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RIP Andrew Breitbart

Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012) (Photo credit: Templar1307)

Last week, conservative activist Andrew Breitbart died of “natural causes.”  I am really curious about this because he was pretty young — 43.  I wonder what those “natural causes” were.

Now, I was not a fan of Breitbart.  Full disclosure: I started work at Acorn Housing, which was not actually part of Acorn proper and had nothing to do with voter registration, three weeks before the video scandal broke. You know the one.  When James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles produced a series of videos showing Acorn and Acorn Housing staff saying incredibly stupid things to prospective clients on tape.  One of those videos was shot in the office where I worked.  That was a great day at the office for me.  I heard about the first video and asked the counselors in our office this: I know this is going to sound crazy and you don’t really know me but did the following ever happen…??? Oh, yes, they said.  Those people were here.  I told them they had my ever-lasting love for having shown the duo to the door and felt that genuinely — until I saw the video.  That scandal didn’t kill Acorn Housing right away as it did Acorn but they have since closed their doors after a painful two years of struggle.

Breitbart funded this venture.  So, I was not a fan.

Still, there was something a bit refreshing about him.  When I was in college and put together pro-choice rallies, I was always at the back — where the counter-protesters were.  I always felt the need to be on what I thought were the front lines of things.  I wanted people to not like me.  I wanted to make enemies.  Whatever it took to get my point across.  It may be why I love hate mail so much.  If I anger someone enough that they take the time to email me about it, I did something right that day.  It seems, Breitbart had the same opinion.  He didn’t care if I liked him, he already didn’t like me.

I think some liberal broke Breitbart’s heart and that  is what made him so angry and bitter about liberals and our causes.  And he did always seem really angry and very bitter.  So he made it hard to find anything redeeming about him yet his honesty — he was all about making liberals look bad and would do just about anything to accomplish that — was refreshing.  James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles are both idiots but Breitbart wasn’t.

Now, I would be lying if I said I cried when I heard the news of his untimely death, I did not.  I never like to hear that someone died, especially at 43 or whatever.  I won’t miss him but I have a lot of respect for people who act on their convictions even when I disagree with them.  Patricia Heaton, who played Ray Romano‘s wife on his sitcom (and had the best line ever uttered by an actress: When I speak, what is it you hear?  Is it backwards talk?  Dolphin speak? What is it? I feel that way when I talk to my mother.), is very active in the pro-life world.  I am very pro-choice but appreciate anyone who takes the time to put their money where mouth is, so to speak.  I have the same respect for Breitbart.

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Some more thoughts on abortion

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away I wrote a blog post about abortion.  Almost every day and absolutely every week, this old post gets hits.  Not sure why but if you, dear reader, are one of the people who has read that post this week, please let me know what you thought.

The gist of it, if you don’t feel like reading it (though, you can find it here) was that access to abortion services is already severely limited in the country to the point where doing things like overturn Roe v. Wade isn’t even necessary.

The past few weeks contraception has made headlines.  This started when Rick Santorum‘s biggest funder made comments about how “in my day women put an aspirin between their knees.”  Santorum, while saying he could not be responsible for every “off color joke a supporter makes” also made comments about how contraception is basically responsible for a host of society’s ills and problems.  Truthfully, I agree that Santorum is not responsible for everything a supporter says but when their statements so clearly echo a candidate’s own words and opinions, well, that’s another story.

After that, Virginia nearly passed a law — and Governor McDonnell was very supportive of this at first — that would require women get a vaginal probe sonogram before having an abortion.  The Senate added an amendment to a transportation bill that would let employers choose what medical services their employees could get based on their sense of morality.  All of this led some to wonder: What year is it?  Are we still in 2012 or did we somehow get transported back to the 1950s?

English: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh

Image via Wikipedia

This week has been no less strange.  Rush Limbaugh went after a Georgetown law student after she testified in Congress about a friend of hers who used contraceptive medication to help her deal with ovarian cancer and it was super expensive so she needed her insurance to cover.  Rush, always eager to get his facts right (he once wanted to give out Senator Feinstein’s phone number when I worked for her and gave the wrong one, he gave a committee number instead, this was an easy fact to get right) said the student was a slut for using so much birth control as if you take a pill every time you have sex.

