Goldy

As Cienna reported yesterday on Slog, $98 million dollars has now been pledged toward the $131 million cost of replacing the South Park Bridge:

King County ($30 million), Washington state ($20 million), city of Seattle ($15 million), State Transportation Improvement Board ($10 million), Port of Seattle ($5 million), Senator Murray’s Federal DOT-HUD funding bill ($3 million), and PSRC ($15 million).

On the one hand, it’s terrific news to see the region finally getting its shit together on replacing such an absolutely essential, if unglamorous piece of local infrastructure. On the other hand, our political leaders should be absolutely ashamed that it took the bridge’s closure to finally get them to act. How many small, local businesses in the district surrounding the bridge are going to fail during the couple year closure? Or does it not really matter when it’s the wrong type of businesses closing?

Put perhaps more importantly, from a pure public policy perspective, what an incredibly fucked up way of funding local infrastructure!

$20 million here, $15 million there, $3 million in loose change from under the cushions on the couch… really? That’s how we fund road construction around here? I mean, since when did the Port of Seattle become a road-building agency? And yet the Big Bore tunnel, let alone the South Park Bridge wouldn’t be possible without hundreds of millions of dollars from the port. The port, for chrisakes. How fucked up is that? And honestly, how dishonest?

It’s all taxpayer dollars after all; the county and the port, for example, share district boundaries and tax exactly the same people. So why do we have to go through this incredibly stupid charade of raising money from seven — count ’em — seven different taxpayer funded governmental entities?

Why? Because our region has become paralyzed by the politics of something for nothing.

There was a time when the county and city had the taxing authority to maintain their own roads without resorting to begging or special levies or, well, laundering taxpayer dollars through the Port of Seattle. But no more. Not since Tim Eyman’s I-747 vindictively capped property tax revenue growth at an absolutely ridiculous one percent annual growth, a limit our cowardly governor and legislature ridiculously reimposed after it was thrown out by the courts.

One percent! Not enough to keep up with inflation, let alone our region’s growth. Are we really that stupid and irresponsible? (Are we, Seattle Times editorial board? Are we?)

I’ve got no problem with state and federal contributions to local projects — it’s always worked that way — but here’s a novel idea: how about giving the city and county sufficient taxing authority to take on the primary responsibility of maintaining city and count roads, instead of relying on such an incredibly convoluted and stupid-ass funding goulash? Wouldn’t that be more efficient? And since the money is all coming from the same people, wouldn’t it be dramatically more honest and transparent?

Or are we really better off sacrificing the South Park business district for the sake of hiding from taxpayers what basic services really cost?

I was sitting with the Alaska bloggers during last night’s opening keynote addresses (they were all great, but Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer simply kicked ass) and when we got to talking about Dino Rossi, Jeanne Devon (AKMuckraker) of The Mudflats mentioned that he had come to Alaska in 2006 to headline a fundraiser for Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial run.

Really? I hadn’t heard of that before. But a quick bit of Googling found confirmation straight from the horse’s mouth:

Dino Rossi, Republican candidate for governor: “I think it’s a perfect fit for John McCain. I flew up and did a fundraiser for her in 2006. I was very impressed with her. The conservatives will be happy. She’s bright and articulate … America is just going to have to get to know her.”

Yup, she’s “bright and articulate,” Rossi insisted, a gushing assessment Palin has certainly done nothing to refudiate.

And how does Palin return the favor? By coming to Washington and endorsing Clint Didier, of course. Man, that’s gotta sting.

But then, what should Rossi expect from such an impressively bright and articulate woman?

Remember back in 2009 when Susan Hutchison tried to deny she was a Republican while cynical moralists like the editors at the Seattle Times got their undies in a knot over Democrats slinging partisan labels in a nominally nonpartisan King County executive race? Well it shouldn’t surprise you then to learn that Hutchison has maxed out to Republican Dino Rossi, with a $2400 contribution to his senatorial primary campaign.

Those who advocate for nonpartisan elections claim they are trying to remove partisanship from politics, when in fact all they’re really doing is removing valuable information from the voting public. And most of the nonpartisaniks damn well know it.

We’ve all heard about the alleged “enthusiasm gap” that’s supposed to presage doom for Democrats this November, but you wouldn’t know it from the crowds here at Netroots Nation.

Conference organizers tell me that over 2100 attendees have registered for this year’s event, compared to about 1800 last year. (Perhaps that helps explain the collapse of the convention center’s WiFi network?) Only the 2007 event was bigger, when about 3000 bloggers and activists descended on Chicago for the featured faceoff between the Democratic presidential primary candidates.

And yet the oh-so-enthusiastic teabaggers had to cancel their Tea Party Nation convention, which was to have been held here in Las Vegas last week, due to lack of interest. (They claimed the heat scared away attendees; I guess us lefties must be a heartier lot.)

I mean honestly… if 2000 teabaggers had gathered here last week with their conspiracy theories and poorly spelled signs, that’s a story that would have led the network news. But a similar number of liberals? Crickets. Because, I guess, it just doesn’t fit into the standard narrative. Or something.

I enjoyed decent Internet access on the airplane of all places, but here at the Rio, crushed under the weight of a couple thousand bloggers, the Intertubes are proving as sclerotic as Dick Cheney’s arteries. Even AT&T’s 3G network has slowed to a crawl, so I’m not even sure that this small post from my iPhone will get through.

Anyway, just thought I’d give you a heads up in case you don’t here hear much from me.

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.

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.

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.