Chmielewski’s attempted Post-Primary PURGE shot down by DPOC!

By
Vern Nelson
– June 29, 2018Posted in: "The OC", 2018 primary election, 39th Congressional District, 45th CD, 48th CD, 49th CD, Dan Chmielewski, Democratic Party, democrats, Diana Lee Carey, DPOC, Fresh Juice, LibOC

.

.

.

“RULES ARE RULES!”  We seem to have misplaced our usual photo of Dan Chmielewski, so for the time being we are compelled to depict him as the Animal House character Kent Dorfman.

So here we are in Orange County after a hard-fought primary, with our Democratic challengers chosen.  Orange County, to which a hopeful and desperate nation’s eyes have been affixed, as we have FOUR districts which could conceivably change from Red to Blue – four districts indispensable in creating a Congressional majority that can stand up to the authoritarian horrors of Donald Trump.

Orange County where in all four of these districts, we not only dodged the dread bullet of an R-on-R runoff, but agreed upon three very good candidates, Rouda, Cisneros and Porter (along with a fourth one – Levin – who has to at least be better than Diane Harkey.)

And here we are, here AMERICA is, in an age that gets darker by the day – babies ripped from their asylum-seeking Central American parents, a Muslim travel ban blessed by the Supreme Court, and the prospect, with the Kennedy retirement, of an even worse Supreme Court for years to come – a moral avalanche with no bottom in sight, making the need for a Democratic majority more existential by the minute.

So now that we have our four red-to-blue candidates, ANY Orange County Democrat – nay, any OC citizen of good will – can see that nothing is more important than UNITY as we make a four-month push to take our nation back from incipient fascism.  Our defeated candidates have been setting a fine example – Hans Keirstead enthusiastically backing Rouda and pledging his time and resources, all half-dozen CA-39 candidates lining up in support of Cisneros, and so on.  And the lion’s share of OC Democrats join them in rousing chorus: Kumbayah and once more unto the breach!

Right?

Ah, there it is. Greg must have been using it.

“NOT SO,” says Dan “Chemical Lewinsky” Chmielewski, purveyor of the scabrous “Liberal OC” blog and the DPOC’s wannabe Torquemada.  To Dan, last Monday night seemed like a good time for a purge!  Three DPOC members in particular, all fine activists and progressives, had incurred Dan’s wrath during the primary.  According to Dan, they had all broken DPOC rules, and as Dan likes to preen, “Rules are rules!”  

Well, let’s take a look at these three treacherous Dems whom Dan tried to have removed or otherwise punished on Monday.  In fact they all favored candidates that Dan opposed, and who were not the endorsed DPOC candidates, (and who just so happened to be the winning candidates because they were the strongest.)  But in actuality none of these three Democrats had broken any DPOC rules as Dan claimed.

1. MELISSA FOX.  This Irvine councilwoman was the worst of all, from Dan’s point of view.  If you’ve had the misfortune to read his blog, you must have noticed it’s become an obsessively anti-Fox blog.  Dan is a loyal unwavering puppet of Irvine Democratic boss Larry Agran, while Melissa and her husband Mike are a huge thorn in Larry’s side, since they are living proof that a Democrat can get elected in Irvine without Larry’s help, and even in defiance of him. 

To Larry and Dan, Melissa’s most grievous offense was collaborating with hated developers FivePoint to swap land for a Veterans’ Cemetery in the “Strawberry Fields” location.  But that was not a way Dan could attack her, since that was also the DPOC’s position.  No, Dan’s pretext for purging Melissa was over her endorsement of Katie Porter for Congress, against the DPOC-endorsed Dave Min, in contravention of DPOC rules.  Well, “rules may be rules” but “facts are facts” – as soon as the DPOC endorsed Min, Melissa withdrew her Porter endorsement to be in compliance with the rules.  So Dan’s case against Melissa was, as his good buddy Chuck Johnson would say, a “nothingburger.”

As was his case against another Porter supPorter, the tough-as-nails KELLY LOMELAND (right.)  Like Melissa, she had endorsed Katie Porter early on, before the DPOC Min endorsement.  To be fair, most members didn’t even know the rules – many of the members are new, there has never been such a large pool of good candidates, and in fact the rule literally says nothing about endorsing a candidate but forbids SPEAKING AGAINST a DPOC-endorsed candidate.  This may seem a “distinction without a difference,” but hey, RULES ARE RULES, and as Kelly tells me with a grin, “There is no proof that I ever told anybody not to vote for Dave Min.” 

I asked Kelly why she supported Katie over the three other Democrats in the race, and she is happy to answer:  “I like that she’s a proven warrior when standing up against the stacked deck!! She supports my views and I found her the strongest candidate to beat the horrid Mimi!”  And she’s right, Mimi Walters IS truly horrid.

And last but not least, Dan nearly forgot – VICTOR VALLADARES.

As you may have noticed this past half year, Dan has allowed his blog’s comment section to become a veritable cesspool of the most obscene slanders against this Huntington Beach community organizer, mostly originating from alt-right hater Chuck Johnson.  But Dan himself has been shy about criticizing Victor, maybe calculating that ragging on a valuable and popular up-and-coming Latino activist might not be “a good look.”

Still, as somebody reminded him by text, Victor had taken a paid job with the DCCC, which had endorsed Harley Rouda in CA-48, rather than the DPOC-endorsed Hans Keirstead, so OBVIOUSLY Victor was breaking a DPOC rule by taking that job, and had to be removed – rules are rules, you know!

Little did Dan know that Victor was aware of the rules, and had taken care while working for the DCCC not to endorse Rouda (although he definitely favored him) and to never speak ill of Keirstead.  Hence Dan had landed his big feet into yet another nothingburger – a TRIFECTA of Nothingburgers.

The Monday June 25 DPOC meeting

The long-awaited showdown finally arrived … the suspense was unbearable … every heart beat like a tympanum … Anyway long story short, before Dan could say or do anything stupid, my old friend Diana Lee Carey (former Westminster Councilwoman and current West County DPOC Vice-Chair) moved to drop the whole thing.  And her motion passed 29-11, to great relief and acclaim.  (Diana told me later that, as a lifelong schoolteacher, she’s “good at making people behave.”)

His bubble unceremoniously popped, Dan slithered over to Victor to shake his hand and say some stupid shit like “No hard feelings, man, it’s nothing personal, but rules are rules.” Victor spurned the handshake and walked away, showing great restraint.

Wait, 29-11?  Are you telling me 10 DPOC members sided with Dan? I want to know who they are!  Let’s kick them out of the Party!  Kidding.

Another failed purger.

.
Democrats of Orange County, indeed all OC Citizens of Good Will, it’s time to unite and start the hard work of getting Rouda, Cisneros, Porter and Levin into Congress.
.
Our great nation needs us right now.
.
Ignore destructive forces like Dan Chmielewski and his poisonous blog.
.
And remember:  Kumbayah, and once more unto the breach!


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.