I can’t say that I’m still 100% thrilled to have been featured in the scurrilous BBC documentary, “The Last Republican.” It’s clear to me now that this woman, Samantha, the reporter, had a left-wing, British agenda. Disgusting.
As promised, here’s my response to the encounter with the so-called “community activist” whom we met in Los Angeles. Just look at those words: take out the end of “community” and the beginning of “activist” and squish them togther. What do you get? COMMUN…IST. Coincidence, or just plain chance? I think watching all those BBC documentaries inspired Danny. He gets a little fancy with the editing of my latest response:
Off-topic: Kudos to my friend Debbie Schlussel who takes the LA Times to task for plagiarizing her excellent reporting.
And now I see that the next episode of “The Last Republican” has been posted. At least in this one, I’m given a chance to explain exactly how I get quoted out of context so many times. On the other hand, there are at least two times in this video where I know for a fact that footage was manipulated to make it appear as if I had said racially derogatory terms for Chinese and Japanese-Americans. All, apparently in an attempt to undercut the argument I made that I had not insulted Indian-Americans. And now I see in some comments below that even the term “Eskimo tan” is racially insensitive. To whom I ask? The eskimos? Trust me, if global warming is as dire as Al Gore says, then the eskimos can finally waltz around in bikinis. And then maybe Sarah Palin and her fellow Alaskans won’t need spray-on tans, but they might need Brazilian waxes (unless, of course, that’s derogatory towards Brazilians).
Many of you have asked me why I subjected myself to the ongoing indignity of being featured in that BBC “documentary” called “The Last Republican” that’s been featured on YouTube this past week. All in all, I’m happy that the message of John McCain gets through and that people see the hard work it takes to campaign for him. Even if some of my words are taken out of context or re-edited for effect. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Thanks to my associate Danny Sadler, the Harding Institute is finally entering the digital age full-steam ahead (hey, why not use a 19th Century metaphor for 21st Century technology?). Danny just posted this video on the Harding Institute’s new YouTube channel:
Of course, as I say, any press is good press, so I hasten to also show you the newest two episodes of “The Last Republican” that were posted yesterday. You’ll see here that I met with a so-called “community organizer” whom I suspect has political ambitions akin to Barack Obama. It’s clear that he was hustling me (you can see, even the BBC titled part 6 “the Hustle”) for some cock-a-mamie scheme. I’m already starting to work on a response to these:
I’ve been getting a lot of inquiries about whether I was the McCain advisor who told CNN anonymously that Sarah Palin was behaving like a “diva.” Just because the RNC spent over $900 for her spray-on tan, and I haven’t been shy about letting that nugget get out of the bag, people think that I’m the one loading the ammunition on the circular firing squad. Hmmm.
Now I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, especially when it comes to this blogging stuff. But when both the New York Times and Washington Post come out with big scoops about Amy Strozzi, one of Sarah Palin’s makeup artists earning more than Steve Schmidt or Charlie Black, I have to sit back and laugh a little. I’m not sure if they were inspired by, or reported in spite of, the post I made here almost two nights ago suggesting that those inclined to criticize Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenses might want to take a look at her makeup, too. As I said, one of her “other” makeup artists, Tracy Thorp, owed over $145,000 in back taxes. If the Times and Post want to just sit around and play East Coast elitist gotcha journalism, they may as well do it right. While they’re at it, they should probably have found out just who Ms. Thorp is and why if she’s such a great makeup artist, she doesn’t have any professional credits at all. (unlike Emmy-nominate Amy Strozzi, one of who’s last films was called “Bondage”).
I was a wee bit curious, too, so I talked to a colleague who was in the prep suite in St. Paul with Sarah, and it turns out Tracy was brought in exclusively to apply a spray-on tan to the future Veep. Yup, that’s what Tracy’s specialty is: According to her MySpace page, she runs a company called “tans n lashes by tracy” (that’s Tracy in the picture, and the spray-on tan shot is from her MySpace page, too). Apparently, Sarah had what’s affectionately called an “eskimo tan” when she showed up at the Convention. They needed to brighten her up, and even out her tan for all the new cleavage and leg-baring fashions. And given John’s history with melanoma, he insisted on a spray-on for Sarah. Thorp was paid $900 plus expenses to come into town for the job. How did Tracy get the job? My guess is that she’s pals with Angela Lew, Palin’s hair stylist who lives in Thousand Oaks, California, and works at a salon called The Hair Grove in Westlake Village - all just a few miles or so from where Tracy lives (and literally walking distance from Westlake High School, where according to her MySpace page, Tracy graduated). The Times reports that Cindy McCain gets her hair done at the Hair Grove, too, so maybe Tracy was there to do a touchup on Cindy, too?
