Josh and I just got kicked out of the Rossi press conference, because we’re told, no partisan bloggers allowed. I guess I understand me, but I’m paying Josh, and that, I was led to believe is what defines a working journalist.
You’d think maybe some of Josh’s colleagues might stick up for him. After all, he’s one of the few political reporters in the state still getting paid.
UPDATE:
Lowney: “Rossi more deeply involved than we knew.”
A lot of memory lapses, a lot of obstruction from Rossi’s attorneys.
—
The key meetings at heart of this complaint did involve financial matters and fundraising for a political campaign. Confirmed.
—
Will seek sanctions against Rossi’s attorney. “Most obstructive” deposition ever witnessed.
UPDATE, UPDATE:
You can read a transcript of the deposition here.
If they’re kicking working journalists out they must have something to hide.
Shouldn’t you wait until elected to cover-up your corruption and grow an alliance with friendly media?
The fishwrapper has a link to a transcript of the deposition. Excerpt:
“…at the time all that happened, I was about 75 percent sure I would not run for office, and the reason I was pretty sure at that point in time, pretty close that I would not run for office, is because of this sort of thing, us sitting here today. You know, the fact that you folks served subpoenas at my home pounding at 9:30 at night on my door, serving my teenage daughter with a subpoena, this is the kind of nonsense that you have to go through for someone to run for public office.”
(Quoted from Seattle Times under fair use.)
I’ll bet if you took a survey of Washington office holders, you wouldn’t find very many who’ve been served with subpoenas to testify about their fundraising. But then, most of our office holders don’t have Rossi’s friends or behave like him, either.
Deoposition Transcript – Part 1
3 “…this is the kind of nonsense that you have to go through for someone to run for public office.”
Only if he’s a crook.
@3: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....ssi12.html
http://crosscut.com/2007/04/09.....rnor/1675/
That must be a mighty strong 25%, since Crosscut says he formed an exploratory commission and Luke Esser said they were preparing him for the campaign.
So, the Times has this story on the their websites home page.
First sentence of Jim Brunner’s story:
THIS IS UGLY. (caps are mine)
My guess is that this is not going to play well with the general public. Rossi’s
answersstalling is only going to serve to create doubt about his honesty and character and I think by Friday the polls are going to reflect a drop for him. He is only playing to his base, similar to Palin and you see how well stalling Troopergate has worked for her.Rossi is going to slink back to his home, resume selling real estate (what there is to sell), never to be heard from again.
I say good riddance!!
Summary of the first 5 pages of the deposition: “I did not do what you asked me to do and I will not do what you asked me to do.”
From the above P-I article: “Rossi, whose mother was a half-Tlingit Alaskan, also campaigned for that state’s new Republican Gov. Sarah Palin last year. He is addressing a GOP dinner in Ketchikan this month and has spoken at Republican functions in Juneau and Anchorage as well as Wisconsin and Oregon.”
WATB!
More transcript, Wes!
From page 30:
“…I would expect you to act with all due did he cough rum…”
I had to chuckle at that one. Court reporters take their notes phonetically, and obviously the transcript is a rough one, having been produced so quickly. What the reporter meant was “decorum”, but didn’t have time to go back and clean it up yet.
Funny, anyway.
So legal dispositions are suppose not to be revealed until a formal judicial response allows it.
So if the Gregoire lawyers reveal their information because they are political inclined – should they go to jail….?
What does the Judge say in this case?
the rossi campaign released the transcripts first you idiot
County Finds Ethical Violations By Scott White
“A King County Ombudsman’s Office report … says Legislative candidate Scott White used a public computer and the fax machine for his campaign while he was a county employee. Then White … told an elaborate story blaming … a glitch in his Treo personal digital assistant, the investigation says. An independent expert couldn’t find evidence of any Treo bug … [and] found, instead, that White likely opened and modified the campaign documents intentionally using his King County-owned computer.”
