Joe Biden is no Barack Obama on the rubber chicken circuit

Clearly, Barack Obama didn't pick Joe Biden because of his fundraising prowe$$.

Compared to Obama -- and nearly every other presidential candidate in 2008 -- Biden was a piker.

Through Dec. 31, Biden had reported raising $8.2 million in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama's total at that point: $102 million.

Biden's candidacy ended abruptly after the Iowa caucuses in early January. After he finished his bookkeeping for the failed campaign, his fundraising from donors totaled about $9.9 million. Obama, in his continuing quest for the White House, has raised 39 times that much.

Biden added to his total by transferring money from his Senate account and accepting $2 million in federal matching funds.

Throughout his lengthy political career, Biden -- like Obama -- has drawn heavily from trial lawyers.

The nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics found that the law firm headed by Texas trial attorney Fred Baron has contributed $108,000 to Biden over the years. Baron, who in the '08 campaign was John Edwards’ national finance committee chairman, was in the....

...news recently when it was revealed that he paid to help Edwards’ paramour, Rielle Hunter, relocate to Santa Barbara.

Unlike Obama, Biden has never tapped deeply into Hollywood, though long-time Democratic fund-raiser Carmen Warshaw hosted him at her Westside home earlier this month to help raise money for his Senate committee.

In such settings, Biden talks to donors one-on-one, gives a talk and spends extra time answering questions.

In his presidential run, “the problem was not what happened in those rooms. It was how to get people with deep pockets into the rooms,” said Joe Pichirallo, a producer at Eric Gold's firm, Gold Co., whose upcoming films include "The Secret Life of Bees," and "Lakeview Terrace."

A former Washington Post reporter, Pichirallo advised Biden during his short-lived candidacy. “He was fighting the perception, how was he going to win? In my world, it is all about the perceived winners. Hollywood just didn’t flock to him.”

A review of Biden’s Hollywood money in the presidential race shows he received $2,300 donations from Fox executive Thomas Rothman, producer Bill Benenson, singer Barry Manilow, and motivational speaker Scott Greenberg, plus $9,200 from Westwood Broadcast chief Norm Pattiz and his wife, Mary Pattiz.

Other notable donations include $9,200 from Las Vegas gambling mogul Steve Wynn and his wife, Elaine Wynn, and $2,300 from billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.

In past years, Biden received $1,000 checks from Sylvester Stallone, Ellen Barkin, and West Wing producer Aaron Sorkin, and $2,000 from West Wing actor Bradley Whitford. Michael J. Fox gave him $2,000 back in 2001. Cher gave him $2,100 in 2006.

He is not a major fund-raiser within the Washington Beltway. He receives relatively little money from political action committees. Obama has shunned such money during his presidential campaign, contending PACs are a part of the Washington establishment.

The Center for Responsive Politics finds he has 1% of the $27 million he has raised since 1990 from such groups, and 2% in his presidential race.

“He has never been the favorite of the inside-Beltway crowd,” said his friend and political advisor, David Wilhelm, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who had been Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign manager. Wilhelm, a superdelegate from Ohio, endorsed Obama shortly before the Ohio primary.

-- Dan Morain

Photo credit: Chris Carlson / Associated Press

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Comments

[cjm]

FYI -- Wilhelm worked for Joe on his aborted 1988 presidential bid -- it was David's intro to having a big role in presidential campaigns before he went on to work for Clinton.

[C. Nelson]

So Joseph Biden has never received much financial support from Hollywood. Well then, that's at least one thing in his favor.

[Martha, Washington State]

Biden is certainly a good choice that will bring balance to a great ticket!!!

Unfortunately what people are hearing from McCain is what an angry man who has succumbed to angry-dirty politics can do... rather than contribute to a civil discussion.

[John Rodi]

I think we need to stop making silly comparisons. Politicians must raise money in large sums that is a given. What can Biden do for us and what role will he play in foreign affairs that are important is in need of greater attention than is ability as a fund raiser. Law firms have lost of money; therefore, that is where you go for money. After all you don't go to a department store to buy gas.

