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Dick Cheney giving advice on how to have an effective foreign policy is like Kayne West giving advice on proper etiquette at awards ceremonies.

Ted Van Dyk is voting for Susan Hutchison, not because she’s qualified to run anything more complicated than Charles Simonyi’s social calendar, but because Van Dyk thinks Dow Constantine is too partisan:

Democrats enjoy a huge registration edge in the county. Constantine, therefore, has based much of his campaign on his long partisan affiliation, in contrast to former TV anchorwoman Susan Hutchison’s uncertain affiliation. (Hutchison says she is a genuine independent who has voted for both Democrats and Republicans and who is endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans). More recently, Constantine’s allies have attacked Hutchison on the basis that she might not be pro-choice.

As the general-election campaign has proceeded, Constantine has diminished himself with his low-politics tactics. (Neither partisan leaning, in a nonpartisan office, nor presumed position on a social issue has anything to do with the duties of the King County executive).

Uh-huh.

But then, I guess such an attitude shouldn’t be surprising, coming from a man who clearly pines for the high-minded bipartisanship of a long lost era, when even a Democratic stalwart like Van Dyk could be counted upon to deliver suitcases full of $100 bills to President Richard Nixon’s private attorney.

[…]

Now that’s what I call bipartisan cooperation.

According to transcripts from the Watergate hearings (yes, the Watergate hearings… Van Dyk’s name comes up surprisingly often in the transcripts), the amount of money funneled to the Nixon administration from this milk industry co-op was closer to $900,000, not the $100,000 originally reported in the New York Times, but who am I to quibble? The point is, according to Van Dyk (who later served as a milk industry lobbyist), bipartisanship is a good thing that always leads to better and less corrupt government than that nasty partisan stuff Constantine practices.

I’m just sayin’….

Down here in Vancouver the hotly contested race for mayor is providing the lamest example of conservative victimology I’ve ever seen during a campaign, and that’s quite a low bar to crawl under. If you’ll recall, long-time incumbent Royce Pollard is squaring off against sitting council member and mayoral candidate Tim Leavitt in the race.

Today Leavitt is complaining that people are canvassing (!) and that someone out on the east side, um, didn’t feel comfortable about it. A Columbian article details the non-staggering revelations, including this hilarious tidbit:

Another call came last weekend from a resident of the Fircrest neighborhood, who called to complain of what his wife described as odd behavior by a door-beller.

The wife, who declined to give her name, told The Columbian that the man asked her whether she was a Leavitt supporter. She said yes. “He asked if we’d voted, if we’d gotten our ballots. I said yes. He asked if I’d filled them out and if we needed help filling out the ballots. I said, ‘I think we can handle it.'”

She said the man was not aggressive, but she felt uncomfortable as the conversation continued. “I know enough to know you can call a campaign office and ask for assistance, but people don’t go door to door and offer to fill out your ballot.”

Please excuse me for a moment, I’ve been on the fainting couch for a while now, this kind of outrageous canvassing caused me to reach for the smelling salts.

Notice that the person making the claim won’t even put their name in the local newspaper, which tells you all you need to know.

Lots of people get uncomfortable about people knocking on doors in their neighborhood, often because they are selling cleaning sprays, conservative ideology or some other scam.

What’s even more interesting is that the big money for canvassing appears to be in the form of a third-party expenditure on behalf of Leavitt. According to PDC documents provided by the Pollard campaign, the labor union Unite Here, Local 9, is spending $30,000 on behalf of Leavitt for canvassing and printing expenses. So you kind of wonder why the Leavitt campaign is trying to stir the shit about canvassing, other than as a cover for their “union thugs.” (Snark alert!) That way if any of their people get out of line, they’ve issued a preemptive justification for all the petty sign destruction and other baloney that accompanies campaigns.

And let’s face it, in all campaigns people get all worked up and accuse the other side of stuff, and conservatives seem to do it in rote fashion as standard operating procedure. From national tickets down to the most modest races, conservative are never accountable for their own actions, they’re being wronged by the wrong kind of people! It’s always someone or something–the media, the gays, the black people, the unions, the terrorists, the environmentalists, the people ringing doorbells, whatever. You kind of wonder what happens when a conservative needs car repairs, because it must be exhausting trying to figure out which group to blame for that bad muffler.

