Remember, you read it on HA first:
The Washington Association of Realtors is in trouble again with state campaign watchdogs — and this time Dino Rossi and state Attorney General Rob McKenna are implicated.
The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) staff filed a complaint last week alleging the Realtors group illegally coordinated campaign spending with unsuccessful GOP gubernatorial candidate Rossi and McKenna, a Republican incumbent who won re-election last month.
The complaint also says the Realtors group did not properly report expenditures on brochures during the last three weeks of this year’s race for governor.
Almost $1 million in campaign spending is at issue in the complaint.
It took a few days, but both the Seattle Times and the Olympian report today on this latest Republican campaign finance scandal, and it looks like it’s making it onto the AP as well. But so far they seem to have glossed over the real news here, the apparent complicity of Attorney General Rob McKenna.
If McKenna is as savvy a politician as we all think he is, he’d be wise to call for an independent prosecutor before others do.
Of course, with the understanding that some independent prosecutors are more “independent” than others.
ha first!
Dang librals. Sounds like another gigantic libral new world order conspiracy.
Jim, still never having tried to operate a bagpipe assembly.
The fishwrapper has laid off so many editorial staff they can’t do their own reporting anymore and HA now is effectively one of their wire services. In other words, Frank Blethen isn’t a publisher anymore, he’s merely a printer.
“Governor McKenna”?
Maybe not…
@3 “still never having tried to operate a bagpipe assembly”
Why would anyone want to? (Nutty ex-lawyers excepted.)
How about
Gov. Rod Blagojevich
Gov. George Ryan
Congressman Sharpton
Congressman Jefferson
Congressman McDermott
Gov Chris Gregoire
@7 “How about”
How about this?
http://www.republicanoffenders.com/Pedophiles.html
Do you find this disturbing?
So both parties are full of crooks. What is your point?
How do you explain Mr Obama’s involvement with the indicted Governor of Illinois as reported by the liberal ABC news outfit.
How can lying be considered “change”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....arise.html
Susan @ 9: No, both parties are not full of crooks. The Republican party of my youth was not full of crooks, although there were some notable exceptions (especially the one who had to go on television to proclaim that he was “not a crook”. But 2000~2008, I have to wonder how many are left that are not, in fact, crooks.
The Democratic party apparantly has a few crooks. We are getting rid of them as fast as we can. Gov. Gregoire is not one of them.
Saying that all politicians are crooked is a Republican tactic to try to avoid the the fact that far more Republicans have engaged in wrongdoing over the past decade or so than Democrats.
It also reminds me of the “race to the bottom” which my own children tried to drag me into. I would tell them to do their chores, and they would argue that they shouldn’t have to, because their sibling handn’t done their chores, either. Of course, the natural result of such a “race to the bottom” is that you get to the bottom pretty quick, because your standard of behavior becomes no higher than the lowest standard of behavior you can use as an example. We need the opposite to apply: we expect MUCH MORE from our elected representatives, and we should hold them to a much higher standard of care.
Susan,
George Ryan is a Republican. Al Sharpton has never held elective office. Neither Jim McDermott nor Chris Gregoire has ever been accused of any criminal offense.
So you’re down to Blagojevich and Jefferson, each of whom deserves every minute of whatever jail time he eventually serves.
As do (off the top of my head, and quitting because it gets tiring to think about them) Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby, Ted Stevens, Oliver North, G. Gordon Liddy, …
The new complaint also says the group ran so-called “independent expenditure” ads supporting Rossi and McKenna that were actually illegal contributions to the candidates. The ads for Rossi cost $498,000; the McKenna ads cost $29,000.
I wouldn’t quite count “Governor McKenna” out.
In the world of politics, 29K is pocket change. And if McKenna gets a slap on the wrist for this, he can always claim this incident as a tragic oversight and go on with his career. I doubt the voters will care.
Seems like the PDC is in the Democratty pocket when it comes to investigating politicians. Too bad they didn’t bother to look at Gregoire’s bribe from the Indian casinos.
Poor Susan. Sorry. McSame did not win.
Last time I looked neither did Congressman Jefferson. And a Republican took his place. We’ll see how long he lasts.
I think Jefferson voted for your beloved Iraq quagmire. So good riddance I say.
And before you go off on a Hillary tear. I’m willing to let her be Obama’s bad cop. We’ll see how she does.
John425 @ 14: Sorry, but there was no bribe relating to the Native American’s contributions to the Gregoire campaign, as you well know.
As has been thoroughly reported on this site multiple times: The local Native American casinos wanted a substantial (multiplication) in gambling capacity which would apply not only to the tribe making the application, but all other tribes since they had to be treated equally. They tried to sweeten the pot by offering to give the state a portion of the additional revenue.
