Jefferson-Jackson Dinner Roundup
Tonight was my first Jefferson-Jackson Dinner and oh what a year to start. As I travelled down Rt.1 at 5:30 I passed Tommywonk and his lovely date in a convertible with the top down. Damn, even Tommy looks cool heading out for a great night of wonkiness. As I walked into the Dover Downs hotel I caught up to Dana Rohrbough and Joe Rogalski, both of the Markell Campaign, they pointed me in the right direction, which was to check in and go through the metal detectors. Word is that Carper got frisked when he came in, and I bet he liked it.
Once past the Secret Service, I got to have a moment with Jack Markell and then I was off to find a table. I’ll tell you what, you get some crappy seats when you don’t donate a boatload of money. I caught up with Mike Matthews while searching and we ended up sitting with Earl Jaques and his family.
Matthews is an awesome person to sit with, because he knows everyone and he laughs at my inane jokes. His favorite of my jokes this evening was my response to a question about whether Dominque was at the event. “She’s at the white’s only table,” I said. He was still chuckling at that one 30 minutes later.
John Kowalko came and hung out with us for a little while. I cannot decide in my relationship with John whether he is the groupie or if I am. I think I’m the groupie.
The most interesting person to watch tonight was Karen Weldin Stewart. I think she must have bet someone that she could shake the hand of every person in the room. She wasn’t going to let pesky speeches, prayers or awards get between her and her goal, so she worked the tables non-stop. Literally non-stop. I really wish she would have stopped.
She seems to have developed a following of haters. After the festivities, I was polling people to see if any of them knew what exactly McDowell and her did at R-WAY to make money. I got a lot of blank stares and then wild stories about her financial well-being (or lack thereof). For a while, she was reportedly hanging out with Tom Savage (her independent opponent who was inexplicably at a Democratic event).
Back to the people that matter, Ruth Ann gave her last address as Governor to the J-J dinner. Ugh. It was like a who’s who of crappy Democrats for a while, with Daniello and Minner and later, Carper. Jack Markell and John Carney both gave excellent speeches that made me proud. There is absolutely no doubt that the hachet has been buried between these two. And during Carpers speech, I got the distinct impression that Carney had the inside track on the Senate seat.
Carper must have been given the job of introducing Biden, so as to make Biden look even better by contrast. Before his speech, I saw him shaking hands with Chris Coons and trying out his new word, “JoeBama”(rhymes with “yo momma”). During his speech, he wanted everyone to try out his new word. As I told Cassandra, I kept trying to say it, but every time I opened my mouth, all that came out was STFU. Next year, let’s not give the job of stalling to Tom Carper. I would have shot myself, but I would have missed Biden.
When Biden came on stage (you could tell he was coming before he got there because of the Secret Service detail.) the place went wild. Joe Started off slowly, thanking Minner (ugh), talking about the Bayard Family, and talking about Thurman Adama (ugh). But once he got going, he kicked ass. About halfway through, he seemed to find the sweet spot and he opened up his lungs and let loose. The crowd loved it, and so did I.
Afterward, John Kowalko introduced me to Darlene Battle, of ACORN. She and I spoke about the bum rap that ACORN has been getting in the past few weeks. She told me about the calls, emails and death threats that she has gotten in the past 2 weeks. John couldn’t stop telling me about how much Darlene did. How she worked 60 hours a week to help the community. How she went 3 months without a paycheck because things were tight. I promised Darlene that I would be in touch to set up an interview.
All in all, it was a fun night. I got to hang with Mike Matthews, Cassandra, Tommywonk, Unstable Isotope and Stella Bluez. I love our readers, our bloggers and our state. It was a good evening to be with good people.
Tags: Delaware, Jack Markell, Joe Biden, John Carney, Tom Carper
As sorry as I am to have missed the event, I am equally happy to know there were a few people of quality there. Discounting the bloggers and Kowalko, maybe Biden and Markell, the guest list probably lacks the integrity the democratic party deserves. I miss Delaware Liberal and its contributors, except Mike.
Darn, I didn’t get to meet Stella Bluez! I did get my sign signed by Joe. That was so cool!
Markell speech was great, as was Carney’s. Carney seems like a really great guy and I hope that he gets to be Senator.
Carper’s speech was just weird. He was trying to be populist, or something. It just didn’t work for him. Also, I thought he had awkward applause lines – one time he was talking about how Bush squandered our surplus. Then he paused. Were we supposed to applaud Bush squandering our deficit? Joe knows how to give those lines – a better way to do it is say “Bush squandered our deficit, but we will fix it” (or better). Also, I thought his praise of Carney was really over the top. I thought Carper might cry or something. I told my table companions that Carper had a huge mancrush on Carney.
Joe’s speech started slow, but got better. Some parts were absolutely great. I also love the part where he’s talking about restoring America’s place in the world – you can tell it’s really important to him. I got the feeling this speech consisted of Biden’s greatest hits from his stump speech. Was there anything in his speech that he hasn’t been saying recently?