It’s all so utterly predictable. This may be a non-partisan race, but Leavitt is running the classic GOP Clark County campaign perfected by folks like Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver. They try to stir up the conservative base through resentment and claims of being wronged, while campaigning as hard as anyone else. Frankly I’m expecting a ginned-up PDC complaint from the Leavitt camp any day now, it’s what Benton always does. It usually drops on a Friday, so that by the time a reporter can reach someone at the PDC, nobody cares and the public sees a headline about some supposedly nefarious action which is promptly forgotten when the election is over.

If people wonder why regular folks get disgusted by politics, it’s partly because of the stupid antics. It’s too bad Leavitt has thrown in with the local BIAW types and will apparently do or say anything to get elected, but then, that’s how the BIAW rolls. For strictly ideological reasons, the people who build houses apparently don’t want a new bridge that would make their customers’ lives better.

At least Pollard is a stand-up individual, even if one doesn’t agree with him on every last thing. It’s fascinating to watch a moderately pro-business mayor be exposed to the same tactics Democrats have to put up with on a routine basis.

I’m in a Machiavellian mood today, so as long as I’m giving free advice to Democrats and Democratic constituency groups, I thought I’d offer my own prescription for countering the BIAW and the millions of dollars of workers compensation money they spend each year on right-wing candidates and causes. (You know, like the big bucks they’re investing in Susan Hutchison’s campaign.)

Put Retro reform on the ballot.

Understand, I’m not saying you need to actually pass Retro reform, just put it on the ballot — year after year after year after year — thus forcing BIAW to spend their kitty defending their cash cow.

Preferably, the Democrats in the legislature would have the balls to muster enough votes to put a Retro reform measure before voters, because that essentially costs our side nothing. But for about half a million dollars or so, and a little bit of union organizing, it could easily be done by initiative.

The money it skims from Retro comprises the bulk of the money BIAW spends on political campaigns, thus any year in which BIAW is forced to defend its livelihood is another year in which it is taken out of the game. And following the Eyman model, our side doesn’t have to spend anything pushing the measure. If it fails, we just run it again. If it passes, bye-bye BIAW.

Or, of course, Democrats and their progressive constituency groups can continue doing what we’ve been doing for years, spending millions of dollars annually on the defensive, exhausting our resources fighting right-wing measures in lieu of pushing forward our own agenda.

Doesn’t seem like a very tough choice to me.

Apparently, negotiations have been hot and heavy over a Boeing demand that the Machinists union agree to a no-strike clause, or risk the company moving 787 assembly to South Carolina. But…

… less than a week ahead of a Boeing board meeting to discuss the choice, the labor talks are deadlocked and hindered by distrust on each side, according to a high-level person close to the negotiations.

Really? The Machinists distrust Boeing? Could it have anything to do with the company’s demand that the union give up the only real collective bargaining lever it has?

Anyway, given the tone and tension of the negotiations, here’s my carefully considered recommendation for how to settle this seemingly intractable dispute. The Machinists union should agree to Boeing’s ridiculous demand for a no-strike clause. And then, if as feared, Boeing refuses to negotiate the subsequent contract in good faith, they should strike anyway.

Some might argue that such an approach would be dishonest and disrespectful, but, well, Boeing set the tone for these negotiations, so why should the Machinists treat the company with any more sincerity than the company has treated them?

And besides, this way everybody wins. Boeing executives get to save face and claim victory in beating down the unions, all the while keeping production where economically it makes most sense… the Machinists get to keep their jobs while giving up nothing substantive in return… and in the end, nothing really changes but the bragging rights.

I’d make a helluva diplomat, wouldn’t I?

Susan Hutchison says she supports light rail… but not the one we’re building out to the Eastside, and certainly not the light rail approved by 62 percent of King County voters last November.

In supporting Kemper Freeman’s lawsuit to block Sound Transit’s access to I-90, and in arguing against crossing I-90 but for choosing a 520 route instead, Hutchison is clearly stating her intent to obstruct ST’s efforts to build the line approved by voters. And with the county Executive appointing 10 of the 17 seats on ST’s board, don’t think she can’t do it.