What the hell is going on here?  Didn’t we decide these things years ago?  How do committees have hearings like Darrell Issa did on reproductive health without including women?  Why are we suddenly so interested in getting into women’s private lives?  What happened to Republicans who were for less government intervention in people’s business?

This is where I am going to sound crazy and I know I am so there is no need to tweet or email me about it.  I know, I have met me.

Supporters of Planned Parenthood

Image via Wikipedia

Since college, when I was very active in the campus pro-choice activities, I have had an idea — almost a fantasy — that we can bring pro-choice and pro-life people together and actually prevent abortions.  I am in the make abortion “safe, legal and rare” camp.  No one I know likes abortion (I am sure some people do, there are always a few people who like something).  Pro-choice is not pro-abortion.  It is pro-let women have control over their own bodies.  At the end of the day, for instance, the people at Planned Parenthood and the people who hate Planned Parenthood actually want the same thing; to prevent abortion.  Planned Parenthood, also in the news recently when the Susan G. Komen foundation wanted to publicly distance themselves from it and then had to reverse that decision in an equally public way, does a lot more than provide abortions.  It is not the abortion factory that some think it is — abortions account for only three percent of what they do.  Read that again — three percent.

I had forgotten about my fantasy that pro-choice and pro-life people could come together until I heard Joe Scarborough — and I am convinced that when I had knee surgery years ago, the cadaver bone that was inserted into my leg had to be a Republican because that is the only way I can explain why I like him so much — said.  He said that the recent talk about contraception from Santorum et al was very scary to her and her very pro-life friends.  The GOP was taking things a few steps too far.  You can read some of this here.

This, I think, shows me that maybe it’s time for the forum I was thinking about so many years ago.  What do you think?


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You won’t want to miss this

Tonight, some of the best DC area comedians will perform at the Velvet Lounge.  They include:

Emily Ruskowski – will also host
Valerie Paschall
Mariya Alexander
Tyler Richardson
Alyson Chadwick
Pete Bergen

You won’t get to see this much talent for $10 any other time.  Seriously.

The Velvet Lounge is at 915 U Street, NW — across from the U Street Metro.  This starts early (at 7) but probably won’t start on time so if you can come but will be late, no worries.

The money is going to a good cause, you can read about that here: http://www.facebook.com/events/367174039967984/

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Things I do on purpose

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on Februar...

Image via Wikipedia

Most of my closest friends can tell you that my actions don’t always make the most sense.  Not to them or even to me.  I don’t spend as much time as I do on the treadmill for my health (really) or even to lose weight, though those are both good things.  I do it because I like to.  And once on, I cannot stop until Morning Joe is over but that is a topic for a different therapy session.

There are a few things that I love to do that I can explain, however, and they include writing and working in politics.  I connect the two because of a piece I read today about Rick Santorum‘s ad guy in the Daily Beast.  The article about John Brabender has a quote from a friend of his that says he “didn’t care if [a client] were Democrat or Republican. They could have been communists, just as long as they were able to pay the bills.”  It continues to say that Brabender is motivated more by a hatred of bad, political ads rather than a commitment to an ideology.   Both sentiments bother me but the latter got me thinking about my recent post about grammar.  I don’t write because I hate bad writing, I write because I love self expression. (And I could go on a tangent about I feel about people who define themselves by what they oppose but that is also a subject for another day.)

A few months ago, I went with a friend to see The Ides of March.  Normally, I avoid political fiction of all kinds because I like to escape my reality every now and again (it’s the reason I never liked West Wing — though I am glad I saw it because I liked it).  Once I got past my nit-pickyness about the particulars of presidential campaigns and the world of politics, I had only one real issue with the film: I felt like a prostitute when I left.  Presidential primaries are a lot like family squabbles, they may get nasty but everyone ends up on the same side at the end.  That’s always been my experience — I didn’t start the 2004 campaign working for John Kerry, for instance, but that’s where I ended up.

