Debate the Power
Congressional Candidates for San Francisco's lesser parties-- Green, Libertarian and Republican held a press conference yesterday to highlight Nancy Pelosi's refusal to debate them. Or do pretty much anything to acknowledge their existence like responding to letters. The press conference featured Krissy Keefer (Green Party), Philip Berg (Libertarian Party) and Mike DeNunzio (Republican Party) and was held in front of the federal building. Instead of attending, Pelosi sent an aide with a letter to the meeting, which was read out loud. The letter basically said Pelosi was too busy campaigning elsewhere to campaign in the city she represents. You know, we'd pay to see a Keefer/Pelosi debate, especially if they let Keefer bring the Taiko drums.
Special props go out to Berg who in giving his comments about there being no debate, compared the whole thing to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s march from Selma to Birmingham. He then added:
"People would say you cannot compare the two because the protesters in Birmingham were sprayed with tear gas and beaten viciously by George Wallace's police on horses. But almost more stifling than the tear gas is the cloud of complacency that rises over San Francisco and the nation with the deafening silence of meaningful debate."
Almost more stifling.
With all of this going on, we tried to get a reaction from someone at Pelosi's campaign HQ but couldn't reach anyone. Mainly because she doesn't have any campaign HQ. In fact, we haven't noticed anything campaign related from Pelosi at all. No flyers, no ads, no rallies. Bupkus. Shouldn't she at least have a pretense of running for something?
On the other hand, why should she waste all the buttloads of cash she raises in a campaign she already has locked up when she could send that buttloads of cash out to people who are running campaigns against opponents who actually have a chance of winning? But on the other hand, we could see some usefulness in debating Berg and Keefer if only to say "you think I got San Francisco Values, check out these people."
And speaking of which, DeNunzio has so memorized Republican talking points, he went on Hannity & Colmes last night urging people to vote Republican so the country won't have to be put under the iron fist of San Francisco values. Just out of curiosity, if you're running for office of a location and say you don't like the values of that location and tell everyone how much the values of your location sucks, might that not be a good way of winning a race?