Dino Rossi and the BIAW are attempting to make their manufactroversy over the Spokane tribal gaming compact a key issue in their mean-spirited, racist and dishonest campaign against Gov. Chris Gregoire. So they’re probably not all that pleased with state Attorney General Rob McKenna straying from the script in speaking at a recent conference of the Washington Indian Gaming Association.
In responding to complaints about the attacks, McKenna told tribal leaders:
“It was a negotiation,” McKenna said. “It was conducted strictly in the framework of state and federal law and it produced a compact which was adopted strictly within the requirements of the framework of state and federal law. Period. And if anyone ever questions the process I would be happy to tell them that, to the letter, we believe the law was scrupulously followed.”
He also said the compacts themselves were working well, though the actual policies they advanced are open to debate.
There ya go… the Republican AG calling bullshit on Republican legislative leaders’ bullshit demands to investigate the negotiations. Of course, McKenna has a habit of telling audiences what they want to hear, but he’s absolutely right in stating that the compact negotiations were “conducted strictly in the framework of state and federal law,” a framework, by the way, that our local media clearly doesn’t fully understand. For example…
Republicans in the House and Senate … want to know which tribes, if any, requested that the Governor’s Office step in to strike revenue sharing from the tribal compact and if there were promises of campaign support in exchange for the governor’s actions.
But in exchange for revenue sharing the rejected compact would have provided the Spokanes a tenfold increase in the number of allocated slot machines, along with many other goodies, and if you understand federal law you’d understand that the other tribes would all have had the right to take the same exact terms. Um… do the math. 75% of one thousand is a helluva lot more loot than 100% of one hundred.
And, if you understand federal law you’d also understand that no other tribe would have been obligated to accept the terms of the Spokane compact and its revenue sharing provision, so there would have been zero incentive one way or the other for tribal leaders to kill it.
In fact, this was the deal the tribes wanted, as I’ve explained in cogent (if excruciating) detail here and here. I know this because I personally worked to kill this compact, both in front of and behind the scenes, an effort on which I enjoyed the support of members of the Republican legislative caucus… so if you don’t believe my analysis of the revenue sharing compact and its political reception at the time, perhaps you’ll believe the words of Republican state Rep. Bruce Chandler, the ranking minority member of the State Government & Tribal Affairs Committee, in his own goddamn press release:
“The interests of Washington citizens were not represented in these negotiations,” said Chandler, R-Granger. “Voters have made it clear they don’t want what the governor is giving away. We should not accept expanded gambling activities when they have been overwhelmingly opposed by communities.”
Initiative 892, which failed by a 61 to 39 percent state vote in 2004, would have allowed an expansion of gambling in licensed non-tribal gambling establishments. The measure received even less support in Spokane County where it failed 63 to 37 percent.
The compact released Thursday would allow the Spokane Tribe of Indians to install up to 4,700 cash-operated slot machines — the first to be legalized in the state. It would also be the first to allow no-limit betting on table games. Chandler says the effect would reach beyond Spokane casinos.
“When the governor expands gambling for one tribe, other tribes in Washington are allowed to request that their compacts be amended in the same favorable terms,” said Chandler. “This compact will dramatically expand gambling throughout the state. I’m concerned the governor has not fully considered the significant economic and social implications.”
Yes, that’s right… the Republican caucus openly and vocally opposed the revenue sharing compact at the time… the very same folks who are now demanding that Gov. Gregoire be investigated for rejecting the compact. And reporters continue to grant them more credibility on this issue than they grant me?
So there you have it, the Republican state Attorney General on the record saying the compacts are working well, and were negotiated “strictly in the framework of state and federal law,” while the ranking Republican member of the pertinent House committee is contemporaneously on the record as demanding the governor do exactly what his caucus is now attacking the governor for having done.
If there is a controversy, it is entirely manufactured by Rossi and the BIAW… a con job in which our state media has been regrettably complicit.
Perhaps we could use a different policy approach. However, the Rossi/BIAW attacks on Gregoire are dishonest, and at best, disingenuous.
I just don’t see that the revenue sharing aspect was all that important to anyone during the 2005 to 2007 time frame that the tribal gambling pacts were being discussed and negotiated.
Revenue sharing was actually seen as a bad thing by most of the political leaders — especially by the Republicans. Revenue sharing was seen as a BRIBE for vastly expanded tribal gambling, and not as an indispensable revenue source for the state. The people had decisively rejected I-892, and did not want a similar thing adopted by contract with the tribes.
All that being said, perhaps it would be a better policy to have revenue sharing AND the present levels of tribal gaming. If these tribal pacts are relatively short term (say five to ten years), perhaps at renewal there can be better terms in the next contract.
But none of this is a reason to dump Gregoire, and replace her with Rossi.
Also, state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of the 36th Legislative District wrote a letter to the PI printed today in which she reveals that:
and she went further to say:
Yeah, it’s just that now that Dino Rossi is thrashing around unsuccessfully looking for an issue that can elect him, suddenly black is white.
McKenna is right, of course, but he could be trying to ensure Dino’s defeat so he can run in 2012. If so, power to him.
@3 Another possibility is that McKenna is perhaps honest enough to tell the truth about this agreement: That it was about limiting the expansion of tribal gambling in our state.
