Richard Carter, Chairman of the Ventura County Democratic Party.

That should be a surprising outcome, considering he was the moderator. I've publicly criticized him in the recent past, but fairness dictates that I credit him when he performs a good deed.

Carter and his team reached out to a libertarian and a conservative Republican and invited them to debate a Democrat (and an independent, who couldn't make it to the event). They sponsored a fair and open debate, and gave each participant an even chance to convince the left-leaning audience of the superiority of their positions.

No minds were changed.

I have a soft spot for people that make an effort to try to open a dialogue with ideological opponents in good faith--it's a naivete of mine I hold onto tightly so it's not lost in the glare of the endless daily partisan political war that's fought on print, TV, radio, and online all the time. Seeing an invitation go out for a friendly debate to me is like seeing a white flag of truce. For centuries, the flag ensured that the bitter fighting could stop for a few moments and combatants could sit down to reason together, even in enemy territory with safe passage ensured. To show my support for this idea, I traveled to Simi Valley to watch the debate. And if the panel were the combatants, then that would make me a war correspondent whose role it is to publicize any incidents of disrespect to the flag of truce.

As I stated before, Carter deserved credit for refereeing a fair match. How did the audience behave? There was a lot of hooting and hollering from the heavily Democratic audience, but guess what? It's their club, their home turf. I played against other town's baseball teams in the Midwest and I never expected their fans to cheer for me. When you're the visiting team, you don't have the advantage of having the crowd on your side, but so what it's fair.

I did hear some inappropriate things from a few individual audience members, but it wasn't anything egregious. The worst breach of the truce came when a Tea Party supporter tried to start a shouting match with the Democratic debater about abortion.

Now, I realize abortion is an emotional subject. I have strong feelings about it. But let's think about this practically. I previously opined that this debate was an opportunity for Tea Partiers to show mainstream Democrats that they aren't the irrational, angry people the elite media portrays them to be.

How do you think shouting like an irrational, angry person comes across to a Democrat? Like you just confirmed every single suspicion they had about you. Great job, way to influence others.

In contrast to that unruly audience member, the Tea Party organizer who was on the debate panel embodied the exact opposite of angry. She was quiet, calm, and didn't even want to comment on social issues. However, she didn't quite have the polished talking points at her disposal that her opponents possessed, and so she did not sway the crowd.

Incidentally, I don't regard having polished talking points to be a good thing, but nevertheless that's what the debate degenerated into--the professional Republican and the professional Democrat trading statistics and cliches and getting nowhere.

I do have to point out one low blow the Democrat took. Setting aside the fact that she was perhaps the smuggiest smug that ever smugged during a debate--she couldn't help but to make childish faces during her opponents' responses--she resorted to calling her conservative opponents "tea baggers" for identifying Obama's healthcare plan "Obamacare."  As the Republican pointed out, that's a descriptive and political term, not an insulting sexual term like "tea bagger." Republicans do not get upset when Reaganomics is discussed, why should Democrats melt down when Obamacare is mentioned? Oh, and just to show you how classy this lady was, she said that trickle-down economics is when the middle class "gets pissed on," which is sort of what she did to the flag of truce.

She, and a few of the audience members, seem to be the type of people that would invite someone to a "pig party." A pig party is where some cool kids invite some nerds to a party, pretending they like them so that they can get them in a room to sneer and make fun of them in not-so-subtle ways.

She could have learned a lesson in civility from Carter, who--even though he had opportunities to embarrass the participants--compensated for her intransigence by acting appropriately and courteously to the panel. Due to that, and the absence of a masterful performance by one of the conservatives, he (and by extension his organization) walks away from this one the winner.

The Democrats grew by 13 percent or almost 20,000 voters. Republicans increased by less than 1,000, up less than 1 percent. Those declining to state a party affiliation rose by almost 10,000 voters, up 13.5 percent.

Although still a minority at 18 percent of almost 424,000 registered voters, the "decline to state" group tends to vote along more conservative lines, he said.

One of the guns in Linda Parks' arsenal in her battle to keep her job on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is to brandish Audra Strickland as a carpetbagger, seeing as Strickland just announced her candidacy after moving into the 2^nd Supervisorial District, which includes the Conejo Valley, from Moorpark.  But will that label stick, considering that Moorpark is just a couple of miles away from Thousand Oaks?

It's not like different languages are spoken in Thousand Oaks and Moorpark or that the cultures are different. It's right down the 23.  And Strickland already represents 2^nd District inhabitants in the Assembly.