[Hilary Smith]

What explains a working-class person's decision to favor McCain over Obama? I just can't understand. McCain is of the ruling-class and he will protect ruling-class interests, not the interests of the everyman. Can someone explain to me how on earth, if not for racial prejudice, a working-class person can see fit to vote for McCain? Please share your reasoning.

[RICHARD KRAEIUM]

WELL HE WE GO IT'S "PETE AND REPEAT". BASHING THE OTHER PARTY BUT STILL NOT EXPLAINING HOW THEY PLAN TO GOVERN THE COUNTRY.

IT'S LIKE WATCHING THE FAKE WRESTLING MATCHES, WHICH I DO NOT WATCH.

THE PICKENS ARE KINDA SLIM THIS TIME AROUND, IT'S ASHAME THAT THIS IS THE BEST THIS COUNTRY CAN PRODUCE TO RUM FOR PRESIDENT.

WE'RE IN DEEP DOO-DOO!

[Chris]

Now for the McCain pick. In Florida Charlie Crist is getting married. Things reek of a Bush fix.

[Mark Christopher Pizzolato]

What a mistake by Obama, you are going to tell me, that Biden helps him? Not picking Hillary, loses the election for him.

[s.kaye]

The fact that Biden couldn't raise the money needed to finance his campaign tells you that the "people" didn't want Biden for President ... so why would Obama think that Biden could strengthen his ticket. Hillary Clinton was clearly the best choice for VP and would have only increased Obama's chances of winning in November. Obama's bitterness over the primary has clouded his judgement ... Biden is a long-term "do nothing" insider who will only drag old politics into the White House. It's sad that the people of this nation don't have anything better to choose from . We have endured almost 8 eight awful years of the Bush Regime and now all we have to look forward to is Obama's blunders of McCain's continuation of the Regime.

[Ivan]

Weak VP choice from a Weak candidate.

Obama's hype machine would have us all believe he would actually pick someone who would pleasantly surprise, instead he went same ole politics.

Obama said it himself, if he and Biden get elected, Biden will be our next president.

Don't put a person in charge who doesn't know what he's doing, vote for experience and track-record, vote McCain.

[Lystra Laster]

I think Barack Obama done something foolish, he was talking about youths and old wshington people, where do he think Joe Biden ,came from? I wouldn"t be voting for him or his ticket I will stay i home will not support,people that have two faces.

I willn't support him period

[Abuusa]

Joe BIden is the best VP choice to my view. I sincerely pray and hope their successful stroll to the White House for a phenomenal positive change in the USA and the world as whole.

[Larry]

"Change." Biden has been in Washington for thirty-six years. Since Biden is Obama's most important appointment thus far, "change" is the last thing on Obama's mind. Personally, after getting to know Obama's mentor and spiritual advisor of twenty years, Reverend Wright and his Church-of-Hate, it would be impossible to vote for Obama, regardless of his VP pick.
Obama is an empty suit, but very dangerous - and Michelle, not proud!

[Muhammad Zafrullah]

For the past two elections, the Democratic party has shown its tendency to shoot itself in the foot. I do not see the third time any different.

Muhammad

[Frank]

Obama chose a man who, months ago, was shooting for a third- or fourth-place finish in Iowa - but came in fifth, and dropped out after he failed to garner 1 percent of the vote. The Clinton contingent is not going to like this. And thanks to this extended roll out of the announcement, the ladies will be showing up in Denver having just learned of the arrangement. Hide the ashtrays.

He also is a politician with a gift for putting his foot in his mouth in his own backyard. Like the time he quipped that you can't work in a 7-Eleven unless you have an Indian accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YocTu9hywZA Or when he said Obama is "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

[dave]

richard,
if it weren't for the viable candidates, like constitutional republican candidate for president, RON PAUL, your bleak outlook would be correct.
but though the legitimate candidate's efforts to get out his positive and viable solutions to america's fundamental problems, have been viciously opposed and suppressed with the complicit assistance of the corporate fascist media, there is plenty of evidence that the rEVOLution, televised or not, will change history, and that a great visionary will emerge a great shepherd, in minnesota-st paul.

[Ernie]

Does anyone think it's odd that the candidate for Presdient who keeps talking about the need for change, chooses the ultimate Washington insider as his running mate?

