Heye Now! Time For More Pundit-GOP Wankery

(And I also posted here...this is a recording.)

I happened to come across some posts from a guy named Doug Heye, who currently plies his craft as a pundit for The Hill, and they were too ridiculous for me to ignore (here).

So, you may well ask, what weighty matters does this individual communicate to us?

Well, Heye tells us that the Obamas’ apparent bad luck with gift giving continued recently, given that they only donated “signed pictures of themselves, of course! (to a celebrity auction held by Sidwell Friends school, attended by the Obama daughters). The winning bidders will receive a copy of Rolling Stone signed by President Obama and an autographed copy of Michelle Obama's Vogue cover” (and this gives Heye the chance to remind everyone about the apparent faux pas of the Obamas’ donation of DVDs to British PM Gordon Brown, as well as an iPod of Obama speeches to Queen Elizabeth, which I believe she requested).

And did you know that, while Dems want to talk about anyone besides Obama according to Heye, we are instead preoccupied with whether or not Dick Cheney is now the leader of the Republican Party?

Oh, and Heye expended more effort than needed (which was none, actually) to refute a Daily Kos diarist who took offense to Jake Tapper’s characterization of the Obamas as the “Camelot Huxtables” (yep, there are things to work yourself into a lather about, and this isn’t one of them, but somehow I don’t think a lone Kos diarist who I don’t recognize as a front-page contributor is going to be a “mover and shaker” of public opinion any more than your humble narrator).

Also, Heye tells Obama that, even though North Korea failed again on their latest missile launch, this is “no time to go wobbly” by trying to “reduce the role of nuclear weapons” (kind of the way this “Democrat” felt, I’m sure).

OK, you get the idea.

I guess it’s a legitimate question as to whether or not I should devote precious time and energy to go after these paid media Repug operatives like Heye, but I guess, in Heye’s case, it all got a little too thick, if you know what I mean.

And this tells us more about Heye, particularly…

Heye lived in Washington, D.C., and managed an unsuccessful California congressional campaign, worked for Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., and served as communications director for the House of Representatives' Committee on Resources before returning to North Carolina.

He came home to work on Sen. Richard Burr's first senatorial campaign in 2004, doing communications work in 25 counties stretching from Mecklenburg County to Orange County.

"I got to see North Carolina close up in a way that I really hadn't," he said.

Despite being at UNC when the men's basketball team won the 1993 NCAA Tournament, Heye said his best memory was a political event.

When the late conservative political pundit and author William F. Buckley Jr. came to speak at UNC, Heye wrote him a letter before his arrival, expressing a desire to meet.

"I got invited on the spot to a dinner at Spanky's," Heye said. "I talked to him more than any of his hosts were able to."

Knowing Buckley, I have a feeling it was a pretty one-sided conversation.

And this tells us more about how Heye pretty much eliminated any line that may exist between political activism and pretend media objectivity; he was “a guest of (disgraced lobbyist Jack) Abramoff at least five times” while working for the Pombo campaign (with Pombo’s only accomplishment being that he tried, and failed fortunately, to weaken the Endangered Species Act, working in concert with Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History, as noted here – of course, Pombo’s questionable campaign contributions didn’t help either).

Also, Heye alleged here that Obama and disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich are “good friends,” and he denied busing in poll workers from Philadelphia to hand out fliers for failed Senatorial candidate (and now RNC head) Michael Steele here; the poll workers thought they were helping a Dem candidate (nice).

Hmm, let’s see now, Heye worked for Pombo as well as Steele’s senatorial campaign…I would say he has a thing for losing causes, but Burr won in ’04. However, Burr's re-election prospects are questionable, given the following from here…

Burr is a solidly conservative Senator in a state that just voted for Obama, along with Sen. Kay Hagan and Governor Bev Perdue. He has a limited record of accomplishment in the Senate, and Democrats have a strong field of candidates ready to take him on, with (Attorney General, Roy) Cooper the most prominent.

Burr merits a slight edge for now, being the incumbent in a relatively Republican-friendly state, but that's certainly subject to change.

Gee then, it sounds like Burr needs Heye to give up his gig at The Hill and go back to work for him. I’m sure fantasy-land story lines generated by Heye will do wonders for sinking the prospects of another incumbent Repug politician.

Update 5/2/09: Wonder if Heye could help Burr over this?