Celsi Dinner 2009

Carl Wolfson waits in the wings

The "Celsi Dinner" is an annual benefit in support for the Multnomah County Democrats which recognizes citizen activist and very active Democrat Dick Celsi as well this year's award recipient in his honor, John Vandermosten.

3rd District Congressman, Earl Blumenauer took the stage of the Melody Ballroom to welcome the roomful of who's whos and who's thats. Reveling in recent Democratic victories, he also spoke of the challenges to come. Progressive activist/writer Karol Collymore gave a rousing call for Democrats to complete decades of unfinished business.

Former US Senate candidate Steve Novick demonstrated his wonkish wit as he played auctioneer. Offsetting high carbon footprint auction items with large contributions seemed like a good idea. Just what is an endangered species worth to you?

Aside from the live auction, a silent auction was held which included loads of political memorabilia. Oregon's US Sentors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley addressed the gathering.

State senator Jackie Dingfelder was also recognized with the McCoy Award.

The keynote speech was delivered by KPOJ's Carl Wolfson. On the radio he combines his comedy shtick with his political acumen giving the audience (which reaches far beyond Portland) some of the best progressive talk radio currently on the dial. Tonight though, apart from his mirthful warm-up with but a few familial anecdotes, we saw Carl's serious side and i began to understand the political journey of this comedian. One of the high points of the evening for me was the tale of Rep. Carl Elliott (D-AL), the father of the bookmobile. Unlike so many Dems in the Old South, Elliott was at home in a Democratic party which promoted racial justice. He was defeated in a 1964 special election required to reduce the size of Alabama's Congressional delegation. He would later cash in his Congressional pension to run for Governor, losing to the wife of George C. Wallace who himself was term-limited. After his defeat, he resumed practicing law and writing and was vindicated only later in life when he became the first recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 1990.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger was also a featured speaker. For giggles, I'm giving the silver to Steve Novick. But when it comes to comedy gold, the Oscar goes to John Kroger. Who knew the AG could be so funny? But soon enough Kroger got to the serious topic of supporting the Party. It's not only boots on the ground which keeps Oregon blue, it's hands on the wallet. The Celsi dinner is the most significant fundraiser for the Multnomah County Democrats. Thanks to all who gave their support.

John Vandermosten, House District 50 leader, and one of the founding members of East Suburban Democrats was honored by the Multnomah County Democratic Central Committee with the Dick Celsi award. "MC" (Carla) Hanson

I got to sit at the "cool kids' table" (at least for local political wonkery) thanks to my friend Stephanie (seated across from me). She's about the sweetest Greek-American (who doesn't eat eggplant) you'll ever want to meet, and one of the most generous folks i know. Efcharisto! Her hubby Mike shares a passion for political buttons with our keynote speaker. Although seated elsewhere (or perhaps standing?), the Wolf man eventually made his way to ours. I suspect he was trying to trace down the high bidder of some button collections he had his eye on. (ok, i scored one of those myself, but i did give the first bid on it!) I was actually seated next to AG Kroger. I had met him first at the 2008 Rebooting Democracy conference. Except for a few pleasantries, i let him eat. When he wasn't on the stage, he was for the most part on the floor and was one of the more sought out personalities of the evening. He was also pretty successful getting several donors for a new HQ for the MultCo D's. Good work, John! (But the next time i see you, i'd like to bend your ear about these pesky phone solicitations i keep getting. I think it's a credit scam...)

Kremer vs. Kremer vs. Truth

Trust me, you can't afford Rob Kremer's brand of "fiscal conservatism."

Would you buy a used car from this guy?

One of Rob Kremer's day jobs is that of political fundraiser for Oregon's con- Right. In mid-February of last year he founded the "Con - Majority Project" PAC. He writes the following there:
(What? Me worry about facts?)

Rob Kremer is Founder and President of the Oregon Education Coalition, which has been active in the school policy debate since 1998. In the 1999 Legislative Session, Rob led the effort to pass Oregon’s charter school law. Since then, he has directly involved [sic] in helping start more than three dozen charter schools, including the four Arthur Academy Charter Schools, of which he is co-founder.

Indeed, rarely is the question asked, "Is our right wingnuts proofreading?" Him speak pretty some day.*

Rob also writes a blog where the front page shines insight into his paranoia regarding / obsession with "socialism." From the anti-Socialist himself:

Portland, Oregon is occupied territory. It was invaded years ago by a non-native species of political animal from back east who took over our political and cultural institutions in order to try out their utopian socialist dreams on our great state. This blog will chronicle the insurgency that is trying to free Oregon from the occupiers' grip by shining a bright light on their most egregious schemes.

