A Gross (but not Doug) item; Archie’s back; Bedell sails on
The cast of characters for this first item:
— Jill Shesol is a Drake graduate who worked on the John Edwards campaign in Iowa in 2008 while she was still a student. In class, once, she observed that “It’s interesting working on the Edwards campaign and seeing what does or does not receive media coverage. It almost seems sometimes as if Hillary Clinton gets media for sneezing, or laughing, whereas John Edwards can release a major policy and receive nothing.” She now works for the Democratic National Committee in Washington, but she clearly remembers you need to do more than sneeze or laugh to get media attention.
— Jennifer O’Malley Dillon is a political operative who took a couple of tours through Iowa — working here for Edwards in the 2004 and 2008 campaigns and, after he lost, for Barack Obama. After the election, she ended up in the very powerful job of executive director of the Democratic National Committee.
— Patrick Dillon also worked for John Edwards in Iowa in the 2004 campaign, where he met Jennifer O’Malley, and later he became chief of staff to Gov. Chet Culver. The Dillons married on June 30, 2007 — “It wasn’t love at first sight,” he told The New York Times, but things changed after they won a stuffed animal at the Iowa State Fair. That last line has nothing to do with this story. At any rate, as chief of staff for Culver, Dillon was known primarily for not returning phone calls. Patrick Dillon now is deputy director of political affairs at the White House.
OK, those are the characters. Here’s the story, a charming little Christmas item from “Roll Call,” a Capitol Hill newspaper:
“The way booze freely flows at holiday parties, plenty of Washingtonians have overindulged in the past few weeks. Still, there’s a clear line between slurring one’s words and spewing them all over the boss. But that’s exactly what happened in the middle of the Democratic National Committee holiday party at the swanky Josephine Lounge on Thursday night.
“Jill Shesol, a junior-level DNC staffer, vomited on DNC Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon... Shesol appeared to lean in ‘as if she was going to tell a secret’ to O’Malley Dillon. Suddenly, she threw up all over the executive director’s face and clothing, according to multiple sources.
“Total party foul, to say the least.
“‘We’re all very close at the DNC, maybe too close, but I’d rather be thrown up on by a good Democrat than listen to some of the stuff that’s been coming out of our friends on the other side these days,’ O’Malley Dillon said, making light of the incident.”
All of which prompted this note from a fellow who watched Patrick Dillon in action in Iowa:
“The report from D.C. is that when O’Malley Dillon called her husband to tell him about the incident, her call was not immediately returned.”
Moving right along. ...
Frank Chiodo, who has been working for Secretary of State Michael Mauro, is leaving to join the lobbying business of his dad, Ned. Ned Chiodo, who runs Blank golf course and soon will be taking over the operations at Grandview and Waveland courses, already employs two other sons, both in the golf operation. The fourth Chiodo son, John, works for Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald. Ned Chiodo and Frank Chiodo both are ex-legislators. …
Skinny keeps hearing, but has not confirmed it (as if other items in Skinny are all confirmed) that a very big house in the very posh Southern Hills neighborhood soon will become a group home for people with disabilities — a fact, or perhaps rumor, that has the neighbors who live in other very big homes in the very posh neighborhood very very very upset. …
A fact to remember this winter as the Legislature debates whether to help rescue the general fund by dipping into road-use funds for the $50 million or so needed to finance the state’s troopers: Just last year, the Department of Transportation estimated that the “annual shortfall in meeting Iowa’s most critical public roadway needs” is $267 million. …
No one has asked, “Where is Tom Bedell these days?” But Skinny has the answer anyway. Tom Bedell, who got rich when he sold the fishing-tackle company his Congressman father founded in Spirit Lake, spent from March to November cruising the world on his multimillion-dollar, 160-foot, five-stateroom, nine-crewmember, one-chef yacht, which is registered in Bikini and flies the flag of the Marshall Islands. He quaintly refers to himself and his wife, Molly, as “Two Old Hippies,” and he refers to the trip as their Peace Adventure. You can read all about it on his Web site — majorwageratsea.com — and learn such things as “Saturday five of Molly’s girlfriends arrive from Aspen.” (Though the Bedells have a 17,000-square-foot, $10 million home on West Okoboji, they spend most of their land time in Aspen.) You can also see a picture of Steve Zumbach holding a big fish someplace in the South Pacific. The Bedells also are selling Bedell Guitars and have “a line of Peace, Love & Rock n’ Roll clothing and accessories.” One cute little note from the log of the ship, which is named the Major Wager: “Early in their courtship, Tom gifted Molly a leather skirt of minimal proportions, which modest Molly politely declined to wear. The ever risk taking Tom challenged his soon to be wife with the dare, ‘If you will get on stage with Joe Cocker during our wedding donning the skirt, I will gift you a beach house anywhere in the world you desire!’ Just before Joe broke into his famous version of ‘You Can Leave our Hat on!’ Molly walked on stage, gave Joe a hug and announced to our guests that she had just won the Major Wager.” Skinny will keep you updated every year or two. …
Sadder but wiser: A friend asked former City Councilman Archie Brooks what he did during his year in federal prison in Duluth, Minn. “Minded my own business and read a hundred books,” he replied. Brooks, who has suffered a litany of ailments since being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, looked to be in good shape physically and mentally when a friend encountered him a few days before Christmas. He has another couple of weeks at Fort Des Moines before his sentence is completed. Editorial comment: Archie Brooks is a good guy, who did a tremendous amount for Des Moines as a councilman, and it’s nice to have him back in town.
Happy New Year to him, and to you. CV
