Archives for May 2006

Apparently, Florida Republicans have a Katherine Harris problem: she’s so divisive and hateful that she can’t possibly win the general election for US Senate… yet the GOP faithful are still so thankful to her for helping to steal the 2000 presidential election for George Bush, she’s nearly impossible to beat in the primary.

At least, that’s the analysis of the folk at The New Republic, who also reveal this breath-taking fit of honesty on the subject from a member of WA state’s GOP royalty:

Meanwhile, a Fox News analysis of the race this morning delivered a real gem. Former Republican Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn of Washington was sticking up for Harris, whom she described as a friend. Among her talking points was that Harris had done “yeoman’s service for president Bush”* during the 2000 recount. Of course, the official GOP talking point has always been that Harris served no one but the law. “I was just doing my job,” Harris likes to say. Nice to hear someone finally say what we know they’re thinking.

Oops. That’s the sort of thing you’re allowed to think, but not say. And Dunn used to be so shrewd.

Let that be a warning to other elected officials looking forward to a cushy, lazy semi-retirement as a high-priced lobbyist — it addles the mind.

In a tremendous show of support for a congressman who has risked his personal finances to defend the First Amendment, former President Bill Clinton will join Rep. Jim McDermott on stage, for a town hall style, grassroots discussion, on June 3, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Unlikely the ritzy, high-priced events former presidents usually headline, general admission seating is only $50.00, while a limited number of VIP seats will be available for $100.00. All proceeds will benefit Rep. McDermott’s campaign committee, Friends for Jim McDermott Committee.

Why is President Clinton going out of his way to raise money for a popular congressman who would likely win 80 percent of the vote this November without spending a dime? Because Rep. McDermott is in the midst of a multi-year legal battle that will cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees if he wins, and well over a $1 million if he loses.

McDermott could have settled with little more than an apology years ago, but that would have meant selling out the Constitution. Unlike some congressman, McDermott has never been one to use his office to enrich himself, and now he stands to lose his own house, even if he ultimately prevails in court.

But however you feel about Seattle’s congressman, this event is a rare opportunity for average folk to interact with a President… especially one who reminds of us of an era when we actually liked our President.

Wow. Things got a little wild at Drinking Liberally last night. 43rd LD candidate Dick Kelly showed up with a marching band, and The General stopped by to party righteously. And Dave Neiwert — perhaps the nation’s leading authority on right-wing extremists — actually lost his virginity.

Of course, I’m talking about his Podcasting Liberally virginity, as Dave joined me, Will, Mollie, Carl, and Lynn for our usual mix of inside politics, witty banter, and tedious, technical legislative deconstruction sage analysis. Topics of discussion included Net Neutrality Internet Freedom, Sen. Maria Cantwell’s problems with anti-war Democrats, Joni Balter’s boner for allegedly moderate Republicans, Porter Goss’s boner for hookers, plus hate crimes, the Sonics’ bluff, and of course, right-wing bloggers.

The show is 56:23, and is available here as a 36.2 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

What a putz.

I’d like to talk about Net Neutrality Internet Freedom… the core principle that we the people should be able access the tiniest local blog (like HA) as easily as we can the largest corporate website. This is an issue of vital importance both to the economic viability of the Internet, and to the future of our democracy.

But I’m not going to talk about it here.

Instead, I’d like to take this opportunity to point you towards my discussion of this issue in my inaugural entry on Huffington Post, whose distinguished lineup of bloggers I am flattered to have been invited to join.

Here’s a teaser:

It wasn’t so long ago that I couldn’t get local party officials to reply to my emails, so I took it as a sign of how far us bloggers have come when I received a phone call from Rep. Jay Inslee’s (D-WA) office, asking if I could meet with the congressman.

The subject: Net Neutrality Internet Freedom. The simple message: keep the pressure on Congress.

That Rep. Inslee would seek out the help of a local blogger on an issue of national importance is a testament to the power of the Internet to both democratize the media, and enable grassroots activism. But it is also a testament to what is at risk should we fail to prevent a handful of corporate telecommunications giants from becoming gatekeepers over content distribution.