It sounds scary, but to read his blog, it's mostly funny (pages)... and a little bit sad.

And completing his trifectic strangle-hold on Socialism, Rob Kremer has his own Hannity & Colmesesque radio show on KXL, Kremer & Abrams. (And not that Marc Abrams is anything like that soggy milquetoast Alan Colmes used to be!) Today, former US Senate candidate Steve Novick was sitting in for Abrams (who was visiting his fiancé in California) so i tuned in for a bit.

The bones of 4228 US service personnel to pick...

In an old twist on tired attempts to justify George W. Bush's war crime, Kremer (a self described fiscal conservative) threw out some pretty outlandish numbers in order to assert that despite the money pit of a fiasco which is the Iraq debacle, it still pencils out to be cheaper than the pre-invasion monitoring protocols carried out against the Saddam regime since George H. W. Bush suckered the Butcher from Baghdad into invading Kuwait back in 1990 and the Great Coalition kicked the Iraqis back out the following year.

According to Kremer, a decade of simply monitoring Iraq as we had been doing (successfully as it turned out) would have cost us $700 Billion. Yes, this is a huge exaggeration. Nevertheless, Mr. Kremer, the champion of education who demonstrates questionable verbal skills (see above) also fails at math.

The Dick Cheney administration (a subsidary of Halliburton) had already conned a feckless Congress into authorizing a half trillion dollars by the 5th anniversary of Shock and Awe. With a present "burn rate" of $10-14 Billion a month, the direct costs to the US taxpayers will hit one Trillion dollars by the end of this year.

In case you need help with the arithmetic, Rob, that's $300 Billion more than your fiscally conservative solution. Even for Republican fat cats, that's an an Obama sized chunk of change.

As i mentioned before, Rob Kremer exaggerates the cost of containment when it came to Saddam, the paper lion. As near as i can tell, he derives his fanciful financial figure from a February 2006 study done by Steven J. Davis, et. al. The authors admit that the actual annual "cost of containment" had been $14.5 Billion per year. Based upon a series of dire assumptions (including another successful terrorist attack inside the US) they calculated that the cost of mere monitoring (along with the occasional air strike) might range from $350-700 Billion.

"We model the possibility that an effective containment policy might require the mounting of costly threats and might lead to a limited war or a full-scale regime-changing war against Iraq at a later date. We also consider the possibility that the survival of a hostile Iraqi regime raises the probability of a major terrorist attack on the United States."

In other words, they added to the real cost of containment the probability that the US would invade Iraq regardless (evidently adopting the Donald Rumsfeld Invasion Lite™ numbers), and they added in a doomsday scenario to boot. Naturally, Kremer only quoted the upper end figure. (By the way, higher end estimates for the total cost of the Iraq war exceed $3 Trillion. ("The government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years." - HuffPo, May 11, 2008. More...)

What's more, the authors of the $700 Billion containment theory published a follow up in March, 2008. In it, they revise their numbers and refute Rob Kremer:

"The Iraq intervention has proved to be much costlier for the United States than our baseline estimate for the cost of containment (roughly 300 billon 2003 dollars) and at least as costly as the most pessimistic containment scenario we considered..." [More: pdf]

Perhaps these scholars weren't even the source for Kremer's right wing talking point. (But i prefer not to think that he just pulled the $700 figure out of his imagination.) In the end his math, his logic (and of course, his politics) fail.

Near the end of the show Kremer claimed that person for person, public transit is costlier than private means of transportation. I can't wait to learn how he's cooking up these numbers. Mmmmm... Hot pot of Republican bullshit, comin' right up!

*[Disclaimer: Even though i am not paid to publish this blog, i accept any and all pot/kettle accusations for the multitude of typos and out right spelling errors in my own writing. In my defense, i believe i am experiencing adult onset dyslexia.]

The Novick Brand

Former Democratic US Senate candidate Steve Novick commented today on the nexus of money and marketing in political campaigns.

I’m still not sure what “branding” is, but I do know that it matters. According to The Oregonian, my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Oregon—although ultimately unsuccessful—was good at it...

