DCDL

The eight Democratic candidates (Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson) will be at Howard University on Thursday, June 28, for the All-American Presidential Forums on PBS, moderated by Tavis Smiley, from 9 to 10:30pm. We’ll be watching it in the back room at Timberlake’s (1726 Connecticut Ave NW, a few blocks north of Dupont Circle) after our usual Thursday DCDL get-together, and friends from DC for Democracy will be joining us. So stop by any time after 6:30 — for a few minutes to say hello or for the whole marathon session!

I’ll be interested to see whether at a forum in DC anyone raises the question of DC’s lack of congressional representation. If the questioners don’t, the candidates had better. Presumably Clinton and Obama are proud to be cosponsors of S. 1257, the bill to partially address the inequity.

You’ll be glad to know that you won’t have to bring a barf bag to handle your reaction to Republican pollster Frank Luntz’s post-forum analysis. After Jeffrey Feldman, Media Matters, and others called attention to PBS’s inappropriate choice of analyst, PBS clarified (or perhaps “clarified”) that Luntz would not be appearing to spew his propaganda until Friday. The legacy of Ken Tomlinson’s attempt to “balance” public broadcasting apparently continues.

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I’m amazed that Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein are only now hearing that Bush’s nickname for Gonzales is “Fredo”, but no doubt there are hundreds of things they think are common knowledge that I’ve never heard of. The important question is, of course, what meaning this Godfather reference has.

My theory is that the explanation is simple: there is no Godfather reference. Bush simply thought in the early days of their relationship that the man’s name was Alfredo, not Alberto (and perhaps he still thinks so). Mystery solved!

AltHippo, Jesse, and I are at the Take Back America conference this week, along with hundreds of other progressives from all over. (AltHippo has been reporting about it on his blog.)

Along with Justin from the national Drinking Liberally group, we’re going to be hosting a happy hour tonight for those in town for the conference, DCDL regulars, and anyone else who’s interested in conversation with fellow liberals. We’ll be starting about 6:30pm at our usual hangout, the back room at Timberlake’s (1726 Connecticut Ave NW), less than two blocks south and across Connecticut Avenue from the conference hotel.

So stop by and say hello. We’ll be around until at least 9.

Sorry for the late notice, but the New Organizing Institute is having a fundraising party tonight, Tuesday, June 12, 5:30–9pm, at MCCXXIII, 1223 Connecticut Ave NW (suggested donation $12, RSVP [not required]):

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A few days ago I got an IM from a friend:

gene: I saw you on CBS Evening News!
keith: ?
gene: Front and center at the DC vote hearings
gene: I have a tape of it; I’ll send it to you
keith: That would be great.
keith: I heard they were doing something, but I missed it.
gene: I thought you would have known but saved a tape of it just in case. Glad I did!
keith: There was one point when somebody put a camera in my face, but I didn’t know who they were with.
gene: It looked like the camera was 2 feet from you(!)
keith: It was.
keith: I was trying not to look at it and wondering what they were shooting.
gene: Here I am calmly watching the news, and suddenly THERE’s KEITH! and about fell out of my chair.

As it turns out I didn’t need to wait for the tape, since the segment (from June 1) is online. I appear for a second or two in a shot of the audience at Lieberman’s May 15 committee hearing on the DC House Voting Rights Bill (S. 1257) near the midpoint of a 3-minute report on DC’s situation. There’s even a closeup of my “Demand the Vote” button.

The piece was accompanied by a 1-minute Katie Couric editorial in favor of representation for DC. It’s good to see coverage on a major national program.