Please read the whole thing.

I’m not sure how often I’ll post at Huffington, but I am grateful to have a national outlet for my occasional ramblings on national issues.

Our good friend Stefan over at (un)Sound Politics is gloating over a report in The Hill that 8th CD challenger Darcy Burner did not make the Democrats “Red to Blue” program after all. But The Hill got it wrong, and not surprisingly, so did Mr. Lazypants Sharkansky:

The Nutroots might not understand this, but grown-up campaign operatives apparently do: The most promising place to invest scarce resources is not with a candidate who has no relevant accomplishments and whose only selling point is that she’s not a Republican.

Well, Stefan and his readers may not understand this, but the best way to determine who is or is not in the DCCC’s program is to, um… call them up and ask them. That’s what I did (it’s called “reporting,” Stefan) and regional press secretary Kate Bedingfield told me that The Hill’s (and uSP’s) report was based on a “lack of understanding of how the program works.”

The DCCC always intended to roll out the program in staggered waves, so as to concentrate the focus of donors on small groups of candidates, thus maximizing contributions. And the chronology of the rollout has absolutely nothing to do with the priority of the individual races.

Bedingfield confirms that Burner most definitely is in Red to Blue — a program she describes as “very exclusive” — and that Burner is scheduled to roll out on June 1st… perfectly positioned to extract the maximum benefit from the program during the crucial, end-of-quarter, fundraising push. Burner has been personally assured by DCCC chair Rahm Emanuel that WA-08 remains a top priority, and that she will receive all of the support she has been promised.

And if that’s not clear enough, DCCC communications director Bill Burton just emailed me the following:

Darcy Burner is running one of the strongest Democratic campaigns in the country. The DCCC has included her in our Red to Blue program as a sign of our confidence that she is the candidate for change who will unseat Dave Reichert in the fall. The Red to Blue program is staggered in order to direct as much donor attention as possible to each qualifying campaign. Darcy Burner’s extraordinary campaign qualified easily for the program and will receive the full force of DCCC financial and strategic aid.

So as much as the head-in-the-ground wing of the local GOP might want to deny it, Burner really is a strong candidate, and the DCCC knows it. Even some Republican operatives have privately told me that if Reichert’s not worried, he sure as hell should be.

As for Stefan, well… I know from personal experience that sometimes, us bloggers just get stuff wrong. But let’s see if he’ll follow my lead and be man enough to admit it.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Please join us for cheers, jeers and beers as we discuss this week’s political happenings.

And if you happen to be a liberal drinker on the other side of the mountains, please note that the Tri-Cities chapter of DL, which also meets Tuesday nights, has moved to 7 PM, Atomic Ale, 1015 Lee Blvd., in Richland. Go ask Jimmy for more details.

Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post that Stephen Colbert’s performance at the White House correspondents’ dinner wasn’t funny… and he’s entitled to his opinion, wrong as it may be. But of more interest are the 3,500 angry emails he got in response.

But the message in this case truly is the medium. The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble — not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before — back in the Vietnam War era. That’s when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.

The hatred is back. I know it’s only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America — the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that’s going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice — once because they couldn’t stop it and once more at the polls.

Can’t say I disagree with Cohen on this one.

It is the human condition to fear what we do not understand, which I suppose explains why President Bush is so afraid of science. Meanwhile, his presidency keeps slip slidin’ away.

I don’t disagree with the Seattle Times editorial board on this one, but it’s kind of a “duh-uh” moment:

We have been warned. State and local government, and even businesses, must be ready to respond to a bird-flu pandemic because the federal government says it can’t be relied on to deliver all necessary services in the event of “multiple simultaneous outbreaks.”

“Can’t” be relied on, and won’t provide an effective response, because the Bush administration simply does not believe that little things like public health and emergency management fall into the proper role of the federal government. Good thing then that our local leaders are so far out in front of this life and death issue.

