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Sunday, June 05, 2005
Brigham Walks Into a Flaming Bag of Dog Poop
Posted by Tim TagarisUPDATE 10:32 P.M: (Tim): Bob just called me to say Donnie Fowler Jr. just threw a punch at him--and missed. I'm sure he'll have more when he returns.
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Long-time Swing State Project readers and bloggers at Kos & MyDD remember the contentious race for DNC chair that took place online. Of course, Howard Dean had his legion of supporters evetually propelling the Governor to Chairmanship. Simon Rosenberg put up a great fight with the help of people like Matt Stoller. Tim Roemer's chances went up in smoke after Chris Bowers laid the smack-down on the ultra-conservative Democrat from Indiana. And then there was Donnie Fowler "reaching out" directly to the blogosphere on places like Kos & MyDD.
Unfortunately for Donnie, he ran into a buzzsaw with the last name of Brigham, first name Bob, co-author at Swing State Project that had his own favorite candidate in the race for chair. Donnie failed to gain any serious traction in the netroots because he had to spend much of his time deflecting criticism for posting and running without sticking around to read or comment. A phrase was coined -- "The flaming bag of dog poop."
For the first time since the race, Brigham ran into Fowler Jr. at a Democratic event in San Francisco earlier this evening. I just got off the phone with Bob, who told me he walked up to Jr. to extend a hand of "no hard feelings," and to say that "we were all pros"--that he was just working in the primaries for his choice. When Jr. asked Brigham what his handle was, the dog poop hit the fan. Bob responded, and after that, Fowler used the word "asshole" a minimum of 6 times during the brief exchange.
What's amazing to me is, here is a guy that headed up the Michigan field operation for Kerry in 2004, boasts of himself as a lifelong organizer, ran for DNC Chair, and still doesn't recognize the necessity of talking with people, not at them. He used the blogs as a billboard for his brouchereware, got called on it, and has the audacity to get pissed.
UPDATE 10:44 P.M.: (Bob): Yup, Fowler threw a punch at me. Of course, he missed...and looked like a complete ass (keynote speaker throwing punches at members of the audience). Thank God we have a democracy instead of a monarchy.
UPDATE 10:12 A.M.: (Bob): This probably won't come as a surprise, but if you fashion yourself a "Democratic Strategist" and then come unhinged and try to hit a blogger, other bloggers will link to it. Like Atrios, Talk Left, Crooks & Liars, The Agonist, Matt Stoller, DC Media Girl, Political Dog Fight, Ezra Klein. And Steve Gilliard wrote an piece that I begs a response:
Ok, here's the deal: Donnie Fowler is a coward and an asshole. To throw a punch at Bob Brigham because he got nailed is a chickenshit move at best and now he's gonna look like a total asshole for it. Lucky this wasn't in New York, because his ass would have been in the Tombs recovering from the bottle lodged up his ass.
I know I might receive a hard time for not giving Junior what he was asking for, but to be perfectly honest, I was too busy laughing...
Maybe he was just a brawling drunk, maybe not, but if it was me, the cops would have dragged him out of there. In my earlier days, I would have just hit his ass with a chair, a bottle, whatever was handy according to NY street rules, but as an adult, I think anyone using violence should have to deal with the police.
Hitting Donnie with a bottle wasn't necessary, Don's kid is perfectly harmless.
And this little punk wanted to run the DNC?
I think we can say that's never gonna happen.
Thank God we live in a democracy instead of a monarchy.
Let's make this clear: there are no free shots. Like that idiot lawyer lying about Kos for spite, Fowler throwing a punch at Brigham is gonna be one costly fucking mistake. See, when people toss shots at my nominal employees, I take offense. I think other people will too. Fowler think he had problems? Now he's made a bunch of enemies he didn't have to make. Anyone stupid enought to hire him for a campaign is gonna have one rough fucking time.
Hiring Donnie Fowler would not be a wise move.
If Donnie Fowler is a man, he'd offer a full written apology to Bob. Because he had no cause to act like a drunken fratboy. And he was wrong. But if wants to act like nothing happened, I can promise this: any campaign which hires this guy won't get a dime from me, and that won't be a passive act, either. I'll say openly: do not give money to these people until they fire Donnie Fowler or he offers up an apology.
Lets say you happen to employ somebody mentally unstable, maybe you shouldn't. If you freak out on people because you are mentally unstable, maybe you should apologize.
