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A vote for Reichert is a vote for Boehner

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This morning on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked House Majority Leader John Boehner if he he thought Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “has to go.” Boehner’s answer?

I think Donald Rumsfeld is the best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years.

Let’s be absolutely clear what November’s election is all about, at least when it comes to the war in Iraq. The Republican leadership continues to unflinchingly support President Bush’s failed policies in Iraq… and both Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris continue to support the Republican leadership. Should Reichert and McMorris win reelection, they will vote to retain Boehner as Majority Leader — or perhaps even promote him to Speaker of the House. Should Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark win in November, they will vote for a new House leadership, one that will finally hold the Bush administration accountable for its failures. This is a choice between “stay the course” and a “new direction.”

So if you think Rumsfeld is “the best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years,” vote Republican.

Elsewhere in the interview, Boehner claimed that “the President is listening to the commanders on the ground.” Hmm…

Major General John Batiste

Challenge met: HA readers raise over $30,000!!!

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Sometime last year Darcy Burner and I had a conversation about what role the netroots might play in the upcoming election, and I told her what I told all candidates: don’t expect us to raise much money. In fact, I was so convinced that the local netroots were not yet developed enough to function as an effective fundraising tool that I only created HA’s Act Blue page as an afterthought, sometime near the end of March. I thought maybe we might manage to raise a couple thousand dollars.

Man was I wrong.

In a little more than seven months, 361 HA readers have now contributed a total of $30,090.39 to Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark… over $4,600 coming during the last 24 hours. Wow.

Your incredible generosity has already accomplished two very important goals. Your contributions helped demonstrate the grassroots support that brought big donors and the DCCC into these campaigns. Without you, these races never would have become competitive.

And… your contributions have also helped demonstrate the growing power and efficacy of the netroots. If we were a PAC, our $30,000 would have made us one of the largest grassroots PACs in the state. This is the kind of money that forces politicians to take notice.

HA’s fundraising is even more amazing when you put it in perspective. Over the past seven months HA’s daily readership has averaged about 2,500 unique visits a day. (It’s now up to about 3,300.) That means on average, about one in every seven HA readers has contributed via our Act Blue page. Even more impressive, we’ve raised about $12 for every reader — that’s about four to five times the dollar-per-reader ratio of high profile sites like Daily Kos. Astounding.

So I want to thank all of you for your generosity and trust. When I first started pitching for Darcy and Peter, you had no assurances that either would make their race competitive. I promised you that you wouldn’t be throwing your money away, and you trusted me with your hard-earned cash. So again, thank you.

That’s it. I won’t be asking you for any more money this election cycle. But if you still want to contribute to Darcy and Peter they could definitely use your time. Personally, I plan to contribute a few hours via MoveOn’s innovative Call For Change program. Just sign up online and MoveOn will give you a script and some phone numbers to call.

Both races are going to be awfully close. Whoever turns out the most voters wins. Let’s do whatever we can over the next 10 days to make sure that the winners are Darcy and Peter.

Times boosts Pope, endorses opponent

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Perennial candidate and HA regular Richard Pope received a much needed boost to his campaign for King County District Court, when the Seattle Times today endorsed his opponent, judge pro-tem Frank LaSalata.

Pope’s colleagues at the King County Bar Association rate him as “not qualified,” their lowest category, citing him for a history of unprofessional conduct. The Times suggests a vote for his opponent, judge pro-tem Frank LaSalata, whom the association pegs as “well qualified.”

So congratulations Richard, on the Times editorializing against you. It puts you in great company.

Fundraising challenge update

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At about 11 am today I challenged the HA community to raise an additional $4,600.00 for Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark over the next 24 hours. The goal is take us over the $30,000 mark by 11 am Saturday.

Since then, 25 of you have contributed an additional $2,666.00, taking us more than halfway towards our target in only 10 hours. Our running total of $28,090 leaves us a tantalizing $1,910 short of our goal.

This is it… the final 14 hours of HA’s last fundraising drive of the 2006 election. With your help, we can take back the House. So please dig deep into your pockets and give now.

