Archives for July 2005

Seattle Monorail Project Board Chair Tom Weeks, and Executive Director Joel Horn, have resigned:

TO: Seattle Monorail Project Board of Directors
FROM: Tom Weeks and Joel Horn
DATE: July 4, 2005

Effective immediately, we are stepping down from our positions as Chairman of the Board and Executive Director with the Seattle Monorail Project.

Two weeks ago today, Seattle Monorail Project staff delivered to the Board a fixed-price contract to build the 14-mile Green Line along the voter-approved route from Ballard through Downtown to West Seattle. The proposed agreement to design, build, operate and maintain the Monorail is within voter-approved funding limits.

The agreement, however, was overshadowed by the interest costs of the finance plan. Though we tried to explain the complex, long-term financing proposal, and called for apples-to-apples comparisons with other major regional transportation projects, the Board and the people of Seattle have made it clear that the proposed financing plan will not work and that a better plan must be developed.

We take full responsibility for the current situation and feel that it is in the best interest of the Project to step down.

I’m a pretty cynical guy, and part of my role as a political blogger is to be pretty damn cynical. But I have to say I’ve been somewhat disturbed by the way some journalists, pundits, talk-radio hosts and other bloggers have cynically personalized their attacks on the Monorail by attacking the SMP staff and board.

There was no scandal, no corruption, and no grand deception. By all accounts the SMP staff and board are stand-up citizens, who have worked hard to achieve an ambitious vision. Yes, they have failed… but there is no shame in that.

From the beginning Joel Horn said that if they could not deliver on the promises made to voters, then they would not build the Monorail. Saddled with a revenue source that fell way short of projections, it has proven impossible to propose an acceptable financing plan to build the promised system. The SMP and their allies on the Seattle City Council could have arrogantly pressed on with constructing the Monorail despite public opposition to a half-century or more of car tabs. That they have responded to public criticism by pausing the project, and potentially killing it, should be an opportunity not to personally attack SMP board members and staff, but rather to celebrate a process that works.

By stepping down, Horn not only proves himself a man of word, but he also demonstrates his continued dedication to the vision.

The Monorail began as a grass-roots effort to provide Seattle with an environmentally sustainable mass transit system that would get people out of their cars. The public embraced the Monorail. The citizens of Seattle voted four times to support it. People still want the Monorail, but they want a better financing plan to pay for it.

We want what’s best for Seattle and we firmly believe that we owe it to our children, our grandchildren and the environment to build the Monorail

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On this, the United States’ 229th birthday, I would like to honor the document that has made our nation the greatest economic, military and political power in the history of man, by proposing the following Constitutional amendment:

Neither Congress nor the States shall propose any Constitutional amendment that desecrates the Constitution of the United States by proposing a dumb-fuck, stupid-ass Constitutional amendment that runs contrary to the inviolable principles embodied in the Bill of Rights.

I call this the “Constitution Desecration Amendment.”

I know the wording may still be a little rough around the edges, so any suggested tweaking will be duly considered. In the meanwhile, I’m taking the rest of the day off to celebrate a nation so free, that I have the right to burn its flag… if I so choose.

It is great to be an American.

Nobody uses pop culture as a springboard for political analysis quite like the New York Times’ Frank Rich. In today’s column, Rich compares President Bush’s Fort Bragg speech unfavorably to Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds.” Both were intended to whip up fear in their audience… but only Spielberg succeeds.

Both Mr. Bush’s critics and loyalists at times misunderstand where his failure leaves America now. The left frets too much that the public just doesn’t get it – that it is bamboozled by the administration and won’t see the light until it digests the Downing Street memo. But even if they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for John Kerry, most Americans do get it. A majority of the country view the Iraq war as “not worth it” and going badly. They intuitively sense that as USA Today calculated on Friday, there have been more U.S. military deaths (roughly a third more) in the year since Iraq got its sovereignty than in the year before. Last week an ABC News/Washington Post survey also found that a majority now believe that the administration “intentionally misled” us into a war – or, in the words of the Downing Street memo, that the Bush administration “fixed” the intelligence to gin up the mission.

