** “I QUIT. I HATE THEM BOTH.” The hyperliberal and very popular Kos on the Westly and Angelides campaigns.
** REINER INITIATIVE TRIES TO PULL OUT VICTORY. I’m hearing that the Yes on 82 (tax-the-rich for universal preschool) initiative campaign is pouring money into TV advertising in the Los Angeles media market to try to salvage a win.
** Joining state Senator Jackie Speier on the air, the other two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi and state Senator Liz Figueroa, also have TV ads on the air, as reported here yesterday. The Figueroa TV ads, 15-second spots by the rising Acosta/Salazar firm, are viewable here. The Garamendi spot, which boosts him and criticizes Speier (who is running second in the primary behind Garamendi) does not seem to be available online yet but will be available here. There is another TV spot which may be web-only.
** FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND OTHER LUMINARIES HONOR THE LATE, LEGENDARY TEXAS SENATOR LLOYD BENTSEN in Houston.
** WESTLY NOT THE ONLY TEACHER IN 50 YEARS. While on the trail over the weekend, Controller Steve Westly told a TV news interviewer that he is the first major gubernatorial candidate in 50 years to have been a teacher. Westly was a lecturer at Stanford. But LA area Congresswoman Jane Harman, a 1998 Democratic gubernatorial candidate, was an adjunct professor at Georgetown and UCLA.
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Ditto
Hyper partisan yes, dunno about hyper liberal to describe Markos. Speaking of the man, he will be here in Sacto tonight at Tower Books, 6:30 pm for a book signing.
Well, at least it is over next week. For me this whole period has been quite liberating. I re-registered as a DTS, which I feel very good about …and at lunch, I calculated my yearly dues and donations to these useless enviro groups that I am a member of, that I will now be withdrawing my support from, and I almost have enough to go on a horseback riding holiday to Tuscany according to an e-mail I received from “equestrienne vacations”…as they say “live and learn”
Julia: if you see him, please tell Kos to lighten up. Angelides and Westly aren’t so bad, they’re just hitting each other over the head because the race is so close.
HAHAHAH Bill, have you seen the latest post on the “Fat Cat Blog?”
Looks like they found the greatest city on earth!!! GO BB!!!!!!
http://mrfatcatforwestly.blogspot.com
Julia, you are right, we all look to public employee unions to define liberalism.
Haha. Kos has never been very engaged in California politics. He pretty much ignored last years campaign.
I must admit, in a primary without much to laugh about, Mr. Fat Cat is good for some comic relief. Even if the guy in the suit is a complete hypocrite given Angelides’ reliance on AKT.
Hey Fat Cat, since this is your favorite blog, why haven’t you ever posted?
Unless…Fat Kat is none other than Eli Jacks!!!
The “fat cat” looks like a fat owl. This must be its favorite media outlet, since it gets more attention from me than all other outlets combined.
Julia,
Which Tower Books will Markos be at?
Hattie
Tower Books
1600 Broadway
Sacramento, CA
It took me one whole click on “Book Tour” on dailykos.com to find out…
Correction, it’s actually on the kos frontpage now requiring a grand total of zero clicks…
I just got back from meeting Steve Westly. It was a very small event at a local winery. It was nice getting to meet and chat some more with Nick V., some other Westly staff, Anita Westly, and with a couple of the reporters. Sadly, Fat Cat was not there.
Steve Westly comes off as a very nice and warm fellow. But he is still a little too scripted, and he is not nearly as conversant or confident on the issues as Phil Angelides. I think he’s the sort of candidate who can get people to like him, but I don’t yet see him as candidate that can inspire people to believe in him as a leader. The guy I met will pale in Arnold’s shadow. Of course, if he wins next Tuesday, he has time to keep growing. He could be better if he could shuck off the excess caution and get better on the issues.
That said, I will vote for Steve Westly because I think he has the potential to make the race against Arnold interesting. And I don’t like Phil Angelides’ background.
Thanks to the Westly campaign for inviting me, knowing full well I would ask a few tough questions.
No Fat Cat? Guess they wouldn’t let him into the winery.
Bill,
I would love to hear you thoughts on the prospects of 82… I am very afraid that this may pass and am hoping for low voter turnout on the 6th.
Kilgore
I have to agree with Julia. It’s quite misleading to call kos hyperliberal. In fact he did a purge of everybody he called “tinfoil hat” that were too liberal for him. He also wasn’t a huge supporter of SF’s gay marriages and some other liberal causes. If there’s anything that I would call him it would be a machiavellian democrat. I guess that’s going a bit far, but he just really, really dislikes Republicans.
Well, Brian, in my opinion he is very liberal. I am sure many mainstream people would agree with that. Saying he purges wingnuts and is not a “huge supporter” of gay marriage is not exactly overwhelming evidence of your point.
