I’ve been hard on King Council member Jane Hague, and sometimes even liberals criticize me for attacking Jane personally rather than going after her on her record.
But my “personal attacks” are on Jane’s character, her integrity. Or the lack thereof. Character and integrity are not just fair game, they’re really important.
And so based on a number of past events, it seems that Jane Hague has some serious integrity issues. In particular, she has real problems accepting responsibility for her own actions.
Take, for instance, the time in 2001 that Jane Hague ran into a bus:
According to the Metro accident report of May 29, the bus was running the outbound 66 route, driving east on Olive Way. Hague’s 1996 Ford Explorer was stopped in the crosswalk of a traffic signal at Fourth Avenue. Witnesses say Hague pulled out quickly to make a right turn onto Olive and drove into the right side of the bus, behind the front-door frame. The driver reported sounding his horn and stepping on the brakes before impact.
“I do not agree with the driver’s account,” Hague said yesterday. “This is not unusual in the case of a traffic accident.”
According to the Metro driver’s report, after the accident Hague said to him, “You know it’s your fault, don’t you?” The driver replied, “No, I don’t see it that way.”
The driver reported Hague asking, “How do you see it?” and then informing him of her position, saying, “Do you know that I’m your King County councilwoman?”
The driver said Hague demanded his license but didn’t want to give him hers. When witnesses stepped forward and corroborated the driver’s version of events, Hague protested that she was being ganged up on, “to make sure that this accident would appear to be my fault.”
Hague said yesterday her statements to the driver after the accident had been mischaracterized. She denied she had tried to intimidate him or transit officials who came shortly after.
Hague, who is running for re-election, called it “highly unusual” to see “such explicit personality issues raised in the course of a pro-forma traffic report.
There are multiple levels of denial going on here. And, perhaps, a touch of paranoia.
I won’t rehash Jane’s abusive behavior to the police officers who stopped her on suspicion of DUI. And I’ll skip right over the episode in which Jane fails to take responsibility for misleading biographies that incorrectly stated she had a college degree.
Let’s jump ahead to Jane’s most recent accident:
Hague spokesman Brad Harwood said Sept. 26 that the council member was injured on a charity bike ride the previous morning when she collided with another cyclist who made a “goofy” turn in front of her. Harwood said he didn’t know what the event was or where the accident occurred.
It turns out cause of the accident, which occurred on the second day of the Kiwanis-sponsored Wine Country Trek in the Yakima Valley, was a bit more complicated.
Hague and two other cyclists said the accident occurred at an intersection outside Prosser where directions painted on the pavement told bikers to turn left. Hague was about to pass a group of riders ahead of her when they began to make the left turn.
Hague said she was moving “at a fairly good clip” as she approached the intersection, didn’t look for directions because the route went straight in previous years, and she didn’t notice other riders were turning.
Hague’s bike struck Mercer Island resident Penny Storie’s bike, throwing both women to the ground, causing cuts and severe bruising. Hague, who also reported blurred vision and nausea, was later taken by ambulance to a Toppenish hospital and spent two nights in a Bellevue hospital. Storie was not hospitalized.
Hague, 65, said she gave no verbal warning she was about to pass Storie, 66, and a companion because they were still ahead of her.
Storie said the accident was Hague’s fault. “You can’t crash into the back of somebody and put the responsibility on them. . . . I’m black and blue but thankful I have no broken bones.”
Hague said Tuesday she didn’t think anyone was at fault. “It happened so quickly, it’s hard to say.” As for her office’s initial report that the accident was caused by another biker turning into her path, she said it would have been better if she had spoken directly to a reporter. “We were doing the best we could.”
More denial.
Sadly, ten years after the bus accident, Jane has a bicycle accident that ends in denial and a failure to take responsibility for her own actions. This is a long term pattern with Jane.
And after a decade sprinkled with such “events” the pattern has become much too obvious—even too obvious for the mainstream media to ignore Jane’s integrity problem.
You missed the story about Hague not having a dog license (for her dog). You should also ask her why she has house guests take trash with them when they leave after spending an evening at her place.
LOL…
I’ve known a couple of bachelors that deposited their trash in public bins, or occasionally in a neighbors can, while out on their nightly walk. Cheap bastards.
Yeah, when you’re riding with a pack of riders and everyone else goes left while you continue going straight that ensuing crash is your fault.
The funny part about is that, when you ride in packs occasionally someone goes down. It happens. It shouldn’t be that hard to own up to it.
This woman is an insurance company defense lawyer’s dream come true. No credibility as a witness, a DUI and cop assault on her record, multiple accidents (hell, she can’t even ride a bicycle without hitting something!), and on top of all that, she’s a politician. The only thing that’s missing is a Taliban membership card.
If Hague had pulled this stunt in, say, Milan or Perugia four years ago, she’d still be rotting in an Italian jail. With a defendant like this, even an Italian prosecutor couldn’t blow the case.
She’s been representing that district of hers for almost as long as I can remember.
It’s as hard to see her knocked off that pedestal as it is to see the 8th CD tell Dave Reichert that his services are no longer needed.
My best wishes to other guy running for her seat but right now I don’t see it.
funny…a college “professor”, who posts during the time he is supposed to be clocked in, is talking about “integrity”
irony….its whats for dinner.
and really dawhyle, you are getting all bent out of shape over a bike accident? LMFAO..wow, talking about scraping the barrel in an attempt to defame someone’s character.
how in gods name your dumb ass ever got a job at the U is beyond me.
I’ve spent a lot of time in academics, and I’ve never met a faculty member who ‘clocked in’
I think this is one more demonstration of your alienation from education.
As for the Hague stories, keep it up!
This is entirely expected of course – NOTHING is ever a Republican’s fault – they are ALWAYS victims.
@7
you know exactly what I mean….dont play stupid(then again, maybe you really are that dense )
I wonder if professor HA is posting from a UW owned computer?
integrity…..LMFAO….
If the bit about her not wanting to give her license and insurance info at the scene of an accident is even slightly true it shows a shocking lack of knowledge of the law and a shocking lack of common courtesy.
I wonder how long this took to get from the table of Mitchell’s strategy session to your blog.
For once, let’s be honest, if this is the best Mitchell can come up with, he’s in big trouble. For someone who probably spent much of his life salivating over the idea of being in office, he really should have at least one issue to talk about. He’s either an empty suit or afraid to let people know what he really thinks.
dave @ 11,
“I wonder how long this took to get from the table of Mitchell’s strategy session to your blog.”
Dude…I been writing about Hague for years. I’ve never met or communicated, directly or indirectly, with anyone in the Mitchell campaign.
You sound suspiciously like a paranoid Jane Hague!
Well, then maybe Mitchell is stealing your material? You should ask for royalties.
Don’t ignore the broader point though, Mitchell is struggling to make something stick and has yet to introduce any ideas of his own.
dave,
What the hell are you babbling about, “stealing my material”. There was a fucking article in the paper about Hague’s accident yesterday (or Tue evening). I wrote about it. As I point out in my post, Jane’s integrity problem is incredibly transparent, so that even the Seattle Times Editorial Board isn’t ignoring it any longer. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Mitchell campaign noticed the same thing.
“Don’t ignore the broader point though, Mitchell…”
Dude! Get a grip. I was writing about Jane Hague.