STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO IN JEOPARDY?
Politics - July 11, 2006
Highlights from Mike's interview with David M Drucker in the Capitol Hill weekly Roll Call

Running against one of the Democrat officials whom Republicans despise the most -- and a national figure at that -- has its advantages. Namely, it garners DeNunzio the attention of party big-wigs he might not otherwise get.

Add to that the fact that he’s picking this fight in a major metropolitan area with few Republicans to speak of -- let alone few high-profile Republican office-holders -- and a media figure has been born....

Although serving on a few San Francisco city commissions at the behest of Democratic mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom hasn’t hurt his name recognition locally, it’s primarily his quest to unseat Pelosi that has landed him a weekly interview on major radio station KSFO to discuss the progress of his campaign.

“This is not just a San Francisco campaign, this is a national campaign,” insisted DeNunzio, a San Francisco resident since 1969, “I have a different voice.”

A consultant to nonprofit organizations, DeNunzio lives near San Francisco’s famed Embarcadero waterfront...And though he resides in a city with a reputation as being among the most politically liberal in the United States, DeNunzio doesn’t shy away from attacking Pelosi on conventionally conservative grounds.

DeNunzio chides her for voting for the Iraq war but now demanding an immediate pull-out of U.S. troops and criticizes her generally for a position on the war on terror that he said all but amounts to aid and comfort of the enemy. He said the possibility of her becoming Speaker could bode disaster for American foreign policy.

DeNunzio criticizes Pelosi for opposing President Bush’s tax cuts and targets her for resisting the ban on late-term abortions.

“Pelosi ran for Congress in 1987 and said she was going to be our voice in Washington. I’m sorry to say that voice has become an echo of special-interest hustlers and trial lawyers who exploit the poor,” DeNunzio said.

“It is possible that Democrats could take control of the House in which case she becomes Speaker, and the first thing on her agenda will be to impeach President Bush and demoralize the military and then run up the white flag of surrender to al Quida.”

“We’re in a global war on terrorism. And the terrorists, al-Quida in
particular, do not check voter registration figures,” DeNunzio said. “If indeed a nuclear device is detonated in San Francisco, Democrats and Republicans are going to lose lives. So my message of defeating terrorists is one that Democrats are going to be interested in hearing as much as anyone else.”