UPDATE:
Peter Goldmark has officially been added to the Fourth Wave of the DCCC’s Red to Blue program. It’s the generous support of people like you who have helped Peter take WA-05 from a safe Republican district into one of the most competitive in the nation.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
8 AM and we’re up to $29,560.39! Three hours left in the drive, and only $440 to go. Who wants to put us over the top?

Ron Boehme: like father like son?

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Over in the 26th Legislative District, Democrat Larry Seaquist is in a surprisingly tight race with Republican Ron Boehme for the state house seat vacated by Derek Kilmer. I say “surprisingly,” because while the highly respected Seaquist is the retired commander of the Battleship Iowa, Boehme is a certifiable nutcase who the Tacoma News Tribune accurately describes as “about as far right as they come.”

But it’s not simply Boehme’s far-right religious beliefs that make him out to be so nutty… although they do — Boehme has written that Satan controls our public schools and that America needs “a severe spanking.” It’s just that when Boehme says “I am a prophet,” and claims that God audibly talks to him, well… it gives one pause considering the man’s unstable family history.

Specifically, I’m talking about Boehme’s father, who the candidate proudly mentions in the opening paragraph on the About page of his campaign website:

His father, Robert Boehme, arrived in Port Orchard in 1950 at the request of the local Chamber of Commerce who were looking for more doctors. “Doc Boehme” served the medical needs of South Kitsap for over thirty years.

And, um, you know what else Robert Boehme served? Three years in prison for attempting to murder his third wife. That, after having been previously acquitted of attempting to murder his second wife. According to a Seattle Times article from July 11, 1986:

Boehme, 66, was a successful Kitsap County physician in 1961 when he was accused of trying to kill his second wife, Dorothy, by injecting poison into her arm with a syringe.

Boehme was acquitted of that charge in 1962. Three months after the trial, Dorothy Boehme, who had stood by her husband during the trial, died of staphylococcal meningitis.

But don’t you worry, Robert Boehme quickly rebounded from the tragedy.

In July 1963, Boehme married a former airline flight attendant who had been divorced from Boehme’s brother, a San Francisco physician. They are still married.

In September 1965, Boehme was charged with trying to kill that wife, Mary, by injecting her with a poison.

Oops. On TV they call that an M.O.

Robert Boehme was convicted in 1966, and served three years in prison.

So… here’s a self-proclaimed prophet who hears voices in his head and thinks Satan controls the public schools, and… well.. it just makes you wonder what curious personality quirks Boehme might have inherited from a father who infamously poisoned at least one, if not two of his three wives. (No word on what sad fate befell wife number one.)

But mostly, it makes you wonder how such a fringe candidate managed to win the Republican primary?

Hell freezes over: Times columnist comes out against estate tax repeal

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To the best of my knowledge, Danny Westneat has now established himself as the only news or editorial columnist at the Seattle Times to come out against I-920, their boss’s estate tax repeal initiative.

The worst is Initiative 920, to repeal the state estate tax. Paid for by a handful of multimillionaires, it slashes taxes for a handful of multimillionaires. The kicker: It all comes out of the hide of education, just as schools are laying off librarians or cramming 30-plus kids in classes. If ever an initiative deserved a thrashing, this is it.

Of course, the most vocal of these millionaires is Times publisher Frank Blethen. Nobody could possibly believe that there is uniformity of opinion on this issue over at the Times, but until now, nobody has had the nerve to publicly break ranks.

Danny and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I’ve always respected his work. This reminds me why.

Final fundraising appeal

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If you haven’t already contributed money to Darcy Burner and Peter Goldmark, now is your absolutely, positively last chance to do it. The candidates will take a close look at their cash-on-hand this weekend, and book their final media buys. Today is your last and best chance to make a difference in these two very important races.

The Republicans are now spending millions of dollars on two seats they never thought they’d have to seriously defend, and it would be a shame if Darcy and Peter missed out on the Democratic wave because they were outspent during the final week of the campaign. (That’s exactly what happened to Dave Ross two years ago.) It is time to dig deep down into our pockets and give until it hurts.

