Archives for July 2010

Each year Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) puts together its annual “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” report a bipartisan list of the House and Senate’s 15 most ethically challenged members. But this year CREW is also producing a report on the most Crooked Candidates of 2010, and look who made the initial list: Dino Rossi!

Makes you proud to be a Washingtonian, doesn’t it?

Over at the TNT’s Political Buzz, Rossi spokesperson Mary Lane Strow angrily denounces CREW as “a big ol’ lefty front group” that gets funding from George Soros, and predominantly targets Republicans:

“It’s another one of those things where (Democrats) have some quote-unquote independent group put it out there that Dino’s sleazy,” Strow said. “Then the Murray campaign can reference it in a future ad.”

And Strow’s accusations of rank partisanship might be an effective comeback, if not for the fact that like most of the Rossi campaign’s assertions, it’s totally unsupported by the facts. Indeed, of CREW’s current list of “The 15 Most Corrupt Members of Congress,” eight of them — more than half — are Democrats, including liberal stalwarts like Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Charlie Rangel and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Huh. That’s some lefty front group, Mary.

The fact is, and has been well documented here on HA, Rossi has spent his business and political career hanging out with some awfully shady company, from Mel Heide to Michael Mastro to the conniving, mean-spirited, campaign-finance-cheating BIAW. Perhaps it is all just “guilt by association,” as the TNT headline implies. But there are some awfully strong associations.

If this sorry episode isn’t the end of Andrew Breitbart’s foray into the national media scene, we’re in more trouble than I imagined.

UPDATE: Joe Conason points out that it’s time to re-visit the ACORN smear job.

Regular readers know that I’m not a fan of the airline industry after a string of miserable and abusive flying experiences (yes, I’m talking to you, US Airways), but the free, in-flight WiFi on this Alaska flight is pretty damn cool. Not exactly speedy, but respectably responsive.

I’m in transit to Netroots Nation today, so don’t expect much from me. But maybe my shy co-bloggers will pick up the slack.

– Marc Lynch writes about the recently revived drumbeat for bombing Iran and why it’s still a bad idea.

– I’m still reading through the Washington Post’s report on the vast, secretive security bureaucracy that formed after 9/11. Greenwald does his thing.

– Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske may have said the single dumbest thing any Obama Administration official has said to date [emphasis mine, breathtaking cluelessness in the original]:

Well, we know that certainly California is poised to and will be voting on legalizing small amounts of marijuana. And that vote is scheduled for November of this year.

There are a number of studies and a number of pieces of information that really throw that into the light of saying that, look, California is not going to solve its budget problems, that they have more increase or availability if drugs were, or marijuana, was to become legalized. That in fact you would see more use. That you would also see a black market that would come into play. Because why wouldn’t in heaven’s name would somebody want to spend money on tax money for marijuana when they could either use the underground market or they could in fact grow their own.

I don’t even know where to start. The idea that you’re worried about legalizing marijuana because it might create a black market is like being worried about wearing a bicycle helmet because it might cause you to have a head injury.

– Marcy Wheeler writes about how our government interprets providing “material support” for terrorism so broadly that it can apply to journalists covering a story.

– Scott Morgan calls out DARE for their double-standard on recreational drug use.

– Alison Holcomb writes about Mexico and why what’s happening there is a good reason to support marijuana law reform.

– I don’t have much of the background here, but this letter appears to indicate that the Veterans Administration is no longer cracking down on veterans who use medical marijuana in compliance with state laws.

– The Seattle Times editorial board has some fans in North Dakota.

Please join us tonight for another Tuesday evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Some of us will be there even earlier.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 312 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

I slipped on a loose rock at the park this morning, landing hard on my right arm, just below the elbow. It hurt like a sonuvabitch, though I don’t think I’ve broken anything, but had I it would have cost me several thousand dollars between my insurance co-pay and deductible.

And had I been a laborer, dependent on four working limbs to do my job, an unlucky break like that probably would have cost me my job. That’s how close many Americans are to financial catastrophe: just a freak injury or unfortunate illness away from bankruptcy or worse.

In his recent fundraising letter, Dino Rossi warns how Patty Murray and Barack Obama are threatening the American Dream with un-American acts like healthcare reform and unemployment extensions. “The promise of the American Dream,” Rossi writes, “is the idea that if we work hard and play by the rules in this incredible land of opportunity, we would all benefit from top to bottom.”

“The American Dream was never a promise that everybody would have the same things or that the government would provide you with everything you need no matter what.”

Work hard and play by rules, and everybody benefits, Rossi says. Unless, of course, you work hard, play by the rules and break your arm while lacking access to affordable healthcare. In that case, you’re on your own.

And that’s about as good an illustration of the Republican philosophy as I can think of.

