Ron Burkle Likes Democrats, Detests Someone Else
The new Democratic dawn isn't just good news for gays and commies; it's also payback time for supermarket billionaire and would-be media mandarin Ron Burkle. A longtime patron of Clintons both Bill and Hillary as well as Nancy Pelosi among others, Burkle will enjoy considerable leverage and face time among the newly ascendant party. Forbes carries the water, asking why so many people make fun of Burkle, when all he wants to do is make money and help people (to make him money); the article has no particular answers, noting that Burkle even got mad at Gawker for our "53 citings since March." Make that 54, pal. Amusingly — and no doubt to ensure access to their subject — Forbes is forced to dance around Burkle's biggest publicity gripe. No, not this, which we don't pretend to understand or endorse. This is something or someone who Must Not Be Named.
What beef are we referring to, then? Merely: "When one item [on Gawker] unfavorably contrasted him with a financier he detests, Burkle's lawyers launched a letter demanding a retraction and an apology." We may have apologized "acidly" (you be the judge), but c'mon Forbes, you know that financier's name. Say it along with us: Jeffrey Epstein, he of nubile masseuse propositioning. And let us just restate that Ron Burkle and Jeffrey Epstein are absolutely, totally different people, whatever "unfavorably contrasted" is supposed to mean. Still, Burkle "detests" Epstein? Since when? Burkle and Epstein were supposedly at least friendly acquaintances once. Guess there's no hope for Jeffrey to be included in "Six Degrees of Ron Burkle," even though alleged Burkle extortionist Jared Paul Stern made the cut.