Way back in September, King County Executive Ron Sims was the guest of honor at a fundraiser to benefit Red Cross relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina. But rather than talk about New Orleans, he spent most of his time talking about the county’s own disaster preparation efforts. By far their primary focus? Not earthquakes, not terrorist attacks… but avian flu. It was a sobering talk with zero political upside for a man who was in the midst of what was supposed to be a tough fight for reelection, and I came away wishing every voter had the opportunity to talk with Sims one-on-one.

Well, Lynn Allen of Evergreen Politics has had the opportunity to chat with Sims one-on-one, and last week she posted a very in depth piece on avian flu and King County’s preparation for it, which the county outlines in a 45-page Response Plan that Lynn accurately describes as “an astounding document.”

It includes the purpose of the plan, assumptions about the possible pandemic, the likely phases of a pandemic, the responsibilities of the various state and local agencies, and discussions of how direction will be provided, communications maintained, schools run, people quanantined, and social distancing strategies implemented. (Note that phrase, social distancing. You’ll be hearing a lot about that as we begin to talk more about preparing for living with a flu pandemic.) They talk about many aspects of the public health system and responses and then how the recovery from the pandemic can proceed.

They also have a section on maintenance of essential services, something I’ve personally been very interested in since my assumptions about the availability of services has a lot to do with my personal preparations. Can we count on having water, even intermittently? Electricity? Bus service? I was reassured and incredibly impressed by the obvious thought that has gone into thinking this all through and developing agreement to it.

Of course, critics (and you know who you are) will likely argue that this is all a bunch of fear-mongering grandstanding… that chances are, avian flu will never make the jump to human-to-human transmission, and that this is all a waste of taxpayer money. But if it does make the jump, thousands of people may die in King County alone… and if it doesn’t make the jump, some other pandemic strain eventually will.

For its part, the Times comes off as rather understated about what needs to be done. After noting that the federal government is unwilling and incapable of leading a response, the Times suggests that the feds “at least ought to help pay the bills.”

Damn right.

Washington state has already received its one-time $2 million allotment from the federal government for avian flu preparation… a pittance to protect the American people compared with the $300 million a day we’re spending in Iraq. It’s time we all started demanding that the Bush administration takes the threat of flu pandemic more seriously, and provide the funding necessary for local governments to meet this crisis head on. Your life could depend on it.

Why won’t Attorney General Rob McKenna do his job? Last I heard, McKenna was Washington state’s top lawyer, and his job, as I understood it, was to defend the citizens and laws of WA state.

And yet as Steve Zemke has revealed over on Majority Rules (here, here and here) McKenna has refused to join 10 other state Attorneys General in defending our recently passed fuel economy standards from unconstitutional federal intrusion.

WA is one of ten states to have adopted Clean Car Legislation… legislation that is now at risk of being overturned by new Bush administration fuel efficiency rules that assert that only the federal government can regulate carbon emissions. California has since filed suit, and nine other Attorneys General have signed on.

But not McKenna.

Why? Well, maybe it’s because McKenna received 28 contributions over $1,000 each (totaling over $36,000) from automobile interests? Or maybe it’s because McKenna only chooses to defend the laws he likes?

Or maybe, it’s simply because McKenna is a Republican — and a conservative one at that — who is more than willing to sacrifice the interests of the people of WA at the behest of the GOP leadership?

I’d like to know the answer. And I’m wondering when my friends in the traditional media are going to pick up the phone and ask him?

Hmm. Perhaps we also need a “Committee for a Two-Newspaper Union Town“…

Members who attended Saturday’s closed-door union meeting said most Times employees in attendance voted to cut ties with the committee, while most P-I employees voted to continue support.

Way to stick together guys.

AP political writer David Ammons, the dean of our state Capitol press corps, focuses most of this week’s column on the tight race in WA’s 8th congressional district.

Washington already has a heavily Democratic congressional delegation, but hungry national Democrats are hoping to pick up at least one more House seat here.

They’re taking on The Sheriff, freshman Rep. Dave Reichert, in the increasingly independent 8th District east of Seattle. As President Bush’s poll ratings fall, Democrats say Reichert could be the most visible victim in Washington this year.

From the opening paragraphs a clear theme emerges… that changing demographics and crumbling national support for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have conspired to put Reichert’s hold on office at risk.