Gregoire didn’t bite, realizing that the last thing this state needed was to turn the state into Reno/Northwest. She did negotiate a small increase, in a complicated agreement which balances out the needs of tribes located far away from the major cities with the tribes located on the I-5 corridor.
But the tribes donated some contributions to her re-election campaign anyway. They know a competent governor when they see one.
Rossi’s attempt to turn this into a bibary/campaign issue was (yet one more) pathetic attempt at deception which showed his contempt of the average Washington state voter. While trying to trumpet his Native heritage, he was, at the same time, trying to profit from a racist backlash against the Native Americans and those who are jealous of the recent success of their casinos. The voters didn’t buy it. Gregoire won, Rossi lost.
@16 “John425 @ 14: Sorry, but there was no bribe relating to the Native American’s contributions to the Gregoire campaign, as you well know.”
John just likes to make shit up. Nice rebuttal, though.
@7: Is that the best you can do?
Yes some democrats are crooked – I am glad Jefferson and Blagovich are going down.
Now, what about the culture of corruption in the republican party? What about Abramoff, Delay, Rove, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist laundering money and trying to buy the lobbying business for republicans.
What about the entire state of Alaska (Ted Stevens, Ted Young). what about the massive corruption and no-bid contracts for Halliburton, Blackwater and others? What about the republican caucus refusing to get rid of earmarks for the second year in a row?
What about Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Safavian and others who bribed their way through government? What about the poltical corruption in the FEC documented just today? What about the politicization of the Justice dept., the EPA , the FDA and others?
Your list is a joke – you have nothing on Gregoire or McDermott and Sharpton is not a congressman – get your damn facts straight before you throw out crap into the wind.
The Ivan @ 13 is not me. I use a lower case i. I’m also not a 23-year-old Russian immigrant. But my grandfather was.
ivan, on Ivan:
And in my case, the Russian immigrant grandfather was probably around 32 when he arrived at Ellis Island. With my grandmother, then-three-year-old father, and then-infant aunt in tow.
My aunt, the only one of the bunch still alive, is closing in on 90 and still sharp as a tack (and still a rock-solid Democrat who’s voted twice for John Hall in NY-19).
18 “…get your damn facts straight before you throw out crap into the wind.”
Don’t hold your breath. Straight facts don’t fit well into twisted minds.
True, corruption exists in every corner of our society, across the political spectrum and into all walks of life. Amongst most of the human race, people who slip up end up sorry and ashamed, most of them make amends and life goes on.
However, the American right not only have raised the bar on corruption, institutionalized larceny, scurrilous lies and brutality against the innocent–they celebrate it all with high passion. These people don’t fall off the path of righteousness, they leap toward the abyss with all their strength, drag as many of the rest of us poor sots along as they can, and take great pride in the whole detestable enterprise.
@7 What about Congressman McDermott? All he did was pass on to the media a tape given to him by a private citizen. The tape disclosed Republican congressmen conspiring to commit gross abuses of power. If we lived in a rational society, this would have cost them, not McDermott, a million dollars. The fact McDermott had to pay is a reflection of the irrationality and partisanship of Republican judges, and is a warning to our citizens of what can happen when Republicans get control of our courts.
@22 “Amongst most of the human race, people who slip up end up sorry and ashamed, most of them make amends and life goes on.”
“However, the American right not only have”
It’s damned clear that two of our own wing-nut freaks, Cynical and Pudz, experience no sorrow or shame whatsofuckingever. However, including them as members of the human race is certainly arguable.
Chicago Workers Win!
The Bank of America today agreed to lend enough money to a Chicago factory to resolve pay claims by employees who staged a sit-in. The bank was criticized for cutting off credit to the company after accepting federal bailout money.
McKenna is an asshole. From my experience as a state employee, McKenna is allowing state managers to harass the holy living shit out of state workers, all to save a few pennies and weaken our unions. McKenna is an anti-worker POS.
It doesn’t surprise me that he is being caught up in this corruption. Ever since Civil Service Reform a few years ago, there is rampant corruption in state government. Cronyism, favoritism, nepotism, you name it. State managers, WMS and EMS employees, have manufactured huge raises for themselves over the past few years. And they did it by stepping on the lowest paid employees.
It is a massive reverse Robin Hood scam being perpetrated on the lowest paid state employees. McKenna is just part of the scam.
@7 Rev. Sharpton cares about the poor and hungry. Republicans only care about their own bank accounts.
@7 I’ve gotten a feeling “Susan” is merely the same old Republican cur by a different name.
@14 The fact Indians made over $600K of LEGAL AND REPORTED political contributions to Gregoire’s campaign tells you what the Indians think of Republicans, doesn’t it?