So there’s no misunderstanding let’s make this fact clear:
Republicans are FOR expanded gambling. (Eyman’s slot machine initiative)
Democrats are AGAINST expanded gambling. (Gregoire’s agreement with the tribes)
Oil fell another $2 today, and is now down over $25 since Democrats in Congress forced Bush to stop using taxpayer money to pour $148-a-barrel oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
@5
That doesn’t exactly help the Governor much.
Rabbit Hero Saves Couple From House Fire
“MELBOURNE, Australia — … Fire officials in Melbourne credit a pet rabbit with saving a couple from a house fire. … [T]he family pet, named Rabbit, scratched at the couple’s bedroom door, waking them … in time to escape the fire without being hurt.”
http://www.kirotv.com/family/16986410/detail.html
(Quoted under fair use.)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Would anyone like to adopt a cute lovable rabbit with pink ears and a fluffy cottontail? I’d like the master suite and maid service, please, and I like my carrots medium rare, served with vintage French champagne, and I’ll need several extra bedrooms for my harem.
@7 The governor has taken the high road on the gambling issue. Expanded gambling is bad for our communities, period. Increasing our dependence on gambling taxes for public spending is bad government, period. The state should be protecting its citizens from the scourge of gambling, not victimizing them.
Contrast that with the G.O.P. Party candidate who will say anything and pander to anyone to get elected to a job for which he is not remotely qualified.
This is nothing more than an average days work for Rossi and his handlers.
Fact #1: Under state and fed law the Gov negotiates and ratifies compacts with the tribes.
Fact #2: The tribal community gave some big bucks to the state Dem’s
The first thing that the Rossi tools did was looked at every way they could make hay out of these facts.
If the Gov had simply signed the original compact then the ads would say Gov ignores will of the voters and promotes largest increase the state has ever seen in tribal gaming. The tribes would have still given to the Dem’s and the ads would be much the same only more effective.
@10 The tribes have been supporting Democrats for decades. There’s little doubt that Cantwell’s 2,100-vote victory margin in 2000 came from tribal members voting from her (who are American citizens and have the same voting rights as the rest of us). Maybe our knuckledragger troll friends should ask themselves why Indians support Democrats and not Republicans with their donations and votes? We could start by asking who was shooting at Indian treaty fishermen back in the 70s, and which party the Indian-fighters Slade Gorton and Jim Johnson represented, and which party panders to anti-Indian racists, and which party tried to terminate tribal status back in the 50s, and so on? That might have a lot more to do with the Indians giving their money to Gregoire and other Democrats than the terms of any state-tribal compact. There’s a hell of a lot of history behind this, and it all adds up to one thing: Republicans hate Indians and shit on them every chance they get.
Dino does hypocrisy really well. Q: Which comes first–hypocrisy or Republicanism?
Most folks would take the AG over Deeeno about 1,000 times out of a thousand.
(Hint for trolls: these numbers are equal.)
1. Richard Pope spews:
“Perhaps WE could use a different policy approach. However, the Rossi/BIAW attacks on Gregoire are dishonest, and at best, disingenuous.”
Pretty funny stuff. We don’t need or want a flake like Pope. His prior attacks on Progressives convince me of that.
Wow imagine that – a republican asswipe going off message. This is certainly the proof that the “GOP” is dead or at least dying. No worries, proven liar and the ass-eaters at BIAW will manufacture another bullshit story. They want the right to rape the landscape at taxpayer expense and they need Rossi to make that possible. They won’t give up with one lie. They’ll make up more lies. That’s what they do. They’re republicans.
GBS–
Back in to JRCC yesterday @ $32.50.
Could be another short-term trade.
You know, I really screwed up when I did that short-term trade on Wells Fargo cashing out the next day @ $26.85…than buying back @ $26.66. My plan was to buy & hold. Instead I created another short-term capital gain to pay 35% tax on this year.
I think I let my emotions of make $6.10/share in about a day get the best of me. I’m planning to hold on now. Good Dividend.
What are you doing today?
So when he supports a position you hold, he’s the respected state attorney general, and when he doesn’t, he’s a shameless self-promoter?
@17 It’s possible to be both at the same time, you know. And McKenna is one of the rare Republicans who has enough brains to be capable of it. He’s certainly not above promoting himself, and he’s not even above shamefully pandering to his party’s soft-headed reality-challenged base.
17 T
Not to me.
All true Mr. Rabbit. You left out the more recent shellfish “war” in the 1990’s when the Repugs in the Leg were very harmfull in what they said and how they said it. In short, the Repugs have tried to legislate and have grandstanded in committee for years over issues that stem from the Bolt decision. They have been quick to score political points over the strong feelings a segment of the population have in regard to this Fed court decision.
This more than any other thing has made it clear to the tribal community who thay can have unbiased negotiations with.
Hey trolls, what about Obama “blowing off the troops” in Germany and Afghanistan?
Um, Afghanistan’s certainly a lie.
Oh, and Germany? A lie also:
Nope. Totally unjustified by the “facts on the ground.”
I think that this is clearly the most important issue in the campaign. In fact, I think that Dino and the BIAW should attack the tribes as loudly as viciously as they can, and should pour all their money into that endeavour.
I say this only because the thought of the BIAW picking a fight with the tribes really warms the cockles o’ me heart. After the campaign is over Dino might look back on this argument as being a terrible, terrible mistake.