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...)

Happy Birthday Oregon

Oregon's top pols surround a wax figure of state senate President Peter Courtney and a 400 pound, 7-tier birthday cake in celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial.

(Photo h/t Jeff Mapes blog)

Voting Merkally

Jeff Merkley ran for the US Senate as a populist. But lacking deep grassroots support, he ran on Chuck Schumer's dime, and today we witnessed the first payback.

In the course of the campaign, Merkley repeatedly assailed his opponent Sen. Gordon Smith for canceling out the votes of Oregon's "senior" Senator, Ron Wyden. But when it came to one of the most important votes in his new career as a DC politician, Sen. Merkley did not vote with his Democratic colleague. He didn't even vote his conscience.

When then candidate Merkley went on the record regarding the Reid-Pelosi-Bush $700 Billion bank bailout, he to the opportunity to slam Smith and while lauding Wyden.

"I commend Ron Wyden for standing up for taxpayers and doing what is necessary to restore accountability on Wall Street. The easy thing to do would have been to vote yes on this bill. I have dedicated much of my life to advocating for consumers and I believe it is just wrong to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very Wall Street financiers who created this crisis. This bill will allow those same executives to walk away with golden parachutes, while doing nothing to end the abuses of oversight that caused this mess or help working families who need their own economic rescue. This proposal is badly flawed and adding a number of important unrelated items, no matter how worthy, does not fix the problems with this bailout."

The first $350 Billion vanished into air thick with golden parachutes in the planning. And today when the new Democratic super Senate was called on to exercise some oversight with respect to the last half of the bailout money, they bailed. Jeff Merkley cast his vote with Schumer and against Wyden and and sold out the US Taxpayer when he endorsed this second $350 Billion blank check.

Update: And it didn't take the Treasury long before they began pissing it away. (Couldn't we at least wait for Obama's cronies to get their hands on the loot?)

Big loss at Bank of America as feds give it $20 billion more By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — With a new round of turmoil gripping the financial markets, the Bush administration late Thursday night rushed $20 billion in emergency funding for Bank of America. [More...]

Silencing Speech

Once again, i have been banned from "Oregon's biggest blog." Kari Chisholm accused me of making an ad hominem attack. And while making his accusation public, he deleted from public view the "offending" comment in question. Furthermore, i am no longer allowed to comment on Blue Oregon.

Set you irony meters on "stunning" as i lay out the facts.

Kari is well known for not playing well with others as he throws his weight around on Blue0. He also gets pretty mouthy (which would give me pause if he were on my payroll as he is for much of Oregon's top Dems - Gov. Kulongoski, US Sen. Wyden, US Rep. Blumenauer, Councilman Adams, Senator Brown, etc.).

"Don't be an asshole, [Stephanie]" - K. Chisholm

And here was the context...

Posted by: Stephanie V | Oct 2, 2007 2:07:29 PM [...] My only advice to Jeff: better hire Mandate Media to do your website, so you can keep getting some good pixels over here. %^> ------------------------------- Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Oct 3, 2007 1:45:03 AM My only advice to Jeff: better hire Mandate Media to do your website, so you can keep getting some good pixels over here. Don't be an asshole. That's not how it works and you know it.

Classy way to overreact. And so i thought it curious when Kari made the following comment:

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Oct 14, 2007 8:44:05 PM Stephanie V wrote... Kari, I didn't say you were hopelessly biased or an unethical asshole...

To which i responded:

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Oct 14, 2007 10:13:10 PM [Stephanie V] - Kari, I didn't say you were hopelessly biased or an unethical asshole Stephanie, the first phrase roughly paraphrases what Kari admitted about himself. The latter insult (minus the adjective) was slung against you by Jeff Merkley's paid media consultant. Money well spent indeed.

Something about my comment really pissed off Kari. He deleted it and replace it with this message:

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Oct 14, 2007 10:13:10 PM [Ad hominem attack deleted. -editor.]

I tried to get a bit of clarification...

Dear Editor,
How can it be considered an "ad hominem" attack, when i simply hotlinked to two quotes from Blue0's editor? I didn't even requote his admission that he is not only biased, but "very biased" nor did i requote his characterization of Stephanie V as "an asshole." Perhaps it was that i noted how the editor is Jeff Merkley's paid media consultant? Seeing that the editor has admitted as much, i don't understand how this could be considered an "ad hominem attack."

signed,
Curious in SE Portland

But alas...

An error occurred...
Your comment has not been posted because we think it might be comment spam. If you believe you have received this message in error, please contact the author of this weblog.

There's nothing quite as patriotic as silencing free speech. Jeff Merkley, I salute you.

Town Hall

Senator Wyden's Tuesday town hall meeting was supposed to focus on Iraq. In fact, any guests wishing to address the Senator were instructed in writing to limit their questions/comments to the topic of Iraq and this admonishment was read out loud before Wyden entered the hall. Comment cards were available for "off-topic" issues.


There is little dispute that Ron Wyden has stood with a lonely minority in the Senate in opposing the invasion and occupation of Iraq. So perhaps he was taken by surprise with the people's insistent push for impeachment. Up close and personal, it looked like Wyden was spinning. On the one hand, he had no choice but to acknowledge the red meat laying at the feet of this blue crowd. Bush has broken the law. But he was reluctant to openly admit what one constituent after another was preaching to this, an angry choir. His "Community Conversation" got sidetracked.


The conversation turned controversy made its way to one of my daily blogs, BlueOregon.com. One unlucky young guy (one of the few students in the audience) got his comment reprinted as a blog post.

