I awoke this morning, having spent an enjoyable evening at the Senate and Assembly Republican Chief of Staff Association January social last night, to find that my planned submission on The Center for Policy Initiatives own Lee Cokorinos’ "Target San Diego: The Right Wing Assault on Urban Democracy and Smart Government" had been stolen by Jon Fleischman. This is my limited, edited version:
Let’s start with this: if the "report" in question was to be sold at the local bookstore, it would probably be found in the Fantasy section. It sounds like Lee googled the names of various center-right organizations then drank a few beers and started drawing lines. He has no basic understanding of how San Diego’s center-right coalition came into being, operates, or finances itself. Hey, Lee, I’m not a prized researcher from the world-class Center for Policy Initiatives, but even I would probably spend at least five or ten minutes going through financial records or interviewing relevant persons. I mean I hate to repeat last weeks critique of another lefty who played free and loose with the facts, but c’mon Lee you could have gotten more real information if you simply went back four years or so in the local papers and actually read them.
I think we all read quite of bit of similar half-wit material during the Clinton years – often from the right. Similar "reports" often with octopus-like flow charts of relationships. "Reports" where conspiracy and intent were assumed, and all that had to be filled in by the reporter or researcher was how the various players interacted. It was rubbish then, and it is rubbish now.
(Lee… quick… Nehring, Wyland, DeMaio, Horn, Hardage, and McMillin are arguing with Count Dracula and Mr. Burns in the other room over some diabolical way to undermine good government in San Diego… They are making me write this denial in our secret fortress deep under the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce… I don’t really want to be part of the club anymore… heck, I’ve only been pretending to like ascots and dry vermouth… Lee… they make me do it… save me… please!)