[Bee]

I think Obama showed poor judgment when he ruled out Hillary and choose Biden. When Biden slandered Indian's accent and said Barack Obama is the first mainstream Africian American who is articulate, bright, clean and nice looking, is he throwing some americans under the bus with Obama's grandmother and others? He has made negative comments about people he seems to think are beneath him. Will he represent and work for all americans?

[Jeugenen]

OBAMA AND BIDEN OFFENSIVE
Obama and Biden, as leaders in the American Cultural War, shall take the offensive in restoring traditional international good will, patriotism, Christian culture, and Constitutional rule of law.
The Republican Party suffers from malignant Podhoretz Neo-Conservative cancer; and the Democrat Party suffers from malignant Leiberman Neo-Liberal cancer. These Crypto-Neo-Marxist cancers are mutations of that malignant Marxist cancer that mortally devastated Russia, by successfully dividing her patriots against each other.
The America People got these Crypto-Neo-Marxist cancers at the end of the Second World War, when they naively accepted millions of pitiful defeated Marxist refugees from Nazi Germany and Marxist Soviet Union. History suggests that by systematically working together in the Cultural War, the Kennedy Liberals and Reagan Conservatives can ultimately destroy these malignancies.

[Kirby Sommers]

President Joe Biden: The Assassination of Barack Obama, by Kirby Sommers
Bidding Biden:

Let me preface this by stating I am not a John McCain supporter. I am and remain a supporter and admirer of Barack Obama. In seven days, the presidential election will be over and I believe Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. For the first time in the history of our country a black man will be sworn in as President and history will be rewritten. I also believe, and must be clear this is my personal opinion, that within months of ascending to the highest elected office in this nation, President Obama will be assassinated.

Joe Biden, Obama’s choice of a Vice Presidential running mate, may have everything to do with the tragedy I foresee. What most Americans don’t know is the people who backed Joe Biden during much of his long 35-year career in the Senate are thugs. Wall street thugs, political marketeers and convicted felons.

People like Leon Black, George Soros through his Soros Fund Management, Joseph Cari, Meshulam Riklis, who although a Republican has bet on and contributed to Joe Biden for decades, along with his son Ira Riklis and their crooked corporate takeover pals. The very people who contributed to the Savings & Loan debacle, the Wall Street crash of 1987, the subprime-mortgage meltdown and today’s financial meltdown have helped Joe Biden’s political career all the way down the crooked brick road to the White House.

A piece written by Abigal Adams called “Joe Biden’s Unreported Scandal: His oversight of the Obstruction of Justice from the Savings and Loan Debacle to BCCI” can be read HERE. It links Joe Biden in a really bad way to David Paul, Michael Milken, Jake and C.H. Butcher, Ghaith Pharaon and Charles Keating of the infamous Keating Five scandal, among others.

A Chicago Sun Times article dated August 25, 2008 “Biden has deep ties to Rezko accomplice,” sub-titled “Joseph Cari 30-year friend of VP pick guilty in kickback scheme” briefly touches on Biden’s deep links into convicted felon Tony Rezko’s gang. Rezko was convicted of wire and mail fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting bribery. Biden acknowledged the relationship by saying "All I know is Joe Cari is a friend, and he's an honorable guy, but I don't know anything beyond that." The media didn’t jump on this story even though I’m surprised it got printed in the first place since Conrad Black owns the Chicago Sun Times and is another high flying corporate raider who, along with his associate David Radler, was indicted for stealing cash from their newspaper till.

Political and Wall Street plunderers have much to gain with longtime insider Joe Biden in the White House, not as Vice President, but as President. Favors will continue to be called in and it will mean disposing of Barack Obama in a way that may never point a finger at those behind the conspiracy.

Just yesterday in Greenville, N.C. Joe Biden compared the attacks against Obama with Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy as a "dangerous choice in difficult times."

"Sound familiar?" Biden asked the audience. "The defenders of the status quo have always tried to tear down those who would change our nation for the better."

Does Joe Biden know something we don’t know, or was that just more tasteless talk out of a man who has been eyeing the Presidency since his first run for the office in l987?

