Posted on 09/02/2003 4:26:47 PM PDT by Tancredo Fan
Pelosi's pizza problem
By Ed Henry
Roll Call, September 2, 2003
A lively debate on immigration during the dog days of August nearly turned into a sort-of food fight as a staffer for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tried to launch a bizarre protest by walking off with a pizza.
Federico DeJesus, who handles Hispanic media outreach for Pelosi, was infuriated by Victor Davis Hanson's presentation at the Aug. 19 event, sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies.
Hanson, author of the book "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming," is an outspoken advocate of stopping the flood of illegal immigration from Mexico to California.
At the end of the speech in the Longworth House Office Building, DeJesus stood up to deliver the first question from the audience and launched into a long rant accusing Hanson of penning a "racist" book.
The controversy was compounded by the fact that Hanson had earlier noted he is a "classicist," as in a classics professor at California State University at Fresno.
"You yourself admitted that you're a 'classist,'" DeJesus shouted, apparently believing that the professor had confessed to being an elitist or some such taboo.
"I thought Pelosi would have had more sensible staff," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the CIS, told HOH. "Some basic democratic civility would have been appropriate. There were some other Democratic staff there, and I think they were embarrassed."
Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly told HOH that DeJesus was merely trying to correct the record with regard to some statements the professor had made about a prominent Hispanic group.
"He felt the speaker was making some comments about La Raza that were inaccurate, and he wanted to correct them," said Daly, in reference to the National Council for La Raza, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving life for Hispanic Americans.
Daly allowed that the discussion did grow heated, but only because some people in attendance repeatedly referred to DeJesus as "Mr. Sosa," as in Hispanic baseball star Sammy Sosa, during his question.
"He felt that they were intentionally getting his name wrong, and he was offended by that," Daly said.
The fight reached its climax when DeJesus stormed away from his seat and decided to grab one of the many boxes of pizza in the back of the room on his way out the door.
"He tried to steal one of our pizzas," charged Krikorian. "One of my guys had to get it back. He yelled, 'I hope you enjoy the pizza!' He was basically a heckler."
DeJesus claimed that he merely wanted to take some food back to his office and meant no disrespect, but Krikorian wasn't buying that.
"This was sort of sophomoric," said Krikorian. "Something you'd expect at some radicalized university campus, not Capitol Hill."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch the CIS panel discussion on line at:
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/fdrive/15days/e081903_mexifornia.rm
The transcript is at:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/mexiforniapanel.html
"The Universe of the Illegal Alien," a CIS Backgrounder adapted from Victor
Davis Hanson's new book "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming" is at:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2003/back903.html
"Mexifornia: A State of Becoming" may be purchased at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1893554732/centerforimmigra
You mean there's a difference?
I wonder why he would think that.
All Democrats are either morons, sex perverts,communists,or mentally deranged (sometimes all four combined).
Incluir pizzas, tambien.
Also known as: IMPORTING IMBECILES!
That Rat hag Pelosi is a disgrace, and so are her hired ethnic pimps, apparently.
Hanson is a Democrat and a seemingly honest man.
You would think he would want to keep better company than this.
Was it Sammy "Sooser" or "Mike" McGuire? Paging Ted Kennedy.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/974716/posts
Ouch!
"You yourself admitted that you're a 'classist,'" DeJesus shouted, apparently believing that the professor had confessed to being an elitist or some such taboo.
What do you want to bet this MORON thinks 'niggardly' is a racial slur? Does he hate the word 'despicable too? MORON!
Or how about, Por La Raza, Pizza. Fuera de La Raza, no Pizza."Para La Raza, toda. Para las otras, nada."Incluir pizzas, tambien.
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