Really - because Howard has introduced her as the "Mother of the Recall" at the recall rallies.
Melanie deserves complete credit for getting the recall started. She discussed the idea with Shawn Steel before anyone else was seriously considering it.
She and Steel both then went and did extensive research. They got a lot of their initial facts and conclusions wrong but eventually figured it all out.
Melanie was the real deal on this - before any of the other talk show hosts got on board - even before Hogue.
What is most amazing is that Costa is now downplaying the role of talk radio. I think that's more a result of the sore feelings that exist between some hosts and himself and not a true guage of reality.
At www.RecallGrayDavis.com - Howard Kaloogian's website - we found that talk radio was THE single best tool we had to make our website pop. And since our website logged by far the most traffic (you can go to www.Alexa.com to verify the website traffic figures) out of all the recall efforts, I can tell you - without talk radio this recall would not have gone far enough for Darrell Issa to have had enough confidence in its ultimate success to put his money into it.
Big kudos to Melanie, Eric Hogue, Roger Hedgecock, John & Ken, Al Rantel, Craig Roberts, Mark Williams, Tom Sullivan and others who helped us collect enough signatures and raise enough money to keep this thing moving along in the early days!!!
That I concur with. But regardless of Howard's kind comments regarding Melanie, who really came up with the idea? Whether she did or didn't come up with the recall idea, her attitude that her "Mother" status somehow gave her opinion more weight on the way the recall should go was pompous. Whenever she disagreed with someone's tactic or take on the recall, she was quick to remind them that she "originated" the idea of the recall, as if this somehow made the guest's views less valid. She deserves credit, but she could also stand to learn a bit more humility.