So here’s our target, and I know it’s ambitious, but I also know that we can do it. 317 readers have already given $25,424.38 via HA’s Act Blue page. Over the next 24 hours, I want you to help us hit the $30,000 mark.

This is perhaps the most important congressional election in a generation, so I am asking all of you to give as much as you can. A single reader could bring us most of the way towards our target simply by making the maximum $2,100 donation to each candidate, and surely, at least a few of my readers can afford this. I myself have worked my way into debt over the past year, rejecting paying work so that I could devote myself fully towards political activism, and yet I have just put another $200.00 on my credit card, split between Darcy and Peter. My hope is that a dozen or more of you will follow my lead with donations of equal or greater value.

This will be looked back on as an historic election, the one in which netroots activists truly started to reshape the political landscape. Please join me in making history. Please give what you can today.

McGavick: the poor never had it so good

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Why is Mike McGavick running for the US Senate? Well, if you believe Mike McGavick, it was Hurricane Katrina that steeled his resolve to run.

In a rather odd audio clip available from McGavick’s web site, the candidate talks about Katrina, and the “the one image that cements it for my wife and I of why to run for the United States Senate.” No, it’s not the desperate refugees at the Superdome or the bloated bodies floating in the streets, and it’s not New Orlean’s poor trapped in the muck of their flooded city for days without food or fresh water. It was the politicians on TV attempting to exploit the disaster for “partisan advantage” that he and his wife were “most offended by.”

“That is wrong as wrong can be,” McGavick angrily told his audience.

Hmm. Perhaps that anecdote was just unartfully phrased, but it seemed to lack a certain, gee, I dunno… compassion. Of all the things to be offended by while watching our federal government fail to adequately respond to the desperate plight of the poor and displaced, political partisanship did not top the list.

(Indeed, I would argue that when the party in power so totally fucks up as to put lives at risk, it would be negligent of the opposition not to seek partisan advantage in an effort to seize control. But no, I suppose McGavick would have preferred the nation to rally around the president during our time of crisis the way we did in the aftermath of 9/11… the same sort of blind following the blind that ultimately led to our disastrous war in Iraq. But I digress.)

So. What kind of man could watch the tragically bungled emergency response that resulted from the dismantling of FEMA under President Bush, and conclude that our most urgent problem was not the incompetence of the current administration, but rather the political partisanship of those complaining about the incompetence? Well, a man who has little or no empathy for the suffering of others, and who is totally out of touch with the plight of America’s underclass, I guess.

As harsh as that conclusion might be, it is further reinforced by a comment McGavick made on Wednesday before the Bellingham City Club, in which he talks about the “comfortable lifestyle” of America’s poor:

“While the spectrum of wealth, from the wealthiest to the non-wealthy has become wider, it’s not true that all boats aren’t being lifted. The fact is that it is still better to be poor in America than any other nation on Earth. Because the fact is that we are able to provide a comfortable lifestyle across that spectrum.”

Uh-huh. The poor never had it so good. And you know McGavick knows what he’s talking about because until recently, he spent most of his life being poor himself… that is, if your definition of being “poor” is not having $28 million.

Kind of reminds me of an equally clueless comment made by the President’s mother after surveying Katrina refugees in an emergency shelter set up at the Houston Astrodome:

“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”

I guess those are the types of lessons people like McGavick take away from disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

UPDATE:
In the comment thread Darryl blows a hole in my theory, pointing out that Katrina couldn’t really have been McGavick’s primary motivation, as he announced his intention to quit Safeco and explore a run for Senate over a month before Katrina hit. But then, I guess that’s what I get for believing Mike McGavick.

