Irvine Council Member Steven Choi Embarrasses Himself and City at Truman Dinner
Irvine City Council member Steven Choi with a banner on his back showing Speaker Pelosi as Stalin (credit TheLiberalOC.com)
While the Irvine City Council is officially non-partisan, Council member Steven Choi has taken the extreme step of conservative partisanship to show up in the lobby of the Irvine Hilton wearing a banner on his back equating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Josef Stalin, complete with a Hammer and Sickle. Choi used his position as a city council member to gain access to the Hotel to effectively embarrass himself, the city council and those city residents attending the event.
Since Irvine’s progressive council majority took power in December 2000, Irvine has played host to a number of Republican leaders. The only time I can remember an elected official participating in a protest is when IUSD board memberSharon Wallin joined parents outside an Irvine hotel when Governor Scwartzenegger came for a visit, but Wallin was like any other parent protesting cuts in education. Progressive elected officials, if meeting a high level elected official of another party, usually leave partisanship behind and act with a certain level of dignity (does anyone remember the photo of Larry Agran shaking hands with President George W. Bush?) and demonostrate respect for the office at the very least. Choi did none of that and equated the third most powerful member of our government with a brutal dictator.
The expression goes, “If you don’t respect the person, respect the office.” Choi demonstrate no tact, no class, and no shame in walking around a hotel event he only gained access to due to his position on the City Council. The LiberalOC obtained the photos here which clearly show Choi wearing his city council members pin.
The Orange County Register photographer snapped a pic of Choi from behind, but failed to identify him as an Irvine City Council member. Here’s the Register’s photo, so you can match it up with ours:
Caption from the OC Register: “A protester wearing a satirical rendering of Nancy Pelosi as Joseph Stalin walks through the Hilton Irvine before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivers a keynote address to the Democratic Party of Orange County’s 15th Annual Harry Truman Awards ceremony Friday night.”
To portray Pelosi as Stalin, a mass murderer of millions during his reign of power, is nothing short of outrageous. Choi owes the Speaker an apology. He owes his fellow city council members an apology. He owes the residents of this city an apology for his embarassing antics.
Resign your position Dr. Choi; you are not fit to serve as an elected official in Irvine. Your offensive behavior is a black eye on Irvine’s place as a city of tolerance and influence.
I’d like to place on sign on Choi’s back. One that says “Kick me. Again. Harder.”
Choi with Irvine City Council Badge (credit TheLiberalOC.com)
Choi with anti-Pelosi sign, (credit the LiberalOC.com)
(credit photo to TheLiberalOC.com)
More posts on this topic:
Steven Choi – The Dean Grose of Irvine
Krom Speaks Out on Choi’s Antics
CHOI Rocks.
Dems get ready for November. This shift will be like shock and awe!
Dan,
How do you equate your tolerance with your desire to have Mr. Choi kicked and kicked again harder, labelling him offensive, and wanting him out of office?
You appear to be very intolerance and advocating violence against those you don’t approve of while wrapping yourself in a mantle of tolerance.
This strikes me as very much like what has happened and continues to happen in some countries where nazis, communists, and dicators of all sorts would propagandize how they were for the people, helping the people, all the while they were committing heinous acts of violence against people.
You seem to be in that same space from what you have written.
For me tolerance comes with peace and lack of fear. If you are truly tolerant you would want to talk to Mr. Choi, understand him a little better, and even if you didn’t agree with him you wouldn’t feel so angry and threatened by him that it makes you feel violence towards him.
What is it about him expressing his viewpoint that makes you so angry? I don’t get it, I enjoy looking at a wide number of viewpoints and talking with and have friends across the spectrum.
Terry — you clearly don
t know Dr. Choi; he put out a hit piece on a candidate for city council last year declaring the candidate was an Islamic terrorist when the candidate’s only sin was being Muslim. And you should have seen the protesters outside the dinner (about 100 all told) with far worse signs and suggestions of violence than my little joke about a “kick me” sign on Choi’s back. I understand Steven Choi all too well. He has every right to freedom of speech and to protest and I have every right to call him a disrespectful slug for doing so. First amendment works both ways; doesn’t it?
Dan, do you have a quote or any proof of the terrorist charge?
And it sort of looks like you’re defending the abdication of violence by knowing Choi.
Dude, are you in high school? Kids tend to step in their own $hit often, adults usually outgrow that behavior.
we blogged out it on this site GL; there’s a PDF of the mailer sent by Choi’s team.
Do you know how to use key words in a Google search?
I like Dr. Steven Choi because he stands up for what he believes in. He is a true American. Now that he is running for Assembly, all the liberal slander of him will only help him generating more publicity. Irvine is lucky to have a leader like Steven.
I urge all voters in Assembly District 70 to vote for him.