Now I know there are many folks who would prefer a 520 alignment (for example, Darryl commutes from Redmond to the UW, so it would work out great for him), but if wishes were horses beggars would ride and all that… and they certainly wouldn’t be riding the train. I myself would have preferred a South Seattle alignment that went down Rainier AVE, and included a stop at S. Graham ST, but, well, you know, screw me.

The point is, as the transit wonks at Seattle Transit Blog explain in their usual wonky detail, the cross-lake issue has already been studied, debated and deliberated ad infinitum, and no amount of wanting or wishing would make the 520 alignment any more feasible. It would be more expensive, would take longer to build, and would generate less ridership and revenue than the I-90 route. And, the University Link tunnel simply wouldn’t have the capacity to handle all the extra north-south traffic.

But most importantly, moving light rail to a new 520 bridge span would put off construction by years, dramatically raising costs, and potentially killing the project altogether. A project, by the way, that voters overwhelmingly approved, knowing it would cross I-90.

After Sound Transit’s initial birth pains, its early mismanagement and poor projections, the Central Link line nearly died on the drawing board too. And it would have, if not for the willingness of elected officials like Ron Sims, Greg Nickels, Larry Phillips and yes, Dow Constantine to stick their necks out and spend political capital in defense of what many others at the time had already written off as a doomed vision.

Leadership matters, and in speaking out against the I-90 alignment while endorsing the Washington Policy Center’s anti-transit prescriptions and embracing the patronage of racist, anti-light-rail xenophobe Kemper Freeman, Hutchison has clearly signaled her intent to lead the effort in undermining ST’s voter-approved Eastside expansion.

So if you supported last year’s transit measure, and support building rail to the Eastside, vote for Constantine. Otherwise, a vote for Hutchison is clearly a vote to kill East Link, whether she’s willing to come out and say it or not.

Susan Hutchison is on the record as saying light rail to the airport was unnecessary because it’s faster and easier to take a cab, but she isn’t getting much love from the Seattle Taxi Owners Association after falsely claiming during yesterday’s KING-5 debate that she enjoyed the endorsement of taxicab drivers. In fact, they’re downright pissed off.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Susan Hutchison is a liar.

Ouch. If I were Suzie, I might want to take the train next time I was headed to the airport.

As reported on Open Left, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has tallied at least 210 firm votes in support of a robust public option, just a handful shy of the 218 needed for passage. And in an effort to whip up the votes in anticipation of a caucus meeting tonight, the House leadership has produced a target list of the undecideds.

Surprisingly, two Washington Democrats have found themselves on the undecided list, Rep. Brian Baird (WA-03) and Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02). Surprising, because polls consistently show a public option enjoying strong support in Washington state and nationwide.

So, assuming Baird and Larsen really are having trouble making up their minds, they sure could use some help from their constituents. Call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-866-220-0044, and ask to speak to your representative, then urge them to support a robust public option if they want your robust support next November.

Boeing lost $1.67 billion dollars in the last quarter, and clearly, organized labor is to blame… you know, just like union contracts are to blame for budget deficits in King County, the state of Washington, and thousands of other state and local governments throughout the nation. (Not to mention the declining fortunes of the newspaper industry, but don’t get me started.)

And logically, in addition to breaking its unions, the obvious path to renewed profits for Boeing would be to replace its experienced CEO with a complete and total amateur who has never even managed a staff of one, let alone an actual business. I mean, that’s what we’ve advised King County voters to do, arguing that “the county must act more like private-sector businesses,” so it only makes sense that a private-sector business like Boeing do the same, right?

How convenient for the South Park guys that when an actual dad in Colorado pulls off the most insane Randy Marsh imitation of all time, they’re right in the middle of making new episodes.

Please join us tonight for some politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Festivities take place at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at 8:00 pm. Some of us show up early for dinner.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tndry1HvP0[/youtube]

Not in Seattle? With 340 other chapters of Drinking Liberally, there is bound to be one near you.