(Quoted from Seattle Times under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Scott White and Gerry Pollet were the two top finishers in the August primary for a legislative seat in the eastside’s 46th LD being vacated by Rep. Jim McIntire to run for State Treasurer. White and Pollet, who both prefer the Democratic Party, have run a contentious race all year complete with an imbroglio over a Democratic organization’s endorsement. Another candidate, Keith Ljunghmammar, who prefers the Cut Taxes G.O.P. Party, was eliminated in the primary. Of the two candidates who prefer the Democratic Party, White (who got the most votes in the primary) is the one who received a campaign donation from the BIAW.
Funny. Pretty much all I got out of the transcript was a series of sloppy and vague questions by the questioning attorney, Mike Withey. If he’d bothered to speak in complete sentences instead of vague fragments and run-ons I think he wouldn’t have wasted as much time as he did.
It did seem Rossi was being careful in his answers…anybody would be if they’re being deposed…and especially so if it’s so obvious this is a lawsuit motivated and timed to influence the election.
I was on the fence about who to vote for and gotta say Mike Withey just helped me finally make my decision…I’m going to vote for Rossi now.
# 14: It depends upon whether there was a protective order from the judge prohibiting disclosure. I’m not aware of any such order in this case, but I haven’t been following the details this closely.
It’s clear that the BIAW attorneys expected it to be published, their speaches were clearly prepared in advance. Rossi’s speech wasn’t so well prepared, he just rambled about groups he didn’t like and came off like a smug jerk.
The plaintiff’s attorneys never got beyond laying the foundation for further questioning. The BIAW attorneys were clearly trying to disrupt the tempo of the deposition by making speaches as part of their objections, complaining about the demeanor of the opposing lawyers, railing against the lawsuit in general. They were trying to run out the clock, because there was a time limit to the deposition. They succeeded in the plaintiffs never getting past the preliminary questions.
They made a couple of goofs, however, referring occassionally to Rossi as “my client”. And if Rossi is really an independent witness, they don’t have the right to instruct him not to answer a question.
@8
“Rossi is going to slink back to his home, resume selling real estate (what there is to sell), never to be heard from again.”
Unless he’s convicted of a crime that strips him of his real estate license.
deleted by author
Didn’t Rob McKenna weigh in on this? I thought he filed against Rossi yeasterday or something?
Rossi has my vote. All the way. I don’t vote for communists like obama and gregoire.
Go Rossi!!!
I will be spending more time reading the deposition later (or not). But my hunch is that the deposition may end up backfiring. I certainly think the relevant questions could have been asked in just one hour, instead of four hours.
Maybe Dino Rossi did break the law about coordination with the BIAW. I certainly think he broke the spirit of the law. I think the questioning should have focused on that issue — which is the subject of the pending lawsuit.
Instead, it seems like Rossi was asked about everything under the sun during the deposition. And it seems like the news media is spinning this as Rossi being the victim and Gregoire being behind this fiasco (or at least a fiasco as far as the media portrays it).
Apparently, Judge Paris Kallas turned down the plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions against Rossi and to extend the deposition, after reviewing the same transcript that Goldy linked to. Or at least, Judge Kallas said that any motion would have to be in writing and that she was not going to make any immediate rulings on the matter.
So we will see how Jim Brunner spins the story. I have known Jim for almost 20 years, since we were both at the University of Washington (me in law school, Jim an undergrad journalism major writing for the UW Daily). I certainly don’t think Jim is any kind of Republican, and I know he is a very professional journalist.
So if Jim Brunner writes the story for the Seattle Times tomorrow, I will trust its balance and objectivity.
I am still voting for Gregoire definitely regardless. But I am afraid a lot of thinking undecided voters may be tipped to Rossi by this apparent nonsense.
Lowney is a partisan dipshit hack.
Wasn’t he also involved in the last minute lawsuit against Mike McGavick??
Didn’t he represent the daughter of Ashley Bullitt who had recently bought a whopping 50 shares of Safeco stock.
