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Polis Report

Hard Right By Chris Thomas The big tent of the GOP moved indoors and took a sharp turn to the right last Thursday night in Milpitas at a candidates' forum sponsored by KSFO. A banner stating that the United States is a "constitutional republic, not a democracy" drew whoops from men decked out in go-to-meetin' fatigues, and calls to end all immigration, get rid of the Department of Education, and abolish the income tax were guaranteed crowd-pleasers as well. Votes are votes, but most of the campaign organizers for the District 23 Assembly seat sat out the event, especially after word got out about the sponsorship by the reactionary radio station (which talk-show host Tom Leykis once described as "you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you a racial epithet"). Although Ken Yeager was listed as a participant--and was announced from the stage by emcee Geoff Metcalf--the candidate was nowhere to be found, claiming he had been listed "by accident." Mike Honda and Patricia Martinez-Roach didn't make the scene either. The David Cortese campaign, but not the candidate, was there passing out literature, buried at a small table equidistant from the John Birch Society and Alan Keyes for President. Speaking of Keyes, he'd been announced on KSFO as a special guest speaker, but he didn't show. When all was said and done, the hundreds of people gathered at Curtis Trading Company got ultra-longshot presidential candidate Chuck Collins. Who says it's only lonely at the top? [ Metro | Metroactive Central ]