Just how was Choi slandered? A picture is worth a thousand words.
Or is this the Bill O’Reilly standard of slander, where websites record what he says, and play it back with context provided.?
No one attacked Choi’s freedom to speak; we attacked what he said. If you will recall, people were arrested at Bush rallies for wearing a “no war” shirt.
Pelosi herself just called us a bunch of Nazis. This is pale by comparison.
Pelosi lacks the smarts to even know that the Nazi party was the National Socialist Party of Germany. I don’t think there’s even a debate over Pelosi’s political mindset – she’s a least a socialist, as was the ENTIRE hippie movement.
Okay, so we can debate whether she’s a socialist or a communist. She’ll NEVER fit the mold of our Founding Fathers.
Healthcare needs to be protested. The Germans didn’t in the early 1900’s. We must. It’s a good real comparison that needs to be spotlighted. Choi is a true unafraid Maerican. The kind Pelosi does not like.
Bush was the persident, Pelosi is not.
This is not jounalism; it’s a simple opinion piece which any 6th grader could write. Write a real piece of journalism like something on the leftest take-over of the USA. If you get paid for this kind of work then I could become a millionaire and I’m not even a jounrnalist!
You are an embarrassment to journalism! This article is just a cheap little shot to stir the pot with substance-less chatter.
and Choi is an embarrassment to the Republican party.
And Pelosi is an embarrassment to human kind. So where do you want to stop the name calling? Has the human race devolved to nothing more to say than calling names and justifying it with “well they did it too’?
Sort of reminds me of children in the back seat… it makes for a long ride.
By the way…. are we there yet?
I guess not
And Tom Ammiano isn’t an embarrassment to the Democratic party and mankind in general? Why shouldn’t he have to resign after heckling the Governor? DOUBLE STANDARD!!
I actually wrote against Ammiano’s outburst against the Governor. He should apologize to the Governor as Joe Wilson apologized to the president. No class. Do a search for Ammiano on this site and you’ll find it
Choi is not an embarrassment to this Republican.
I am tough and I can take it. I can even take being called a Nazi by a com-simp like Ms.Pelosi
I hope your not holding your breath waiting on an apology for that one from Pelosi. But if you are at least you can take comfort that the EPA won’t be along to slap a scarlet warning label on you for breathing.
I guess we’ve forgotten Ari Fleischer’s warning to “watch what you say.” Too bad Jeff Gannon no longer takes questions for Talon News service
Dan,
Quick question… Are you a reporter, or an editorialist?
He is neither. This is simple opinion with no sustance.
THE ONLY GOOD LIBERAL IS A DEAD LIBERAL!!!!!!!!!!!!
now now… lets just gag and bind them then put them on display in zoos for our children to see.
Jesus was a liberal. Hard to argue he wasn’t….
When did Jesus advocate the slaughter of unborn children…OR refuse to let anyone mention his Father in heaven? He mentioned God quite alot WHEREVER he was and he encouraged others to as well. Liberals are only tolerant if you agree with everything they say. DARE to disagree with them about anything and just STAND BACK.
Jesus didn’t advocate wars aginsyt people who never attacked us. Jesus didn’t advocate torture. Jesus railed against rich people. Conservatives are selective about what’s an abomination in the Bible; enbjoy that bacon wrapped scallop appetizer and know that Levticus says its an abomination
They DID attack us Einstein….so I guess all your favorite liberal politicians need to give up their fortunes while they are trying to keep us from getting ours. Liberals just ignore the bible completely.
Iraq attacked us? When? We invaded them remember? The Taliban are a terrorist organization.
Liberals ignore the Bible completely? Really.
Wow, sounds like one of Stalin’s purges to me.
Wonder where you were when Pelosi was calling average citizens Nazis and Harry Reid calling average citizens evil? Wonder if you called for them to resign! Hypocrite.
A little of both GL
Wow Dan, doesn’t that kind of open you up to a conflict of interests? Journalists report, editorialists provide opinion. I have a few years experience in the newspaper biz, and I’ve seen journalists fired for editorializing news.
You may have opened yourself up to criminal charges (call Choi’s office and see if they’d lawyered up yet) too. You’ve broken the first amendment and you should probably at least be professionally reviewed for that transgression. You just can’t go around suggesting violence against others. Have you spoken to the OC sheriff’s office yet?
What criminal charges have I broken? He was in a public place; he wore his council member’s badge; he have photos. He’s even been criticized by members of his own party. I injected an opinion about the story after I reported the facts. Doesn’t Sean Hannity do the same thing? It’s not libel; he needs to prove what I wrote was false, I knew it was false and ran the story anyway. The sheriff’s office isn’t going to touch this as a First Amendment issue. If Choi wants to sue me, fine. My lawyer is Todd Gallinger, who ran against him for city council last year. I’ll be happy to counter sue.
