When the nice Santee couple attended their first East County Democratic Club (ECDC) meeting at Coco’s Restaurant on October 15 to hear David Lagstein of the local San Diego area ACORN office, they never guessed that several days later they would be accused by club official Raymond Lutz of secretly recording the meeting and releasing the information to Andrew Breitbard’s BigGovernment.com.
After the news broke last week that Lagstein had been taped making comments to the club implying that he knew Attorney General Jerry Brown’s investigation of wrongdoing on the part of ACORN would be whitewashed, ECDC President Lutz was irate.
He had made it very clear to the 20 or so attendees that night, no tape recordings. So, knowing that the Santee husband and wife were new to club meetings, he checked their party affiliations and determined — prepare to be shocked — that one of them was a Republican. He then accused them of treachery and treason and released his allegations to the media.
How very Orwellian. How delightfully Thinkpol.
Lutz told San Diego CityBeat that there were only two “newcomers” in attendance that night, the Santee couple whom he believes covertly recorded the Lagstein comments and provided them to Biggovernment.com. “I investigated [voter data files] and found that the man is a Republican and the woman is registered as a Democrat but voted as a Republican in the presidential primary. Apparently, we have sleaze in Santee.”
The Santee couple deny Lutz’ accusations. In fact, the entire City of Santee should be miffed.
This, by the way, is Raymond Lutz, a former Democratic nominee for the State Assembly. Community crusader Lutz, who prides himself on insisting (rightfully) that local municipal agencies are fully open about their dealings, himself videotaping many government meetings and posting the recordings to his website. Left-wing activist Lutz, who helped organize efforts against Blackwater locating a training facility in Potrero. The politically numb Lutz, who invited Al Jazeera media to a news conference on Blackwater, thus causing a huge upset with other organizers. The loony Lutz, who has implied over the years that Blackwater is keeping tabs on him.
In the end, it seems, Lutz is apparently nothing more than a common household fascist.
ECDC insiders disappointed with Lutz’ “heavy-handedness” and “conspiratorial accusations” say it is unlikely anyone at the meeting was taping the meeting, other than Pat Sherman, a reporter from the lefty SD CityBeat, who had let club officials know he would be recording the ACORN presentation. So, Lutz was opposed to any recordings, short of the assumed friendly media outlet.
Ironically, Sherman was the very reporter that Lutz then provided his “research” on the supposedly “smoked out” culprits. On his CityBeat blog, Sherman heads off the spin in his direction, commenting, “I made it known I was there to write a story and was recording the presentation. The leak was not me. Sorry to disappoint.”
The word in many political circles, however, is that the tape may have been provided to BigGovernment.com not by Sherman, but by someone else with access to it, maybe another person in the media. SD CityBeat would likely be the first to balk at such rumor-mongering, maybe righfully so. Some of the fodder comes from ECDC club members, disenchanted with the turn of events and Lutz’ reaction.
Maybe Lutz should be directing his investigation skills and very small band of thought police in some other direction, starting with the most obvious. After all, thoughtcrime is not always what it appears.