WASHINGTON – These must be frustrating times for Republicans. No matter how hard they try, the far right seems to be hopelessly inept at vetting potential members of its vaunted inner circle.Things looked bad enough when all sorts of unsettling information about a certain hockey mom-cum-vice-presidential running mate began to filter out from under several dusty moose pelts. Just about the time that furor ebbed, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s rich old white guys political-action committee fell on its face by naming a porn company president “Entrepreneur of the Year” and inviting her to dine with Gingrich and share her thoughts with the man many believe may mount a presidential bid in 2012.
No sooner had the PAC, American Solutions for Winning the Future, explained away that misstep as some vague “clerical error” than the group pulled the trigger and shot itself in the foot again by awarding the same title to a second adult entertainment entrepreneur.
Dawn Rizos, owner of The Lodge—one of the best-known gentlemen’s cabarets in Dallas—already had RSVP-ed with the requisite $5,000 donation and made travel reservations by the time ASWF notified her an error had been made. Evidently, the PAC said, The Lodge’s parent company, DCG Inc., somehow had been mistaken for a conservative Virginia firm with the same name.
“It was disappointing,” Rizos told The Dallas Morning News. “We were looking forward to sharing our political views with Newt Gingrich.”
Rizos and Allison Vivas, president of adult studio Pink Visual, reportedly were among 50 small-business owners named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Gingrich’s group. Let’s see…. Fifty donations of $5,000 totals $250,000 — not a massive political war chest by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Like Vivas, Rizos said she was disappointed to discover Gingrich et al were after her money, not her thoughts about the business climate in the U.S. — and they only wanted her money if it were unsullied by the harsh realities of the adult industry. She seemed unconvinced the dreaded “clerical error” had cloned itself.
“I’m not going to argue with them, if that’s their story,” Rizos told the DMN. “I think they should be a lot more careful and maybe Google the person they’re going to give an award to before they make all of their plans.”
The Lodge has received a number of business awards and is “a great draw for the city of Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, and we don’t have anything to be ashamed of,” she added. “I thought they really wanted to give us an award.”
ASWF distributed a statement Tuesday saying the invitations mistakenly delivered to Vivas and Rizos were part of the same “clerical error.”