Slimey prick.
Who cares what his impressions are?
And BTW, who is paying Lowney?????????
Go Dino Rossi!!!
Take a bite out of communism.
Vote for personal responsibillity.
Vote for Dino Rossi.
@22 Gregoire has my vote. All the way. I don’t vote for fascists like McCain and Rossi.
@27 Take a bite out of fascism.
Vote for personal responsibillity.
Vote for Chris Gregoire.
@26 Go Chris Gregoire!!!
@27: Vote for corruption and Dino!
Do you have anything useful to say or are you just a cheerleader?
Here are some cheers for you to practice:
Go convict Stevens!
Go ethically challeged Rossi!
Go lyin’ Palin with 2 ethics violations!
GO! TO! JAIL!
@31 -You have zero credibility.
You flail around like a fish out of water, spewing your garbage for the whole world to see, accusing others with malfeasance and you have nothing to back your sour and untrue words with.
You are the very essence that defines HA Minion scumbags.
@32: A little upset tiny little Z?
Gee – go cry to mommy. You babies can’t take a little sarcasm?
Maybe you should look around at the criminals in the republican party and the rampant corruption?
Bet you were a big fan of Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist – the holy triumverate of money laundering and corruption.
Nothing to back my words except indictments and convictions.
do I have to list all the crooks, liars and perverts in the republican party? Not enough bits and memory on the computer.
I’ll give you the short list:
DeLay, Abramoff, Safavian, Vitter, Craig, Foley, Gonzalez, Rossi, Stevens, Palin, Ted Young, any Alaska republican, the entire US Justice dept., the FDA (appointed positions), the EPA (lied about global warming) and on and on….oh yeah, bush, cheney and rumsfeld lied about the evidence for war in Iarq…
I love it when an idiot with barely a third grade education questions my credibility.
and what evidence do you have?
I thought so…..little girls like you like to whine but bring nothin’ to the table.
Goldy’s able to afford to pay someone?
He must be letting ol’ Josh have a go at the goats in his backyard for an hour as compensation, which goes a long way in explaining alot of the terminology about goatfucking here at Goldy’s barnyard romper room by his fellow single digit marionettes.
Say Brad
Both Joe (Sam) The (not)Plumber, and Ms. Blistwhips are souring for Yawnie. Give the campaign a call and offer your body for them to spew a couple days for them. Play your cards right and it could mean cases of Doritoes and Mountain Dew.
Bad bad lawyering by Withey and Knoll.
You blew it. Your line of questioning was poorly thought out, you had your chance and you blew it. Credibility is zero.
And Goldy, if a partisan blogger pays someone, it doesn’t make them a journalist. Only being a journalist make one such. Josh is a capable writer, but hardly objective.
@ 1 – “If they’re kicking working journalists out they must have something to hide.”
ummm… they didn’t kick journalists out, they kicked Goldy and his “paid” hack Josh out, roadkill.
Nancy @34-
You were called on your lies and you declined to back up your wild accusations against Dino Rossi.
Anyone with any shred of credibility would be able to back up their words.
You simply have not and cannot.
You win first prize for HA Minion Scumbag.
Don’t expect a blue ribbon any time soon.
@39 Whiney Mrs. Z
Called on my lies?
I didn’t see anything. You have something then show it.
All I am saying is that Rossi is corrupt for colluding with the BIAW for fundraising while he was a candidate – pretending not to be a candidate. The evidence is his phone calls requesting funds to the BIAW from the BIAW’s own meeting minutes.
I call it collusion for illegal campaign funding corruption. I also think that Rossi is tainted for accepting funds and coordinating attack ads with the BIAW. Any politician who is so indebted to a private interest group cannot be impartial. The BIAW is a radical right wing anti-environmental group that has called environmentalists Nazis.
Those are the facts and my opinions about the facts. Can you prove otherwise? If not – then what are you whining about little baby?