Assembly Member Tom Ammiano is a San Francisco Treasure. Always has been and always will be. But Tom Ammiano is special. He’s hilarious. He’s passionate. He’s progressive. He’s just Tom Ammiano.
And this brings me to the San Francisco Democratic Party annual gala, or the nerd prom as my friend Beth Spotswood likes to call it. All was going well, a smidge boring, but Former Assembly Speaker/Da Mayor Willie Brown got up on stage to really take it up a notch. Brown let the crowd know that he had another offer on the same night for the President’s Cup dinner, a PGA event, that featured Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton and the Governor. The event just so happened to be in the same hotel.
The remark about the Governor being in the building brought a smattering of boos, as you might expect from a Democratic audience. But the event continued on as expected, dinner was served. And as people were just finishing dinner, we began to notice something of a commotion.
And there he was, the Governator. On our turf. In the San Francisco Democratic Party event. This wasn’t the Assembly Chamber. This was a raucous Democratic Party event.
He was talking with Willie Brown and his entourage for a while. And then, former SF Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin brought him up on the stage. As he began to talk, Asm. Ammiano yelled out “You LIE.”
The Governor began to say a few words about how he heard that the Democratic Party event was in the same hotel as a chorus of boos and other random hissing noises rained down upon him. I, of course, was taking pictures with my cell phone. Apparently the Governor felt that he should visit the Democratic event because he “sleeps with one every night.” And then proceeded to tell the room that he was “post-partisan” and that he didn’t care whether you were a Republican or a Democrat.
And as he continued, Asm. Ammiano still couldn’t believe this man was up on the stage at a Democratic event. The San Francisco Assembly Member yelled something to the effect of “kiss my gay ass” as he left the room.
But the more interesting part was when Tom Ammiano accepted an award, the SF DCCC Trailblazer Award, from Willie Brown. Ammiano began by praising Brown’s excellent record on LGBT issues. And then continued by hinting at their differences in the past. And then he proceeded to bludgeon the Governor’s record. He questioned why he was holding bills hostage to get a bad water deal. He questioned why a Governor who has vetoed the Harvey Milk Day bill would stand up in front of a room that was at least 25% LGBT. He politely asked Mayor Brown to send a message to the governor to sign the bills already.
And finally, Senator Mark Leno closed the proceedings for the evening. Leno took a different tack than Ammiano’s passion. He simply stated the facts. He said that the events of this evening were all funny and stuff, but the fact is that this Governor had cut state workers salaries by 15% with the furloughs. This Governor wanted to cut IHSS salaries to minimum wage. This Governor illegally used the line item veto to slash funding for domestic violence shelters. And that he, and the Senate Democrats, were going to fight him tooth and nail.
And to a loud applause, Leno stepped off the stage and the crowd began to thin. And everybody was saying, “um, wow.”
I’m still trying to collect my thoughts from the evening, so I apologize if the order is slightly skewed or I missed an important point. Feel free to add anything in the comments if you were there.
Nothing wrong with what came afterwards, but the people that had to shout out when the Governor was speaking were simply rude. One of the basic tenets of the Democratic party is the belief in orderly discourse and discussion with our political opponents. If someone like the Governor finally deigns to reach out just a little bit, he deserved to be treated with courtesy.
“One of the basic tenets of the Democratic party is the belief in orderly discourse and discussion with our political opponents.”
Link?
Try as I might, I can’t find that particular tenet in Democratic Party literature. Of course it may be there. The volume of Democratic Party material just in my in box alone is daunting.
So. If you could be so kind. Much obliged.
I’m all for being polite but this event was not the place for the Governor to show up and expect a warm welcome. It showed poor taste on both his decision to take the mic and for our MC to invite him to do it.
God Bless Tom Ammiano!
Arnie can seriously go fuck himself. I don’t give a shit who he’s banging, he’s still a world class asshole and a fucking liar.
And as always, “Where was Gavin Newsom?” Oh right, running around being a douche and pissing on the DCCC. The DEMOCRATS in his OWN FUCKING CITY.
On behalf of my friends who have seen their life-saving HIV meds cut by Der Terminator himself, let me just say that if anything, his outburst was too mild.
“You lying murderer” would have been a good start. Along with, perhaps, a reference to the fact that he vetoed same-sex marriage — TWICE.
“Senator Mark Leno closed the proceedings for the evening. Leno took a different tack than Ammiano’s passion. He simply stated the facts. He said that the events of this evening were all funny and stuff, but the fact is that this Governor had cut state workers salaries by 15% with the furloughs. This Governor wanted to cut IHSS salaries to minimum wage. This Governor illegally used the line item veto to slash funding for domestic violence shelters. And that he, and the Senate Democrats, were going to fight him tooth and nail.”
These are the same Democrats who served as “enablers” for the governor in passing one of the most obscene, repressive budget agreements in California history. These are the same Democrats who cut programs for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled, while refusing to fight for things like a tax on oil production.
There were some Democrats–very few–who had the courage to stand up to the governor, the speaker, the president pro tem and the Republican ideologues. But for the most part, they all blinked.
If that’s an example of what Sen. Leno calls “fighting tooth and nail,” I’m not holding my breath that they will undo the governor’s damage.