From yesterday’s King County Journal:
Reichert rode with Bush in his motorcade when the president came to the Eastside in June to raise money for Reichert and the state Republican Party.
First, the procession roared along Interstate 5 and State Route 520 to get to the Medina mansion where the fundraiser was scheduled.
Stopped on an entrance to the freeway from I-90, students in several Issaquah School District buses crammed their faces against the windows and waved to the president’s motorcade. Bush waved back.
Bush was having a great time, Reichert told a group of veterans in Orting recently. At least until he came even with one of the bus drivers.
The president turned to Reichert and said the bus driver had flipped him off.
Later, Reichert called the school district. After an investigation, the 43-year-old bus driver was fired in early September.
You can argue all you want about the appropriateness of a school bus driver making an obscene gesture, and what kind of reprimand that might deserve, but the crystalizing point of this story is that a bus driver flipped off the President and in response Rep. Dave Reichert went out of his way to have her fired. In fact he’s so proud if it, he’s made the story part of his stump speech.
Flip off the President, lose your livelihood. That’s justice in Dave Reichert’s America, and shows you what a mean, sanctimonious, vengeful S.O.B. he can really be.
A vote for Reichert is a vote for a man who thinks you should lose your job if you disrespect President Bush.
UPDATE:
Hat tip to Aaron in the comment thread:
first!
Thank god he won’t be doing that after January.
Talk issues Goldy. You are such a phony….just like Darcy and her “botched” campaign. But while you brought it up, if I saw a SCHOOL bus driver flip anyone off I would see it to the same result. Now Goldy, go teach your children well…you know, the polarizing hatred you spew daily.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVynnbx1Xsc
He should be fired.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15515763/from/RS.3/
Another shining example of the GOP Moral Majority NOT!
Hey Goldy,
Dave Reichert’s official bio says he “attended Kent Meridian High School”. It doesn’t say he *graduated*. Is there a way to see if he did graduate from Kent Meridian High School?
Official Bio: http://www.house.gov/reichert/biography.shtml
Another official bio: http://www.davereichertforcong.....utdave.asp
News Item:
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 – Page updated at 12:00 AM
Election 2006
McGavick cuts back TV spots on Seattle stations
By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times staff reporter
Republican Mike McGavick canceled political ads at three Seattle television stations Tuesday.
While often a signal of a campaign in trouble, McGavick’s spokesman, Elliott Bundy, said the change of course was needed to target money toward direct-mail and voter-turnout operations.
“You make these decisions as you move along,” Bundy said. “There’s nothing to read into that.”…
The Republican National Committee decided not to waste more money on Mike McGavick’s campaign a couple of months ago. Their decision made sense, because Mike has more than enough money to fund his own campaign (courtesy of the 28+ million “campaign contribution/bonus” from Safeco), and they desperately need the money elswhere, and McGavick is still trailing by a wide margin in the polls, with no indication that his situation is improving.
But the explanation from the McGavick camp to pull the adds rings rather hollow. It is way too late for a direct mail campaign to have any impact, unless he plans on having a really scary (and misleading) mailer arrive on Monday Nov. 6th, to which Cantwell doesn’t have time to respond? I can’t imagine what such a mailer would say – perhaps alleging that she is the Anti-Christ?
As for a voter-turnout campaign, that doesn’t cost that much money. Normally you just need a low-rent office with a phone system, and a bunch of volunteers to make calls and drive people to the polls. Is it possible that McGavick has so few volunteers/supporters, that he plans on hiring people to work the phone banks and drive people to the polls? (Maybe if the voters tip the drivers, then he can get away with paying them only two bucks and change an hour?)
My best guess – since he isn’t receiving any national money, and his fat-cat donars don’t want to throw good money after bad, he doesn’t want to do the same with his own money. He’s already dumped another half-million into his campaign as a “loan”, but he’s probably unwilling to do more than that. Also, the real reason he is pulling the TV ads is that polling shows that they were not effective. In fact, MSNBC was reporting yesterday that Republican ads generally were actually making voters less likely to vote for the Republican candidate.
