HorsesAss.Org

If I were a far-right-wing Christianist Bible-thumper, and he were an outspoken liberal talk show host, I’d say that God is striking down Glenn Beck as punishment for his sins. But I’m not and he isn’t, so I won’t.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS7iGh02oMs[/youtube]

Wow. That’s quite an endorsement for Republican Mark Hargrove:

In the primary, we favored Hargrove’s more moderate Republican challenger Nancy Wyatt. Hargrove is hard-line and inflexible. He agreed never to raise taxes. Ever. That’s a little rigid.

So why would the Seattle Times still endorse such a “hard-line,” “inflexible,” “rigid” and, let’s face it, far-right, theocratic, intolerant extremist like Hargrove?

Still, voters should select Hargrove instead of Geoff Simpson, the incumbent Democrat, who has been accused of domestic violence and who has not distinguished himself in Olympia.

Which is kinda funny, because in fact, the real reason the Times refuses to endorse Simpson is exactly because he has distinguished himself in Olympia… as a strong, progressive champion of working families.

But, you know, the Times will pretty much swallow anything to get an anti-tax/anti-labor politician into the Legislature, even if it also means the candidate is anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-stem-cell-research, anti-birth-control, anti-immigrant and anti-environment. And the Times knows all this. It’s all there on Hargrove’s website and in his various candidate questionnaires.

I mean, the guy has pledged never to raises taxes ever, no matter what, not for education or public health or public safety or even in the event of an emergency. Honestly… how can the Times responsibly endorse somebody running for a deliberative body, who expressly promises to refuse to deliberate?

You know, Hargrove is probably not a bad person. He’s probably not even crazy. He’s just wrong. Completely and utterly mind-numbingly wrong.

But the Times’ editors… they know better. And they should be ashamed of themselves.

Apparently, I’ve offended the delicate sensibilities of the TNT’s Patrick O’Callahan, who thinks my posts on Dave Reichert’s brain are “vile.”

A rather vile post on the thestranger.com two weeks ago, “What’s wrong with Reichert’s brain?,” speculated that the head injury U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert suffered last February had more or less left the 8th District Republican a confused punch-drunk unfit for Congress.

The author, David Goldstein, cut-and-pasted excerpts from a UCLA medical website into lurid accounts of Reichert’s injury and theorized that the congressman had an atrophied brain – “Which leaves me wondering if the 8th CD is on the verge of re-electing a congressman with an… um… intellectual disability.”

Uh-huh. You know what some people might also find kinda “vile” Patrick, especially coming from the editorial page editor of an almost-major daily newspaper? Completely mischaracterizing somebody else’s words. For example, far from describing Reichert as “a confused punch-drunk unfit for Congress,” I merely quoted Reichert’s own “lurid account” of his injury, cited the medical literature, and then posited this rather measured conclusion:

Thus it is not unreasonable to expect that a brain trauma as severe as that described by Reichert, in a man of his age, and untreated for so long, could very well have resulted in some degree of permanent neurological impairment.

To be honest, Reichert has always struck me as “a confused punch-drunk unfit for Congress,” even before his injury, but those are O’Callahan’s pithy words, not mine.

Of course, it’s not really my words that O’Callahan and others find vile, but rather, the subject matter. What offends O’Callahan is that I would dare speak publicly what his colleagues have been whispering quietly for some time. So in my own defense, I’d like to suggest the following analogy:

Let’s say the Mariners were about to sign a particularly sought after free agent pitcher who, one of the TNT’s sportswriters discovers, had failed to disclose the severity of an injury to the elbow on his throwing arm, suffered during a freak, off-season gardening accident. Would it be vile to report on the details of this injury, and to speculate whether he may have suffered any long term or permanent damage?

No, of course not. We pay pitchers to hurl balls, so an elbow injury would be rather relevant.

Congressmen, on the other hand, we pay to make decisions. To deliberate. To negotiate. To, dare I say, debate.

In other words, we hire our congressmen to use their brains, in the same way we hire pitchers to use their arms.

