Jeff Merkley Up Close And Personal

Jeff Merkley with the Hopelettes and John Amato

A few days ago Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares of Warner Music Group, the company I used to work for. They did it because their main source of income, recorded music, is down by 4% and their EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization), the number I learned to live and die by when I worked there, was down by 5%. The shares were overvalued. A few weeks earlier I downgraded the company for a more fundamental reason. I went to see one of the label's signature artists, R.E.M. I was stunned to see so few Warner Music employees at the show. One of my friends explained that the company's policy about live shows has been turned inside out.

If I noticed an employee wasn't going to see our artists' live shows I would explain to them that they can never understand who an artist is or what he's trying to achieve unless they experience the live show. I always knew that when enough people had seen a Barenaked Ladies live gig, the band would break. So we stuck with them through half a dozen mediocre album sales while they built a loyal live following. One day they reached critical mass and exploded, selling millions and millions of records (including millions of catalog records). Same thing happened with Depeche Mode. It's how careers are built-- and record labels. These days penny-pinching accountants have decided it is too expensive for the employees to go see artists. It's all over.

Tonight John Amato and I met D-Day at a different kind of live gig. As you know, I get to see as many politicians speak these days as I used to see bands... well, almost as many. The ones I see all have good messages; some however, deliver it better than others. No one delivers it more effectively than Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley. And it's much more than being a showman, let alone a snake oil salesman. Jeff's life story is the life story of everyone in the audience. When he speaks you know he's not some kind of carny act. He's sincere and empathetic and he has a way of making complicated values and principles easy to understand and integrate.

After reading about Jeff-- and even interviewing him and blogging with him-- seeing him speak to an audience was like seeing a band whose records you like play a concert for the first time. And, unlike some bands, he delivers. Even though Jeff has been ahead of Gordon Smith in the polls, I'm a little worried because Smith's campaign is so flush with corporate bribes that he can run TV and radio spots day in and day out-- which is what he's doing. Jeff is depending on individual, unaffiliated donors to help him get his message out. You can help him via the Blue America ActBlue page. The DSCC is running this radio ad for him in Oregon now:

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.