Maybe Mike is deciding that this is a bad year to be running as a Republican, and Jennifer Dunn proved to be a tougher opponant than he imagined. Better to wait, take advantage of his newly acquired name recognition, and go after another position later – perhaps going after Patty Murray’s spot, or Darcy Burner, or maybe Christine Gregoire. (Query: is Patty Murray’s spot up for re-election in 2008, or 2010?)
by Goldy, 11/01/2006, 1:06 PM
“A vote for Reichert is a vote for a man who thinks you should lose your job if you disrespect President Bush.”
Incorrect. From your link (that you conveniently left off):
“‘Due to events on that day and a gesture that is not at all appropriate modeling for students on the bus, the bus driver was terminated,’ said Sara Niegowski, an Issaquah School District spokeswoman.”
The bus driver was fired for inapporpriate on the job behavior. Not for disagreeing with President Bush.
In addition, despite the title of your post. The bus driver’s First Admendment rights were not infringed. If you were intellectually honest, you’d change the title because it’s incorrect, and has nothing to do with the content of the post.
Sorry the previous comment was mine. I’d forgotten to enter a value in the name field.
BeaParentFirst @ 3
I’ll have to disagree with you. This is an issue. This shows an example of where the current incarnation of the Republican party stands of constitutional rights. We already know that they don’t care for most of them thanks to the Military Commissions Act, but to lose one’s job over a hand gesture? Doesn’t sound like a protector of the Constitution or a bastion of free speech to me.
So, a bus driver can get fired for an inarticulate and rude expression of a political viewpoint, but a cop can’t get fired for taking 20 years to catch a serial murderer?
I’m still having problems even understanding McGavick’s latest add. He accuses Cantwell of being “vague” on Iraq, then says his solution is to “be decisive”, “partition the country if necessary”, and “get our troops home in VICTORY”. Gee, that’s pretty vague, unless what he really means is “CUT AND RUN”. And the partition idea is one where the devil is in the details. Any partition plan would have Shites in charge in the South, Sunnis in charge in the West, and Kurds in charge in the North. But Turkey is opposed to anything resembling an autonomous Kurdish state on their borders. And a Shite-dominated South wculd easily come under the control of Iran. And would the North or South get any of the oil revenues, which are mostly located in the center of the country (Sunni)? And how would the Sunnis export that oil – over the northern pipeline to Turkey through Kurdish territory, or through the Southern pipeline into ports then controlled by the Shiites? And what about water and electrical power resources, which are not equally distributed across the country? And how do you deal with large Shiite communities, such as Sadyr City, which are part of the Bahgdad metropolis and would therefore be in the Sunni area of control? Or does he plan to have isolated “settlment” areas, like Israeli settlements in the West Bank?
Sounds to me like the 1948 plan to partition Israel into Jewish and Palestenian states. We know how well that one worked out. The Palestenians lost their homeland, and the Israelis won a perpetual war.
Advancing our reading of the future in a few years, we can see the Syrians taking over the Sunni areas (like they did in Lebanon), the Turks taking over the Kurdish areas (like Israel did in Southern Lebanon in the 1980’s), and Iran taking over the Shiite areas. Now THERE is the prospect for a truly scary mideast war, with the Iraqi oil reserves as the prize to the victor.
Commentby Jeff— 11/1/06@ 1:54 pm
“I’ll have to disagree with you. This is an issue. This shows an example of where the current incarnation of the Republican party stands of constitutional rights.”
Do you really want to argue that the Constitution protects the rights of someone in the direct care of children to make obscene gestures? Regardless of who they are making them at, this innappropriate behavior. I’m not sure that it warrants firing. But again, Bush or Reichert didn’t fire the driver, the school district did.
If a person driving a bus with school children in it flipped me off, I’d certainly call the school district and complain. Wouldn’t you?
ConservativeFirst
I will argue that. Yes the Constitution protects those types of people like it protects you and me. What he did was not violent in anyway. It was his opinion, and he was fired for it. As for who actually fired him…yes it was the school district (that most likely caved to Reichert’s complaints) but that also speaks measures about what kind of person Reichert really is. The President who noticed the man flipped him off didn’t seem all that upset about it (according to the article), but Reichert seemed to take more offense to it. “Mr. Independent Voice” showed what kind of congressman he was when he tried (and was successful) to have a member, and possibly a voter of his constituency fired because he dared to slight his President with his 1st Amendment right.