Dave Reichert, by his own admission, suffered a severe brain trauma — much, much, much more severe than he or his staff at first let on — and while it may be an uncomfortable and sensitive subject to broach, it is completely and utterly relevant to the job he is seeking. And that, I assume, is why both Politico and the Seattle Times eventually picked up the story.

No, if there’s anything “vile” about this incident, it’s the way some local journalists, out of politeness or civility or whatnot, have been complicit in Reichert’s effort to hide his condition from voters.

Not surprising really, considering incumbent Republican Dave Reichert’s refusal to actually campaign, but it looks like he suddenly has a real race on his hands:

Democrat Suzan DelBene is within striking distance against Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), according to an internal poll conducted for her campaign.

The poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, found Reichert with 48 percent and DelBene with 44 percent, with 8 percent undecided.

Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates surveyed 400 likely voters and the poll carried a 4.9-point margin of error.

The results show DelBene moving in the right direction. The Democratic firm polled the race in August and found Reichert ahead 50 percent to 41 percent.

Last week a SurveyUSA poll showed DelBene closing within 7 points, down from the supposedly comfortable 13-point spread Reichert had enjoyed only one month before.

And before you simply dismiss these latest results as an internal poll, remember, that’s not how all this works. Candidates poll their own races to give themselves an accurate view of the political landscape, not to deceive themselves. The spin comes in choosing which poll results to release and which to keep private. So it does indeed appear that DelBene has some momentum.

Huh. Perhaps Reichert might want to reconsider his stealth campaign strategy, and maybe agree to a debate or two. That is, if he’s not too mentally impaired to handle it.

The Seattle Times endorsed Republican Kevin Haistings today over incumbent Democratic Rep. Roger Goodman in the 45th Legislative District… apparently the same Kevin Haistings who roughed up a cameraman at a press conference the Seattle Police Officers Guild held to announce their endorsement of Dino Rossi in the 2008 gubernatorial race.

Huh. It’s good to see the Times finally moving beyond its whole anti-labor/union-thug meme by, you now… actually endorsing one:

Republican Kevin Haistings would bring a pragmatic, independent voice to the principal task in Olympia: wrestling a tight budget.

That is, when he’s not wrestling a cameraman.

Equally amusing is the Times’ characterization of Haistings as “a political novice.” Apparently, they gave Haistings a mulligan for his failed 2008 run against Rep. Larry Springer. Kinda the political equivalent of regaining your virginity.

Anyway, here’s the video of Haistings dragging a cameraman out of a press conference, and then grabbing his camera and shoving him while he stood on the sidewalk outside the building. This is the sort of bipartisanship the Times thinks we need more of in Olympia.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs0gfs2ZX5w&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

The Nation discovers that Lou Dobbs has some secrets:

I’m heading up to the Bothell area tonight to give a little pep talk at the home of my brother-in-law Dan Willner, a 1st Legislative District PCO, who is holding a meet-and-greet with Democratic candidates Derek Stanford and Luis Moscoso.

Dan’s concern is that though the polls suggest the tide is turning, and Democrats are closing the gap on Republicans, or taking the lead in elections nationwide, too many Dems have bought into the meme that we’re in for such a severe ass-whooping that there’s no reason to even bother to get out the vote. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the end, this election is gonna be all about GOTV, and if Dems cast ballots in even normal, non-Obama numbers, we’ll more than hold our own. Yeah, in an off-year election in the midst of the worst economy in decades, Dems are gonna give back a bunch of seats they won over the past couple cycles, but Republican control of the U.S. House is far from a given, and a GOP takeover of the Legislature is extremely unlikely.

Meanwhile, a handful of local legislative races pundits and politicos had written off a mere month ago, have suddenly become competitive. I’m sworn to secrecy on the polling data I’ve seen, but let me just say that those districts where Dems are investing the time and the effort and the money to put boots on the ground and ads on the air are seeing very positive results.

In other words, we can win a lot of these closes races… if we put the work into it.

