Kevin James unloads on Chris Essel, talks with Zuma Dogg
KRLA Radio Show Host Kevin James spent the night discussing local politics on his show Monday. A good portion of the show was dedicated to Kevins opinion that Chris Essel is a terrible candidate for Council District 2. "I wouldn't vote for her if she was the only name on the ballot!" he repeatedly exclaimed to listeners. James went on to unload on Essel...calling her a "carpetbagger" who doesn't even live in Council District 2. He described as "shady" her connections to the money that donors from AEG have poured into her campaign. (Yes... that AEG...of the Michael Jackson funeral fiasco.)
Kevin James and KRLA have invited all ten candidates for the CD 2 office to come on the Kevin James Show to talk about their campaign. 9 of the 10 agreed to talk with him.
Essel, who James also called "the Queen Bee of runaway film production", was the only one to turn down the offer to appear on the radio show. James called it "giving the voters the middle finger salute".
"The level of arrogance truly amazes me", he said in disbelief.
The main guest on the show was CD 2 Candidate David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg, who went on the show to talk about his campaign for the City Council position. Zuma was his usual, colorful self and gave lengthy answers to the questions he was asked. Zuma Dogg was especially tough on Chris Essel and Tamar Galatzan, basically calling Essel a puppet and saying that Tamar won't make any changes in City Hall.
Zuma Dogg forgot to use his best line ever. About Tamar getting in the Mayor's "getaway car".
It was an updated, local spin on a quip he used earlier in the year. He was having a conversation with me about the election in March when he casually mentioned that "Antonio and Wendy were waiting in the getaway car...but Jack Weiss didn't make it...they took off without him."
I laughed so hard I started crying.
Classic Zuma Dogg. I'll remember that quote for the rest of my life.
Posted by Phil Jennerjahn @ 8/17/2009 11:52:00 PM
11 Comments:
Now I want to go listen to it. I probably can if I go to their website.
Can you really NOT imagine Zuma with a great staff?
My dream councilman, I swear.
I went and listened to it and he said Zuma was going to come back and talk again but I couldn't find it so I don't know if Zuma ever came back.
Mary Benson was not boring and I don't know why Phil said that. I think he wasn't bright enough to understand what she was talking about. She was great, But:
Zuma, anyone listening to that in CD 2 (and I do believe that Kevin James is full of shit when he says they have 10,000 listeners there) would vote for Zuma. They would have to be crazy not to.
Kevin James did rip on Essel and that was good since he was perfectly right. He wanted to give Galatzan a break so he obviously doesn't know how bad she is.
Good job Zuma and Mary.
12:03 doesn't even live in CD2.
A great staff for Zuma is the staff that knows where all the mm dispensaries are and sets up running tabs for him there. Hell yeah! That's what he and Dowd have in common. Luvin' Mary Jane.
Essel= Dead women walking.
NOw that Zooma is back, this blog has gone back down to the gutter.
It was so good for a while Higby; where is your pride of ownership?
Excellent advice on how to pick Council Members! Pay attention CD 2. He just said that your audience was more informed than the candidates.
A Better Way to Pick Our City Council Members
By Greg Nelson
One of the most telling moments in the candidates’ forum two weeks ago for those wanting to become the new City Council member for the Second District came when the moderators reminded the candidates that the primary justification for allowing our City Council members to be the highest paid in the nation was that it would produce higher quality representatives.
The moderators asked each candidate if they could name just one example to support that contention. None could do it. The question took me back to the City Council’s retreat in San Pedro in 2007 when members began speaking rather candidly to each other.
Councilman Richard Alarcon, who is doing his second tour of duty with the City Council, complained that the current crop of colleagues agree with each other too much. Too many unanimous votes.
He reminded the members of the days when strong-minded council members had honorable arguments over matters of principle.
The people of the Second District have an opportunity to show that there is a better way to screen the candidates.
It begins with realizing that candidates’ forums are job interviews. The public is doing the hiring, and the candidates are vying to become the employees.
We can never forget that ours is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
But voters got lazy over the years. They seemed to prefer a screening system in which the job applicants are brought into a room and asked how they would solve the problems. Then, after the election, the burden is placed on the employees to make everything better.
Neighborhood councils were created in an attempt to change that.
There are a few more candidate forums yet to be held in the Second District and a lifetime’s worth elsewhere around the city.
The biggest single change that could be made to way the forums are held is for the voters to stop asking the candidates how they feel about certain issues, and begin leading the way by telling the candidates what their position should be and what they should commit to doing about it immediately after taking the Oath of Office.
Part 1
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Did I just post them backwards? Sorry.
Moderator, will you please remove the Part 1 that I posted twice?
Part 2
At the forums that I’ve attended the skill and knowledge level of the audience far exceeded that of the candidates.
Make them commit to your solution. Make them put it in writing, then post those promises and commitments on the Internet, and organize local people to remind the new Council member about their promises at every public meeting they attend.
Abandon the hope that someone is going to come along on a white horse, and take all the right actions. It isn’t going to happen.
What does happen is that after taking office, a Council member who made promises with his/her fingers crossed can often give the excuse that they checked with their colleagues and there is no support for their promise. Or they submit a motion, and with a wink and nod let the committee chair know that it’s okay to never schedule it.
Something like this happened to Lisa Sarkin of the Studio City Neighborhood Council who proposed to a City Council member that the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee be enlarged from three to five members, as was done with Budget and Finance Committee, to allow for a greater range of ideas and representation.
The Council member told her that he’d check out the idea with his colleagues, but he didn’t think they would like the idea. She never heard back from him.
Aside from the fact that “checking with” too many of his colleagues would have violated the state’s open meetings law, I didn’t have the heart to tell Lisa that she had just been blown off.
When accountability disappears, the elected officials have a terrible habit of putting their interests ahead of yours and getting into all sorts of mischief.
By changing the way we pick our representatives, we can improve the quality of our government.
Met Kevin James the other day and learned first hand the guy REALLY IS a little, tiny egotistical chump. The only thing this clown cares about it ratings.
9:11, he said that he knows Zuma's got no chance in hell of winning but he's always good for ratings because he can shock people and his insults of Antonio and Jack Weiss always got attention. Same reason he has Rita on all the time. Or Zine or Nuch's campaign manager of Berger or the rest.
They only exist insofar as they attack the people with famous names or larger than life figures with big names like Arnold and Obama. They're ALL nobodies on their own except as the "un-X."
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