Now, again, we lost, so apparently branding isn’t everything. But I think it’s fair to say that we did better than expected. As a first-time candidate running against the speaker of the State House, I was outspent by roughly 2-to-1, and lost 45 percent to 42 percent. Compared to other recent “progressive underdog vs. moneyed establishment candidate” Northwest races, that’s not bad...

We ran a campaign that did about as well as it could among newspaper readers and people who were just really ready for something different. What we failed to do was let issue-oriented voters know how much I cared about the issues that matter to them.

So the bottom line is: Branding matters. Humor helps. Not every consumer responds to the same message.

And money matters too.

[Read the entire article...]

“Now, again, we lost” [Steve Novick]

I wouldn't equate losing the campaign with having a losing campaign strategy.

In many ways (save for the most significant - the outcome) the US Senate primary in Oregon echoed the race for the Democratic nomination for President. Cue Senator Clinton. She was the Chosen One, beginning the primary season as her party's presumptive nominee. She had the early institutional support which also came with an steady stream of campaign contributions. But her problem throughout the race was her brand. “Buy me. Trusted and True.” Even if the consumer bought into the pitch, they weren't necessarily inclined to buy the product. The will of the people having been essentially thwarted since the 2000 election and with “war on war” fatigue setting in, the voters were content to keep their eyes wide in the face of the Hillary Express and despite the early and omni-presence of Clinton 2.0 along side the original version.

And along came Obama. Something different.

In the OR-Sen race, there was no challenger to Goliath. “If I ran” became “Why I'm running.” In Steve Novick we had a candidate offering something very different. It was a winning brand for Obama and it should have worked for Novick. So what went wrong?

With many dissimilarities to be sure, the Merkley/Novick race nevertheless offered Oregonians a portrait in miniature of the Clinton/Obama match. But Novick didn't set out to challenge a presumptive nominee. Instead, such a one was chosen by Chuck Schumer after Novick began his campaign. Speaker Merkley was then presumed to be the odds on favorite and future challenger to the Republican incumbent, Gordon Smith. He all but ignored Novick... at first.

In normal cycles, big name endorsements are a typical indicator of the choice of the insiders and eventual nominee. Merkley emerged early with nods from former Governor Barbara Roberts as well as many of his colleagues in the Legislature. (The Bend Bulletin was one of the first in the MSN to detail the DC establishment support for Merkley flowing from the DSCC.) Even still, Novick became the front-running underdog. Because of his establishment status, another new name in Merkley's column wasn't big news. But each time Novick picked off a significant endorsement (Les AuCoin, John Kitzhaber), he gained momentum.

For six months Merkley spurned calls to debate. As a result, both candidates remained relatively unknown. As late as the beginning of April, Novick could boast out-polling Merkely 2 to 1. Of course Merkley was only receiving 11% of the vote, coming in third behind Eugene activist, Candy Neville.

[A word on Neville... Having received a very respectable 7% of the final vote, some might regard Neville as a spoiler. Given that her chief causes (impeachment and ending the Iraq occupation) were more aggressively supported supported by Novick than Merkley, one can't assume that Novick was denied Neville's entire share of the vote. Just as many Oregon independents registered as Democrats for the soul purpose voting for Clinton or Obama, Merkley or Novick (as was the case with me), with over 38,000 votes going her way, she can also boast having enlarged the Democrats big circus tent. Too bad we don't have instant run off voting. Still, I don't criticize her presence in the Primary, nor her subsequent off-again / on-again involvement in the Merkley campaign.]

The Novick campaign strategy worked. It worked where and to the extent which it was employed.

In this cycle, voters are attracted to champions of change. It's not enough just to be different. Not just any non-white or woman or short man with a hook for a hand can attract a following. In fact, one of Novick's notable differences, his prodigious intellect was early rumored to be a deficit. “He's a brainiac. He can't relate to 'normal' people.” I liked what I was reading about Steve Novick. But I wanted to take the measure of the man myself The lede was his hook, but the hook for me was his message. I bussed 3 hours across town to hear him in person in Aloha. His message was “I can beat Gordon Smith” He made me think he could, but more importantly, he made me want him to beat Gordon Smith. Steve Novick had the brand. “We need change and it'll take someone a little different.”