There was no reason for him acting so stupidly
No shit.
One final update: From the comments at BOPNews (Tinheart):
This is just another of Donnie Fowler's failed attempts to connect with other Democrats.
Posted at 09:42 PM in DNC Chair, Democrats, Netroots | Technorati
Comments
Fowler is as NON-professional as NON-professional could get...and he was fighting me all the way at dkos during his 'candidacy' for the DNC. I would happily confort him everyday of the week for the sheer pleasure of seeing him have to face reality.
As to the language and missing the punch...my bet is if he got hit with just one good punch he'd lay down and whine for a week. And if he had taken a swing at this old Red Meating Eating Democratic Dawg he'd have had to give his speech through a swollen face. But then there are times I just don't give a damn about long-term consequences. I'm sure Bob's more sensible.
That's what happened after he connned, repeat conned, his way into the Clark campaign and promptly got his ass kicked out. But not before inflicting some serious damage to the candidate and the campaign. He laid down and whined to the Media for a week or more.
Fowler is only good at one thing. Promoting Fowler. He's a good salesman at getting himself hired.
I applaud Bob's effort at good sportsmanship. I am completely unsurprised at Fowlers reactions. Willing to bet that 'punch' was like to 4th graders punch too.
Is it too much to hope that the Media was there or that SOMEONE has this on Video? If so I will happily host it on my blog at The Political Dogfight for free and absorb all the bandwidth charges!
How in the hell did he become a 'Keynote' speaker? Oh yeah, see my previous comment about him being a good self-promoter and self-salesman.
Posted by: Stuart O'Neill ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.swingstateproject.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 5, 2005 11:08 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
astonishing. And Donnie considers himself a professional? Maybe he honestly didn't understand why this would have been widely objectionable to the blog community, and maybe Bob was a bit of a jerk about it (I don't know), but please, coming to blows?? At the very least Donnie owes Bob, and everyone, a serious apology. If he can't do that, he's not an adult and campaigns should avoid him.
Posted by: Elizabeth D at June 6, 2005 11:24 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
I remember making a comment that the DNC-backed presidential campaigns were being run by the same high-priced consultants who had LOST elections time and again. Someone responded that they must be making quite a nice sum of money from their activities. Working for Kerry, I expereinced the same BS stifling of grassroots. We even had the go-ahead to have five interns (for credit) working the unviersity a total of 50-60 hrs/week and it got squashed by the College "Dems." All of these events make me thankful that the Democracy for America and you guys are around and Howard Dean understands how to build an organization -- not throw down money to consultants every election cycle. When I interned in DC, I got the feeling that the politicos would rather attend a high-priced event with people of the other party (ok we need bipartisanship but...) than actually go out and meet the middle class. I hope the paid political operative (now called a consultant) goes the way of Arthur Anderson and we get some real -- dare I say it -- PROFESSIONALS -- running things. A professional, while making a decent living, is not in it for the money or self-promotion.
Posted by: mcittone at June 6, 2005 12:46 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
This is a huge exercise in jack-assery.
Look, if its true that Fowler took a swing, then that's pretty ridiculous. (Jack-assery #1)
And while its a nice bit of gossip, its not really all that great of a story. How does this at all impact the key campaigns that usually get covered on Swing State? Besides trying to raise Bob's own profile, I just don't see why its worth mentioning. As you acknowledge, the DNC chair race is SO four months ago. (Jack-assery #2).
Plus, what's all this talk about telling the netroots not to support campaigns that bring Fowler on staff? I know that Gillard wrote this bit, and it's swell of him to stick up for a fellow blogger, but come-on: doesn't this sound like a bad elementary school fight? "OOOHHHH. You did a bad thing -- I'm gonna tell!" Back in my 'hood, what goes down on the blacktop, gets settled on the blacktop -- not in the principal's office. (Jackassery #3)
I love the fact you guys cover candidates who otherwise will never get a second in the M$M(How cool is it that you've started a push for a Montana candidate? MONTANA!!!). That's why I turn to you guys. So cut out the jackassery.
Posted by: LVDem at June 8, 2005 02:03 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
Did Fowler throw any smoke bombs?
Posted by: Chris Patil at June 8, 2005 12:42 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
This is already proof.
Posted by: Lyrics at June 27, 2005 11:14 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment