Mark Green was the Public Advocate of New York City who was my candidate of choice for mayor a few years ago. Sadly, he did not win. Kyle and I rode in an elevator with him once. Kyle had performed at a fund raiser for a nonprofit run by his wife.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Kyle asked him as the elevator began its descent.

“Yes,” he said. “Especially the speaker.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kyle said, “she was pretty good.”

“That was my wife,” Mark replied.

“Your wife is a foxy, foxy lady,” Kyle answered.

To this day I am unaware of whether Kyle knew he was talking to a former mayoral candidate or not.

Flash forward a few years later. Mark Green is now the president of Air America radio. As you may have read, John Edwards recently dropped out of a Fox Network-sponsored debate in Nevada on account of the fact that Fox doesn’t like Democrats and it has nothing to do with news. The debate was subsequently canceled. Fox went nuts, as they tend to do with anyone who does not respect their dark powers. Some dude at Fox called the Democrats Stalinists for their wariness toward debating in front of a rabidly hostile audience. In response, Mark Green, husband of one foxy, foxy lady, sent this letter to “key Republican party chairs in the four early primary and caucus states”:

As the new president of Air America, I’d like to offer to host or co-host one of your upcoming presidential debates.

Why us? First, this would allow your debate to reach many voters. Combining our 2 million radio audience, along with our satellite, internet and web audiences, means that some 2.5 million Americans would hear or read about the debate.

Second, it would allow Republicans to differentiate themselves from Democrats — embracing a debate hosted by a progressive media outlet after Nevada Democrats canceled a debate scheduled to be hosted by the conservative Fox Cable News Channel. The MoveOn organization spurred 265,000 people to complain about the original plan, calling Fox a “mouthpiece for the Republican Party.” In reply, Fox’s Mort Kondracke called the Nevada Democratic Party’s rejection of Fox a “Stalinist” violation of “free speech and free debate.” So should you accept Air America’s offer, Republicans would both embrace free debate and stick it to Stalin at the same time.

Third, our offer permits you to include any other national media company as a co-host — like Fox. For example, a panel with Fox representing the conservative viewpoint and Air America the progressive viewpoint would make for a very “fair and balanced” debate — not to mention that Fox’s viewers per evening are coincidentally comparable to our 2.5 million listeners, meaning that several million unique people would hear your debate (assuming next to no overlap between our two disparate audiences).

We would be honored not only to co-host such an event; but also to broadcast it live without commercial interruption on the day that you choose.

I look forward to your response and to working with you on this important event.

Yours,
Mark Green
President, Air America Radio