Barack Obama: “Change you can believe in”

Both Obama and Novick qualify as “different” candidates unto themselves. That's the selling brand this cycle, but what Obama excels in more than most is charisma. Over the many months of the Primary, I saw Steve Novick grow into his new roll. No longer just an issue manager or an activist, he was becoming a leader... a man to look up to. No, he's no Obama. Luckily, his challenger Jeff Merkley was charismatically challenged. This certainly had an impact on the grass roots fund raising. Barack Obama, of course was stellar. Steve Novick's numbers were impressive. Jeff Merkley lagged. But still he managed to build a bigger warchest than Novick. Unfortunately, his booty was in part bogus. Were it not for the debt he incurred on one of his homes and his indebtedness to the DSCC, Merkley would not have had the money to advertise his brand, however mediocre. He also had the wherewithall to run attack ads. He was given the resources to undermine Novick's brand. No wonder in the end there was an undervote in the OR-Sen race to the tune of 85,000 Oregonians who couldn't be persuaded to vote for either Novick or Merkley.

“And money matters too.” [Steve Novick]

Money matters most of all. It trumps other virtues like being right on the issues or possessing the ability to accomplish an agenda. Because of money, what we need is not always what we get. We need a maverick who will speak truth to power, even when the power rests in one's own party. What we'd get with Merkley is a man beholden to the Democratic leadership.

In the course of the primary I wrote that a true grassroots candidate needs to be organic and locally grown, without any Washington DC Miracle-Gro. I was right about the needs of a grassroots candidate, but that isn't necessarily the right recipe for a winning candidate. Artificial sweeteners can taste pretty good, even if they are toxic. Democratic Party money knocked off Novick and may be able to deliver Oregon a win this November but I doubt it can break the bank of Senator Smith's warchest given their difficulties in taking out Steve Novick.

In marketing an off-the-shelf Democrat, not only is the DSCC promoting a candidate who will struggle to get the support of conservative Democrats, but there are many in the far left who will either sit on their hands or even support Smith in the General. Practical motivation for casting a Smith vote is simply this. If Merkley (who's campaign used Rovian tactics to attack Novick as a “tax and spender” and described his base of support as “the inner circle of the Kremlin”) can win the Senate seat without the support of peace and just progressives (code for activists working to remove Bush from office and thus end the US occupation of Iraq), they will have even less influence with Oregon's delegation in Congress than at present. Democrats are certain to retain the leadership in both chambers. Perhaps a minor liberal backlash will give them the courage to do what they have failed to do after so many of us worked so hard to give them control in 2006; bring Bush to justice and bring our troops home.

On an even playing field, branding is most important. But money is trump no matter how the cards are stacked.

Scrubbing the record

Progressive media is all a buzz. What happened to KPOJ morning host, Heidi Tauber? It seemed like a usual week on the radio. Monday some politicians were again at pains to explain what Bush is still doing in office. On Tuesday, Senate Candidate Jeff Merkley's paid media guy was engaging in the usual weekly shilling for his clients (and forgetting to disclose his paid relationships). Wednesday ended quite normally with an interview of Willy Week's editor, Mark Zusman and these closing comments from THC; Thom, Heidi and Carl:

Thom: In our third hour, everything you know is wrong... Barry Reid is going to tell us how to disappear... in America...

Heidi: OOooo!

Thom: Legally.

Carl: I'll be listening to that.

Heidi: You have Barry Reid on your national show. Tomorrow on the local morning show we have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who is our guest.

Thom: Who would like to disappear!

Carl: Yeah! THC with you on AM 620 KPOJ Portland's progressive talk station.

Thom: Thom Hartman National coming up next.

Heidi: We'll see you tomorrow.

And Heidi Tauber hasn't been heard from since. Thursday morning it's suddenly "Carl and friends." Not a single mention is made of Heidi's absence. Perhaps she's on vacation? Going to check out her blog, we find every mention of her on 620kpoj.com has been scrubbed. It's like she never existed. Heidi's been "disappeared"! Quick, find Barry Reid! While KPOJ takes the Fifth, other tongues are wagging (er... fingertips are tapping) over at OregonMediaInsiders.com

I first thought of Cecil B. Demille's "The Ten Commandments." It wasn't enough for the father of Ramses to ban Moses into the wilderness. He had to order every reference to Moses stricken. In the days before [Delete], this most often required a chisel.

"Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet. Stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt. Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time. "

So let it be written. So let it be done!

Maybe there's a more recent analogy. In Orwell's classic 1984 (otherwise know as Rove's Playbook), we learn the dangers of press merging into politic.