You have your opinion. But I would encourage you not to say that I am “quite misleading” when that is all you have.
Kilgore, say hi to Montana.
Prop 82 is in deep guano.
Kos is right up there with Michael Moore as a darling of the ultra left, a matter not genuinely in dispute among those who follow and report on these things, as far as I have seen. He and his blog seem to have proudly staked out ground as the angry left wing activists of the democratic party. They have taken apart Joe Lieberman mercilessly, and have lately taken issue with Hillary as she tries to search for a middle road to avoid peaking at 40%, which is about the percentage of the vote the Kos Kids will get you.
Yes, Hap, but is Kos the left of the left of the left?
He’s certainly not the institutional left, which may be why he did not regard the 2005 California special election as the seminal political event of the new millennium.
I’m not disagreeing with the fact that he is liberal. He is. But “hyper” adds a different meaning:
“hyper-
pref.
1. Over; above; beyond
2. Excessive; excessively”
Do you mean that he’s some sort of communist? Kos is the face of the new grassroots of the Democratic Party, much of the new Deaniac segment. Are they all hyperliberal too? To call him “hyper” liberal trivializes a very large segment of the voting public.
So, how many examples of him not being “beyond” liberal do I need to provide? His steadfast rejection of impeachment? His support for “moderate” candidates like Bob Casey over more liberal ones (Penacchio)? How many more?
I just think that when you bandy about words like hyperliberal, you should be clear what you mean.
I’m not going to let you waste my time like this, Brian. Your latest examples are actually examples of the man having some real world political sense. Impeachment is a politically stupid idea.
I mean what most people think I mean. Don’t try to spin his rejection of your candidate’s brand of liberalism by playing word games with me.
Could Kos have regarded the special election as too mainstream and parochial an event to pique his interest, despite its obvious significance here in CA? The website seems to focus on presidential and congressional issues quite a bit, and they of course hate Bush and Rove 24/7 which might leave little time for other matters.
Kos is probably more than well informed enough about Karl Rove to know that he and Schwarzenegger are hardly the friends the local left likes to brand them.
Do I have a candidate? And Kos’ statement had nothing to do with policy viewpoints (ie liberal or conservative), it was about how they are running the campaign.
How they run a campaign reveals what flavor their professed ideology really is.
If these candidates wanted to mine for centrist democratic votes they could capitalize on Kos’ hatred for them by noting it next to some of the statements he has made, like “screw them” in reference to the American civilians who were killed in Fallujah
Is Angelides the first sleazy developer to run in 50 years?
Kidding!
YEAH ADAM!
I read Daily Kos frequently, and I think Markos is an excellent writer and analyst. I often don’t agree with his opinions or conclusions, but I think he provides a real and legitimate viewpoint on the Democratic side that ought to be taken into consideration (despite his crashing on my candidate). Bloggers can be liberal or conservative purists; real-life practitioners of the political arts can’t be if they are to be effective. But carry on, Markos! You’re a good man.
With regard to Jane Harman being an adjunct professor (and I don’t mean to belittle her; I just defended her to the hilt on KPCC last week against her anti-war primary opponent — I even gave her $1,000 in her ’00 campaign to recapture her seat), but maybe what Steve meant has to do with the definition of “major.” In the ’98 primary, Harman finished with only 12.3% of the vote. Does that sort of finish constitute a “major” candidacy, I wonder?!
Well, don’t forget that she overwhelmingly won the press poll at the 1998 California Democratic Party convention as the likely Democratic nominee.
Yup! The press is always right, of course. The same folks who called Davis “road kill” in that race.
All but two.
Bill, it seems like your knowledge of Daily Kos and Markos is limited to what the media has written about him. He is absolutely liberal, but will abandon liberal positions in favor of the Party. I respect and admire the man, but like Gary (wow, never said that before) I do not always agree with what he has to say. He is a good blogger and has made some excellent decisions about what software to use and improvements to add, which has made the site much bigger than the man. It is all about the people, the community and the irregulars.
Hap, despite his writings about building the Democratic Party from the ground up he does not spend time doing that, unlike some other major liberal bloggers. He is much more interested in national politics. Bill, yes Markos is very well informed, but does use his microphone to make a mountain out of a molehill, when it gets things accomplished.
Yes, Julia, I only know what I read in the media.
Mr. Bradley,
My 3 girlfriends (2 teachers, one lawyer) and I just had dinner at Zocalo…which I highly recommend the next time you find yourself in in Sacto. (I also admire and respect the owners, they marched with their employees in the May 1 immigration rally/march)
Anyway, between us, we discovered that not one woman we know is voting for Angelides!…they are all voting for Westly. We think that is statistically significant…and even more interesting, we discovered that almost every man that we know is voting for Arnold…
Anyone else see Deborah Ortiz’s “explosion” ad?
