck by a movie star. It’s time to get that stardust out of their eyes. It’s your job to get some Visine and tell people the truth!”
And so on. It was fun. He ended his speech with some good 70s movie music. Very fun! As for his plans once he retires from the Assembly he simply said “Old Speakers never die, they just run for higher office.”
Other moments: the LaRouche folks decided to bust into the convention hall and harass people with their pamphlets regarding “Children of Satan” and whatnot. I have to say that these kids (and they’re all very young people ) were some of the rudest and most ill-mannered people I’ve ever seen. The would literally walk up and get in people’s faces and scream about the Truth of LaRouche, and insult delegates who didn’t want to take a pamphlet. People, get a grip.
I’ve no problem with fringers getting their voice heard, but this kind of juvenile bullshit irritates me to no end. It’s bad enough I get harassed by these chowderheads when I go to the postoffice and it’s hard to see how they think they’re taken seriously. Ah well, I guess LaRouche needs to get a new generation involved so he can continue the fundraising operations….
Ah, conventions. Always a fun time.
Keep tuned for more updates. Coming up: observations on the delegates themselves with notable quotes from the party faithful, and all sorts of fun at tonight’s hospitality suites!

Greetings dear readers from San Jose, California, one of the hippest parts of California and the center of the World Coin Collector Convention at the San Jose Convention Center AND the California Democratic Convention! Two of California’s most important conventions in one place! And with Sch

Friday’s regular update will not be seen tomorrow as I’ll be on the road to San Jose to go to the Democratic Convention in San Jose. I’ll be posting updates throughout the weekend of the convention, the hospitality suites and anything else of note. Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Dennis Kucinch will be there as will all sorts of other good folks.
Keep checking for updates as the weekend progresses and a final write up on the convention next week!
PS: Next time someone starts mouthing off about how “liberal” the media is, send them this link which contains a study showing how the media trash Dean relentlessly, regardless of the facts.
True, Dean’s going to have to deal with worse from the quarter-billion dollar RNC attack machine but one would think journalists have better things to do with their time than fancy themselves decisionmakers for us peasants out here in the provinces.