P.S. — Just a friendly reminder that it was Indian money and Indian votes that enabled Cantwell to defeat Indian Hater Gorton in 2002 … HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR … what goes around, comes around!
Although it will be a huge task, and will take years, I feel confident that our new DEMOCRATIC government will ultimately succeed in rooting out the pervasive Republican corruption and thievery that afflicts our society.
Google “Republican fundraising penalties” and
then “Democrat fundraising penalties” and you
can get a picture of which party is the most
corrupt. Liberals are such tards.
I guessing Bush will hire Ken Starr to investigate Obamas’ connection with Blogojevich. That will beat even Clinton and his first scandal. At least Clinton was President. Gameon. Lets show the new President the same respect the last one received throughout his two terms.
@3…Jim (an alleged musician)…
Takes judgment, brains, and maturity – not to mention talent and practice – to play a pipe. Obviously you have none of the above.
I’d sue your parents if I were you.
The Piper
@27…RR…
Al Sharpton? Of the Tawana Brawley scandal?
Defending that race-baiter proves you are unparalleled in the partisan-hack category.
The Piper
Remember all…this is the same PDC that seriously looked at regulating bloggers as lobbyists.
How would you like it, Rabbit, if Goldy got hit with a subpeona requiring him to disclose the IP addresses of all the HA Happy Hooligans?
And then they came after you?
You can allege anything, but proving it is all together different.
BTW…how are those rabid denunciations you made of the Haditha Marines workin’ out for you? Especially since most of the charges were dismissed on almost all of the defendants?
You were ready to lynch them, which was reminiscet of the lynch mob mentality of Walter Van Tilberg Clark’s, The Ox-Bow Incident.
So a lecture on justice from you is like a lecture on morality from Katie Morgan or on ethics from Frank Raines, a Democrat and chiseler of he first orde.
Sucks to be you…
The Piper
The CrackPiper is still an ass.
Here’s a bit more fallout from this.
It seems that some real estate offices are starting to break ranks. At least two medium sized Thurston County offices have decided not to remain in the association next year. If individual agents want to join, the office won’t discourage them, but the association will have to change its rules to allow it.
Other offices are also discussing the possibility of leaving. Part of this comes from the bad press. After all, we don’t pay good money to belong to an organization that makes us look bad.
WAR is not happy.
What’s my office going to do? We’re discussing the issue. Check back in another month.
But regardless of the decision, this issue is one of the topics of that discussion.
And I’m still waiting for that call from the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, a group that was formed back when the National Association of Realtors didn’t want any black agents in their organization.
(Yes, that scene from “Revenge of the Nerds” with the little geeky white guys joining the black fraternity was brought up in the discussion as well.)
@34 “you are unparalleled in the partisan-hack category”
Thank you Scott! It’s about time I got recognition for what I do here.
@35 I don’t have a problem with the PDC inquiring about the monetary value of my HA commentaries.
Just think, if we didn’t have any regulation of campaigns, all political advertising would resemble the HA comment threads. How could anyone complain about Democratic candidates publicly referring to Republicans as goatfuckers? After all, that’s nothing less than untrammeled free speech!
Hey, Piper…..nice to see you’re still able to crawl out of your cave every once in a while.
25 That’s great–good on ’em. The nice thing is that the owners of the plant can come back to a facility that their employees spent the last week donating their time to do cleaning and maintenance on.
Let’s just hope there isn’t a “successful fire” after everyone goes home to sleep in their own beds.
@40…AF…
With my new work, time is occupado most days of the week.
And there’s an offer on the Piper’s cave that, if a deal can be struck at an acceptable price, will free me up to relo to Oly where I can make the lives of certain legislators miserable.
But Brian Sonntag…he’s my man! Keep those performance audits coming!
The Piper
Let’s see, Piper likes performance audits but not the PDC that basically audits candidates to see if they are follwoing the rules of the election.
Just a touch of hypocrisy there, Piper.
If Rossi and McKenna are breaking the rules and lying about it – they should be jailed and McKenna should be impeached.
If the attorney general of the state cannot even follow campaign law, how can we trust him to ensure the law is followed?
We need a special prosecutor to investigate this and all other campaing finance charges – now that McKenna has been tainted.
cnr–
The PDC is APPOINTED by our lying, deceiving Governor. It’s a bunch of Democrat handpicked political hacks with clear agendas and double-standards.
The State Auditor is elected.
Big difference cnr.
The lying, deceiving Cynical is back. How’s your insecurities and overwhelming sense of inadequacy doing? Still getting the best of you, I see.
Just wait for the complaint coming against the demorats and Goldmark for laundering campaign $$…
John Barelli
I too am a pretty pissed off WAR member. There are many of us in fact. I tried to contact you through email, but no response. What is the best way to reach you?