And no doubt, these two factors are huge.

But I think many analysts and pundits have largely overlooked two additional, important factors: challenger Darcy Burner’s surprising strength as both a fundraiser and a campaigner… and incumbent Reichert’s surprising weakness in those very same areas.

The most obvious evidence that Burner is running an exceptional campaign is the very fact that she’s now garnering so much attention. That wasn’t the case a few months back, when only a handful of local bloggers were touting the race as a nail-biter. And yet, the two contributing factors that everybody cites most — WA-08’s changing demographics and the anti-Republican political climate — have both been in play since well before Burner announced her candidacy.

What’s changed in the district to suddenly throw the race into the “toss-up” category? The Burner campaign, that’s what.

When people like me started talking up Burner on the blogs, it wasn’t just wishful thinking. We repeatedly met with the candidate, we argued policy and strategy… and we grilled her mercilessly when she showed up at a NW progressive bloggers’ forum in Olympia this past January.

I personally have known Burner for nearly a year, yet I didn’t start actively promoting her campaign until February, after I became absolutely convinced that she was not only a candidate who could win, but who would well serve the interests of the 8th district and the citizens of WA state. During that time I’ve watched her grow from just another passionate Camp Wellstone classmate, into a compelling campaigner and a formidable fundraiser. And the more I learned about her personal story, the more I became convinced that she was the perfect candidate to represent the demographically diverse 8th district.

“I’m very confident. Not nervous at all,” [Reichert] says. After a pause, he laughs and adds a postscript, “Maybe I should be.”

Well, he should be nervous, because he and his handlers have underestimated his opponent from day one, and that’s the worst mistake a politician can make in a swing district like WA-08, regardless of the political climate.

On the flip side, I’ve become convinced that most observers have overestimated Reichert, the “Hollywood-handsome sheriff” who claims to have tracked down the Green River Killer. His infamous temper, his inability to think on his feet, his stunningly poor public speaking skills when forced to talk off the cuff… all of this detracts from the notable advantages of incumbency.

But even more damning is his stance on the issues and his first-term voting record, both of which are out of touch with the majority of 8th district voters despite Reichert’s relentless efforts to recast himself as a moderate. Reichert is an extremist on reproductive rights, stem cell research and other social issues, while his legislative record on votes that count marks him as a near-rubberstamp for the disgraced Tom DeLay.

As voters learn more about Reichert, they will learn that he is part of the problem in Washington D.C., not part of solving it.

So yes, the race for WA-08 could never be so tight if not for the current political climate and the changing demographics. But the fact that it is so tight six months out from the November election is directly due to Burner’s strengths, and Reichert’s weaknesses.

Just wanted to give credit where credit is due.

I’m guest blogging again on Jesus’ General today. Check out my latest post: “Supersize your soul.”

CIA Director Porter Goss resigned suddenly today… so suddenly that neither he nor President Bush seemed to have time to come up with a coherent reason.

Maybe it was the growing bribery scandal, or maybe it was the hookers, but his resignation after less than two years on the job certainly suggests this is more than just a routine shake up. In 2004 Goss left his powerful post as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and it’s hard to imagine he expected his tenure at the CIA to be so short.

What we do know is that the GOP’s years of absolute power have corrupted many of its most powerful members absolutely. And it’s finally beginning to catch up with the party as a whole.

The other night on Charlie Rose, prominent Republican consultant Ed Rollins seemed almost beside himself with the predicament his party was in. Much to the surprise of his fellow panelists, he predicted as many as 15 congressman could be indicted before this year’s midterm elections. He said there might be a couple Democrats in there, but he made it clear that this is largely a Republican problem.

Rollins talked about all the promises his party had made in 1994 to do things differently, to sweep out the corruption and end the influence of the K Street lobbyists. But all that quickly went out the window. According to Rollins, the Republicans have become as corrupt and entrenched as the Democratic leadership ever was… and “probably worse.”

I wondered at the time if Rollins knew something about the unfolding scandals that his fellow panelists didn’t know. Goss’ sudden resignation makes me wonder anew.