The barbarians are no longer at the gate. They reside in the White House. The progressive presidential race with with Barack Obama as the next President of the United States will end with the fifth assassination of a President in this country. And if my worse fears come true, whose fault will it be?

Copyright 2008 Kirby Sommers

[gaetano]

One day to the election and I have become fed up with listening to all the lies and smeers from both sides.I don`t believe that we the people ,were given a choice of Mccain or Obamma.I think we have been led down a one way street. I am a 65 year old republican. How could we think any thing good will come Out of this election.If I am not mistaken,Mccain has run for president 2 or 3 times befor and lost.Obamma is a knowboby with no experience execpt for a big mouth that talks a lot but don`t make any sense. Joe biden is a long time political nothing and all he is noted for is getting drunk.Palin , a very pretty women,with lots of common sense but another with little experience.So what do we do? I will vote for mccain only because he has knowledge of self experience in war time.That is it.If Obamma gets elected,which most likely he will,I predict ,God forbid,that he will be asassisnated,and we will end up with a drunk.
Yes our economy stinks and yes we have problems,but if you believe any one of the 4 choice combination of these idiots are going to solve all our problems,you must still believe in the easter bunny. Personally,I think the black people are dreaming.Their only reason for voteing Obamma is because of his skin color. You know it ,I know it,and they know it.But his past assosiations are very BAD.This world has gone the wrong direction for a long time and now its going to try another.I have cancer and I know my future,but I don`t know the future of my children,and that hurts me.So I will just say good like to all of you .I will also tell you that there is only one to settle our problems and that is GOD.Put him in your life just a little and maybe he`ll take care of you.

[Kirby Sommers]

The Secret Life of Billionaire Ira Riklis, by Kirby Sommers

What happens when a billionaire with the mind of a sex-starved teenage boy and no personal restraints sets his sights on one woman? Under normal circumstances the answer would be marriage. But, what if the billionaire is already married and is a closet sex freak?

The kind of freak who has a tissue box at the ready whenever a new issue of Victoria’s Secret arrives in the mail, has a stash of girlie magazines neatly stacked away in his office safe, and indulges in prostitutes a-la-Spitzer.

A pathetic loser, you might say.

Think again: it’s Ira Riklis, 54-year-old mega rich son of corporate raider Meshulam Riklis. Riklis is also a long-time friend and political contributor to Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, former President Bill Clinton and disgraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, to name just a very few. And if birds of a feather ever flocked, then the addition of the last two people on this short list would be hold up that theory.

Ira is the principal of Sutherland Capital Management, Inc., a private holding company primarily involved in the home-security market. A portfolio company, C.O.P.S. Monitoring, is the second largest wholesale monitoring company in the country. Combined with sister company, SafeGuard Security (an alarm installation, service and monitoring company), the recurring monthly revenue would rank in the top 50 companies (out of 15,000 companies) in the U.S. Additionally, stakes are held in other companies involved in home and commercial alarm accounts. Other investments include SNIP, a telephone and internet service provider, a hedge-fund consolidation company, a ladies-clothing designer and marketer, a ski-equipment rental chain, various real estate partnerships with an emphasis on strip-shopping centers, in addition to being part of his infamous father’s businesses such as Rapid American Corporation.

Some 20 plus years ago I was the woman Ira Riklis preyed upon, spied on, and coerced into becoming his sex slave. He did this to me at a time in my life when I was the most vulnerable. And he knew it. That is how predators find their victims. They peer into your soul and find the holes. Then they fool you into believing they can fill those gaps for you. They seek out women who may have been sexually abused as children, have absent fathers or who are going through periods of low self-esteem. In my case, all three factors were present. If I had been an apple, I would have been the ripest victim apple on the tree.

Before ever meeting Ira, I was viciously date raped at a time when no one went to the authorities and when both the blame and shame fell on the woman’s shoulder. Adding to my already distressed state I discovered I was pregnant. I come from a poor family with a single mother who had her own struggles trying to raise five children. There wasn’t anyone I could go to. The small publishing company I worked for picked up and moved to Connecticut leaving me without a job and the small clothing design business I just launched to replace my job hit a brick wall. In short, I was broke. Penniless broke. Barefoot and pregnant broke. Even after selling my clothing samples I still didn’t have enough to pay the bills or to get an abortion – which I naively believed would be the answer to at least some of my problems.

