Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Fuentes, cancer, and “tumor” rhetoric

     Today, an OC Reg editorial notes that
     More than 800 Republican activists, donors, Tea Partiers and elected officials gathered Monday at the Irvine Hyatt to commemorate Flag Day, June 14, and bolster support for local Republican efforts. It was an evening to celebrate, look into the future of the party and honor a long-term activist. If there were a coordinated theme for the evening, it might as well have been "battle on."
     The editorial ends with this:
     But the show-stopper for the evening was the speech given by the county GOP's Chairman Emeritus Thomas A. Fuentes, who, for the first time, publicly acknowledged his battle with cancer. "Yes, your old chairman has cancer," Mr. Fuentes told the silent room. But his brief speech had little to do with him and more to do with the ideas and battles of the GOP – past and present.
     "Many of you have stood with me when we have battled cancers within our party, cancers from the left. Tumors like Arnold Schwarzenegger," he said, prompting the biggest cheer of the evening. "In the long run, we have won these battles. I will stand with you in our ideals until I can stand no longer."
     Meanwhile, OC Weekly’s Gustavo Arellano pounced all over Fuentes’ speech:
     Kudos to former OC GOP head Tom Fuentes for cracking jokes about his terminal cancer last night during the local Reeps' annual Flag Day dinner … in Irvine. Of course, for him—who supported more pedophiles, corrupt politicians, and plain old scum than the entirety of Law and Order: SVU has ever featured—the deadly disease is liberal!
     "Many of you have stood with me when we have battled cancers within our party, cancers from the left," he told his seals. "Tumors like Arnold Schwarzenegger," at which point, the audience laughed.
     Oh, how quick those pendejos forget.
     If you're to believe Fuentes that Arnie is a tumor, then the OC GOP just might be the only case in human history where a group of people willingly infected themselves with cancer just for shits. ... Let's remember that Schwarzenegger found his most loyal donors here, pulled his most enthusiastic ground troops from the rank-and-file of the OC GOP, and that the recall of then-Gov. Gray Davis was mostly orchestrated by activists and funders from OC.
     Fuentes, amazingly, stood on the right (as opposed to Right) side when it came to Schwarzenegger, famously disallowing his campaign from keeping 5,000 "Join Arnold" signs at county party headquarters and always distrusting him as too liberal. Richard Nixon would've been too liberal for Fuentes, but his fellow party [members] didn't heed their in-house Cassandra—and we all know what happened next.
     It would've been great to see Fuentes, the aging lion, admonish his party for the disaster that he warned would come, but he'll never be that truthful. Instead, the rest of wrecked California waits for an apology from the OC GOP for Schwarzenegger, an apology that'll come right after they apologize for Arnold's pal, Mike Carona...
     Gustavo might have mentioned that Fuentes was one of Carona’s biggest boosters.
     Reg political reporter Martin Wisckol covered the same event, providing a truly fluffy story designed to raise a Fuentean smile:
     Fuentes, who faced his share of controversies as GOP chairman, has been active in the Catholic Church as well, received a papal Knight of Malta honor, and was a founder of the Second Harvest Food Bank. He was also known for his fundraising abilities.
     “Tonight, I can only ask for your prayers,” he said Monday.
     That sounds pretty bad.
     Leave it to Fuentes to have loyal friends who stand out for their ability to inspire the moniker, “Prince of Darkness.” You remember the execrable Pal-o'-Fuentes "Bob" Novak? Good Lord. And then there's Mike Schroeder.
     And then there’s the equally execrable Bruce Herschensohn:
     [At the flag day dinner,] Bruce Herschensohn… preceded Fuentes to the podium with a tribute to the Lake Forest resident.
     “He’s the man who put Orange County on the map by making it the best-known Republican county,” Herschensohn said. “Republican presidents always wanted Tom Fuentes to sit next to him.”
     Yep.
     Speaking of loathsome creeps, check out who’s lurking in the background in the article's accompanying photo:


     That's right. It's Dave "the Quisling" Lang.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! Where are the light-hearted summery blog posts?

homegirl said...

I hope you're not blogging about this crap while you're in Europe.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the imminent departure of such an unpleasant character somewhat lighthearted?

Roy Bauer said...

Christina, no, I've been back from Europe for several days.
One reason I related all of these reports is that they provide the first public acknowledgement that Fuentes' days are numbered. He is, you'll recall, a trustee on the South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees, where he has been a serious problem for more than a decade.

homegirl said...

B. von, yes, I recall. Glad you're home safe. If I were you though, I'd want to go back. The motherland is always beckoning.

Roy Bauer said...

If the likes of Fuentes were my community here, I'd catch the first flight back.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...