Here Are Some Jokes About Dennis Zine Having Sex With Lobbyists

By Gene Maddaus Fri., Mar. 25 2011 at 8:06 AM

Dennis Zine was the honoree at Thursday's L.A. Political Roast

In its 14th year, the L.A. Political Roast went meta. Each year, City Hall lobbyists and politicians consort over dinner and drinks while a political figure is ritually humiliated.

Last night, the victim was Councilman Dennis Zine, and the central joke of the evening was that he literally consorts with lobbyists. So the jokes took on a self-referential character.

"For dating a lobbyist, and voting for all of our projects, we thank you," said Arnie Berghoff, the lobbyist who co-founded the event. "We really thank you."

Joke?

Actor Jason Alexander led things off with a joke about how people don't know whether Zine is Jewish or Muslim. "He's actually an overweight Lebanese guy who would do anything for anyone, especially a lobbyist with great cans."

He followed up with: "Who do I have to blow to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Is it Garcetti? I'll blow Garcetti."

After dinner, Zine was seated on a throne and surrounded by belly dancers, each of whom had the word "lobbyist" on her bikini bottom. "You're welcome at City Hall anytime," Zine cooed.

Councilman Eric Garcetti did a piano medley, which included "Sweet Dennis Zine," set to the tune of "Sweet Caroline."

"All of those gals
Lobbyists that you're dating
Keeping them straight is quite a chore

"But don't fret
There's no conflict of interest
If you don't know what you're voting for."

(For the record, it was an airport contract. He seemed quite familiar with it, and would have voted on it if not for the publicity.)

Councilman Herb Wesson made some jokes about venereal diseases, then said that he and Garcetti had done a poll at City Hall, asking 100 people if they would have sex with Zine.

"Ninety said never again," Wesson said. "The 10% who said yes were all lobbyists."

Tags:

City Hall, Dennis Zine, Eric Garcetti, Herb Wesson, roast

We Recommend

Joey B.

how low can you go? - Jason Alexander had some balls with his comments (no pun intended) ... you know what i am referring to, right?

plus Garcetti literally outed himself (no, not in that way) when he speaks about the council members not knowing what they are voting on ... 99.993 % in agreement with each other ... now we know why ... they just don't know what they are doing!

yes, Michael Higby, this is really, really SAD!

Joey B.

James Mccuen

Actually there is nothing funny about this.

Los Angeles, the biggest City in the State and Second largest in the Nation is more corrupt than Chicago. And Garcetti and Zine are laughing about it. Garcetti has the nerve to consider running for Mayor with this behavior and Zine has the nerve to consider running for Controller.

The attempt by Zine to protect Ron Tutor by calling out the contract for review in December 2010 that was advertised, scored, and recommended for Clark McCarthy. Tutor-Perini got caught cheating on their bid and had to sign a settlement agreement not to challenge, but they used a back door (literally) through a female lobbyist that Zine was dating got Zine to bring this up for review. Even after Zine recused himself in a rare departure from the 99.993% uniform vote, you had 4 dissenters: Alarcon, Cardenas, Perry and Reyes. Cardenas of all people, with his shrewd questioning and some answers he didn't want to hear still voted "no" which was very telling of his corruptibility.

Garcetti, like Cardenas is smart and knows what's going on especially in the very unusual handling of 1601 N Vine Project - Both the Committee members (Alarcon, Cardenas, and Wesson) showed that they knew of potential fraud, the CRA never gave all the answers needed, and then all 3 voted Yes instead of re-convening for answers. Cardenas "cleared" Katersky and then Garcetti cleared his "friend" Ullman. None of that "clearing" made sense and no investigation took place.

And only the small Cities such as Bell or Vernon get the scrutiny while the big-boy, LA is full of corruption that is ignored by the DA.