Every picture tells a story, story. . . .

Denise in peach, Zoe in plum, Howard in clover

This one's courtesy of Denise, from the Saturday Zoe Lofgren fundraiser.

Howard Dean's in town to scare up some money

If you hear a loud scream this weekend, Howard Dean is in town to do some fundraising for U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren's re-election campaign. The general election is a year away, but it's never too early to make hay.

Dean, now head of the Democratic National Committee, was scheduled to appear Saturday evening at two events on behalf of Lofgren, who in the spring of 2003 became the first member of Congress to endorse the former Vermont governor's presidential campaign -- which derailed after his now-infamous scream heard 'round the world.

So Dean's here returning the endorsement favor. Lofgren fundraiser Vicki Day says she expects Lofgren to raise $70,000 for the evening. For $100, backers were to meet and greet Dean at a union hall, with dinner prepared by San Jose firefighters. For $1,000, they got Dean and hors d'oeuvres by Emile's served at Lofgren's Naglee Park home.

Congratulations, Denise! (You lucky dog!)

Denise's story to go with the picture:

OK I'll tell a bedtime story about a nice, blue eyed man who came to town to support Bay Area longtime Democrat and US Congress member Zoe Lofgren. Though Zoe is not running for office this year she is well known for giving away much of what she receives in contributions to her Democratic colleagues who do happen to be running in the years she is not.

Zoe's district includes the heart of Silicon Valley. She is very well loved and is one of the Dems that we know to be honest, sincere, hard working and who just loves her constituents. It was her hubby's birthday and she wheeled out three cakes that she shared with the group.

Howard worked the room very nicely before he went up on stage. He had time to eat one of the burgers the retired firefighters had just brought in from the grills outside, and continued to grip and grin, and tried to talk, even with his mouth full. He looked desperate for some water so I brought him a cold one. He's such a gracious man...sigh.

I introduced him to the webmaster of the Dean Democrats of Silicon Valley who was responsible for the great Democracyfest 3.0 website. I just had to laugh at the cowlick standing up on his head like a little boy (Howard's, not Spandan's).

His speech was full of the fire and energy from the old days. He spoke passionately about the need for us to keep fighting against the three C's of Bush Administration - cronyism, corruption and cover ups.

He said that we should support our troops by bringing them home and to always stand up for what you believe in - even though it might be the hardest thing to do.

He also hawked the DNC bonds which I think was a good thing, as many were saying they hadn't heard about them.

The best thing was seeing so many DFA shirts in the crowd. It is very apparent that we are the driving force behind much of the organizing and hard work that gets done in this area.

Denise