Mayhill Fowler Was To Be Banned From "Bittergate" Fund-Raiser

Earlier this May 30th evening I had the pleasure of attending a fund-raiser for the Obama for America campaign featuring the appearance of possible Obama VP running mate Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius at the home of Wendy Holcombe and Carl Kawaja in San Francisco's Pacific Heights. It was by far not my first Obama money-party or event. I've lost count of the number of times I've attended these things.

But this one was such that I did not bring my trusty camcorder and it was out of respect for the campaign and for the feeling that after Huffington Post contributor Mayhill Fowler's "Bittergate" performance where she recorded Senator Obama's advice to volunteers on working in the rural areas of Pennsylvania, the campaign may be a bit paranoid and "under attack" in feeling.

While such was not the case, I did think to ask if I could bring the camcorder before I did it. But the main party Obama host told me that it wasn't necessary to do as it was not wanted. The campaign felt kind of "burned" by Mayhill Fowler and that's not the last we will hear of the matter.

What makes things more interesting is to learn that Mayhill wasn't even supposed to be allowed into the very event where the "Bittergate" comments occured. First, such events are closed to the press, but second, Mayhill had already developed a reputation for being hostile to the campaign, and so wasn't welcome on top of the standard restriction.

I got this news from a campaign official who I will not name and does not want to be identified. The point is that what the campaign would have preferred was a photo of Mayhill posted at the check-in table with the words "Do Not Admit This Person." Such did not exist, so Mayhill kind of "slipped in through the cracks," one could say.

I am way not kidding.

I can't think of a time when one media person has so upset so many people connected with an elected official either during a campaign run or in office. Mayhill's constant attempts at discrediting Obama for America's events and actions in the San Francisco Bay Area were the stuff of office gossip between Northern California Obama staffers and volunteers, more specifically people like me. As I've written before, Mayhill started off by just talking to people and not taking notes, then having to deal with reports that she misquoted someone in the process of trashing some aspect of campaign activity, and that was frequently and never under a consistent tune. And those charges were often considering the number of negative or at least not favorable articles she wrote and about every nit-picky thing one could think of.

Well, it's all over now, and for the future. Mayhill's been officially excluded from attending any Obama for America fundraising function on the scale of a house party and saying she's part of the media and is under the freedom of information act gives few any real comfort. It's not that Mayhill has the information, it's her diabolical media practices seemingly targeted to consistently harm Barack Obama's campaign that bother Obama for America.