Former KIRO TV news anchor Susan Hutchison has been surprisingly media-shy since announcing her candidacy for King Executive, but according to a report on BlatherWatch, she wasn’t nearly so reserved—or calculatingly non-partisan—last Fall when she joined in the Obama-bashing fun with the right-wing talkers over on KTTH:
Her can’t-we-all-get-along is now, but last year she was trashing Obama, and loving up Sarah Palin in a conversation we caught on the fly last Fall in election crunch as she guested on the very conservative David Boze Show (KTTH m-f, 3-6p) with the host’s wife, Peggy Oban Boze.
The conversation didn’t mean much at the time. We knew it was Peggy Boze, but we didn’t know it was Hutchison. We remember snorting when she said something like, (we’re paraphrasing) “Why don’t Obama’s supporters just write in Bill Cosby’s name?” The ladies had a good laugh over that and at the idea, we guess, that, if these silly people must vote for a black guy, Dr. Huxtable would be safer.
Obama’s “terrorist connections,” Bill Ayers, and Jeremiah Wright were mentioned, naturellement.
Why not just write in Bill Cosby’s name? Ouch. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to describe the comment as racist (after all, she’s still encouraging folks to vote for a black guy), but it certainly strikes me as a tad racially insensitive.
But more importantly, despite her careful efforts to present herself as a moderate non-partisan (you know, mostly by refusing to talk about where she stands on any issues), Hutchison’s radio performance places her smack dab in the mainstream of the KTTH crowd… which of course, isn’t mainstream King County at all. And it certainly ain’t non-partisan:
The Boze Show isn’t some lifestyle talker, it’s hard right. Peggy Boze is not just Dave’s ever-lovin’, she’s a conservative activist and was the McCain-Palin Chairwoman For King County. She was a member of the laughable Palin Truth Squad, a sock puppet front to “set the record straight” after “false attacks, rumors and smears ” against Sarah Palin. It amounted to no more than a list of national Republican women they wanted to hitch to Palin to help gain independent women whose votes were going for Obama.
Don’t get me wrong, Hutchison has the right to her own opinions, extremist as they may be. But voters also have a right to know what these opinions are. And if Hutchison refuses to talk openly and honestly about her political allegiances, philosophy and ideology, then the media will just have to piece it together for ourselves as best we can.
NOTE:
And if Hutchison disputes the similar accounts on BlatherWatch and in The Examiner, she should demand that KTTH make the audio public.
UPDATE:
BlatherWatch has since posted a correction, but I’m not sure that it’s warranted. No, Hutchison did not trash Obama on the September 28th broadcast, but most of the other broadcasts from last Fall are not available online, so that doesn’t mean that it was the broadcast in question. (And yes, I searched for the show, and listened to the 9/28 broadcast before writing my post.)
Regardless, the point is that Hutchison is a conservative Republican, something she paraded openly even on the September 28th show (in which Peggy Boze kvells “You’re our Sarah Palin!”), but refuses to admit it now, and she should simply not be allowed to hide behind this nonpartisan bullshit.
I wish the tradtional media would stop referring to her as the front runner as she is the only Republican in the race with 4 Dems.
She can run, but she can’t hide.
” … efforts to present herself as a moderate non-partisan … ”
Can’t rightwing Republicans do anything without deceiving people?
The truth is, this woman is a radical, and isn’t an appropriate leader for our county. She represents a tiny minority. I’m sure she realizes she can’t get elected unless she fools voters about who (and what) she really is.
How can you report this as fact when you have never listened to the conversation and don’t know what was actually said? This is outrageously false…
BlatherWatch just retracted their statement.
Fact. Check.
Nice work guys…
@5…MBBM…
Will Goldy now retract and apologize?
Goldy…will you?
Will you, Goldy?
Mea culpa, Goldy?
Confession is good for the soul…
The Piper
Piper @6,
I’ve updated to point to BlatherWatch’s correction, though I’m not sure it’s warranted, as the bulk of the shows from that period are not online. Who’s to say that was the show?