I needed $200 for the abortion and I needed it fast. A woman I knew suggested I make the money at a whorehouse and before I could make sense of what was happening, I found myself working as a prostitute in one of New York City’s illegal brothels.

New York City, mind you, is the capital of sex. More so than Nevada or any other city in the country – in Walt Whitman’s poem “City of Orgies” he writes, “but, as I pass O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love.” At any given time of day, and really any 9 to 5 type of day when your white-collar guys are supposed to be in their offices, the phones never stop ringing and the guys never stop coming.

“Once in, never out.” The Johnny Carson look alike with a cigarette the size of a small brown stump dangling on his lip looking like it was about to pop out and hit me in the eye is giving me the once and the twice over. I am now officially merchandise and it doesn’t feel good at all.

I try not to fidget as I stand in what looks like someone’s apartment, in a living room where the furniture is still new and unused. Except this isn’t anyone’s home. It’s a bordello similar to hundreds of other make believe apartments neatly tucked away across the city where women sell themselves everyday and where neighbors never suspect anything of this sort is happening right next door.

My heart is going thumpety, thump, thump. It’s almost in my throat. My palms are clammy and I wonder if I’m going to make it through the interview. I take another look at him. He’s wearing a V-neck striped preppy sweater vest under a white shirt with khaki pants. And I find myself rechecking my reality at the door. I mean who knew pimps looked like someone’s dad? Didn’t they all wear huge hats and flashy jewelry? He even looks Johnny Carson and come on, who doesn’t like Johnny Carson? So now I’m hoping my situation is so absurd that it’s really just a bad dream and I’m going to wake up any moment. Because after all when did Johnny Carson become a pimp?

Except it wasn’t a dream and fast-forward 20 plus years later, I’m still trying to come to terms with everything.
The Johnny Carson look-a-like is saying something, but the only words I hear are: “Once in, never out.” The words bounce back and forth in my head: Once in, never out. Not for me. Not for me. Not for me. I’ll get out. Not for me, I protest silently.

“How old are you anyway? I don’t sell kids.” He says, his eyes burning through my clothes.

“Old enough,” I retort in an out of body kind of half hallucinatory state. This could not be happening to me. I am practically a virgin. I know the names and the dates of the guys I had slept with, including the one who raped me. I could count them all on one hand. I mentally rename myself the virgin whore.

To my surprise he hires me. I am both relieved and repulsed.

Johnny Carson’s twin is now officially my pimp and he’s given me the endearing name of “Greenhorn”. I still haven’t been able to figure out how I’m supposed to have sex with a guy I don’t even know and somehow the moment arrives and there’s no turning back. A parallel universe has taken the place of the world as I knew it. Everything right is suddenly wrong and vice versa. Nothing makes sense, but I float on anyway, away from the core of the woman I had begun to actually get to know and like. I examine the word “greenhorn”. The horn of a newly slaughtered animal and know it’s true in more than one way -- I am already fragmented.

My life becomes unrecognizable to me. For a long time after my first encounter with a client, I wake up every morning with the weight of a deep mournful sorrow one usually feels when someone you love has died. You know, that something-is-missing feeling you can’t quite put your finger on. Then for a miniscule fraction of a second I’d forget. But only for a tiny bit, because then the darkness would envelope me and the piercing pain of loss settles into the pit of my stomach and I know it is own death I am mourning. By comparison, even that would be better than what happened after Ira hunted me down. At least I slept even if I did wake up to a nightmare. After he insinuated himself into my life, sleep would forever elude me. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I'm inextricably, undeniably lost. Whatever strength I possess is gone. I cannot go back to being whomever it was I used to be. The shame is immense; at least it was for me. So I push myself away from both family and friends. I no longer have anything in common with anyone. Not even with the other call girls I meet during that period of my life. It was like trying to walk through quick sand. I couldn’t move forward and I couldn’t get out. Whatever small part of me held out hope that someone, anyone - my ex-boyfriend, my mother, my sisters, a stranger on a white horse would somehow rescue me have faded.