“He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” George Orwell

It is disturbing to note how the producer behind KPOJ's morning show, Paul Pimentel, seems to be altering the record. I recall in the past hearing something on the the show and going back later, unable to find the sought after sound clip. At first, I thought it was just me. Before long, others were sharing with me their same suspicions that Pimentel has been scrubbing the broadcast of unwanted speech.

Paul Pimentel

In a most recent instance (today), a caller (Tom) was offering his nominations for Weasel of the Week. He had two in mind. He first nominated Jeff Merkley. Seems the Speaker didn't like Tom's free speech and threatened to sue! Next he nominated "the management of KPO-" before he was cut of by Pimentel. If you go back and listen to the broadcast (end of today's third hour) you'll only hear the following:

"Carl: Tom, your weasel nomination? You're on the air.

Tom: I have two. My small weasel of the week would be Jeff Merkley for his overly litigious effort to silence my anti Gordon Smith / pro Steve Novick message that I tried to pass out. //nip// ... //tuck//"

Now first, where as I wholeheartedly agree with the caller, this was NOT East Bank Thom.

Secondly, it seems pretty clear that the caller was trying to voice his opinion about the management of KPOJ. (Weasels!)

Now I don't want to get sued, but it's my theory that the "Tom" who called is none other that KPOJ sponsor Tom Dwyer. I hear this guy's ads almost every day and I think I can recognize his radio voice (although the phone adds a different quality.) If I am correct, that's a pretty admirable thing for Dwyer to do. Now I'll happily write a retraction, but I'd much rather be right (and reward Dwyer with my business. My pickup needs servicing!)

Kari Chisholm: POWNED and Sealed

Jeff Merkley's web guru, Kari Chisholm of Mandate Media just had his ample kiester handed back to him. As Merkley contiunes to flounder in the polls, his campaign is responding the only way the DC establishment knows how; go on the attack. Cue the scary music and out of context quotes. Talk about how "angry" your opponent is. And then take your negative attack online. But it seems that BlueOregon's chief cook and salad spinner went a bridge to far on the internet super highway. Seems he lifted the code from the actual Novick for Senate site and took the credit for himself. I'm not saying that he stole anything. He's just lazy (and uncreative).

By all accounts, Chisholm learned well from his mentors, the Clintons. It takes a burned village to save a campaign.

The Novick staffer who created the authentic website took issue with Kari's hand in the internet cookie jar. He published an open letter to BlueOregon's Kari Chisholm on the Daily Kos.

"On the recent attack website you launched for Jeff Merkley, novickinsultsdemocrats.com, you used a substantial amount of work that I, and others, created for the Novick campaign and claimed credit for it as your own... "

[Update: Kari responds (sort of) with a denial, an updated attribution and a counter attack.]

-kari. p.s. I'm pretty sure that's the state seal in the header of the real Novick site. You might consider removing it, per state law.

[Updated updated. Kari's attempted cheap shot went "poof."]

Merkley's not-so swift boaters

I'm a Novick partisan, I suppose, and these are the facts as I know them...

I first heard about Steve Novick after a failed attempt to draft (my former) populist US Congressman, Peter DeFazio. I followed this effort through Loaded Orygun. When the Rep. declined to run, LO took an interest and later endorsed Steve Novick for US Senate. LO co-editor Carla Axtman later left the blog to join the campaign of Novick's primary opponent, Oregon House Speaker, Jeff Merkley, who was recruited in July by DSCC chair, Chuck Schumer. This support also came with ca. $100,000 seedy money for the choice of the Democratic establishment.

Also on Merkley's side is "the biggest blog in Oregon," BlueOregon.com. It's "chief cook and bottle washer is Merkley paid media staffer, Kari "sometimes-I-forget-to-disclose-my-paid-relationships" Chisholm.

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Jan 22, 2008 11:34:50 PM
[...] As you well know, I post my disclosure on every blog post I write - and on every comment that I post on anyone else's blog. Seriously [...]

His blog, once believed to have been a a neutral, progressive forum, has become primarily a propaganda organ (IMHO) for Mr. Chisholm's many clients.

Chisholm has also constructed a nice echo chamber of bloggers who daily expend bandwidth with their pro-Merkely, anti-Novick commentary. Among the men of Mandate are Michael Richardson, Chisholm's tech guy who co-publishes his own blog, Witigonen.com. Then there's blogger, cum peace activist, Kevin Kamberg, who used to co-blog with Merkley's netroots staffer, Carla Axtman if I'm not mistaken.

