Ask about a Dick Cheney event in Orange County and you’ll get the coldest shoulder on the planet… In fact, it’s more like the Artic shoulder.

I was curious about a fundraising event on  Wednesday, August 13, being touted over at Red County with Rep. Ken Calvert and featuring the one and only, Vice President Dick Cheney.

With the Bush administration’s polling numbers in the cellar, and Cheney even reportedly passing up the Republican convention in Minneapolis, I was curious about the thinking behind using Cheney as a fundraiser.

Maybe Orange County is the one place left where the VP can get some love …

So I called the number advertised on Red County – supposedly also John McCain’s fundraiser in Orange County – a woman named Stacy Davis.

That’s where the chilly winds started blowing….

Stacy answered the phone, and the second I mentioned I was with the press, I got a stark silence.

Then I was transferred to a woman who called herself Julie.

I mentioned my curiosity about using Cheney to fundraise, as well as my notion that most Republicans were running from the administration.

Next thing she says is “you’ll have to call the White House.”

The White House?

“What are they going to tell me?” I asked.

Next thing Julie says is that the number for White House press is 202-456-1414.

Then she says, “we are not allowed to comment on any press situations.”

“Who’s we?” I asked.

“I can’t comment any further,” she said before hanging up the phone.

Boy, now that’s an interesting approach for spiking interest in a vice presidential visit.

So shunned from the official front door into the fundraiser reportedly being held at San Clemente’s Casa Pacifica, I decided to call on some reliable local party hacks.

The difference in takes on Cheney says alot, not only about the national race, but about local politics in Orange County.

Dan Chmielewski, a regular contributor over at the Liberal OC, was ready with rapid fire Cheney jokes the second I asked him his take.

“He has to spill innocent blood every six months or it violates his pact with the devil,” joked Chmielewski, who keeps noting that Orange County is changing politically and someone like Cheney isn’t going to see lots of love.

“It’s interesting, you’re having a fundraisier but no one can know about it or where it is,” he said, wryly adding that most people know it’s at Nixon’s Western White House.

He pointed me in the direction of the Smoking Gun’s take on Cheney’s hotel requirements, which was a riot.

“The Republicans are between a rock and a hard place. They have to show respect and deference to him but yet he’s really poisioning the well,” he said.

“It will be intesting to see who has their picture taken with him.”

One of those who can’t wait is local GOP activist and pollster Adam Probolsky.

“From a fundraising perspective, he’s a freakin’ rockstar,” Probolsky told me. “He will bring in massive amounts.”

“Just take a picture of the man. A super successful businessman. Decades and decades of high level government service. And by all accounts, a political strategist in his own right,” he said.

“He’s a gun-toting, cool Republican,” said Probolsky, who was adamant about not confirming anything at all to do with Cheney’s Orange County visit.

 “For a guy like McCain, who’s trying to be the un-Bush…he may present a problem. But that’s on a national level. In Orange County, in Riverside, Dick Cheney is a huge draw.”

Posted in: Congress '08 • Dick Cheney • Ken Calvert |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.