Meanwhile, the war’s die-hard supporters, now in the minority, keep clinging to the hope that some speech or Rovian stunt or happy political development in the furtherance of democratic Iraqi self-government can turn public opinion around. Dream on. The most illuminating of all the recent poll numbers was released by the Pew Research Center on June 13: the number of Americans who say that “people they know are becoming less involved emotionally” with news of the war has risen from 26 percent in May 2004 to 44 percent now. Like the war or not, Americans who do not have a relative or neighbor in the fight are simply tuning Iraq out.

The president has no one to blame but himself. The color-coded terror alerts, the repeated John Ashcroft press conferences announcing imminent Armageddon during election season, the endless exploitation of 9/11 have all taken their numbing toll. Fear itself is the emotional card Mr. Bush chose to overplay, and when he plays it now, he is the boy who cried wolf. That’s why a film director engaging in utter fantasy can arouse more anxiety about a possible attack on America than our actual commander in chief hitting us with the supposed truth.

Rich outline’s Bush’s failures — both in rhetoric and in policy — and concludes that the Republicans could be facing a tough mid-term election.

Iraq may not be Vietnam, but The Wall Street Journal reports that the current war’s unpopularity now matches the Gallup findings during the Vietnam tipping point, the summer of 1968. As the prospect of midterm elections pumps more and more genuine fear into the hearts of Republicans up for re-election, it’s the Bush presidency, not the insurgency, that will be in its last throes. Is the commander in chief so isolated in his bubble that he does not realize this? G.W.B., phone home.

Read the whole thing.

Lawrence O’Donnell, who broke the news that Karl Rove was at least one source of the Valerie Plame leak, has posted an update on The Huffington Post, defending his allegations from comments by Rove’s attorney.

On Friday, I broke the story that the e-mails that Time turned over to the prosecutor that day reveal that Karl Rove is the source Matt Cooper is protecting. That provoked Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, to interrupt his holiday weekend to do a little defense work with Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. On Saturday, Luskin decided to reveal that Rove did have at least one conversation with Cooper, but Luskin told the Times he would not “characterize the substance of the conversation.”

Luskin claimed that the prosecutor “asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say.” This is highly unlikely. Prosecutors have absolutely no control over what witnesses say when they leave the grand jury room. Rove can tell us word-for-word what he said to the grand jury and would if he thought it would help him. And notice that Luskin just did reveal part of Rove’s grand jury testimony, the fact that he had a conversation with Cooper. Rove would not let me get one day of traction on this story if he could stop me. If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper’s source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

It will be interesting to see if Rove can spin himself out of prison.

In an interview with the AP’s David Ammons, commercial real estate broker salesman Dino Rossi once again claims that he’s not bitter over his narrow loss in the governor’s race, and his monumental defeat in court.

The loss and frustrating appeal were painful, but he’s not bitter, he said.

“Probably the only ‘fair’ the Rossi family is going to get this year is the state fair at Puyallup,” he said with a laugh.

It took me a couple of takes before I got the, um… “joke.” Translation: “it’s not fair!” Gees… what a whiner.

In ending his futile contest, Rossi said that he would not appeal Judge Bridges decision, because he did not believe he could get a fair hearing from a “liberal” State Supreme court. He did not back down from this statement.

“Six of the nine justices are liberals — one used to work for Gregoire (in the Attorney General’s Office), so the likelihood of them actually overturning an outcome they liked would be slim to none.

“I don’t pull back” from any of his criticism.

That’s right… according to Rossi, “liberal” justices are simply incapable of basing their rulings on the law… they just decide cases based on who they want to win.

Asshole.

Trashing the integrity of our state’s highest court is not exactly the kind of positive leadership Rossi promised he would bring to the governor’s office. His comments are also very revealing about what he and his ilk believe the true role of the court should be.

“Obviously, it’s very disappointing, but to waste a bunch of time and energy being angry about something you can’t control doesn’t make any sense to me.”