A few weeks back I teased the Seattle Times editorial board for its amazing “psychic powers” regarding public opinion on the deep bore tunnel.

“State lawmakers approved the project, the governor favors it and the region — save for one activist mayor — considers the matter settled,” the Times confidently wrote. To which I bemusedly replied:

Hear that? Except for Mayor Mike McGinn, the entire region favors the Big Bore tunnel, even me! Wow. The Times must know me better than I do. Amazing.

Well, it turns out, not so much.

Indeed, according to a new KING-5/SurveyUSA poll, public opinion is rather split, with only 47% of respondents supporting the tunnel compared to 46% opposed. Furthermore, 48% of respondents are “very concerned” about the costs of the tunnel, and33% “somewhat concerned”, while respondents say that they agree with Mayor Mike McGinn that construction should wait until the state agrees to pay for cost overruns, by a whopping 63% to 31% margin.

I guess the Times’ editors aren’t all that psychic after all. In fact what they are, is totally out of touch.

But confidently so. And in the op-ed business, confidence is apparently the only thing that matters.

UPDATE:
Fixed post to correct my understatement of respondents’ concern.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee this morning challenged Republican senatorial wannabe Dino Rossi to name two policy differences between him and former President George W. Bush, but I think the more interesting challenge might be to ask Rossi to simply explain the details of two pieces of policy. For judging from his recent statements, our state’s best known real estate speculator/perennial candidate just doesn’t come across as all that well informed.

For example, at Sunday’s conservative meet-up Rossi was asked how he could possibly overcome the combined forces of ACORN and SEIU, a stupid question to say the least. But even stupider was Rossi’s reply:  “SEIU and ACORN, they, they’re mean. They’re really evil in some respects.”

The SEIU slur aside (does Rossi realize he just equated 1.2 million nurses, lab technicians and home health care workers with the likes of Hitler and, well, Satan?), both Rossi and his questioner are apparently clueless that ACORN no longer exists, and regardless, was never really a player here in Washington state. So what’s there for you to overcome Dino, no matter how evil you think ACORN is/was?

At the same meet-up, Rossi was also asked whether he supported full repeal of healthcare reform, or only parts of it. Rossi insisted that he supported full repeal. But as the purity police at The Reagan Wing point out, that’s not what Rossi says on his own website, forcing the self-appointed guardians of true conservatism to wonder aloud if Rossi even knows his own position on healthcare?

To what can we attribute Rossi’s alleged change of position? Might it be that he was speaking to a conservative audience instead of to the  Evans-Gorton wing of the Washington State Republican party?

How Reichertesque. Or perhaps that’s why Rossi was so reluctant to post an issues section on his website: it would require him to actually read it.

Indeed, a better question might be to ask if Rossi actually knows what’s in the healthcare reform bill he wants to either repeal in full or in part, depending on the day and the audience. For example, in his recent, hyperbolic fundraising letter (the one in which he says that Barack Obama and Patty Murray are bigger threats than the terrorists), Rossi describes the new law as “a partisan, ill-conceived health care bill that requires 16,500 new IRS agents to administer and pay for it…”

16,500 new IRS agents? Really? That might strike some as a frightening number if it weren’t, you know, total bullshit.

This was a GOP talking point totally refuted way back in March by the nonpartisan FactCheck.org:

Q: Will the IRS hire 16,500 new agents to enforce the health care law?

A: No. The law requires the IRS mostly to hand out tax credits, not collect penalties. The claim of 16,500 new agents stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation.

In it’s full answer, FactCheck.org dismisses the claim as “wildly inaccurate,” and yet there it is as a central argument in a Rossi fundraising letter… four months later. Either Rossi gets all his facts on healthcare reform from FOX News and GOP press releases, or he’s just plain lying to supporters.

Forget about pressuring Rossi to take a clear stance on major issues; reporters need to ask him if he’s actually capable of explaining the issues. Does he know the major provisions of the health care bill, let alone what his bogus “16,500 new IRS agents” claim is based on? Or how about the Wallstreet reform legislation Rossi opposes on grounds that it leaves taxpayers on the hook for another bailout, even though Sen. Murray included a provision to specifically make sure that it doesn’t…? Can Rossi explain in context what a “derivative” is, or “exchanges” or “clearinghouses” or  “aggregate position limits”…? (If not, he might want to ask Sen. Maria Cantwell.)

Is that too much to ask for? A candidate who actual has the intellectual curiosity, capacity and inclination to the study the issues on which he’ll be asked to pass judgement? Or are our media really just going to let Rossi’s ideological laziness slide by once again as mere tit for tat politics as usual?

Yeah… Republicans need to campaign on the exact same agenda as President Bush. That sounds like a great idea.

