Has FreedomWorks gone FreedomWoke?
FreedomWorks has gone FreedomWoke? That’s the charge of a new campaign by Berman and Co, which says the Koch-funded group’s new COO, Marty Irby, has a history of working with radical animal rights groups with close connections to PETA… and Democrats. FreedomWorks, meanwhile, is a grassroots organization that advocates for free markets, personal liberty and lower taxes.
Cockburn notes that Irby’s biography on the FreedomWorks website leaves out these details, instead listing only his lobbyist and consulting work with Republicans. According to his LinkedIn, the last time he worked directly for a member of the GOP was between late 2013 and early 2016, when he served as a communications director for Representative Ed Whitfield. Cockburn reached out to FreedomWorks to ask how they respond to the charge that they’ve gone “woke.” Alas, they did not respond.
Want to live in Steny Hoyer’s old apartment?
Property of the week: Cockburn just viewed a cozy apartment in DC that was recently vacated by Nancy Pelosi’s former #2, Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer. The apartment is on the basement of a building around a decade older than Hoyer at the edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, in which Biden press sec-turned-MSNBC host Jen Psaki was also a previous tenant. The 1BR went on the market at the end of last month and has very low ceilings — especially considering how Steny is well north of six foot.
Don’t take the sale as a sign that the congressman is retiring any time soon though: the spry eighty-four-year-old is set to get married next month, to Brookings Institution senior fellow Elaine Kamarck, who presumably has a much dishier DC manse in which they can reside. Cockburn congratulates the happy couple: Hoya Hoyers!
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Hannah Gadsby’s Sackler pretzel
The funniest thing progressive pronoun-using comedian Hannah Gadsby has ever done is try and talk her way out of her latest controversy.
Gadsby has drawn fire for her new exhibit “It’s Pablo-matic: Picasso According to Hannah Gadsby” at the Brooklyn Museum, due to her close work with Catherine Morris, Sackler senior curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Yes, those Sacklers.
“I’m doing a show at the Brooklyn Museum. There’s one Sackler on the board. We vetted this. Apparently, they’ve separated their earning streams from the problematic one,” Gadsby told Variety. “I mean, take that with a grain of salt. Doesn’t matter what cultural institution you work with in America, you’re going to be working with billionaires and there’s not a billionaire on this planet that is not fucked up. It is just morally reprehensible.”
Cockburn wonders how “progressive” is it to team up with the family that, thanks to the opioid epidemic, is arguably at fault for more working-class deaths than any other…
E. Jean Carroll’s second pay-day?
Tuesday: A jury finds Donald Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil case brought by author E. Jean Carroll, awarding her $5 million in damages. “I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS,” the former president posts in response on his site Truth Social.
Wednesday: In a CNN town hall in New Hampshire, Trump refers to the Carroll case as a “fake story, made-up story,” a “rigged deal” and calls Carroll “a whack job.”
Thursday: Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina files for appeal in the Carroll case. Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan tells the New York Times that her client will give “serious consideration” towards filing another defamation suit against Trump for his comments on CNN. “Everything is on the table.”
Playing with Traffic at the Ben Smith book launch
On Wednesday Cockburn found himself at the swanky downtown offices of Gallup for a book party celebrating the release of Traffic, by Ben Smith.
Unsurprisingly there was a strong Semafor showing: Cockburn discussed the recent British elections with Dave Weigel and swapped campaign trail war stories with Shelby Talcott. Steve Clemons and Justin Smith intro’d Ben, over a soundtrack of Blind Melon’s “No Rain” which the venue weren’t able to cut for several seconds. A 2000s themed buffet was served, including chicken sausage and porchetta sliders and a charcuterie and cheese board. The house cocktail was a cosmo and the only beer served was, gasp, Bud Light, which the author was supping as he worked the room.
The niftiest dresser at the male-heavy event? Speccie contributing ed Jacob Heilbrunn, who cut a fine figure in a traditional Tyrolean linen jacket from a Viennese store called Loden Plankl. As for the book? Cockburn can’t tell you: all the free copies had been pilfered by the time he went to find one…
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