Had my kid been riding that bus, I would have considered it a perfectly fine example.
OK, here’s the point. Had the driver flipped off some jerk in a car who cut her off in traffic, what action would the school officials have taken? Under those circumstances, she might actually have been commended for having the wits and skill to avoid a collision.
It appears she was canned because Congressman Toadie wanted to impress Commander Codpiece and called up the school officials and did a little arm twisting (or more likely, had one of his staffers do it).
Is “BeAParentFirst” “howcanyoubeproudtobeanEVILfuckingCHRISTIANISTbitch” dressed up for Halloween as a human being?
Thought so.
Fuck off EVIL ONE.
Conservative First @ 9, 13,
Also omitted from Goldy’s post, but in the KC Journal article, is that the driver and the union have filed a grievance for wrongful termination.
Flipping someone off is expressive conduct, protected as “speech” by the First Amendment under a long line of cases. Even obscene speech is protected; in one of the first expressive conduct cases, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Vietnam War protestor who wore a jacket with “F$#@ the Draft” on it.
Directing the expressive conduct at a political official also at least arguably makes it political speech, which receives the highest level of First Amendment protection. There’s probably case law on that.
Against those principles, there is law on to what degree a public school employee can engage in First Amendment protected speech while at work, on work time. I’m not familiar with that, but I suspect the union’s lawyers are.
I’d also want to know whether any of the kids actually saw the flipping off, and, if they know what it “actually means.” Those facts would go a long way toward resolving whether the school district’s stated position – setting a bad example for kids – holds up.
yea, not like he needs two hands to drive or anything.
Tell ya what Goldy, if you show me proof that Riechert demanded he get fired I will happily blame Riechert.
Till then all he did was turn him in, and the school district is culpable for any possible overreaction, not Reichert.
May the vote of that busdriver be the one to sink Reichert’s re-election.
9 ConservativeFirst
As Goldy took pains to point out, the issue he was raising was not that what the driver’s employer’s did was appropriate or in-, or within their rights or not, the issue is that Dave Reichert, a aitting US Representative, a man whose judgment we are now examining for this election, went out of his way to make sure that the bus driver was disciplined for expressing his disapproval of the president’s policies by flipping off the president.
Just another Republican thug for Bush. Hey, that sounds like their new slogan!
These Republicans are guys who CANNOT laugh it off. Anyone else might have made a crack about the bus driver and gone on with their lives, but Dave Reichert has to show the president what a lickspittle he is by TELLING on the driver. Reminds me of every toadying tattletale everyone else hated in school.
I’ll be he phoned the president afteward and told a minor staff memeber (becasuse the president woudn’t take the call) that he told on the driver to the school district.
More “law and order” Republicans.
Commentby sven— 11/1/06@ 2:46 pm
You don’t need two hands to drive when you’re at a stop for a tax payer funded motorcade going to a political fund raising event.
Actually, the bus driver was in violation of the new “road rage” laws. Any person driving or riding in a motor vehicle that flips off a driver, passenger or pedestrian can be cited.
The bus driver was in the wrong, but Dave Reichert demonstrated where his priorities are: proving his loyalty to the president rather than considering the financial hardship he placed on one of his constituents for such a minor infraction.
If the act of “flipping someone off” is going to be the benchmark for dismissal, then Reichert ought to call for the firing of VP Cheney for telling Sen. Leahey to Fuck Off in the Well of the Senate, or George W. Bush for flipping off cameras, not once, but at least twice.
This exemplifies how desperate the GOP (Gang Of Pedophiles) has become in this election.
So, let me get this straight. In Dave Reichert’s world, it’s ok to have a bus driver who flips off the president fired, but not a cop who beats up a citizen?
As I recall from reading the Pi articles, he seemed to avoid firing many of his own deputies who were engaging in misconduct when he was the King County sherriff.
JCH,
You wouldn’t know this, but in the Navy we’d say “5 and a wake up.”
That’s how long you have on HA blog after the Dems clean house in congress.
Buhhhhh-bye.
