Dan at the Liberal OC has composed a veritable Bohemian Rhapsody of Whataboutism in defense of embattled Congressional candidate, state senator Dave Min, reaching back to 2009 to name off Republican candidates who’ve had DUI’s, and back to the 90’s to reference Crooked Scott Baugh’s perjury felonies and Dirty Ken Calvert’s prostitution bust.
If there’s one thing Dan’s better at than Whataboutism, it’s Missing the Point.
Nobody is saying that Dave is a terrible person, or would even be a bad Congressman, because he had a DUI. (I’d be the last person to say that, but you don’t see me running for Congress, do you?)
The point is, Democrats need to win this seat. Number one, we need to regain the Congressional majority and can’t afford to lose ONE – just look at the headlines this week about the Marjorie Taylor Greene majority holding our nation hostage on the debt ceiling and trying to undo everything good the former Congress accomplished. Number two, Baugh is a crooked liar, and he is even more of a crooked liar than he used to be, and coastal CD-47 should not be sending him to Congress. But number one is the most important.
This race was ALREADY a long shot, with superstar Katie Porter leaving the race and endorsing Min, who was always a weak and uninspiring candidate. (But I never said anything bad about him before his DUI, thinking he might be the best shot to keep this seat – you could look it up.) Who cares about his endorsements and money, he has had an undistinguished Senate tenure, he’s thin-skinned and arrogant, and he is in the pockets of corporate landlords, prison guard unions, and who knows what other special interests. Sure he’s good on gun control and the environment, but so is nearly every other Democrat.
And now this is all we’re gonna hear about – “Drunk Dave,” “DUI Dave.” I don’t see him beating Scott in that purple district, do you?
The best way we could keep this seat is if Katie used this development as a reason to stay and fight for that seat, but it doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen.
So, just as Harley Rouda wrote this week, Irvine/coastal voters should consider getting behind progressive activist and attorney Joanna Weiss.
And again, I can’t follow the webs of grudges, vendettas, and promised favors that comprise Irvine politics, but it would be great if Katie Porter decided to endorse Joanna too. Great for the nation and the world.
I don’t really know all that much about Min. A friend on FB writes:
“I’m not particularly inspired by Min either, but I’ve seen him debate other candidates including Porter in person. I also watched a vid of his debate with Katrina Foley. He is so crisp and on-point it is surreal. And during his debate against Porter and two others he managed to squeeze in 2-3 solid quips in addition to nailing the arguments.
“In fact –and I know this might upset a great many people–he is a better debater than Porter. Point-for-point he won that debate, but Porter has an undeniable charisma which need not be emphasized. I wouldn’t be surprised that if/when Min takes a national seat he will steamroll anyone who challenges him on the talk circuit or elsewhere.
“Certainly his credibility is in jeopardy, but there is no chance that Baugh will survive one round against Min in a face off. Then again that isn’t saying much considering that it doesn’t take a law professor to cut through the dogmatic double-speak we can expect from the opposition.
“And along those lines I don’t doubt Weiss’ prowess in this arena either. And if anything politics is sadly more often about showmanship than substance anyway. In any case I enjoyed reading this Op-Ed. It really does put the roadmap into clearer perspective.”
Sounds like a Min-Baugh debate would be quite a show! On the other hand, even great debate performances don’t generally win elections, and there’s no guarantee Baugh would agree to a debate especially when he hears what a great debater Min is. Republicans usually don’t – the flamboyant Rohrabacher was an outlier.
We would have loved to see a Steel-Rouda debate, or a Steel-Chen debate, and a debate between Steel and Kim Nguyen would be priceless! But they’d never let Steel debate. Baugh probably wouldn’t debate unless he was sure it would benefit him, and like I said even that wouldn’t win the election.
So. A BRILLIANT, ambitious, moderately principled politician who is just learning to manage his alcoholism. I bet he’s a good professor though.
I would like to see a Steel-cucumber debate.
“During covid I lost some weights.”
