Late this afternoon more than 40 protesters greeted the arrival of Congressman Barney Frank in Orange County, but the sentiments weren’t welcoming in the place once hailed as “Reagan Country.”
“No more [Sen. Barbara] Boxer!” the protesters shouted repeatedly in unison as attendees arrived for the biggest night in local Democratic Party politics, the annual Harry Truman Awards Dinner. Barbara Boxer is scheduled to win the “environmental award,” but is not present. (Loretta Sanchez will accept the award on her behalf.) Frank, the powerful Massachusetts member of Congress, will serve as keynote speaker.
But the protesters–almost entirely Caucasian and waving either American or Arizona flags–weren’t impressed.
Their signs said, “Stop illegal immigration,” “Where are the jobs?” and “Impeach Pelosi and [Harry] Reid,” the current top-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate. One man yelled, “Repeal and replace Obamacare!”
(PoorSanchez, Orange County’s lone Democrat in Congress, must feel ignored.)
Inside the UFCW Local 324 banquet hall in Buena Park, chatty attendees for the sold-out event didn’t seem bothered by the protesters.
Frank Barbaro, chairman of the local Democratic Party, called them “lowbrow” during his opening remarks.
Other attendees included California Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (and his not inconsequential security detail), OC trial lawyer powerhouse Wylie Aitken, a majority of the Irvine City Council: Larry Agran, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang, Santa Ana Assemblyman Jose Solorio, longtime lovable activist Marti Schrank, Garden Grove Unified School District candidate Bao Nguyen, Democratic Party Executive Director Gerrie Schipske, Laguna Beach Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman, lawyer John Hanna, Chris Prevatt from theliberaloc.com, PI/activist Jeff LeTourneau, county government union boss Nick Berardino and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who was the thelast to arrive; first to leave.
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