The crush to shake his hand at the end was unreal. So, now Joe has signed my Obama/Biden sign. I wonder if I can get Obama to sign it.
Whether her behavior was socially appropriate I say “judge not, lest ye be judged” ,but I think the way it sounds that Karen Weldin Stewart worked the room, this post has gone a long way in dispelling the myth that she is lazy.
If she works half this hard in seeing that Delawareans get the insurance coverage they deserve, we will all be able to sleep a little sounder at night.
And Jason, I honor your right to hold your opinion in this race, on whatever basis you have formed that opinion.
Like Arlen Specter said when he ran for president, “let’s make the tent bigger”. ( there is room for people to disagree)
It was fun. We blame Jason, though, for not getting us a VIP table.
Markell and Denn were great (Denn thanking the organizers for the awesome balloon drop) and Carper’s speech sounded something like the eulogies he ended up talking about — the end of his own mourning for Carney’s loss AND Carper’s loss of control of the primary. It was a strange speech.
Biden just killed, though — you can really see that he seems to be enjoying himself immensely and while his criticisms of McCain/Palin are very strong, his strong identification with Barack has been key to showing Barack as the steady hand he’s been over the past weeks.
Very nice. And great to hang out with everyone.
the white’s only table
Classic.
Hysterical. A real knee-slapper. It’s just awesome that a Barack Obama presidency will ensure a deterioration of the 1st Amendment by shaming people into keeping dissenting opinions to themselves. You guys should be very proud of yourselves. Liberals, indeed.
Now who doesn’t have a sense of humor? I was certain that you would crack up, or cackle, at that one.
The other time we talked about you was when Markell was laying it on thick about how good Obama was and how bad McCain was. I turned and said, “Dominiques head just exploded.”
Bottom line, you were missed.
Quote from Joe Biden:
” Barack Obama is not ready to be President”, when challenged he responded, “I stand by the answer.” That answer came a scant 8 months ago.
Sorry to be a troublemaker and I am glad you enjoyed your night but how do you reconcile those statements with the current praise he heeps on Sen Obama now?
“…….but how do you reconcile those statements with the current praise he heeps on Sen Obama now?”
That’s politics, Mike. Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know anything about now would you? Losers really don’t get to be gracious too often in your party. They just get shunned.
Great reporting geek. He loves the guy so much, I wonder why Carper didn’t talk Carney into taking out Castle? Hmmmm?
Sorry I missed it this year and I wish I could blame Steve Newton for it…oh well. Next year VIP table. It is so on.
That about sums it up. Carper sucked as expected and Biden nailed it. Oh and Mike, STFU! McCain is going down in flames…again. It’s his legacy. This is just one more crash and burn for him.
Sorry I missed it. Nice reporting geek. Maybe next year Jason will ‘buy’ two or three tables up front for the blogging community. We can sit there with our laptops, pencil-protectors in the pockets of our short sleeve shirts, glasses repaired with duct-tape, make awkward social exchanges, and giggle about O’Donnel’s ta-tas.
Dominque,
“It’s just awesome that a Barack Obama presidency will ensure a deterioration of the 1st Amendment by shaming people into keeping dissenting opinions to themselves.”
This from a person who supports a candidate who, as mayor, tried to ban books at her local library. This from a person who supports a party that has done more to destroy freedom and civil rights in this country then any administration in modern history. This from a person who falsely accuses the black Democratic candidate of stifling dissent through shaming.
Yes, I’d be ashamed, too, if I were you.
P.S. You have ruined the Singing Nun for me.
Mike P,
That’s easy. Senator Biden has come to know Senator Obama much better than he did when he made that statement, and he has changed his opinion. Do you ever change your opinion when you get new information?
Mike P, Senators Biden and Clinton have both indicated that Senator Obama has grown by leaps and bounds since he began his quest for the Presidency. Over the weekend, several pundits admitted that the primary itself has seasoned Senator Obama and that Senator Clinton staying in the race had alot to do with preparing him for the office he will take in January 2009. As much as I wanted to see Senator Clinton take the oath as President, I’ll be proud to vote for Senator Obama and feel very sure that he is ready. I’ve seen him debate McGrumpy twice now and both times he has proved to me that he thinks before he speaks, believes in what he says, and has our best interests at heart. Sarah Palin is a more dangerous terrorist than Ayers could ever hope to have been. Palin would make Cheney seem all warm and cuddly. It all comes down to who you believe and who you believe will make the USA a better place to live. Like President Clinton said, we need someone to get the United States out of this ditch.
Mike P., it’s called a PRIMARY. You know, that thing you can’t get past.
It’s her Miata, and she lets me drive it. Pretty cool, don’t you think?
Mike P. apparently has yet to hear of anyone losing the NFC East, but still supporting the winning NFC team over the AFC one….
never happens…
Tommy, nice car by the way.