Strickland anticipated the criticism and attempted to deflect the inevitable in her first campaign appearance on Friday by telling reporters that the moderate Parks "might as well be a carpetbagger from Berkeley."

Parks is known for her environmental activism, and supported the Democratic candidate for State Senate over Audra's husband, Tony Strickland, in 2008. She was a Democrat herself for 20 years, ultimately switching parties just before her first run for the Thousand Oaks City Council.

The Berkeley remark drew a response from the Democratic Party, which beat Parks to the punch to be the first to call Strickland a carpetbagger:

It was a rough start for Strickland with this swing and a miss as Parks has never lived in Berkeley.  In fact, it is Strickland who re-registered to vote in the 2^nd Supervisoral District only two weeks ago for the sole purpose of qualifying to run.

I don't think Strickland spoke literally about Parks and Berkeley. Her point was that there is a bigger difference between Democrats and Republicans than what exists between Moorpark residents and Thousand Oaks residents. 

But the Ventura County Democratic Party doesn't want to see a Democrat-turned-Republican lose her seat to a member of the right-of-center Republican establishment, so it will actively oppose Strickland's candidacy to the point of drawing Strickland's blood before Parks has had a chance.

The Ventura County Democratic Party is planning to disrupt a major candidate forum hosted by a Republican women's group on Friday that will feature gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner and senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina, as well as a bevy of hopefuls for lower offices.

Interestingly, it's the Democrats who derided self-generated local Tea Party protests as "Astroturf," so I wonder what they call it when their party carefully organizes a demonstration down to the details of the appropriate size of the protest signs to use and what to write on them. (They are unknowingly instructing their members to incorrectly spell the name of Afghanistan veteran Jeff Gorell--at least grant him the respect of getting his name right if you're going to disparage him.)

Furthermore, they have the temerity to warn their membership of possible violent attacks at the protest, which will take place less than a mile away from where I broke the story that a Tea Party demonstrator had his finger bit off by a rabid Democrat in Thousand Oaks. The biter then successfully hid among his cohorts, who were too busy using Ted Kennedy's passing as an opportunity to promote universal healthcare to notify police of the assailant's whereabouts. It doesn't add up that the VC Dems are concerned about safety when some of their own are possibly concealing the identity of the mutilator. Or perhaps he wasn't even from Ventura County--I suppose he could have been bused in...

Which brings me back to the Astroturf point.  Do rank-and-file Democrats really care about a candidate forum featuring Republicans stumping in a Republican Primary? Probably not. But I bet their party leadership is hoping the Republican-generated media attention will garner them a few mentions--after all, the Tea Parties beat the Democrats at their own protest game, in which they usually have home field advantage.

I suppose it's possible that they are confused and thinking they're attending a Democratic primary event. After all, it's hosted by a women's club and one of the headliners is a high-profile, successful businesswoman--just the sort of person a Democrat should like, someone who's shattered gender barriers and is a model to all young women.

But the Ventura County Democrats are mustering the most invective for Carly Fiorina, and are eager to portray her as a woman who didn't have what it took to thrive in the business world. And they don't seem to have any fealty for a group of women who wanted to have some candidates speak at their monthly meeting.  I guess gender equality doesn't cross party lines.

I suppose I shouldn't blame the Democrats if their heads are spinning as of late--they must be really confused by recent events. The Republicans are running a woman for governor and another for senator in California.  A black GOP chairman spoke in Simi Valley today. And don't mention Sarah Palin around a liberal. They'll tell you she's got too many kids to run for office--how's that for gender equality?

It was the Democrat Barbara Boxer who was torn apart by a black Chamber of Commerce CEO for condescending to him about his race.  It's Harry Reid and Bill Clinton that are accused of racially insensitive comments. It's the Democrats that are actively diminishing two powerful female CEO's-turned-candidates as "unqualified", just like they did to Audra Strickland when she attempted to run for treasurer.

It seems the Democratic Party is letting politics get in the way of their rhetoric. If it's really as concerned about racial justice as it says it is then why does it stand behind Harry Reid and Bill Clinton? If it really aims to advocate gender equality, why does it encourage its members to attack a prominent businesswoman who speaks at a woman's club?

Of course, the Democratic Party leadership doesn't care quite so much about those petty issues as it does about politics. It will cry and cry about racial and gender equality, but if a minority candidate or a woman candidate dares run for office with an "R" next to their name, they'll send protesters to ridicule them faster than you can say "hypocrite."

Their hypocrisy will be on full display on Friday.