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Opinion
Mar. 16, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ERIN NEFF: They just figured it was a lingerie supplier

ERIN NEFF
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Several times during the Clark County Republican Convention on March 8, Chris Comfort reminded the delegates to support the sponsors.

For a party that has been swimming in red ink, any help should be recognized.

Still I thought it a little fancy that I was given a one-inch wide bright red lanyard -- a cord worn around the neck -- to go with my press badge. The Democrats handed people a string.

But as I was escorted through several layers of security to an upstairs viewing booth, I never realized the sturdy lanyard actually put the joke on me.

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    • Wrapped around my neck was a brightly-colored ad for a not-so-discreet Web site.

    Who knew that this, the so-called party of family values, the party whose platform keeps veering to the right to appease the Bible thumpers, would be strutting out the porn?

    But there I was, advertising www.elegantangel.com.

    And I wasn't alone. All media members got them. But so did volunteers and so did authorized guests.

    County Chairman Bernie Zadrowski, a deputy district attorney by day, was sporting one. So was Comfort, the "thank our sponsor" convention chairman.

    Apparently the lanyards weren't noticed by most of the 3,000-plus delegates spread across three rooms at The Orleans. Most were too busy haggling over two words in the rules. At one point, a delegate asked for a definition. Comfort jokingly riffed on the famed Clinton line parsing the definition of is.

    Well, you don't have to be able to define pornography to know that what Elegant Angel is -- is.

    Turns out one of the attendees realized the party chairman was a walking billboard for smut at about 11 a.m. - two hours after the meeting convened. After the invocation and after the rousing rendition of "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Democrats."

    When informed, Zadrowski quietly removed his lanyard and told several others to do the same.

    The message never got to the press box. I didn't discover Elegant Angel until late last week while cleaning up my desk and considering whether to keep the lanyard for another purpose.

    It crossed my mind: What is this company? The next thing I knew, I was perusing porn at the office.

    Elegant Angel is a Canoga Park, Calif., firm owned by Patrick Collins, a porn director. If you want to check out the site yourself, be forewarned. It's not for the squeamish or those under 18, or pretty much anyone who wrote the family platform planks at the convention.

    Comfort said he finds this all an embarrassment. "Somebody apparently dropped off a box of lanyards," Comfort said. "We don't know who supplied it. It must have been a frat-like prank by the Democrats."

    Puh-lease. The Democrats? The party which couldn't organize its own county convention has time to trip up the GOP with porn?

    Comfort said he figured Elegant Angel was a lingerie supplier when he donned his own lanyard. Both he and Zadrowski firmly denied the county Republican Party had accepted swag, or sponsorship, from a porn company. Zadrowski even asked me if I had confirmed that the company was pornographic.

    I pretty much confirmed it right away. It's pornographic and unbiased to boot. Not only can you purchase "Big Wet Asses," you can get "Big Black Wet Asses," too.

    Zadrowski said he doesn't know how the party got the lanyards. "I saw them in the county party office about three or four months ago, before I was chairman. ... I thought at the time, we could reserve those for another use."

    In order for this to be a prank, he said, someone would have had to infiltrate the county party office months ago and know some unwitting officials would grab them to use for press, guests and volunteers at the convention. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist," Zadrowski said.

    But they did end up at the county party office. And they did end up around the necks of, who knows, 50, 60, maybe even more, people.

    "I can't imagine a good Republican bringing these by," Zadrowksi said. "A good Republican wouldn't purposely bring that."

    Lately it's been said that all things Republican Party in Nevada travel through The Venetian.

    The same can be said of the lanyards.

    Elegant Angel was a sponsor of the Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Convention Center Jan. 9 to 14. When I e-mailed the company's representatives asking how their lanyards might have gotten to the Republican convention, they were confused, to say the least.

    "No, we did not sponsor the Clark County Republican Convention," wrote Travis Graham of Elegant Angel. "We sponsored the AEE convention in Las Vegas ... earlier this year and we provided lanyards."

    It's not every day a porn company gets to do public business with the Grand Old Party.

    "I am wondering how this came about?" Graham wrote.

    If only the conversation was live I could report whether he said that with horror or glee.

    Lastly, he asked, "Do you have any pictures?"

    Wow. One mention on Drudge and one minute on Fox News would sure boost sales.

    Seems to me the pipeline from The Venetian extends to its Sands Convention Center. Someone probably brings by all kinds of leftover goodies that may someday help the party. Pens, notebooks. Who knows what else the party's got?

