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Newt Gingrich Awards 'Entrepreneur Of The Year' Honor To Topless Club Owner
Ben Frumin | September 30, 2009, 6:08PM
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We reported earlier this month that Newt Gingrich's 527 group had accidentally told porn exec Allison Vivas that she'd been awarded an "Entrepreneur of the Year" award and invited her to an "intimate event" with Gingrich. The group soon backtracked and said the whole thing was a mistake.
Well, they may have made a similar mistake again. The Dallas Morning News reports that the owner of a topless club in Texas was given the same award -- and then stripped of it.
Dawn Rizos, owner of The Lodge, which the Morning News calls "one of the best-known gentlemen's clubs in Dallas," was named an "Entrepreneur of the Year" by Gingrich's conservative group. And then Gingrich rescinded the invitation to a private D.C. dinner -- along with Rizos' $5,000 donation to Gingrich's group, American Solutions for Winning the Future.
The group's spokesman, Dan Kotman, was not immediately available for comment.
Rizos, on the other hand, was happy to talk to us. She said she'd already bought her plane tickets and booked a hotel room when Gingrich's group contacted the club yesterday to say the whole thing was a horrible mistake.
"I guess they finally googled me," she said, adding that she'd been looking forward to having her photo taken with Gingrich.
I'm disappointed. I'm really heartbroken that we won't have that picture in the club.
Rizos said the club has won a number of awards in the past, and that it's actually "conservative" by the standards of many topless clubs -- and serves a wide variety of respectable clients.
"It's not something that he would be embarrassed to be associated with," she said, adding that Gingrich "fits the perfect profile of one of our customers."
Rizos sent me an e-mail a few minutes after our phone conversation with this message for Gingrich:
No hard feelings, please drop by and see us anytime. We have lots to talk about.
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tiowally
September 30, 2009 7:09 PM
First porn exec, now strip club. I suspect Newt must be picking a massage parlor out of the phone book at this very moment.
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here
October 1, 2009 10:12 AM in reply to tiowally
Now that would be a happy ending.
*ba dum tish*
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tchamp77
September 30, 2009 7:13 PM
"Entrepreneur of the Year" for running a strip club?? Not exactly the most original idea!!
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midnight rambler
September 30, 2009 7:28 PM
Give Newt a break, he's having a hard time with this newfangled terminology. He just figured a "gentleman's club" was a venue where old conservative men like William F. Buckley sit around in tweeds quietly sipping Scotch and discussing important issues of the day.
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CityGuy
September 30, 2009 10:13 PM
ROFLMAO!! Umm.... No comment!
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rynato
September 30, 2009 10:27 PM
Republicans don't go to strip clubs. They meet up in men's rooms.
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Bravo_Kilo
September 30, 2009 10:31 PM in reply to rynato
Haha, nice.
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T Heaney
September 30, 2009 10:31 PM
Good grief. Why don't they just give it to Ron Jeremy and be done with it already.
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jheartney
September 30, 2009 10:40 PM
Is the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award exclusive, as in they only give out one per year? Or can anybody get one if they pony up $5K to Newt?
If the latter it'd make a sort of sense if they gave the award to some cathouse. After all they're pretty much in the same business.
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SkippyFlipjack
September 30, 2009 11:46 PM in reply to jheartney
It's a joke of a fundraising ploy. They give a whole bunch out. That's what's funny about these stories; Newt's people claim it was a mistake, but of course when you send this out to 1000 donors you won't be able to vet every one.
It's also funny that people continue to accept these awards even after the awards themselves are revealed in stories like these to be a complete fraud. I bet there are some small business owners with the lucite award sitting on their desk, smiling happily.
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SkippyFlipjack
September 30, 2009 11:47 PM in reply to jheartney
I think the right analogy is 'Who's Who in American High School Students', which I think was a book that you'd only appear in if you paid for your own copy. Solely a moneymaking venture, not an honor.
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SkippyFlipjack
September 30, 2009 11:50 PM
http://bit.ly/3G84cY -- "Telemark President Named Entrepreneur of the Year by Newt Gingrich"
I can't believe people put out freakin press releases about receiving this "award"
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SkippyFlipjack
September 30, 2009 11:54 PM
http://www.zeromillion.com/news/s.php/2009-missouri-entrepeneur-of-the-year-to-meet-gingrich-in-d-c
And here's one in Missouri, complete with photo of some sort of ribbon-cutting ceremony. Apparently they select 50 people to each pony up $5000 for the privilege of receiving this prestigious award.
Could be worse; if you win a MacArthur grant I hear you have to pay them $500k ;)
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SkippyFlipjack
September 30, 2009 11:57 PM
one more link -- this a perspective from a business owner who got one but didn't want it
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/my-dinner-with-newt/#more-3933
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commie atheist
October 1, 2009 12:25 AM in reply to SkippyFlipjack
Pay $5000, win an award (or a bargain rate of $250 if you don't show up to meet Newt). Your Republican Party in action, America. Scumbags.
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MNPundit
October 1, 2009 12:27 AM
C'mon, how can you post these stories without linking to pictures of the person? They could be hot women!
Dawn Rizos: http://www.daylife.com/photo/01ofcPeeY22xM
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FlownOver
October 1, 2009 12:34 AM
Newt should have noticed the contribution from Rizos consisted of 5,000 $1 bills.
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Mim Song
October 1, 2009 8:20 AM in reply to FlownOver
with a pretty rubber band thing!
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SkippyFlipjack
October 1, 2009 10:06 AM in reply to FlownOver
Damp $1 bills.
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Homefries
October 1, 2009 3:53 AM
Clearly, as far as American economic activity is concerned, porn and the sex related industries are looking up.
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Official A
October 1, 2009 6:35 AM
"Entrepreneur of the Evening" is more like it.
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islandliberal
October 1, 2009 8:47 AM
The Republican "award" scam has been around a long time. My office got an invitation to receive an award from Tom Delay and attend an intimate award luncheon in DC with the Hammer in exchange for a wee $5k contribution years and years ago, and they helpfully provided an RSVP number. I called the number and told them that I'd rather spend a week in a rat-infested dumpster than one minute anywhere near a reptilian, rapacious rogue like Tom Delay. And no, I don't run a cathouse or topless bar, which seems to be the new pre-requisite for such GOP awards.
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thisniss
October 1, 2009 8:59 AM
"It's not something that he would be embarrassed to be associated with," she said, adding that Gingrich "fits the perfect profile of one of our customers."
Hypothetical? Perhaps Rizos had a different understanding of what "private dinner with Newt" really means?
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Mooser
October 1, 2009 10:41 AM
a reptilian, rapacious rogue like Tom Delay
You forgot "rhumbaing"
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GTFOOH
October 1, 2009 10:45 AM
The real twist here, is that Newt thinks he as to disassociate himself with X rated women, or sully his reputation. But has anybody considered how the porn sisters must fell having their names published in the same paragraph with Newt?
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JohnW1141
October 1, 2009 10:56 AM
Not a day goes by that something new about the Repugs doesn't remind me of the Marx Brothers.
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eve cairo
October 1, 2009 12:41 PM
To paraphrase--that was no "gentleman"-that was a Republican.
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