“No dog mask, it is SPECIES discrimination. TEEHEEHEEHEE”
Dan responds stupidly of course:
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/05/15/and-endorsements-are-coming-in/comment-page-1/#comment-284131
Whoops wrong link! Here is Dan’s clueless response:
https://theliberaloc.com/2023/05/17/democrats-continue-to-support-mins-congressional-bid/comment-page-1/#comment-284134
There is no way anyone blows a twice the legal limit Breathalyzer on two beers (not the kind of beer served at those kinds of events, anyway). Either Min isn’t being honest about how much he drank or he got roofied. Did he open his own beers?
Or the Breathalyzer test could have been substantially inaccurate. There’s an interesting legal literature on how bad they can be.
Vern, if you know: what’s the political group that Harley says Weiss leads?
Well that’s easy, it’s in the links.
Women for American Values and Ethics (WAVE) Action Fund.
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/02/08/joanna-weiss-a-local-democratic-activist-launches-ca-47-bid/
“Weiss is a former litigator who taught pre-trial civil procedure and public interest lawyering at Chapman University School of Law. She founded WAVE in 2016 which has backed several local Democratic candidates in Orange County, including Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, Irvine Councilmember Kathleen Treseder and former Orange County Board of Education Trustee Beckie Gomez.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2018/10/18/wave-makers-for-orange-countys-progressive-movement-the-future-is-female/
Good taste in candidates, but how is her outlook for raising money?
Ay, there’s the rub…Actually it looks like she’s been doing great in fundraising.
A former “litigator.” Is that a new code word?
Hmm.. that’s from the Register, I’ll have to ask them.
Now I think of it, “lawyering” sounds like “wordsmithing.”
No, “lawyering” literally refers to the activities that lawyers do within the profession; compare it to engineer/engineering. I know that some people think that what lawyers to is “lawy,” but that’s just a filthy rumor.
“Wordsmithing” is actually a legitimate term, but the lack of licensure means it can be claimed by the same kinds of people who think that having used a hammer to straighten out a bent nail makes them a blacksmith.
Wordsmithing is a pretentious-ass term.
Pretentious, perhaps, but not pretend. It’s really used, often with respect to people like Presidential speechwriters and Hollywood “script doctors.”
“Litigator” sounds like a euphemism for somebody who sues people.
Glad you asked. (OK, you didn’t ask, but I’m going to pretend you did.)
The legal profession can divided up in various ways, but the most common one distinguishes litigation from transactional work. Transactional work is generally about creating something, such as a deal or a report, or a tax return, a tax-avoidance strategy — and it involves having about as much knowledge of law as litigators have; a lot of what litigators do is also largely transactional, as with much immigration law and helping people obtain government benefits. In litigation, you have two parties — and roughly half the time it’s someone defending as opposed to acting as a plaintiff, complainant, or prosecutor (so it’s not just suing people, it also includes those on the other side; and of course criminal prosecution doesn’t usually involve suing people (but rather obtaining judicial sanctions for their actions), though it does involve suing corporations (since unfortunately they can’t be jailed.
So, no: it’s not a euphemism, it’s the proper term for one of the major sections of the legal profession. And no, it doesn’t necessary involve suing, and those sued may not be people. But in Weiss’s case, it’s not even suspect: her being a successful public interest lawyer makes her hard for anyone who understands the above to dismiss lightly.
DUI Dave is a cowardly, ignorant, little boy.
“Arrogant” sums up what I’ve been hearing from Sacramento contacts.
Exactly the type of hubris that Dan C. admires.
And for all Dan’s Min Triumphalism… I’ll just say I’ve been hanging out at the DPOC more than usual, and there was lots of excited talk of Joanna speaking at their September convention… and no mention of a certain embattled state senator.
*”Drinkin Problem” by Midland will tell you everything you wanted to know about
Min. and/or “Prop me up behind the Juke Box is I die!” by Joe Diffie
Joanna Weiss hires local blogger.
https://twitter.com/joannajweiss/status/1657080864881393664?cxt=HHwWgIDStYuRkf8tAAAA
She’s not really a blogger, but InMinivanHell is a good pick for a social media role.
Denizens of the trash, I don’t even have to say “start your engines.” Your attacks will be eligible for inclusion in our future bestselling book on “how stupid and awful Orange County internet anonymous cowards are.”)
Foley backs Weiss.
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/05/24/supervisor-foley-gets-involved-in-congressional-race-but-not-as-a-candidate/
So did Cottie Petrie-Norris.