Got your attention, didn’t it?
Ah, presidential politics in the Age of Entertainment. By now, if you’ve read the paper or seen the chatter on the TV news, part of todays Big Story from the campaign trail was a flash of that alleged “Dean Rage” that partisans from the Democratic Insider Crowd and GOP Sen. Joe Lieberman have been sounding the alarm about.
This is big news, folks, and it’s good that we focus on it now, lest Dr. Dean become President, get exposed to some gamma radiation at the Pentagon, and end up turning into a menacing Dr. Hulk while conducting delicate negotiations with Congress or the Chinese. The Republic would be doomed in such a horrifying scenario.
Sound a bit silly? It is. Unfortunately this is what passes for “election journalism” these days.
I saw the alleged “incident” in its entirety today. Basically, a Bush supporter was flipping some midwest-style “‘tude” at Dean for being “too mean” to President Bush. After bitching at Dr. Dean for a while, Dean responded and got interrupted by the GOP partisan. His “flash of anger” was Dean asking the guy to let him respond, and why he felt Bush’s policies have been bad for America. He did so so not in warm, fuzzy, hippie-speak or the hushed tones of a big-city liberal – he fought back with force and conviction. The GOP partisan was booed out of the room by the crowd.
This is not how most Democrats, particularly those who have been exposed to the “Insider” virus, respond when attacked. When they get attacked for being Democrats, that’s their cue to get on their knees. Years of practices with the “on the knees” position ensures that nothing really changes, and that the donors they share with the GOP can stay happy.
It’s easy to see how Dean’s reaction could be seen as “rage” – he’s choosing to stand up for Democrats – not hide behind “triangulation” and accomodation. Definitely scary to entrenched interests.
Since Dean’s surge earlier this year, I can’t recall hearing much of anything from the John Edwards campaign about what this guy would do as president or why he’s qualified to even hold the job. In fact, it’s hard for me to even remember he’s still in the race or even what he LOOKS like, and I read about politics every day.
As far as I can tell, the only thing he has been saying is something about how he looks better on TV than Dean and how one-term Senators who haven’t even completed their term are still qualified to lead the most powerful nation on Earth. I do know he said something nasty about Dean – that got in the papers.
Same goes for John Kerry’s campaign. Much time is spent telling people that he’s the one that can beat President Bush and his resume (war hero, Senator, whatever) is pulled out at every opportunity and they’ve always got some zinger of the day to attack Dr. Dean (and now Gen. Clark).
However they don’t seem to be able to explain how it is that “unelectable Dean” has been able to kick Kerry way back in the polls – or how Kerry can be expected to beat Bush when he can’t even beat a small-town politician like Dr. Dean. I get all sorts of emails from the Kerry campaign with some sort of policy information, but it’s usually something I heard already from another campaign. All I really know is his latest anti-Dean and anti-Clark comments.
Richard Gephardt has grown as adept as attacking Dean as Karl Rove and has even spent money creating a whole website just attacking Dean (not unlike something Karl Rove would come up with). He has yet to be forced to explain how it is he can win a national election when the last several nation elections he was in charge of – trying to retake the House back from the GOP – failed miserably, resulting in him resigning his post as House Minority Leader after the disastrous 2002 elections.
Again, not a lot of information on what he’d do as President. I remember once hearing something about health care from Gephardt, but as I recall when we had Democrats running both houses of Congress AND the White House, a national health care plan got torpedoed – mostly by turncoat Democrats, something he reallyneeds to explain. But hey, he said something bad about Dean, and that’s all that matters, right?
Meanwhile I continue to learn more about the ideas and policies of Gov. Dean and Gen. Clark despite the noise (usually from blogs and websites) and while they Insiders keep lobbing flaming bags of dog poop at them, Dean and Clark continue to prove they’re not afraid to stand up to Bush in no uncertain terms.
It’s ironic that the only person that is unafraid to take on the President and call him on his policies aside from Dean and Clark is former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. Then again, O’Neill doesn’t care what some PAC or corporation thinks about him, unlike someone who has to go to those folks to get re-elected.
Ultimately the problem isn’t the politicians – we expect them to misbehave nowadays – it’s the people covering the campaign. Reporters, especially those at the all-news cable outlets, aren’t really looking for information, they’re looking for a great story.
To most mainstream reporters, the goal in these situations is not really to report “news” or dig up “information”, it’s to find a “story” replete with elements of drama, intrigue, humor, or a combination of the three. The spin of the day fits the bill nicely, and we end up with the so-called “information” we get from our major news outlets.
This almost ensures that we really don’t know much about what these folks would do in office if we rely on traditional media for our news. This isn’t a conspiracy of the left or right (despite the protestations of my good friends on both sides) but rather a financial bias, coupled with a little laziness.
Big media companies need to make a LOT of money to stay afloat and to pay for their latest acquisitions, and they know that entertainment and drama sell well, even now. There’s no incentive for them to do otherwise, and risk taking in large organizations is not only discouraged, on a functional level it is impractical or even impossible. Plus it’s a lot easier and cheaper to do than dig around old files in Vermont or trudging around the country interviewing people and doing research.
Cynics on the left and culture warriors on the right both decry “average” Americans as too stupid to know or care what is “really” going on but they’re wrong. They aren’t stupid and they do care – when they have a WAY to find out what is “really” going on. Up until now, finding another source of news was difficult, if not impossible for most people.
Times and technology have changed all of that. Recent polling indicates that more and more Americans are now turning to alternative news sources (blogs, websites, smaller magazines, the Daily Show, etc.) to get their information about Campaign 2004, and this number is expected to continue to go up. Eventually as the ratings for TV news go down, and the readership of dailies and weeklies starts to take a dive, perhaps then Big Media’s executives will see the value of providing real journalism to their readers.
We’ll be better off in the long run if they do. Our politicians might get asked some real questions, and they might have to give some real answers. We’ll have more information than we’ll know what to do with, and that sounds good to me.
In the meantime, keep reading well-written and fascinating blogs with clever Teutonic-based names for all of your election information.
For a fun article covering this issue check out Salon Magazine and see what they have to say…