Campaigns are not like other employers or clients.  They consume your life for the duration.  At least that has always been my experience.  These are not 9-5, 40 hour a week jobs.  They are 24/7,” you’re on when we need you on” jobs.  I love them but the idea of working for someone that I couldn’t vote for, well it wouldn’t happen.  For the record, I know that money does motivate some people more than it does me (and that’s NOT me saying it shouldn’t).  I worked briefly at a PR firm and they wanted me to work on a project that I had serious problems with.  After a half a day of this, I ground my teeth so badly in my sleep that I broke a back molar and it had to be pulled.  I never had it replaced to remind me of how badly that job made me feel — I also quit the day after.

And I think I know what you are thinking; that I feel this way about Santorum’s “message guru” because I don’t like Santorum.  Well, I don’t like Santorum.  I think his social views are beyond extreme and his fiscal policy is absurd.  I think going to college is a good thing.  And no, I don’t think Satan is lurking behind every corner.  But I also think most people who go into politics do so because they want to make the world a better place. Read any of my pleas for civility in politics and you’ll see I make that point as often as possible.

Truthfully, reading about Brabender gives me the same feeling The Ides of March did and that’s why I don’t like him.

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Farewell, Capitol Hill

Politics brought me to Washington, DC.  As I have told countless people, and National Public Radio (story here), I worked on my first campaign when I was eight.  I went door-to-door for a local NY Assemblyman who was running for Congress.  On election night, we went to the campaign headquarters to watch the results come in.  When the areas I canvassed had a huge turnout for my candidate, I thought it was because of my hard work (Who can resist a cute, little girl with red hair and freckles?  The mean woman at the end of the street with the mean and large German Shepard, that’s who.  She had her dog chase me from her property.) and was hooked.

My first job after college was on Capitol Hill — for Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca).   I have lived here most of my time in Washington, DC.  I am obsessed with Congress and the legislative process.   Will always believe that the Senate is like grad school where the House is kindergarten.  And if you have never gotten into watching C-Span coverage of the House of Representatives, well, it can be like a good tennis match.  Rafa Nadal v. Roger Federer good.

Life on the Hill has been a great experience.  This is like a small town in a, well, my frame of reference is New York so, in a small city.  People here really look out for each other.  Case in point, back when I had a landline, I returned from work to get the following messages:

  1. This is your neighborhood watch, we think we saw some suspicious people outside of your place.  Please be careful when you come home.
  2. There are definitely two people outside your apartment and we think there may be a third in the bushes.
  3. We went by again and there are the three people – it looks like they are waiting to rob you, or anyone else, when you get home.  We’re calling the police to report it.
  4. We called the police and they chased everyone away from your place.  They are also keeping a car on the block for the next few hours so you should be fine coming in.  Hope you have a nice night.

I remain relieved that I didn’t get home at anytime before message number four and it could be my inherent, dark personality but that whole exchange left me feeling like my neighbors had my back.  Another time, right after I was mugged, one of my neighbors (this happened right in front of my apartment) made it a point to keep his pitbull, “Precious,” outside in his yard around the time when I usually came home.  People would cross the street to not walk by that dog.

The community feel extends beyond my safety, of course.  When the best dive in the world, the Tune Inn, had a fire last summer, a bunch of us came out and helped clean the place.  We painstakingly took each item from the walls and cleaned it.  Yes, I enjoy my Jameson and like to have it there but that’s not what inspired me to help out.  This really does feel like a community and it was heartwarming to see so many people come out to help each other, that is the point of things, right?  If you go in, make sure you look at the Guy Fieri plaque in the front window.  Then look at the plaque just below it.  You may notice a familiar name. (Thank you, Lisa and Thomas.  I feel like I will always be a part of the Hill.)

So, from the feeling that my drinking water is infused with political knowledge to the fabric of neighbors helping each other and looking out for each other that makes this such a special place.  I make a point to be as impressed as possible when I look up at the Capitol Building because it is a beautiful thing.  This place brings out the Mr. Smith in me (I know you know this but I am referring to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington).

So, it was not without a heavy heart that I am moving from this magical place on the hill.  I need a change of scenery for personal reasons that I am sure I will explain in excruciating detail at some point and hope this will force me to do the big things I want to do this year but I love this place and the people who inhabit it.

Thank you, Capitol Hill.  I am not leaving, I am just going part-time!