Would McCain Whore Out His Wife To Get To The White House? There ARE Other Ways To Do Campaign Events

Have you ever been to a real in-the-flesh political fundraiser? Good ones can really be stimulating and fun. And no one in L.A. gives better fundraisers than a half dozen progressive women-- Nancy Stephens, Sara Nichols, Carol Coote, Yolanda "Cookie" Parker, Cheri Shankar and Beth Broderick-- going under the collective nom de guerre The Hopelettes. As John Amato, Irwing and I discovered when we went to one of their events for Andrew Rice, this is a totally cool way to spend an evening and meet some like-minded people, the kinds who prefer to talking about ideas over getting drunk in a noisy bar.

In fact, if you're the type who prefers to get shit-faced with a bunch of misogynist rednecks, you'd probably prefer a McCain event-- like the one at the Sturgis, South Dakota bike rally today, where McCain dragged his snooty, elitist wife and tried to get her to take off her clothes, like she used to do at beauty pageants back when they first met and she was Miss Cow Pie.

As the senator made his way through a sea of motorcycle enthusiasts, shaking hands with the many veterans in attendance and accompanied by his wife Cindy and Sen. John Thune, he was surrounded by scores of beer drinking men and scantily clad women, many of whom were as thrilled to see the war hero candidate as they were to watch Kid Rock perform later in the evening.

...McCain felt so comfortable at the event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

“I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to cheers. “I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.”

The Hopelettes events are anything but debauched and there will be no topless, drug addicted Cindy McCains running around puking. So... here's what I want to do: I want to invite any Los Angeles DWT reader to come to the next Hopelettes event. It's for a candidate we share with them: Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and it's more than just an opportunity to meet Jeff. John, Irwing, Digby and I will all be there-- and, better yet, so will the Hopelettes. It's in a home of the ecological future, an amazing environmentally perfected house in Beverly Hills where I went to see Jerry McNerney speak once.

You're supposed to donate $50. You can bring a check or you can stick $50.00 into the Blue America ActBlue page for Merkley's campaign and I'll put you on the guest list and send you the address. (If $50 is too much, don't sweat it; no one is counting.) It's 6PM this Thursday and, if the food is anything like it was for the Andrew Rice shindig... skip lunch.