I slip further into a life I never knew existed. I decide if I can’t go back to being me, if there is no me to be, I certainly won’t stay here in a low class whorehouse with three other girls and a pimp. I get my own working place and up the fee. To avoid intercourse, I teach myself to strip, I teach myself to listen, and I teach myself to talk to these rich and powerful men who patronize girls like me. I become the most sought after call girl in New York City; as well as the most reclusive person on the planet, so much so even my clients can't reach me.

And that’s when I met Ira Riklis.

As a client he was fairly easy but that couldn’t be said about him afterwards. Perhaps Ira kept things somewhat normal because he knew the drill and believed there was a possibility of other people lurking around somewhere in the apartment. I only saw him about 3 or 4 times before I plucked myself out of the absurdity of that faux life. I only wish I’d never met him because during those 3 or 4 times he saw beyond my polished exterior to the broken person I really was. His claws were already extended and had embedded themselves into my young flesh. He seemed like the nicest guy, even slightly gullible, but he fooled even me during a time when I relied on a higher state of awareness to keep me safe.

Unlike Eliot Spitzer with his call girl du jour Ashley Dupre, Ira wanted me to know who he was.

“Have you ever heard of Meshulam Riklis?” He asked the second time he came to see me.

“No.” I replied acutely aware with the familiar weapon some johns have of trying to impress. It didn’t matter to me who he was. I’d already met people I never thought I’d meet. Plus, by this time I had already plaoyed out the Julia-Roberts-Pretty-Woman fantasy (before the movie even came out) with disastrous results and no way was I going to repeat it.

Even though I read The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Forbes, I really had no clue. Financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky had yet to be busted and Google wasn’t even a pipe dream.

Ira tried again. “What about Pia Zadora? Have you heard of her?”

I’d seen the atrocious “Butterfly” starring Pia Zadora and had read enough gossip columns to know she was married to some rich old man.

“Yes!” I tried to sound enthusiastic.

“I’m his son. And you know I don’t even like her.”

Our sessions were quite simple. Pretty much all I did was wear something sexy, take it off, keep my lingerie on and crawl all over him. He loved looking at my vagina, and in the early days, I didn’t think it was too weird. Later it changed. But at the time, he was pretty easy to get off. I’d dart my tongue gently across his penis and off he went!

Ira’s full face beamed as he languished in my bed. He was slightly overweight, with full cherub checks and an adult case of mild acne. With a slow smile and concerned eyes he pushed a long strand of hair away from my face. “You need a vacation. Why don’t you accept a gift from me and go on a cruise?”

“No thanks, I’d be bored being on a ship with the same people day after day.” But what I really meant was that I wasn’t going to be taking a gift from him or any other of my clients. I didn’t want to feel indebted to anyone. I saw who I wanted to see and when they became too difficult I’d stop seeing them. Taking gifts makes a girl sloppy and closes off her options.

“I insist. Really it’ll do you good. Carnival Cruise Lines is part of my family business, so I’ll be giving you something while keeping it all in the family at the same time.”

Even in the mid 1980s Carnival wasn’t high on anyone’s list and I was somewhat put off. Frankly I would have said no to a cruise on the Queen Mary, but Carnival definitely had an ick factor.

“No thanks. So where are you off to now?” Which was my way of saying “time’s up”.

During his next visit Ira changed his strategy.

“I wanted to give you a gift, but I didn’t know what kind of jewelry you like. Why don’t you let me open accounts for you at Harry Winston and a few of the other jewelers on Fifth Avenue? This way you can just go in and pick out what you like.”

I raise my arms and show off my bare wrists then I run my fingers across my bare neck. “I don’t wear jewelry, but thank you for the lovely offer.” In hindsight it must have seemed a little strange to him to have a call girl turn down cruises and diamonds. But, I was never your ordinary hooker.

Before leaving he pulled me close to him and hoarsely whispered into my ear: "I love you. I never thought I feel this way about another woman but I do. I love you.”

