Jack & Jill Politics

While I’m enjoying the hospitality at Netroots Nation, I have to give my observations on what I saw at the hyped Markos Moulitsas-Harold Ford “debate” on the Democratic Infrastructure.  I will try to keep what I saw to short sentences, but, by and large, I’m ready to spit nails at what I saw.

First, the good news – Ford showed up.  I didn’t think he would show his face at a conference of progressive bloggers, after he slammed us on the “Today” show last Monday.  He actually admitted he said what he said, but took great pains to say he didn’t mean to offend anyone.

I call bullshyt.

Second – there isn’t any more good news about this debate.  We all thought Markos was going to hand him his ass, again. Meet the Press II, it WASN’T.

The bad news is that the whole shebangabang was nothing more than a love fest between Harold and Markos.  They kept allowing him to wander down memory lane when he was asked direct questions.  It was more of “where can we find common ground” bullshyt.

I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t have jack in common with a SNAKE.

The best part should have been when the floor was opened up for questions.  Finally, after much pontificating, someone actually asked the Dark Sith about his voting record when he was in Congress.  You know, the record that shows he voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, all four Iraq War Authorizations, proposed the privitization of Social Security and never met proposals for school vouchers he didn’t like.  He was asked how could he express how he was concerned about the economy, housing, education, and whatnot, when he voted for legislation that laid the foundation for this massive f-up that is the economy?

“I’m proud of my voting record.  I represented my district,” said the Dark Sith.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the CPL’s “W-T-F?” moment.  I saw red.  At my table was a Texas campaign manager named Rudy Malveaux, who is as street as you can get, who said to me “Go up there and challenge him; I got your back.”  Which wasn’t no trash talking, either.  I grabbed my suit jacket and headed up to the mike; Rudy paving the way.

I wasn’t going to get ghetto, y’all.  Honest. I was going to ask the Dark Sith if he remembered he’d been graded on the CBC Monitor Report Card and ask him if he remembered his grades. But before I even decided I was going to confront the Dark Sith, another enterprising soul had already slammed Kos for the decided lack of diversity throughout the conference – at that point, I saw the Dark Sith looking into the sea of faces to see if he saw Black People.  Rudy is hard to miss; he is a big, Steve Gilliard looking brother who could kick ass while eating a ham sandwich with one hand.  I was one of three sistas in the room.  All told, there were about ten of us, including Congressional Candidate, Kevin Powell.  We had a chance to talk about how he’s strategizing to take out Ed Towns (ca-ching, J. C. Watts!), so that was the highlight of this mess. Kevin actually said, “I can’t believe they let Ford tell all those lies like that.”

Which was sentiments echoed by many political candidates who are here in Austin, and attending Netroots Nation – plus heard the kick-ass speeches by Wesley Clark and Howard Dean last night.

Anyway, the mike got cut just as I reached it.  The Dark Sith saw my angry behind and made a fast exit off the stage, where he immersed himself in a sea of white reporters to shield himself from Rudy.

Rudy was not to be deterred.  “Yo, Markos!” he yelled.  Markos came over and was introduced to me. He even gave me a hug.  I told him I did CBC Monitor Report Card and did he know that Harold Ford was rated “Derelict” as a Congressman?  That the concerns he had about housing, credit, finance, economy – he’d actually helped to vote legislation in that caused it?

“These are good points to have made,” Kos said. 

 “But, why did you allow him to lie like that?” I asked.

“You coming to the big tent party tonight?” Kos asked.  I smiled, thanked him and walked off.  When I got back to my table, several white bloggers asked who I was and who did I blog for.  When I said JJP, I got mad props.

“You looked upset and like you were going to kick Ford’s ass”, they said.  I didn’t know I was that angry.

What’s even better, the Dark Sith saw me and ran like the lil’ byotch he really is. I won’t go into details about how he brought Snowflake into the discussion; if you watched the live feed, you saw it.  This SOB didn’t answer questions and was allowed to lie about how effectively he represented his district.  Personally, I think Memphians would have a lot to say about that.

Oh, well, the food was good, anyway.  But I’m so disappointed in what was not a debate, but a bullshyt love fest between two people whose purpose was to highlight their differences and debate why one position was better than the other.  We didn’t get that.  And Netroots Nation should know that this post is my evaluation of that session.

While Kos didn’t exactly blow me off, he didn’t answer my question, either.  Either you’re progressive, or you aren’t.  And Ford was forced to prop Obama; though it looked like he choked on the words, but the more he does it, it will either start to sound more sincere, or smells like bullshyt.

Which was the debate THAT WASN’T.