Unfortunately things started getting fairly nasty, which in my opinion was uncalled for. [...] Obviously people are angry, but using the Bill O'Rielly code of conduct is not conducive to progress. [...] I encourage you to move outside of liberal comfort zones and engage the community at large. Point your anger where it'll be effective, and help keep people like Gordon Smith's feet to the fire.

Ever the bi-partisan, Sen. Wyden ended his town hall community conversation saying, "We may differ on one issue or another." What a tremendous understatement wrapped in naive, perhaps desperate hope.

Whereas those leery of impeachment may be willing to agree to disagree, there's a fire in the belly of impeachment advocates that no amount of skepticism or cynicism can piss on and extinguish.


[Part one: Wyden No Wimp.]

Wyden NO Wimp

on Iraq...
But on Impeachment he is WRONG

Oregon's "senior" senator Ron Wyden held a town hall meeting at PSU this afternoon and the hall was full. I remarked to a fellow sitting next to me how few students were at this university venue, whereupon he reminded me it's the middle of summer. I do need to get out more, or at least look once in a while at a calender. But what's the point when Congress has utterly failed to set a timetable for withdrawl from the quagmire which is the Iraq occupation.

It should be said that Wyden stands as one of the more consistently principled anti Iraq-war voters in the US Senate. Attendees were given a two page "Iraq War Timeline" which chronicled the senator's many votes which attempted to reign in Bush's reckless foreign war policy. Sadly it's a long list of failures. The amendment failed. The amendment failed. The amendment failed.

Wyden attempted to take impeachment off the table at this town hall, but the People wouldn't stand for it. Either obliquely or directly the questions kept coming back to the topic of impeachment and the senator tried repeatedly to mollify the crowd. The attempts failed. The attempts failed. The attempts failed.

The first question came from Joe Walsh, a US Navy veteran. His question was pointed (at the senator especially): "Do you have any idea how angry so many of us are at the Democrats?!" Joe's question touched not only on the new majority (D) party, continuing to fund the fiasco but also Congress's criminal lack of oversight in not holding the Bush administration to account. Joe is among the many veterans who currently are protesting outside the local offices of Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), who inexplicably is willing to give Bush, Cheney & Co. a pass on all their criminal, unconstitutional misdeeds.

Regarding the abuses of King George's rule, Wyden had to concede "They are way over the line." Asked if the war itself was illegal, or if the administration was conducting it in ways which were unconstitutional, Wyden sidestepped the direct question. The People wanted an answer however and a later participant stepped up to reiterate the line of inquiry, noting the previous attempt at obfuscation. On the ropes, Wyden could only do that which politicians are trained in doing. He answered out of both sides of his mouth.

"I brought up the arguments that say [the war's] illegal"

"It's hard to make the legal case that it was illegal"

For weeks now, Wyden has been trying to lend a sympathetic ear to impeachment advocates (a majority of his constituents) by saying, should the House vote to impeach, he would look at the issue very carefully. Knowing the stranglehold the "democratic" leadership has on it's rank and file in Congress, he's taking what he believes to be an easy out.

Ron Wyden is confident he'll never have to deal with impeachment in the Senate, and in many ways, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because of his lack of leadership in exercising his Constitutional duty to provide checks and balances, our only hope is that the People will lead. They didn't come today with torches and pitchforks. Instead they were armed with the truth and pugnacity. There were catcalls from the crowd to be sure. I was sitting in the front row, close enough to be spat upon as the senator narrowly missed stepping on my toes. So i didn't mind if i stepped on his toes as i shouted out:

"You need to call your congressman, Senator"

Somehow, i doubt that Wyden will be calling Wu anytime soon to encourage him to step up and do the right thing. That task is left up to US.

[Part two: Town Hall.]
.

Fit to be Tried

What is with the Oregon Democratic delegation in DC? Are they unaware of the crimes committed by the Bush regime? Or are they simply indifferent?

Bush has conspired to illegally spy on Americans, he's conducted international kidnappings and authorized the use of torture. He and his Department of "Just Us" are guilty of obstruction of justice in the treasonous scandals of the Valerie Plame outing, the US Attorney oustings and the theft of the Presidency through fraud and vote caging.

My Congressman, Earl Blumenauer sits in a safe (D)istrict and yet is seated next to Pelosi in taking impeachment off the table. His main argument appears to be that the Bush white house "is already on its way out the door." It would appear that Rep. Blumenauer is willing to excuse any president of everything in his or her last 18 months of office, a dangerous precedent. Unfortunately, Blumenauer is oblivious to the fact that barring censure and/or impeachment, the damage caused to our system of checks and balances will outlive us all.

At the conclusion of Clinton's impeachment trial, Oregon's Democratic senator, Ron Wyden supported his vote to acquit with this lofty verbiage: "What I want to be able to tell my grandchildren is that this was the point in American history where we drew a line in the sand and said 'no more' to the excessive partisanship." Perhaps he would have better luck reigning in Bush's excesses and ending the war if he would again draw a line in the sand and say "enough is enough. This President will be held to account."

Of course our junior senator, Gordon Smith (R-OR) is engaging in his predictable brand of partisan hypocrisy. In voting to convict Clinton, he opined: "Perjury and obstruction of justice are high crimes, and they are utterly inconsistent with any Federal office." Yet for Scooter Libby, Smith has nothing but compassion and understanding for such a "decent guy," not to mention support for his bosses who conspired with him.