Melissa Etheridge says Dems are united...

The HRC concert last night was so tightly-controlled and press access to the stars limited to a ridiculous five minutes or so. I was annoyed basically every minute I was there until the concert actually began.

We were led into the VIP tent pre-concert and some little blonde woman with a headset and a pinched face says, "Here is your tip sheet. If you don't follow it, you will be asked to leave the concert." Then some dude says, "You are sharing the tent with VIPs so if you could just stay in this area near the platform (a not so big area for a kinda big press corps). Gee, we wouldn't actually want to force the VIPS to breathe the same air as us!

Then the photographer from the Denver Post made the huge mistake of standing about an 2-3 inches past the big X on the ground made with tape. The HRC press dude leaps over and demands that he take what amounted to about a three inch step back.

These people were obnoxious and not treating the press like the grown-ups that most of us are. HRC Pres. Joe Solmonese was a gentleman though and I am sure this was no fault of his. He even gave me a hug hello inside the concert (we had coffee together a few years back). But those headset people, give 'em a little power and they run with it not even thinking that people like me are going to write about their every obnoxious, controlling and over-the-top move.

\Okay, this post was supposed to be about Melissa Etheridge and here I am on an absolute tangent. But y'know, i do feel much better now. In the VIP tent, during the five minutes and five seconds we had with the talent, I asked Miss Etheridge about her comment when she was one of the questioners during the HRC Democratic Candidates debate. She told Hillary Clinton that some of the LGBT community felt "thrown uder the bus" by her husband's adminsitration. Here's what she said in response:

"Ah no! I was gonna bring a little bus tonight (laughter). I think it is a dangerous thing that the media has been focusing on the divided Democratic party - Hillary and Obama. I think that is not true. I've been out there talking to everyone and we, for once, had the most awesome choice in the Democratic party. We had an awesome woman, and an awesome man to pick from. And we looked at them both and you know what? We came up with Barack Obama and we are all united behind him. It's a fallacy, its a lie to put out that we are not."

Okay, nice quote but she didn't really answer my question. I would have followed up but the controlling HRC folks yanked them off the stage practically before Melissa could finish her sentence.

Overall score: The HRC concert: a 10! The HRC press "event" : a minus 10.

That;'s all, thankyouverymuch.