So my suggestion is that other Democratic PCO’s and activists follow Dan’s lead and organize your GOTV gatherings over the coming weeks, and if you’re anywhere near Seattle, and I can fit it into my schedule, I’d be happy to stop by for a little rhetorical GOP ass kicking.

Remember, Republicans are expecting to win BIG this November. What could be more gratifying than disappointing them?

Let’s say there’s a story that’s creating a  bit of buzz within local political circles, that no local journalist is willing to report. You know, like the somewhat sensitive if well-founded concerns that there might be something wrong with Rep. Dave Reichert’s brain. So how do you move this local political story into the local traditional press?

Step 1.) Local blogger pounds story (in this case, over on the higher profile Slog.)

Step 2.) National blogger picks up story, adding credibility and exposure.

Step 3.) D.C.-based publication picks up on story, giving it that spiffy journalismish look and feel.

Step 4.) Local newspaper, scooped in their own backyard by a Beltway rag, finally follows up, delivering story to their large, local audience.

That’s what I call the “Virtuous News Cycle,” variations of which I’m constantly playing to various degrees of success on issues I find important, but nobody else does. And while you may think it manipulative, or insist that this particular line of inquiry was inappropriate or irresponsible, regardless of the larger media’s ultimate response, think about this:

Reichert’s post-brain-trauma mental capacity, or lack thereof, is either news, or it’s not news. Which means, it was either worthy of a Seattle Times article weeks ago, when I first hit the story, or it is not worthy of reporting even now, after their hand has finally been forced. I didn’t make this news; I just made other journalists pay attention to it.

And that’s what effective blogging is all about.

I have a post up on Slog regarding the stupid, industry-backed liquor initiatives on the ballot this year — “Are Washington Voters About to Give Away the Store?” — and while the folks in the comment thread are mostly polite and everything, my God are they completely wrong.

Looks like I’m going to have to spend some time on Slog, using Slog, to oppose the wrongness that has been perpetuated on Slog.

I just spent a long weekend back on the east coast – taking Zach to see his great-grandmother for her 90th birthday party. We flew back last night from Philadelphia and while we waited to pre-board I saw a familiar face walking towards the gate. I leaned over to Dana and asked “Is that Mayor McGinn?”

After boarding, as Dana was getting Zach into his car seat on the plane, I kept an eye towards first class to see if it was really him – as I assumed that he’d be seated up there. I didn’t see him boarding with the first class passengers, but about ten minutes later he walked past us and took his seat in one of the last rows in coach. And it was definitely him.

When the plane landed at Sea-Tac, we let everyone de-plane before us as we had several bags, a sleeping 18-month old and a car seat to juggle. From his back-of-the-plane seat he was one of the very last people to walk up to the exit, and I asked him if anyone else recognized him. He said only one person at the gate in Philly. Not even the couple wearing Seahawks jerseys in the back row of the plane seemed to know that the mayor of the city we were flying to was sitting a few feet from them.

Tuesday brings us together for another evening of politics under the influence. Please join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at about 8:00 pm. Stop by earlier for dinner.

The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word – It’s a Small-Minded World
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 249 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQW9eGEo-z4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Let’s just be clear: if Christine Gregoire had run ads like this back in 2004, everybody would have talked about how incredibly close that election was — 30,000 votes out of 3 million cast… who’d a thunk? — but she would’ve won on the first the count.

The election season normally translates to days of plenty for the news industry, with campaigns vying for prime ad space by flinging buckets of cash at print, broadcast and internet media companies. But apparently, not so much these days for the Seattle Times, which recently sent this rather desperate promotion to local political media buyers:

A full page, full color ad for only $5,000? At that price, they could pretty much print nothing but full page, full color ads, and still not cover their costs.

And don’t think the Times is making up the lost revenues online, where advertising opportunities now “start at less than $2.75 CPM.” That’s not much more per page view than I’m earning this month from Google Ads.

I guess premium content demands premium ad rates. And vice versa.