It’s illegal to call for violence against someone else – it’s inciting violence. I’m no fan of Hannity, but I’m sure he’s (nor Rush, Levin, Boortz, etc.) never, never, never ever called for any sort of violence against anyone other than America’s enemies.
Prove me wrong.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/26/171533/093/468/702281
Hannity asking his viewers what sort of revolution they wants and an armed takeover is one of the topics.
18 voters….wow. Who’s to say that it wasn’t a couple handfulls of liberals that decided to pounce on that?
that’s pretty weak. Do you have any actual quotes?
It was a survey put up on his website. Do you really need a quote?
Rush Limbaugh encouraged rioting at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver
Link to your proof?
Be advised, Rush has successfully challenged libelous statements before, as recently as few months back when the “Progressive” blogs began quoting him as making racist remarks about MLK, etc when he wished to purchase a minority stake in the St Louis NFL Franchise.
Naturally, all the cockroaches scurried to their cracks when it was discovered that someone made those lies up out of whole cloth… it wasn’t even a misquote.
Fear not, George Soros literally has teams of folks creating transcripts of everything Rush says, so if he blunders, you will know about it right away.
Uh it is Jesse Jackson who has on MANY occasion promised riots if he didn’t get what he wanted.
And Rush Limbaugh also employed the ACLU to help him shield the privacy of his medical records.
And CLINTON refused to release HIS medical records…and there is all KINDS of controversy about Comrade Obama’s Birth Certificate….ALL protected by the leftist media.
When will Bush (as in W) release all of his military records Greg? Why is this even a concern to anyone. Both Bush and Clinton are done and out.
Hey Dan, I now have your home address. If I published it and told everyone in Irvine to go kick you, wouldn’t you feel violated? Would I be committing a crime?
My home address is a public record. I have friends on the left and on the right. No one is going to come and kick my butt because of something I wrote. And Irvine isn’t like that. But interesting that you’d take this option. I kind of means I’ve won this round.
won? ha.
you’re winning nothing. I’m not competing with you.
My day is done. Good luck.
Don’t you just love it when libs declare the debate over.
The thing I’ve learned is that the definition of tyrannical is when someone declares the debate to be over when it is not.
Guys ..I can go all day, all week, all year.
I also have your father’s address… what if I suggested mild violence against him?
My father has been dead since 1997; good luck with my brothers and sisters.
[...] (Courtesy of TheLiberalOC.com) [...]
Perhaps Mr Choi should be charged with a hate crime and branded
a terrorist. Then sent to gitmo and perhaps even shot.
Free speech is a radical and dangerous act in times such as these.
Ahem, it’s not fascism when WE do it.
Kudos to Mr Choi for stating the obvious while he still can
You’re a turd…Nancy is a perfect reflection of Stalin…
i wish i lived in Dr. Choi’s district so i could vote for him.
he seems out of place in California…the land of “fruits & nuts”.
Pelosi is living proof that over doses of Botox is harmful to your health and causes you to become a “dumbass”
Send him a check; I’m sure he’d appreciate it.
Cool poster – says it all! Where can I get one?
Good for Choi! Pelosi is a tyrant, a ruthless fascist dictator. If it were necessary for her to kill millions to implement her policies, she would do it in the blink of an eye.
It was alright for Pelosi herself to call protesting Americans “Nazis”, but this little sign has you liberals panties in a bunch? Quit whining like stuck pigs, you babies. Typical liberals, you can dish it but you cry to your mommies when someone criticizes you.
With your native country devastated and separated by the Communist followings of a Stalinesque regime, I find it ironic that you would compare Pelosi to people of these tyrannical beliefs. If you are attacking socialism then reference a true socialist- but if you are aware (through your doctorate in library studies) perhaps you should look up the results of the actions of Stalin and be grateful you are in the United States- Whether you agree with Pelosi or not- her actions are not in the same vein as Stalin’s and Stalin really did not care about the healthcare of his people. Reference the conditions of the North Korean people before you start throwing stones- be aware that Pelosi is an elected official and not an appointed tyrant- you may have a doctorate in filing books- perhaps you should take the time to read one.
Hey Dan! Ain’t freedom of speech just great. You get to say and do most all of the stupid stuff you want and it is protected by law.
It’s just too bad that the “freedom of speech” thing only belongs to the left. I just wish we had that right over here on the right.
I’d say it’spretty healthy on the right as well; especially when it comes to saying stupid stuff.
To equate Pelosi with Stalin is an insult to Stalin. I would equate Pelosi with Whoopi Goldnerg or that corpulent c..t Rosie O’Donnel. Fill in the blanks.