Monday, February 16, 2009

R.I.P. Dave From Queens

Sad news today. It appears that blogger David Weintraub, known on blogs like DailyKos as "Davefromqueens", has passed away.

Dave was quite a character. In his quest to further the progressive agenda, he took part in some memorable political street theater. His habit of wearing a George W. Bush mask and carrying hilarious signs at events where well-known Bush-ites like Joe Lieberman would appear is legendary.

His physical presence was very intimidating, and coupled with his enthusiasm and penchant for wearing the Bush mask, I'm surprised he wasn't wrestled to the ground by security at some of those events. Fortunately, most of his stunts seemed to barely precede widespread use of tasers by local law-enforcement. Luckily for him!

Here he is in 2007, during an appearance in Milford during the mayoral race, when true to form, Joe Lieberman was in town to personally endorse Republican Mayor James Richetelli and help raise funds for him. Richetelli went on to defeat Democratic candidate Kerri Rowland.

Last year Dave became embroiled in controversy on The Daily Kos, which eventually led to his leaving the blog. I don't know many details about it, but it seems like a sad occurrence in what was an otherwise colorful blogging career.

Dave was truly one-of-a-kind. His political antics will hopefully result in his being remembered fondly even by those who had differences with him near the end. One thing is sure - they broke the mold after that guy was born!

Lastly, here's the video of the Newtown Labor Day parade, when Big Dave shook Joe Lieberman's hand as "Bushman". Watching that video reminds of how sick I got of that stupid "Wang Chung" song! I hope the next time Ned runs for something, he finds a more palpable track!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Palpable? Are you sure that is the word you want?

I found BigDaveFromQueens to be sort of scary. Very in your face, literally, but I loved the fact that he took the train to Milford to risk proximity to Lieberman again. So few Democrats did.

CT Bob said...

I'm pretty sure I meant "palatable", but I kind of like the weirdness of palpable in that context, so I'm leaving it the way it is. Artistic license; which is the blogger's equivalent of "diplomatic immunity"!

Big Dave was something of a scary guy. You never knew if he was gonna lose his shit and go berserk, but that was part of his charm. It was like watching a circus act with live bears, or Siegfried & Roy. There was always that slight element of danger, imagined though it was (although Roy probably would argue about that point).