In any case, I’ll take dibs on the inevitable puns: Sarah was “Palin’ comparison” before she had the tan.
And while we’re in the makeup department, it’s worth noting that the NYTimes and Wasington Post neglected to notice that Amy Strozzi wasn’t the only one from “Dancing with the Stars” to help Sarah Palin look her best. On the same disclosure Form F that revealed Jeff Larson and Tracy Thorp’s expenditures, you can also see that Heather Cummings charged $3300 for makeup services, too. Who’s Heather Cummings? She shared an Emmy nomination with Amy Strozzi for her work on “Dancing with the Stars.” But no fancy meals for a professional gal on the run like Heather. She needed her pep, and charged the campaign $3.25 for a “meal” from Starbucks.
This ongoing BBC documentary about my day campaigning for John McCain is finally starting to show America (and presumably, Britain) that there are Mexican-Americans who support Senator McCain. Mark my words: this will be the real November surprise, when John McCain sweeps the Southwest by garnering the majority of Latino voters. For months, I’ve been telling Steve Schmidt and others in the campaign that we’ve got to get out of our offices, put on our loafers and start hoofing it with the real voters in America. With this video, there’s now proof positive that this sort of campaigning really does work.
UPDATE: The RNC paid over $1000 to fly in Tracy to do an all-over spray on tan for Sarah.
With all the hoopla yesterday about Sarah Palin’s clothes, and how the RNC paid Jeff Larson to keep her looking better than Hillary Clinton (note to Hill… maybe if you dressed as nicely as Sarah, you might have won), one name that seems to escaped attention so far is Sarah’s makeup consultant Tracy Thorp. Of course the “gotcha” cops who rode all over Joe “The Plumber” are undoubtedly going to start digging in Tracy “The Makeup Artist’s” trash in Newbury Park, California (a suburb of LA), and they’ll notice that her husband’s company, Wilson Masonry, has a tax lien of $145,718. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Tracy would jump at the chance to work for the McCain/Palin ticket and make a few extra bucks putting lipstick on the Alaska governor. With the economy the way it is, the Thorp/Wilson family needs all the help they can get.
I’m starting to see a pattern of things that I say and do being taken out of context by a wiley reporter with a sultry British accent. After our interview, she got in touch with Danny and he - very generously I think - shared some footage we had at the Institute of me in Iraq. But does she show the shots of me meeting with Paul Bremmer or President Maliki as we helped to build the Iraqi democracy? No, she takes some inconsequential tape of me - quite legitimately - working to establish a telecommunications infrastructure in the country as part of a project with AID, and makes it look like I’m some sort of Crazy Eddie pitchman for cellphones. Well, you can see for yourself:
When I mentioned the other day that Barack Obama would be appearing on the last episode of Saturday Night Live before the election (possibly related to Lorne Michael’s donation to his campaign), there were some naysayers who suggested it was rank speculation based on a drunken comment from Seth Meyers at last week’s afterparty. But yesterday’s Los Angeles Times confirmed it:
And asked about possible candidate appearances on the two “SNLs” before election day, [Lorne Michaels] replied, “Yes, but … until they’re in the building, I’m not going to talk about it.”
The story was also confirmed directly by Seth Meyers when he appeared on public radio’s show “Fresh Air”:
Seth Meyers, head writer of SNL was interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air earlier today. Meyers said that originally Obama was going to be on last week, but this was cancelled due to his visit to his grandmother in Hawaii. Meyers said that both Obama and McCain have an open invitation to appear but that nothing is known for this weekend.
In the meantime, I’m happy to say that our original story was picked up far and wide: Defamer, VH1’s Best Week Ever, HuffingtonPost, The Weekly Standard, The New York Observer, nsideNewYork, Nerve.com, Mollygood, EvilBeet, ArtistDogBoy, TheVelvetHottub, BlogDance, SarahPalinUpdates, nsideLosAngeles, Jossip, Showhype, Stereohyped, Examiner, ThePajamaPundit, TVSquad, Meaningful Distraction, Extra!TV