    Zadrowski said he takes responsibility for not checking the Web address.

    But the just-elected chairman shouldn't worry. Nobody's complained. Maybe they're all too busy supporting the "sponsors."

     

    Contact Erin Neff at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.

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    wingtip wrote on April 20, 2008 07:56 PM: The Republican Party is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side....(Paraphrase)

    In a closed society where everybody's guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
    Hunter S. Thompson


    William wrote on March 27, 2008 11:00 AM: For decades prostitutes have known and bragged that the Republican convention is the biggest and most profitable event for their profession.

    At least a prostitute won't send your child to die in Iraq after they take your money.


    DJ2 wrote on March 20, 2008 11:59 PM: Steve Sanson,

    Thanks for your contribution to one of the most amusing incidents I've read about in the paper!

    Lately, the RJ readership has been dragged through a quagmire of stories detailing greed, corruption, deceit, violence, and other sorts of negative, contemptable fall-dee-rah, and this story was a wonderfully refreshing breath of fresh air! In fact, I find it delightfully funny and even after a few days, I still laugh every time I think of it. Ha!Ha!Ha!


    Steve Sanson wrote on March 18, 2008 02:43 PM:
    Erin Neff;

    I have the utmost respect for you as a journalist and as a person. I have always believe in stepping up to the plate and accept responsibility. I have read your article regarding the lanyards.

    Sometime in January 2008 there were several packages of these lanyards sitting in the Marine Corps League. I believe that they were given as a donation to the MCL. I personally have never seen the MCL use lanyards before.

    I know the Clark County Republican Party uses lanyards and I know that the CCRP Convention would be approaching. I took it upon myself to furnish the CCRP with these lanyards.

    I have never looked up the website, no one at the MCL looked up the website. It was not a deliberate act to sabotage the CCRP and the CCRP is not sponsored by Elegant Angel.

    This was only an act of kindness. I have already apologized to the CCRP and I would like to apologized to anyone that wore these lanyards including yourself.

    Again I am truly sorry for my lack of investigation into this website and I am personally embarrassed by this. If there is anyone to accept blame its me and not the CCRP nor the MCL.

    Respectfully Submitted By
    Steve Sanson
    President of Veterans In Politics International
    702 283 8088


    Zeke wrote on March 17, 2008 11:18 PM: Ok look.
    It wasn't me that put those laynards in there.
    Really.
    And I was not responsible for the Strippergram at their State Convention next month either.
    Really.


    David Johann wrote on March 16, 2008 08:25 PM: Tom wrote: "oh please Plame was out long before her so called outing...."

    We know that's how some spinmeisters on the right have tried to frame it, but one thing is clear: revealing the identity of a clandestine CIA agent is a federal felony:

    "Valerie Elise Plame Wilson (born Valerie Elise Plame 19 April 1963, in Anchorage, Alaska), known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer whose covert identity was classified and the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. After working for the CIA for twenty years, she retired in December 2005, as a result of the publication and compromising of her classified cover identity by an American journalist in the summer of 2003."

    "On March 6, 2007, [Scooter] Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and two counts of perjury. He was acquitted on one count of making false statements. His sentence included a $250,000 fine, 30 months in prison and two years of probation. On July 2, 2007, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, removing the jail term but leaving in place the fine and probation, calling the sentence "excessive.'"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame


    Did Richard Ziser Have One On? wrote on March 16, 2008 04:34 PM: Oh sure Erin, like that's the first time you've surfed porn at the office. (By the way, most people know what a lanyard is. You think we're stupid?)

    Did Richard Ziser have one those porn lanyards on? I think he supports pornography as long as there's no video footage of f@g& trying to get married.

    Yup, it's the family values party. Did Larry Craig speak or did he have to be at the Minneapolis Airport that weekend?


    I too left the Nevada GOP wrote on March 16, 2008 03:22 PM: I am with you Bill. Until the people take control of the government we will be plagued with these self serving impostors that are ruining the USA.



    The scum has risen to the top in both parties.


    I too left the Nevada GOP wrote on March 16, 2008 03:22 PM: I am with you Bill. Until the people take control of the government we will be plagued with these self serving impostors that are ruining the USA.

    The scum has risen to the top in both parties.


    Bill wrote on March 16, 2008 12:34 PM: As a conservative, I'm glad I made the decision (like SOOOOO many others) to leave the GOP. How embarrassing. They're no better than the Democrats.


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