“You’re married,” I pushed him away reminding him of the obvious.
“Yes, I’m married and I’ve known her since I was fourteen. I never thought I would meet someone I’d leave her for. You know, when my father left my mother and married Pia I was so angry with him. It was more than the divorce. It was marrying outside the Jewish religion. But I can see why he did it now. I understand it because of you. I’d leave her for you, if you’d have me.”

And somewhere between his professed love, possible marriage proposal, and our next appointment I summoned up the courage I needed and bolted out of the life of red lipstick and lies.

Six months later I’m back in school and am working part-time. I’m studying for midterms when on a particularly cloudy October afternoon in 1986 my intercom rings. It doesn’t just ring once. Someone’s finger is on it and the piercing sound is jolting. Not expecting anyone I ignore the intercom and try to remain focused on the oversized art history book on my lap. I’m sitting crossed legged on my sofa and am surrounded by over a dozen books. Almost ten minutes later the buzzer is still ringing. Exasperated, I push my books aside and get up. Quietly, I tiptoe to the front door, and stand in front of the intercom.

“Who is it?“ I asked sharply.

“It’s me, Ira.”

I audibly gasp. I look around my apartment because I have to remind myself that I am in my home, not in my working apartment. My working apartment doesn’t even exist anymore, Ira doesn’t even know who I am, I never told him where I lived, he’s married, I don’t “do that” anymore, and somehow he’s standing in the tiny vestibule of my apartment building. I’m completely confused and have no reference point to help me handle the situation.

The flashbacks begin and I start to hyperventilate.

“I’m busy, go away.” I barely have enough air in my lungs to breath.

“It’s taken me six months to find you, just give me one minute.”

“No.” My body is trembling and my index finger is shaking as I hold down the small button. I feel like a trapped animal and indeed I was. Flash forward to 1991 and a similar scenario would play out in the very same apartment when someone broke in and tried to kill me. Someone I believe sent by Ira.

“Just let me speak to you for a few minutes, please.”

“Give me your phone number. I’ll call you in a few days. I’m studying for midterms.”

“No, give me your number and promise to meet me for lunch at The Plaza on Thursday. Do that and I’ll go away.”

“Promise?”

“Promise,” he echoes.

So, like an idiot because I can’t think, I give him my real phone number, and less than one minute later my phone rings.

“I couldn’t wait till Thursday,” Ira chirps smugly.

“How did you find me?”

“I hired a retired police officer I used to know, someone I trust, I paid him $150,000. It took six months. I’ve missed you. I love you. See me please.”

I’m too dumbfounded to say anything. The whole thing was so invasive. I mean knowing someone has paid a ridiculous amount of money to have you hunted down. A hundred questions came to mind, like how did he find me? When did Ira hire him? I got that quicksand feeling again. I felt violated. I remember thinking about Rita Hayworth and her comment about Gilda: “Every man has fallen in love with Gilda and has awakened with me.” I wasn’t the vamp he met when he paid for sex. I was just an ordinary girl.

What I will not know for years to come is that Ira has been spying on me. He already had my phone number. Asking me for it was just a ruse and I’m being followed wherever I go. Two days later on Thursday I meet him at The Plaza when it was still The Plaza before Donald Trump bought it.

I follow him quietly to the Oak Room. He never orders lunch. I spot two other men walk in behind us and sit down immediately to our right which I think is weird since the whole place is empty. Nothing feels right and I simply want to leave. And then Ira gave me a good reason to do just that.

“I want to see you exclusively,” he tells me in a monotone voice as though he's ordering a glass of water. “Just see me, no one else. I’ll pay you.”

“I’m not for sale! The girl you met and the girl I am are two different women. I’m not interested!” Flush with anger and completely insulted, I storm out.

I will not know when I ride my bike through Central Park in the following days, weeks and months to come and bump into Ira on his own bike that it was not coincidental. He is, in fact, spying on me. Someone has told him I'm in the park on his orders so he can zip on over and chat me up. He is priming me by making me feel he is becoming my friend. I will not know for years to come -- even after I become his mistress of many years that my phones are tapped and every single move I make is being recorded for him. Someone else is writing my diary for the sole purpose of one man's folly. In time I will succumb. But now, I'm merely being spied on by the man who will turn me into his sex slave.

***