So there I am minding my own business taking pictures of ex-Nixon White House counsel, John Dean who’s standing on the edge of the stage in the Long Beach Public Library auditorium when he holds his hand out to block my next shot and says, “You’re showing me more interest than your paper did.”

His publicist standing next to him says, “The Press-Telegram did nothing to publicize our appearance.”

“I’m not with the Press-Telegram,” I say.

This leads to a brief heads-together discussion between the two of them on whether or not I work for the Press-Telegram. “Who’s he with?” I hear Dean whisper.

John Dean was in Long Beach this afternoon to hawk his new book, “Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches.”

Once on stage he began his discussion by ripping into the Press-Telegram for seeming to have an agenda against him by not writing in their paper that he would be in town selling his latest book. “They had no problem giving Bush a big welcome when he came to town,” Dean told the 50 or so people in attendance. I don’t know that he looked directly at me, but he did look in my direction as he said this.

It kind of irritated me to be falsely scolded by a lying scoundrel convict who might better ask my pardon for selling out the country rather than worry about a few less book sales on this stop of his tour.

Even more irritating was the lady sitting in the back of the auditorium that was having quite the religious orgasm over Brother Dean’s Holy Gospel Hour. For every “George Bush is a bad man!” that Dean gave, she gave back with a  “Mmmhmmm! He sure is that!”

And when my grandson came running across the auditorium to show me the book he had checked out from the library upstairs—“Grandpa! I got a Spider-man book!”–she started shushing and jabbing her finger at him.

I wanted to remind her that this guy currently responsible for that wetness spreading between her legs historically was also responsible for one of the worst administrations of our lifetime. And just like Dennis Miller’s political conversion doesn’t make him suddenly funny nor does Dean’s make him a good American. I know a lot of people who have been saying the same things he has about the corrupt Bush regime from the beginning–the difference being–the FBI never called none of them Tricky Dick’s “Master Manipulator.”

Tags: conspirator, counsel, FBI, john dean, Long Beach, nixon, press telegram, watergate