

I had a half dozen texts on my phone this morning when I got up for bootcamp all pointing to an editorial by Greg Diamond over at The Orange Juice Blog. Greg’s running out of material that he needs to take offense to posts written here. Let’s make a few things clear:
Greg Diamond doesn’t speak for me.
Greg Diamond doesn’t speak for the DPOC.
Greg Diamond doesn’t speak for Democrats.
Greg Diamond only speaks for himself.
Likewise, I do not speak for Greg Diamond. I do not speak for the DPOC. I do not speak for Democrats. I do not speak for the DPOC Chair or the CDP official who happens to live in Orange County whom I know and like. There’s no affiliation between me and these two local Party leaders other than I respect the work they both do on behalf of the Party.
Greg Diamond’s suggestion that my work at TheLiberalOC doesn’t “represent the best of our local party, or the average of our local party, or even anything above the grime at the very lowest level of our party” is astonishing to me his own work and low standards when it comes to the cheerleading and cover he provides to conservative Republicans and independents on a regular basis (for example, Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait and CATER’s Brian Chuchua) while often denigrating OC Democrats who’ve won elections and legislate to their best of their ability to get things done on behalf of our county. Orange County is still a hard place for a Democrat to win. Diamond’s constant belittling of current (and former) electeds like Loretta Sanchez, Lou Correa, Jose Solorio, Larry Agran, Beth Krom, Tom Daly, Jordan Brandman, Michele Martinez, Lorri Galloway, and even Sharon Quirk Silva, coupled with his denigration of national party leaders like Secretary Hillary Clinton and locally Henry Vandermeir, Monika Broome, and Florice Hoffman only underscore Diamond’s contempt for the party he claims to be a member. It’s one thing to disagree with one of our elected on an issue or two, but quite different to throw them completely under the bus as Diamond so often does.
I think Greg’s a crappy Democrat and I’m not alone in this opinion.
He’s a bully which is why so many people comment here anonymously about him because they don’t want his grief. And as far as family members being drawn into the fray, I’ve deleted plenty of nasty comments about Greg’s wife and his brother-in-law Oni over the years that have no place in any discussion here. Once in a while, a comment might slip by, but I do my best to delete it as soon as I’m aware of it. Conversely, I’ve had to ask comments about my family be removed from the OJ blog that common sense would dictate it’s removal.
Greg’s “diagnosis” of my “autism” or “sadism” is pretty Goddamn funny in a pathetic sort of way; perhaps he could self-diagnose himself too. I can only conclude there and no mirrors in his new home. Perhaps he could ponder his reflection in the pool of the house he rents in Brea.
To the post at hand that earned Greg’s ire, Dale Cheema’s negative mail piece on Anthony Kuo is groundbreaking in the respect that I can’t remember a time when an Irvine Republican went after another Irvine Republican in a city council race in such a negative way. For the record, Kuo’s hit-and-run accident in Newport Beach when he was 17 isn’t nearly as bad was Kuo being dishonest about being involved in the incident to begin with. And to bring up the Kuo hit and run given the reporting OC Weekly did about Cheema’s daughter in 2013 (which is far worse than anything I wrote about) strikes me as unwise. Cheema should have focused on the lie Kuo did as a 34 year old adult, not the crime of a 17 year old. I’m sure Cheema’s daughter’s hit and run accident painful for Cheema. But it’s even more painful for the family of Yuliana Gutierrez who died of blunt head trauma. Cheema’s untruthful attacks on Melissa Fox just show he’s identified the front runners in the race. For him to win, he needs to knock off people ahead of him. Cheema’s mailers are low blows; we reported that.
The children of candidate’s and officials are not immune during a campaign season. Look at the meme’s on the Internet about the Trump kids(Eric and Donald Jr.’s hunting of African wildlife for example). Commentary of Chelsea Clinton’s New York apartment and her career have been subject to attack. Even Malia Obama’s decision to go to Harvard has met with extreme hate from the alt-right crowd and Obama’s not even a candidate this year.
Locally, Christina Shea was the mayor of Irvine in 1999 when her daughter, who worked at city hall as a council aide, was arrested on a drug charge. Shea promised to bring the power of her office down on the police chief and even the LA Times editorialized on the abuse of power. Her behavior was a contributing factor to Democrats taking a majority in 2000. Lorri Galloway’s daughters both worked at her charity, The Eli Home, which warranted catcalls from the comments section of various OC political blogs while Galloway was running for office.
It’s time to remind Diamond that the blog he writes for published every unattributed rumor and innuendo about the death of Noah Krom using news stories that quoted rumors and not fact back in 2009. The editor of the blog even called for Krom to drop out of the race. There’s never been a retraction of any of this.
So Greg posting the link to his blog post on the campaign pages of Irvine Democratic candidates asking them to condemn my reporting of a negative mailer by a Republican and documenting a factual incident as an ironic twist is just Greg bullying candidates to bow to his wishes. I’ll note a comment from him critical to a post we had reporting Christina Shea’s age as Democrats somehow treating women unfairly that he missed the point. Irvine has nearly doubled in population since 1989 and there’s an entire generation of voters who didn’t know how Shea rose to power on the platform of anti-LGBTQ bigotry that she’s never apologized for. If Shea were a man, I’d write the same story. Likewise, many voters don’t know how Shea tried to abuse her power as Mayor over her daughter’s drug arrest. Shea’s gender has nothing to do with it.
So the revulsion Greg felt from reading my post is the same revulsion I experience when he cuts up Democrats that don’t meet his profile of being reformist progressives. The notion that some authority will make me apologize for something I’ve written is rich; will that demand apply to things Greg writes?
Our party is supposed to have a big tent. Diamond is the one holding an umbrella open for Republicans on a regular basis. He always looks the other way when Tom Tait lends his name to a statewide anti-union ballot measure, votes against every public employee union contract for the city of Anaheim, endorses Young Kim over Sharon Quirk Silva, forgets Tait lobbied the state and federal government to place INS agents in Anaheim City jails, and never utters a word about anti-gay millionaire Howard Ahmanson paying for IEs that promote his favorite reformist progressives. The line I often here from a number of Democrats is, “If only Greg went after Republicans like he does Democrats.” It seems the only Republicans he goes after are political opponents of clients of his step-daughter’s consulting firm. Coincidence? He doesn’t always disclose the conflict.
But let’s make something clear. Greg has no business speaking for me. And I’m happy not to speak for him.
So interestingly enough, Greg has attributed my benign reference to a Brea Star-Ledger article to my being one of his blog enemies. I asked our mutual colleagues at DPOC who these people were and what I heard in response was:
“Greg’s life is littered with people he retaliates against whom he disagrees”
Yep. Thats the Greg Diamond I know and (don’t) like.
I will say this, just because we differ in opinion doesn’t mean we are wrong or need to apologize. Otherwise, I would expect Greg to ask Mirvette Judeh for an apology for commenting about Jeff and Oni’s “over the top” Halloween decorations (which I am told is awsome).
Bottom line is “Crazy Greg” is an attention starved fool. And if he knew who I was he would cry.
I wish I knew who you are, or do I?
He is obsessed with every commenter here