And the thing he’s angry about not controlling… is the State Supreme Court. You see, Republicans expect their judges to always rule according to the party line, and so they expect the same from Democrats. That’s why there’s so much anger from the right at Justice Kennedy for staying true to his conservative, federalist principles rather than consistently siding with the RNC platform.

But the truth is, most justices base their rulings on the law, not their preferred outcome, as can be seen in the state Supremes’ recent decision in favor of the Seattle Times, despite their stated preference that Seattle remain a two-newspaper town.

Rossi didn’t appeal the election contest decision because there was nothing to appeal… Judge Bridges’ ruling was based on the evidence, not the law, and the Supremes almost never reject a lower court’s evidentiary findings. To blame his loss on a “liberal” Supreme Court is not only childish, it shows a lack of respect for the voters who put these justices on the bench.

Makes me think he’d have been just as poor a governor as he is a poor loser.

Last night on the McLaughlin Group, MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O’Donnell said that information handed over to the grand jury by Time Magazine would show that Bush-brain Karl Rove was reporter Matt Cooper’s source in the Valerie Plame case:

“What we’re going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper’s e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury–the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

“I know I’m going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of…for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine’s going to do with the grand jury.”

If true, we’re looking at a possible perjury charge for a high-ranking White House official. The special prosecutor in the case has interviewed Rove, Bush, Cheney and others to testify before the grand jury.

Of course, this does not necessarily tell us that Rove was the original source for conservative columnist Robert Novak’s outing of Plame, a CIA official… or if it was, who gave Rove the information. Novak claimed it was a “high-ranking White House official” and all indications so far point towards Cheney’s office, or even the Vice President himself.

It may be that Cheney’s chief of state, “Scooter” Libby takes the fall, but depending on how this all plays out, perhaps Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement won’t be the only controversial confirmation hearing the Senate faces over the coming year.

(Thanks to reader Christine G for tipping me off in the open thread.)

UPDATE:
It looks like the finger is pointing at Rove, and the story is about to be blown wide open. Writing on the Huffington Post, Lawrence O’Donnell elaborates:

I revealed in yesterday’s taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine’s emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper’s source. I have known this for months but didn’t want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don’t expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an ‘It’s Rove!’ story and will probably break it tomorrow.

And as Jeralyn Merritt points out on TalkLeft, the issue is no longer just about who the Plame leaker was… Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has previously stated that he already knows the identity of Miller and Cooper’s source.

The investigation has moved from one involving the identity of the White House official to one involving perjury — i.e., a cover-up. The source may have been questioned in front of the grand jury and lied.

Knowing the identity of the source is not enough for a perjury conviction. There must be two witnesses to the perjurious statement. Telephone records would not be enough, because they only provide the number dialed, not the identity of the person speaking. Matthew Cooper’s and Judith Miller’s e-mails and notes may provide that corroboration.

The plot thickens.

And looking at some of the recent threads, this open thread is desperately needed. So use it.

And this is without the Downing Street Memo getting broad MSM coverage:

President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a point from a week ago, to 43%, in the latest Zogby International poll. And, in a sign of continuing polarization, more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.

Here in the West, 52% of those surveyed supported impeachment.

Now all we need to do is seize control of Congress so that President Bush can get the justice he deserves for betraying the trust of the American people.

UPDATE:
And just to pre-empt some of the holier-than-thou righty whining I’m sure to get in the comment thread… if it’s okay to impeach a president for lying about a blowjob, why shouldn’t we be talking about impeaching a president for dragging us into a war on a lie?

Bush gets to appoint a Supreme Court justice:

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring.

O’Connor has been the swing vote on many of the Court’s most contentious issues, not the least being abortion, and as such Bush has the opportunity to swing the court sharply to the right. If Bush lives up to his own character, expect an uncompromising nominee that will ignite a war in the Senate that could change the character of the institution for a generation. I cannot overstate my pessimism. Really… I think our national politics could descend into violence.

On a local note, I suppose Dino Rossi is going to have a tough time ducking the abortion issue in 2008 once Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion is thrown back to the states.