We’ve got another one here folks in Orange County.  Last Friday Orange County had a huge event, it was the Democratic Party of Orange County’s Annual Truman Awards Dinner and our Keynote Speaker was Nancy Pelosi.  It got our local Republicans in a bit of a tif and a lot of Teabaggers showed up to protest her presence.

We expected protesters, I even wrote about their plans at Daily Kos, but we weren’t expecting this…

City Council member Choi was wearing his City Council badge that night as well, there was no mistaking it was him, thank you to the Liberal OC for that and our local paper, which failed to mention that detail.  They insist there is no bias, sure.

Steven Choi was also seen “posing with another protester who was wearing a rendering depicting Pelosi as an SS Guard” and “including one portraying President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler together” and yet he defended his actions.

“I’m a Republican Party member and went there to express my disapproval of her policies,” Choi said. “I have big concerns with what is going on with the government pushing down the mandated health issues… As a small businessman it would impact me.”

Choi said a woman who was at the event with the Irvine Republican Council placed the rendering on his back. He described the criticism as a partisan attack.

“They are making a case out of nothing,” Choi said.

Beth Krom is also on the Irvine City Council and she’s running for Congress, thank goodness, and she also had a reaction to her fellow city council person.

 

   “When I was the Mayor of Irvine and then President Bush came to Irvine, I attended and showed respect for the President despite the many misgivings I had about his policies.”

   “We who hold public office have an obligation to hold ourselves to a high standard when it comes to how we comport ourselves in public. At least that has always been my perspective.”

   “I was utterly disgusted when I saw my City Council colleague Steven Choi, who recently announced plans to run for the State Assembly, parading around the lobby of the Hilton Hotel with a picture on his back depicting Speaker Pelosi as Josef Stalin.”

   “Those around him had images of the Speaker and the President as Nazis. I’d like to say this behavior is out of character for Council member Choi, but this is the same Council member who accused a City Council candidate of having ties to Islamic Terrorists without any basis. My guess is that he also had a hand in the mailers that went out during my 2006 race for Mayor that showed me as Chairman Mao.”

   “There seems to be no limit to the derision and division that Councilman Choi will advance in the name of his “republican values.”

Her opponent is John Campbell, ex used car salesman and birther, John Galt loving Republican.  We’ve got lots of those.

I was there Friday night with my Husband Gary Pritchard, who ran for State Senate last year.  We think Orange County can be blue, we’ve got over 500,000 Democrats here, more than 20 States in the US.  “The OC” can be a force to be reckoned with and the extremism has become even more extreme just as many here have noticed over the last year.  

Nancy Pelosi gave a stirring speech about Health Care Reform and I know many here aren’t quite enamored with her.  The disappointment with Democrats in Congress is understandable.  We can’t all have Bernie Sanders (although it would be a good goal to attain).  But it certainly doesn’t mean we have to tolerate the Steven Choi’s of the world.

Beth Krom deserves to oust John Campbell, we’ve had enough of the extreme of the extreme.  So please support Beth Krom and if you live in the OC, let Steven Choi know that it is NOT okay to express himself in this way representing his city and position, especially one that is supposedly “bi-partisan”.

And since I was lucky enough to attend the Truman Dinner, Gary sat on the planning committee (The highlight for me was finally meeting California Assemblyman Jose Solorio) I’m posting some of the photos I took of protesters.

I would post my lousy video of Nancy giving her keynote speech but it’s only a minute and a half and it looks like I took it during a massive earthquake.

It cuts in where she’s speaking of a proposal by Truman for universal health care by the way.