But no, no apology coming from me, and none deserved. She wants to pal around with David and Peggy and the rest of the right-wing KTTH crowd, she deserves to be branded as such.
@7…Goldy…
In your opening lines of this post you categorically state that Susan Hutchison did something that you cannot now prove that she did. And what you accused her of doing is, to the HA Happy Hooligans, regarded as well above a high crime or misdemeanor: Obama bashing with right wingers at KTTH.
Now, you reported that BlatherWatch issued a correction, but it was more in the nature of a retraction (though qualified in a wormy way). But what words did BlatherWatch use?
“We apologize.”
Why won’t you? You claim now that because it can’t be proven she didn’t say what it was alleged that she said that no apology or retraction is warranted. Huh???
You have no evidence to prove so you use the lack of evidence as proof of not having to withdraw the charge for lack of evidence.
Franz Kafka, phone home…Goldy is on hold waiting for you to pick up.
Show some common courtesy, integrity as a purveyor of news and opinion, and ‘fess up to a screw up. Hell, the NY Times does it every day, and you sure ain’t no NY Times.
The Piper
Obama’s terrorist connections, Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright were mentioned …
– via National Review, current issue
“You’re our Sarah Palin!” Think Kirby Wilbur was assuring us in late August 2008 that Sarah Palin was our Maggie Thatcher.
Mere moments after Palin’s roll-out on the day after Obama’s nomination speech in Denver, and mere moments after recovering from his anaphylactic reaction to Palin’s roll-out, HNMT told Shark’s true believers that Palin and Palin and Palin and Palin and Palin were not ready for Prime Time or Happy Hour. “Margaret Thatcher? Are you ******** me?”
Piper @8,
I won’t apologize because I reported what two independent sources reported, and unlike Michael, I’m not convinced that the 9/28 broadcast is the one in question.
As always, I link to my sources, and folks are free to make up their minds for themselves. They’re also free to critique, criticize, correct and abuse me in my comment threads.
Besides, the truth remains unchanged, whatever the facts. Listen to the 9/28 broadcast and tell me that she’s not a conservative Republican all ga-ga with over Palin. That’s what this post is about, and that truth remains unchanged.
@11…Goldy…
Hmmm…
How about reporting that BlatherWatch APOLOGIZED, which is exactly what they did?
Didn’t they…?
Or did they not?
Which is it?
For incorrectly reporting something, that is, that tarred someone with a brush that is pretty nasty in your lil’ circly of friends…
And what, again, was it that BlatherWatch did? Offered a correction and an____________???
What’s that word?
The Piper
@12
If he did apologize, he has since retracted it, as I don’t see it there anymore.
How wormy is that. Apologizing and then removing the apology. Maybe he was influenced by David.
What Would Maggie Do? She’d tell us to soldier on, we few, we band of brothers and malcontents (Puddy, Piper, Troll, Cynical, HNMT, Mark I, Mark II, Mark III, Mark IV, Marvelous Marginal Marvin), and to snatch victory from the maw of defeat.
We’re conservatives, doggone it, and people like us. We’re not quitters. Did we quit when the Abyssinians bombed Pearl Harbor? Are we going to quit and let our last-gasp party die?
Heck no. We’re going to save it, just like we saved Terry Schiavo.
Short version: David Goldstein tries to break a sensational political story. Fails again.
You’re running around accusing people of serious things without the facts. Though, perhaps how serious a smear this is depends on an interpretation of your weasel words…the comments were potentially, maybe, er, could be perceived as, “racially insensitive.” Uh huh.
And what about you, sir? I mean, where do you get off spreading these blatant lies based on not a shred of evidence? It’s because Hutchison is the only woman in the race, and you have something against women in politics.
Now, that would be an example of an unfounded accusation…but applying your contorted standard of “political reporting,” it’s fair to make such claims up front and then search for the evidence later.
& 7 & 11
David believes in the presumption of guilt until proven innocent, that time-honored liberal principle. Christian, creationist, Republican Susan Hutchison is presumed to have said Bill Cosby was preferable to Barack Obama as president until we have exhaustively checked all of the tapes of shows at KTTH when she was a guest.