I guess we can all assume that the finger-flipping was a political statement, but it is not necessarily so. The driver might have just been ticked off at having to wait on an entrance ramp with a bus full of noisy kids while some politicians passed to a taxpayer-funded fundraiser. The party affiliation may, or may not, have been relevant. And I’d wager that every one of those kids knew what the finger meant, but they probably didn’t see it (they were looking at the motorcade).
But I think it is relative as to motive on the part of Bush/Reichart. If Bush and Reichart had been following a Kerry motorcade, and saw a bus driver flipping Kerry off, I’m sure they would have thought that was the funniest thing they had ever seen in years, and would be telling the story at fundraisers in order to amuse their audience at how “unpopular” Kerry was. I’m sure that they would not have called the school district and complain “on principle”, or “to protect the children”. Yet Reichart is telling the story to his party faithful to demonstrate how “unprincipled” Bush’s opponants are. It’s not so much that they think of it as an obscene gesture, its that they think any show of disrespect to the President and their Congressman should not be tolerated of a public employee.
Personally, I wouldn’t use the finger. But I might have made some other gesture (perhaps holding my nose & giving the “thumbs-down” gesture). It would be interesting to see what sort of reaction that would have created.
I agree that it was an over-reaction for Bush or Reichart to do anything about the gesture. The “noble” thing to do would be to laugh (or shrug) it off. But the days of nobility in our leadership seems to be a thing of the past. In their minds, dissent is not to be tolerated, and dissenters are to be crushed, marginalized, fired, and otherwise made to be an example for others.
And Reichart, the toady, just wanted Bush to see that he can take care of whatever problem disturbs the peace of the emperor. I’m sure he had a bigger political position in mind, and he wanted the favor of the Bush family in order to achieve such advancement. Perhaps he felt he could eventually get selected as Speaker of the House? Or leave Congress and get a position as Director of Homeland Security? Or maybe be annointed as the preferred candidate for Patty Murray’s post?
29: “Yet Reichart is telling the story to his party faithful to demonstrate how “unprincipled” Bush’s opponants are. It’s not so much that they think of it as an obscene gesture, its that they think any show of disrespect to the President and their Congressman should not be tolerated of a public employee.”
I should expand on this. For years during the Reagan/Bush I administration, my Republican friends would rail about how improper it was for Democrats to fail to show sufficient respect to the President. “It doesn’t matter who is in office”, they would argue, “he is the leader of our country, and they are entitled to our prayers and our respect”.
But the minute Clinton took office, the “respect” was dropped. The comments were rather viscous, personal, and occured YEARS before Monicagate, and covered virtually every conceivable rumor which was circulated widely. They predicted that America would suffer ruinous earthquakes and storms as a God’s displeasure over Clinton’s election (and re-election).
But when Bush II took office, suddenly we had a “duty” to respect the President again.
Sorry, in my world respect is earned, it is not a given. I figured that even if I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000, we could surely survive four years of him as President. After all, how much harm can one guy do?
Boy, was I wrong.
Sorry, I usually agree with you, Goldy, but I don’t see this as much of an issue either. I don’t think it’s appropriate at all for a school bus driver carrying children to make an obscene gesture while driving. I don’t necessarily think he should have been fired (provided he didn’t have any past disciplinary record), but certainly a reprimand was in order. If the punishment was too harsh, blame the district, not Reichert. I think there are a great many “concerned citizens” of all political stripes who would make a complaint if they saw a school bus driver flip off ANY other motorist! There are plenty of REAL issues to attack the Republicans on. Democrats don’t have to resort to the current “GOP desperation strategy” of trying to spin irrelevant non-events into scandals.
As far as first amendment rights, they don’t guarantee any of us the right to say whatever we want in the workplace without sanction from our bosses. For example, standing in the middle of your office at work and letting out a long, loud string of swear words may be “free speech”, but I don’t think any court would find that your rights had been violated if you got fired for it!
“Respect the president”? Who? This miserable fraud of a man was placed there by the greatest piece of “legislation from the bench” (the Supreme Court deciding it had the right to appoint someone to the office) and kept there by massive election fraud.
I might respect the office, and six years ago, I was willing to try and give the man the benefit of the doubt, but not any more. Fuck him and the hobby horse he rode in on.
