Greg Dewar: April 2008 Archives
We expect the far-right extremists, folks like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and the gang at FOX News to bash on San Francisco. It's almost required if you want to be part of the parasitical right these days.
It's a little more disturbing, however, when one of our Democrats running for president, Sen. Hillary Clinton, feels a need to use the our city, "San Francisco," as a slur, a code word, just like right wing Republican John McCain and his friends in the Rove White House do. It's an insult to the Democrats in San Francisco who have supported Mrs. Clinton with their money and time, and if she is going to be the nominee she'll need San Francisco's help. Will she decline it? Will she return the millions of dollars she's raised from wealthy San Franciscans?
It's especially disturbing as this comes just a few weeks after some of Sen. Clinton's wealthy donors tried to threaten the Speaker of the House of Representatives because Speaker Pelosi simply called for some rational behavior by all candidates for President as we select our nominee. That's just wrong!
It's also a bit much to see the hometown paper of Our Speaker join in the bashing of San Francisco, quoting the likes of disgraced political consultant Peter Ragone, who gleefully joined in the attacks on Our City. (even though it was the taxpayers who paid his overpaid salary when he worked for Mayor Newsom). Fortunately, a thoughtful and intelligent response to this kind of nonsense was published today.
Let's make it perfectly clear: We're citizens of the United States, residents of the great City of San Francisco, and we proudly support the current Speaker of the House of Representatives. We're not going to back down in the face of looney tunes insults from the right - and we certainly don't back down when they come from Democrats. If you really don't like us, don't take our money and demand our votes. Deal with it.
<B>UPDATE:</B> <A HREF="http://www.americablog.com/2008/04/im-bitter-about-hillary-constantly.html">America Blog does a roundup of the Anti San Francisco comments of Hillary Clinton</A>. I really don't understand why she feels the need to attack our city with caricatures and distortions. Oh well, I guess her campaign's doing so well in winning the nomination and the presidency, she no longer needs our money or votes? If she really hates us so much, perhaps she should give all that money she raised here back to us.
There's a myth out there, pushed by people who didn't do well in civics class, that Speaker Pelosi is the Supreme Dictator of the United States, and that any time someone in Our Fair City wants something done, like say, ending the Iraq war tomorrow, she can immediately order the troops back, on her command. That's a nice thought for people who stopped for a red light in college, and never moved on when it turned green, but unfortunately it's not reality.
Progressive Democrats needs to send more "good" Democrats to Washington D.C. so that Our Speaker will have the working majority she needs to put this country back in order. Right now the majority is rather thin, with some Democrats in the majority who don't always vote the way we'd like 'em to. The solution is to get more "good" Democrats elected around the country, so that this won't be a problem.
That's why folks need to come out in support of <A HREF="http://www.jackiespeier.com">people like former State Senator Jackie Speier</A>, who's running to replace the late Rep. Tom Lantos. Despite what some people on the extreme sides of left and right say, Sen. Speier is the kind of person you want in Congress - she's smart, principled, and knows the district (which encompasses San Mateo & San Francisco counties).
Plenty of good people have <A HREF="Permalink">written about her</A> and her achievements, and I've <A HREF="http://www.gregdewar.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=speier">been a longtime supporter</A> of her as well.
Part of supporting Our Speaker is helping the good Democrats around the state and the country get elected to Congress so we can move faster on an agenda that puts regular folks first, and lets the special interests which prospered under Tom Delay and GW Bush sit on the sidelines for a change. Go Vote!