Damn ad nearly gave me a heart attack when I first saw it.
CA Dem, I just tried to google Ortiz’s website to see if she had the ad posted. I couldn’t even find a website for her campaign. Even the LOWV smart voter guide doesn’t have a website listed…
you have a link or did you see it on real TV?
Saw it on TV. It shows this woman being interviewed outside of an abortion clinic. All of the sudden, there is an explosion in the distance. The camera shakes, the woman freaks out. Cut to Ortiz saying how she was the one behind protecting abortion clinics. Or something like that.
Garamendi also has a new ad hammering Jackie Speier for taking money from insurance companies and Enron. Poor Jackie.
Meanwhile, our good buddy Phil Angelides has a new spot attacking the Westly-Cari connection, saying, “Steve Westly, a different kind of Governor? Yeah, right, the wrong kind.” Westly needs to hit back hard showing that Angelides himself was “stalking” Cari. Let ‘er rip, Garry!
With all of that said, I think the best ad of the election belongs to Joe Dunn. It’s to the point, has good footage, and focuses on a great topic. People hate Enron. Who better to elect than The Man Who Cracked the company? Dunn wins by double digits because of this ad alone. A shame for John Chiang, who reads himself to sleep with the tax code and would probably make a much better Controller.
Westly should do a Karl Rove move and apologize for his cheap shot accusing Angelides for developing subdivisions in low lying areas vulnerable to levee breaks. That would be huge news, and focus attention on the accusation again. With all the lying we expect in political ads, the tone in this Westly ad is not convincing that Angelides had a substantial role in building these houses. Okay he worked for the evil company. Big deal. Yay for all of us who get to work where we want to.
These radio ads for Mr T’s son’s operative running for the Placer County seat are relentless. This guy’s commercials mention building freeways which go next to Mr T’s land I think. This is beyond absurd.
Westly’s Ebay image is squandered on these “he started it” ads. When people think of Westly, they hope he does for California what he did for Ebay without even knowing what that was. Talking about Angelides makes it seem like nothing is there. Just take the high road and talk about financial control, lower taxes, and squishing all these assinine things like gay textbooks and licenses for people who can’t vote.
Hey Bill, be fair to Mr. Fat Cat…
He’s made it into the LA Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, the Chico Enterprise Record, the Paradise Post, and a bunch of blogs and tv news coverage.
Bill Salladay even wrote about him! Talk about one of the best reporters in the country. The FC gets around!
Just saw the Ortiz ad…easily the weirdest political ad I’ve ever seen.
Hey, AthlonGuy, get it straight. Angelides didn’t “work for” the evil company — it was his company, lock, stock and barrel. You might wanna do some homework before you spout off.
I hear that Angelides staffers get driven by the busload to the Sacramento levees to personally drill holes in them.
I also heard that Hurricane Katrina wasn’t actually a hurricane, it was just Phil Angelides and Tsakapolous in their private jets flying circles around New Orleans to destroy it so they could get the contracts to rebuild the city.
I also heard that Phil Angelides is really Mumm-ra, and him and Steve Westly (apparently his friends know him as Lion-O) brought their battle from Third Earth to California.
I guess Garry South is Snarf?
I think he was talking about Phil’s time at AKT, not when he ran RiverWest. Also, interesting using the term ‘spout off’ seems a bit harsh considering the guy was essentially supporting your candidate.
Ah, another minion.
Serves me right for encouraging Bob Mulholland to learn about computers and the Internet.
I’m glad you know so much about the fat cat’s coverage … in the (Butte County, Bobby Mulster’s home turf) newspapers of the Paradise Post and the Chico Enterprise Record, plus “mentions” in the LA Times and San Diego Union Trib.
Even the great reporter Bill Saladay wrote about him, to borrow your phrase. (And to double credit, since “Bill” wrote about it for the already mentioned LAT.)
There is no Bill Saladay. There is a BOB Salladay, who wrote a sarcastic story, rather understandably, after being cooped up on that Westly press bus for three days.
>Frank Roberts Says:
May 30th, 2006 at 10:44 pm e
Hey Bill, be fair to Mr. Fat Cat…
He’s made it into the LA Times, the San Diego Union Tribune, the Chico Enterprise Record, the Paradise Post, and a bunch of blogs and tv news coverage.
Bill Salladay even wrote about him! Talk about one of the best reporters in the country. The FC gets around!
Scott, Phil was the president of AKT Developments. That is the position now held by Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, Angelo’s daughter, who is ponying up the rest of the Tsakopoulos money for the IE.
Frank, you know Angelides does not have a plane. He flies in Tsakopoulos’s plane. Westly does not have a plane, either. The only candidate with his very own plane is Schwarzeneger.