On Sunday, different-kinda-Republican Dino Rossi attended a Puget Sound Conservative Underground “Coffee with Conservatives” meet-up at the Bothell public library, at which he was asked how he could possibly overcome the combined forces of ACORN and the SEIU. To which, a source who attended tells me, Rossi responded:

“SEIU and ACORN, they, they’re mean. They’re really evil in some respects.”

So, um, first Rossi tells the National Journal that “the saints are with us, the sinners are not.” Then he sends out a fundraising letter declaring that America’s “greatest threat … rests not on foreign soil,” but in Democrats like Patty Murray and Barack Obama. And now Rossi declares that ACORN and SEIU (a union representing 2.2 million members, including 1.2 million health care workers) are “evil.”

Hear that, all you wicked nurses, lab technicians and home health care workers? You are evil!

Um, I suppose it’s possible that Rossi doesn’t really view the world in stark contrasts of good-vs.-evil/saints-vs.-sinners/Republicans-vs.-Democrats… but you wouldn’t know it from how he’s talking.

City Councilmember Nick Licata just told KUOW that he believes he has the votes to pass his ban on displaying the Bodies Exhibit in Seattle, yet his colleague Mike O’Brien can’t seem to get another councilmember to join him in aggressively protecting city taxpayers from a potential billion dollars in cost overruns on the Big Bore tunnel.

Huh. Make of that what you may.

In a recent fundraising letter, Republican real estate speculator and senatorial wannabe Dino Rossi lays out the real threat to the American Dream. Not Al Qaeda terrorists. Not the Taliban. Not our old Russian enemies or the growing might of China. But Sen. Patty Murray and her fellow Democrats:

“Somewhere along the way, liberal Democrats like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Patty Murray corrupted the American Dream.

The result is that today, the greatest threat to the American Dream rests not on foreign soil, but in a broken political system and failed public servants who reward everything the American Dream promises to prevent.”

Leaving aside his notion that one of the things “the American Dream promises to prevent” is universal access to affordable health care, those soft Dems and independents who still think Rossi might be a different kind of Republican should take note of the divisive, hyperbolic rhetoric he’s using to reach out to his own base. According to Rossi, our “greatest threat … rests not on foreign soil.” No, our greatest threat is the enemy that lies within. You know, like the President of the United States.

This is teabagger talk, pure and simple.

So my question for Rossi is, if “the greatest threat to the American Dream rests not on foreign soil,” and if, as he writes elsewhere in his letter, “our national debt threatens everything we’ve worked so hard to achieve”… why would he have voted to explode our debt by approving a trillion dollars in new spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to fight threats that don’t hold a candle to a five foot tall, sixty year old woman?

Mike McGinn made his opposition to the Big Bore tunnel a central theme of his mayoral campaign, so it’s little surprise that the media remains focused on the mayor’s continued opposition as the cost overrun controversy comes to a head. But is this focus misplaced?

That’s what I started wondering after a long conversation with Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien on Friday, in which he emphasized how lonely he was on the council in advocating for a more cautious approach on the tunnel project. According to O’Brien, there are eight firm votes for signing a contract with the state, even with the Legislature’s odious (if possibly unenforceable) cost overrun provision in place. O’Brien remain’s the lone dissenter.

That means, even if the mayor were to refuse to sign a contract, vetoing the authorizing ordinance, there are likely eight firm votes on the council for overriding the mayor… and, well, only six votes are needed. And you wonder why council president Richard Conlin appears so confident?

One of the frequent complaints about former Mayor Greg Nickels was that he acted in a bullying, unilateral manner, but if he did, it was only with the acquiescence of the council. Unlike some other cities, our charter does not create a “strong mayor” system; in fact, power is pretty evenly split between the executive and legislative branches. It just often appeared to be a strong mayor system, partially due to the political attitude and skill of Mayor Nickels (and his consigliere Tim Ceis), and partially due to the individual councilmembers’ inability to work together as a meaningful check and balance.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and all that.

But with Mayor McGinn still learning the ropes, and seemingly so at odds with eight of nine councilmembers, there’s really not much he can do to procedurally monkey-wrench the contract. His cooperation would be preferable, but it’s really not necessary.

I’m not ready to write off Mayor McGinn any more than I’m ready to declare a new councilmanic renaissance; in time, McGinn could still prove to be just as big a bully as Nickels, while this council proves just as incapable of sustaining political coherence as those of our recent past.

But for the moment at least, the political dynamic has changed. We in the media might not have fully recognized it, and neither, possibly, has the mayor, but when it comes to the tunnel contract (and barring an initiative), it is the council who is driving the train, and the mayor this time, who just appears to be along for the ride.