So, Reichert has standards for public officials. He thinks that a bus driver shouldn’t be blatantly disrespecful towards the President of the United States while being paid by our dollars, and in front of a bunch of kids. And Goldy thinks this is a bad thing. No wonder the state of discourse has sunk so low.
If the bus driver had flipped off Governor Gregoire or Senator Murray, the same result would have happened – being fired for inappropriate behavior in front of school children.
No violation of free speech here. You can state anything you want, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences.
Goldy – It is very simple! If I saw a bus driver being that vulgar in front of my children, I would ask that that driver be fired. Plain and simple and no politics involved! Stick to the facts!
I don’t agree with you, Goldy. When you’re on the job, driving your employer’s bus, you have to choose between free speech or the job. You have freedom of speech, but the employer has freedom to not employ you! If the school district did nothing, the driver’s action could be construed as an official act of the district. They had no choice.
Yes, it’s tempting to say give that driver a medal! But the proper thing to do is respect the office. Bush is a short-timer and won’t defile it much longer. No, it’s better to wait for God to rain on Bush and the neoCONS. Trust me, He will. Sure as it rains in Seattle, they’ve shot their wad and will soon be consigned to the ash-heap of history.
But that doesn’t let RubberStampReichert off the hook. The man’s a fink! A snitch. He’s a RAT. I can hardly wait until he gets caught in the till and joins “Duke” in stir. We all know what the big boys in stir do to rats. Throw him in the Hell’s Angels cellblock! He’ll learn the true meaning of the word “bitch.”
Sillyguy — making any progress with your constitutional amendment to require revotes in close elections?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi.....hopter.JPG
Here’s to the bus driver:
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BUSH IS THE PRESIDENT!
Let’s not forget that the bus driver used government property to make a political statement. That is clearly a no no.
I think it’s funny how every made up thing is a ‘civil right’ with Liberal Whackos. Jim McDermot’s illegal wiretap sharing was a ‘freedom of speech” issue. A bus driver using government property to make a political statement is a ‘freedom of speech’ issue.
The only thing that is not a freedom of speech issue with these people is speaking out against your union. That’s treason. Now step back in line little sheep.
Roger Rabbit has had the best analysis by far of the personnel decision by the Issaquah School District.
As for flipping off a President, I remember the eulogy speech that Ron Reagan, Jr. gave at his father’s burial ceremony in California in June 2004. Something about President Reagan advocating the “Thumbs Up” symbol, and how most people were doing that as the motorcade drove by. Ron Jr. then gave a humorous account of how one gentleman had elevated a somewhat different finger, and how his father took that in stride.
Okay, I have found it. Ron Reagan Jr., delivered on (I believe) Friday, June 11, 2004:
He was, as you know, a famously optimistic man. Sometimes such optimism leads you to see the world as you wish it were as opposed to how it really is. At a certain point in his presidency, Dad decided he was going to revive the thumbs-up gesture. So he went all over the country, of course, giving everybody the thumbs up.
My father and I found ourselves in the presidential limousine one day returning from some big event.
My mother was there and Dad was, of course, thumbs-upping the crowd along the way, and suddenly, looming in the window on his side of the car, was this snarling face.
This fellow was reviving an entirely different hand gesture. And hoisted an entirely different digit in our direction.
Dad saw this and without missing a beat turned to us and said, “You see? I think it’s catching on.”
http://www.newsmax.com/archive.....5156.shtml
36 – Roger
Good to hear from you again. Sorry to see you are stuck in a rut (but that could be good thing if you like children (so to speak)). Say hello to Mrs Rabbit and your multitude of bunnies!
Maybe Reichert should ask Bush what he was doing when Kerry was dodging bullets on the Meekong.
Snorting coke with hookers…….
David Postman has more on this story:
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsou....._bush.html
If that bus driver had been a serial killer, it would have taken Cave Reichart 18 years to catch her.
Goldy, Thanks (really) for highlighting another reason to vote for Reichart. The man knows how to behave.
Of course potty mouth Goldy wouldn’t understand decorum, manners, civility.
Be sure to send this “news flash” to as many as you can. We need a few more votes (the sims factor means we need a few more votes than we normally might).
