"I don't want our guys getting used to shrimp and martinis"

[wyldwolf]

... there was Warner on Friday night, looking, as one blogger commented, like a cross between John Kennedy and Richie Cunningham of "Happy Days" as he danced between two Blues Brothers' impersonators at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. At a reported cost of around $50,000, Warner had rented out the highest bar in Vegas to entertain the nearly 1,000 bloggers and online activists who were in town for YearlyKos, a conference sponsored by the largest online community of Democrats in the country...

...When he was done, about two-thirds of the audience gave him a standing ovation, many of them clearly impressed with his biography as a red state Democrat and high-tech executive. But dissension was also not far under the surface. Minutes after Warner stepped outside of the convention hall to answer questions from reporters and bloggers, Edward Anderson, a Connecticut blogger whose screen name is DeanFan84, confronted him with a broad-based concern. "Do you understand that a lot of us in the grass roots feel that the money could have been spent better?" Anderson asked the former governor, referring to the Friday night Warner party at the Stratosphere. "We don't want to join the consultant class. I don't want our guys getting used to shrimp and martinis."

LOL! Shrimp and martinis?

I'm sure I'll catch hell from the "commoners" here like "DeanFan84," and be hit with all sorts of anti-Warner, anti-DLC bombs, but I find that "Shrimp and martini" line strikingly funny.

Perhaps DeanFan84 and "his guys" would have preferred their blogging cuisine of choice - Hot Pockets and beer?

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/06/12/yearly_kos/

[Warpy]

1. It was badly stated, but the point was valid

because that's what real power does, it seduces any challengers by getting them used to the better things in life if they play ball and start to moderate their message. The more they moderate, the more goodies they get, until you end up with the Congress we have today.

[Rose Siding]

3. I think it was a good point that was adequately stated

The guy made the point he wanted to make and got noticed for it. There will always be someone trying to play gotcha with word choices.

[blondeatlast]

2. Sadly, too many Dems have gotten used to "shrimp and martinis" and so

have lost touch with those of us with our sneakers on the ground on weekends.

"Hot pockets and beer?" That's damn insulting, actually.

[acmejack]

4. The implication being liberals have no class, I suppose.

I present that it is a very valid point, but it is obviously destined to be lost in the din of the Warner love. The Op will explain to us why we peasants are well advised to be very quiet and allow the sophisticates to run the Party and benevolently tend to our interests, which we are obviously too thick to attend to on our own. Commoners, indeed.

I find that you folks manage to keep this DLC thing simmering on the front burner, by doing something like this every single morning. I am all for a little unity, but I'll be damned if I will remain still for these casual backhanded snarks.

It is hard to believe that 66% of the audience is wild over Warner too...

[BR_Parkway]

8. I thought we liberals were the "elitists" - when did it get switched to

no class - damn I need a playbook to keep up/

[Adelante]

5. There's something to be said for this, Wyldwolf

$50,000 (I've even read $75,000) - this is the kind of money that could really help in cash-strapped districts. It's nice there was a party, don't get me wrong, but this strikes me as kind of wasteful. You know, what are the priorities here?

[wyldwolf]

6. you're right

The issue is, the guy was there. A lot of bloggers were there. What was the cost of the entire KOS event? Would that guy had reacted the same if the candidate was a Dennis Kucinich type or even Howard Dean? Or was he prejudiced against Warner, a man who is well known for being very rich.

I believe part of the blogger's issue was motivated by class and an inherent distrust for the wealthy.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Perhaps, but I still agree with him

Kos is a predominantly grass roots event, and while most of the people who attend are by no means poor, they frequently donate money directly to candidates over the internet without making those candidates wine and dine them in fancy fund raisers in order to gather their checks.

The costs of raising money has a dramatic effect on the net proceeds any candidate will walk away from a fund raising drive with. Now if you are raising money from people who are willing to write big checks but then expect royal treatment in return, royal treatment in return is what they will get, obviously. But a part of the Democratic Party's problem is that we have become overly dependent of those types of donors, which ultimately gives them more power than I am comfortable with in determining who our candidates are, and what policies our candidates will support.

I have no problem with a leading Democrat hosting a party for potential supporters. People like having finger food to munch on and free wine. They feel appreciated and they deserve to feel appreciated. But from all reports Warner threw a really really lavish spread, and I will bet you apples for caviar that had anyone polled the crowd that attended that party and asked them would they rather have been fed pizza and hot dogs and had the $10,000 or whatever saved donated to a kos Netroots endorsed candidate instead of on lavish fixings, the vote would have been lopsided in favor of pizza.

[chimpymustgo]

9. Good point, Tom.

I so like it when we agree!

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. LOL. You're AOK with me chimpymustgo

Yeah we have our differences over some things, but we both know we can count on each other to be pulling for the team when push comes to shove. Democrats are never known to always talk in lockstep, but a good Democrat always knows when it's time to put aside our relatively petty squabbles and unite for a good fight against our real enemies.

[Cocoa]

10. that's true of a lot of people

like me for example. I'm highly distrustful of wealthy people, politicians in particular.

[wyldwolf]

12. I'm not. A don't broad brush them like that

The blogger attended an expensive event in Vegas, no less, a city known for it's excesses.

Yet, he'll lecture Warner for not spending his money where the blogger believes it should go? LOL!

[KoKo]

11. bloggers issue motivated by "class and inherent distrust for wealthy?"

What? That sounds exactly like what Coulter and the Repugs use against us.

I think the bloggers comment to Warner exactly expressed Democratic values.

Couldn't Warner have used that money better elsewhere. If he spent $50,000 of his money to throw a party for Kos Convention folks ...it kind of smacks of "bribery," to my mind. Why did he need to throw a party at all unless he wanted something in return?

[NYCGirl]

14. I agree with you. Spending $50,000 (or even $75,000 as some have

reported) for a party for 900 people smacks slightly of "bribery" — "Have a good time, and write nice things about me!" It seems, considering the attendees, more than a little politically tone-deaf.

[wyldwolf]

15. couldn't the folks who arranged "KOSfest" used THAT money better...

...elsewhere?

The "KOSfest" cost about $360. a person. http://www.yearlykos.org/register - not even including transportation, hotel stay, and meals (unless you live off the one provided lunch per day.)

With an estimated 900 in attendance we get $324,000.