"How many of you made it to the Peace rally and march in Portland yesterday? I was there and had a blast. It was my first ever protest march." - K. Kamberg

In the Junior Varsity, we have the erstwhile Beaver Boundary, the recent upstart, gone out of bid'niss blog, dedicated to going negative on Novick and run by the assistant of vocal Novick critic Rep. Mitch Greenlick, Tom Powers. Forward Oregon, also created in the midst of this campaign by Bradley "don't-call-me-Bradley" Dunn (Bdunn - remind us of your relationship to jraad, aka Jamaal, a Merkley college organizer?), has been a reliable source for Chisholm's Blue(dog)Oregon.

Add to this Lefty Lane and the ever reliably pro-Merk&Co. Senate 2008 Guru not to mention the ever present chattering natterers Of Blue0; Pat Ryan, Mitch Gore ("Lestatdelc") and the ever curmudgeonly "LT," and behold the echo chamber of Kari Chisholm.

Jeff is espousing anti-war cred he has not earned. His excuse for voting to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush" rings hollow. Where is this supposed column he published? I'm only getting stonewalled by the Merkley surrogates and staff alike.

Happy Birthday Steve Novick

I am supporting Steve Novick for US Senate. You can check out his impressive bio at VoteHook.com or check out his introductory television ads. You'll see a candidate who's a little different.

• To Tell The Truth (first ad)
• A Beer with Steve (2nd ad)
• Fox News interview (hook as teething ring)

The second ad went viral (with already 70,000 hits on YouTube and was even spoofed this week by folks at Portland's Willamette Week.

It's Steve's Seminonagenniel. (That's 45 in non-Latin human years.) In lieu of flowers, send Steve to the Senate! Drop in on his ActBlue fund raising page and hit the link Wish Steve A Happy Birthday! (near the top). Please have your credit or debit card ready. ;-)

ActBlue came online in 2004 and has been helping progressive, grassroots folks support their candidates of choice. Although Novick's primary opponent, Jeff Merkley, has the deep pockets of the Democratic establishment, Steve has consistently out-earned him here. Steve Novick's birthday challenge is currently the 3rd hottest page on ActBlue.

Rally for Equality

"Don't wear loafers to a protest, son!"

What was I thinking? Maybe it's demonstration fatigue. For the labor rally on Monday, I was dressed for bear. I had on my full metal jacket of parkas, was well layered beneath that and was wearing my boots, to boot. This evening, I was traveling by bus rather than bicycle so I was less focused on the weather, which turned out to be pissy.

The call to action came from Basic Rights Oregon and was promoted on KPOJ. The rally was in response to the blocking of Oregon's new Domestic Partnership legislation by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman just days before the new law was to go into effect. Mosman's injunction stays in effect at least until his court hears further argument regarding an effort to keep the Oregon Legislature passed domestic partnerships on hold, pending a vote of the People.








Some 1500-2000 demonstrators easily filled the brickwork of Terry Schrunk plaza under a steady drizzle, spilling up onto the sodded and sodden slopes comprising the rest of this city square's amphitheater. The numbers were encouraging and not surprising given the broad coalition that actively supported the event. Beyond GLBT interest groups there were members of labor unions and peace groups (including my friends from Veterans for Peace, Local 72) as well as well as supporters from the faith community.

And there were candidates... Both leading Democratic candidates to challenge Gordon Smith for his US Senate were there, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley and the Democratic activist with a hard left hook, Steve Novick. City Councilor turned Mayoral candidate Sam Adams was there as were City Council candidates Nick Fish and John Branam whose 1000+ signatures for Voter Owned Election qualification are awaiting verification. I saw Oregon Attorney General candidate, Greg Macpherson in the crowd and former Governor Barbara Roberts on the stage.

As I tramped through the mud, cursing my tractionless choice of shoes, I couldn't help wondering... hoping really that the GLBT community will return this show of support. Not that queer folk aren't already well represented in the communities of faith, justice, peace and labor... It's one thing to show up when your own tribe is threatened, but I know for a fact that a lot of straight folk were in attendance and not because their close friend or relative is gay or because they're running for office.

Why I distrust the DSCC

The above is reposted with apologies to and in homage of Rob Tornoe, one of my favorite political cartoonists. I first read it on PolitickerOR. Do click on the image above for my adaptation!