38– the libs only like part of 1 of the amendments…they ignore 2nd amedn, part in first about no restriction of religion, 10th on states powers, etc.
So we have this draft dodging drunk flipping off the camera and THIS is the supposed leader of the free world? No wonder every other country on earth hates us. We suck!
If Reichart had seen a school bus driver flipping anyone off, he would have been within his rights to call the school district and make a complaint. The school district would then launch an investigation, possibly the driver would be suspended with pay during the investigation, since we are innocent until proven guilty.
But:
Reichart is a former law enforcement officer. According to his story (this week), he did not see the bird happen. He was told it happened.
He has a witness, but he doesn’t know if the witness is telling the truth. He doesn’t know if what the witness thinks he saw is what actually happened, or if the driver was adjusting their rear view mirror and Bush just saw one finger. He has no first-person knowledge of what happened at all. He doesn’t even know if the witnesses eyesight is good enough for him to have seen what he claims he saw. For all he knows, the bus driver gave Bush a peace sign and part of the bus or car blocked Bush’s view of the driver’s hand.
Reichart, knowing that none of this evidence would stand up in a court of law, called and had this person fired. He is so proud ohe did that, he uses it as part of his campaign. What does that say about Reichart’s understanding of the law? What does that say about how he feels about the people who live in Washington?
Where is the manners and civility in what he did?
Maybe you should write more about Darcy lying her ass off about her ‘executive’ status at MS, when the fact is that she managed at most 5 people. Or maybe you should discuss her 2.5 review, meaning, she was about to manage even fewer people.
She is completely unqualified.
I love all the “the bus driver didn’t have the right to do this on the job” and “his employer had the right to fire him” posts, usually prefaced “You’re wrong, Goldy.”
Duh. You could try reading the post. Now, I know there are a lot of words there, and you probably dozed off or got distracted watching cartoons the first time you tried to make it through. So here is the relavant portion packaged up all neat and shiny for you.
I knew you could do it.
49 hmmm
You don’t know what her performance ratings were.
Wow, the distortion of the events surrounding this are exploding. Can someone please tell me (Again look at my tittle, I am a UNION fireman), how you really think that management would or even could cave into 1 phone call from a congressman. Management knows what is right and what is wrong. I know for a fact that they don’t always do the right thing, but actually believeing that she would be fired over just this one incident is absurd. The HR department would never allow such action, knowing that the Union would grieve it. Also, the Super even states that this is a pattern for the driver. Of course you all forget to mention that.
As far as the Free Speech arguement, then why can’t I have a Playboy at my fire station? Can I tell a patient that they are not injured and to “F” off when they call 911? No to both of those. I would be fired. MaMa Hate, why don’t you go into a crowded movie theatre and yell “Fire” then tell everyone how you are just excersing your right to free speech.
Stick to the issues, rather than slander and you will see that Congressman Reichert is the right person for the job. Anyone else see him discussing the firing of the bus driver, while surrounded by UNION members on the news?
JCH,
You wouldn’t know this, but in the Navy we’d say “5 and a wake up.”
That’s how long you have on HA blog after the Dems clean house in congress.
Buhhhhh-bye.
Commentby GBS […….GBS, You are soooooo short on HA.ORG you can’t see over a dime. Soon you will be nothing but a dumb ass, liberal, socialist Democrat memory.]
I think the fact that the Superintendant of Issaquah schools is a staunch Republican played into the dismissal.
It is a rather gray area, because the driver did have children in his/her charge, but would the punishment have been the same if Bill Clinton was getting the flying finger of fate? Hard to say because Sheriff Dave would not be riding with him.
WA-08: Reichert Caught In Lie About Driver Who Flipped Bird To Bush
I think Reichert will get back in. Americans love liars and hate truth-tellers.
What part Janet Barry’s statement do not understand.
‘The 43-year-old driver, with the district since 1999, was fired in September. “This incident has to do with the responsibility of an employee who is supervising students to act professionally and serve as a role model for appropriate behavior,” said Issaquah Superintendent Janet Barry. “This was part of a pattern of behavior with this particular bus driver, not an isolated incident.”‘
How would like it if your kid was one of the students on the bus.