If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going (to be water-boarded)

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The Boeing Corporation is a Seattle icon, an integral part of the region’s economy and identity. So I found it a bit disturbing to read the following tidbit in the October 30 edition of the New Yorker, about Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen International Trip Planning, and its lucrative contract as the CIA’s torture travel agent:

Boeing does not mention, either on its Web site or in its annual report, that Jeppesen’s clients include the C.I.A., and that among the international trips that the company plans for the agency are secret “extraordinary rendition” flights for terrorism suspects. Most of the planes used in rendition flights are owned and operated by tiny charter airlines that function as C.I.A. front companies, but it is not widely known that the agency has turned to a division of Boeing, the publicly traded blue-chip behemoth, to handle many of the logistical and navigational details for these trips, including flight plans, clearance to fly over other countries, hotel reservations, and ground-crew arrangements.

[…] A former Jeppesen employee, who asked not to be identified, said recently that he had been startled to learn, during an internal corporate meeting, about the company’s involvement with the rendition flights. At the meeting, he recalled, Bob Overby, the managing director of Jeppesen International Trip Planning, said, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights

Did Stacey Cowles pull “a Blethen”…?

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From an anonymous email sent to a local blogger:

Sorry to email you anonymously but I can’t have my name attached to this. I am a journalism student at EWU and we had the editor of the Spokesman Review, Steve Smith, in our class with Professor Steve Blewett, former editor of the Spokesman. He spoke to us about the endorsement of Cathy McMorris and told us point blank that the editorial board had voted to endorse Peter Goldmark with with an almost unanimous vote (I believe he said 5-1). However, the decision of the editorial board was overturned by owner Stacey Cowles. Now the rest of what I say is purely speculation, but I had heard that the Cowles were staunchly Republican. If this is true (I don’t doubt the editor but rather my own speculation) would this not be completely improper and something that should be screamed from the heavens?

Hmm.

UPDATE:
In the comment thread S-R Editor Steven Smith says the anonymous journalism student got it wrong — not only did the board vote to endorse McMorris, but the vote was not close. Fair enough.

But he leads off with an interesting statement:

Well, so much for the accuracy of the blogosphere and the anonymity it provides.

Um… I think Smith misses the point.

My post was entirely accurate. An EWU journalism student did indeed anonymously send that email. It was rumor, and I presented it as such, without comment.

And as a result, the editor of the S-R came into my comment thread and set the record straight, thus proving the accuracy of the blogosphere.

So thanks Steve, for participating in the discussion and helping to make the blogosphere a better, more informative place.

Parents won’t find closure in school closure process

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In lamenting last week’s disruptive School Board meeting — the one that likely led to Superintendent Raj Manhas’ decision to resign — Seattle P-I columnist Robert Jamieson brings up the issue of race and class, and how it played into Seattle’s school closure process.

Dollars and cents.

That is what the plan to close public schools in Seattle was supposed be about — how to save money, fix a cash crunch and improve classrooms.

Yet something else is there — something that Seattle, for all of its liberal pride, has trouble grappling with.

Race.

No doubt.

As a white male raised in relative privilege, I am uncomfortable attempting to speak with authority on issues of race, but from my personal experience fighting to save my daughter’s school from closure it became abundantly clear that the district is at times crippled by this issue, and the pervasive educational disparity that follows Seattle’s racial lines. Though I doubt it was intentional, there is no question that the district’s original school closure plan overwhelmingly and disproportionately impacted children of color. And yet at the same time, the district cynically raised the issue of racial disparity as a tool to drive a wedge through my daughter’s own school, in an effort to justify its closure. While racism is a sledgehammer that predominantly falls on one side of the divide, it can swing both ways.

Jamieson says that the closure plan was only supposed to be about dollars and cents, but I say that the district should have seen this coming. The closure process inherently pitted school against school and neighborhood against neighborhood; why shouldn’t we expect a bitter fight over shrinking resources to bring out the worst in us? That’s human nature.

Which brings me to my biggest criticism of Raj Manhas and the current school board’s attempt to lead our district through our current, dire fiscal straights — their inability to provide effective leadership towards solving the district’s real problem: inadequate funding.

School closures are nothing more than a band-aid on a gangrenous wound, a half-measure that can only lead to further cuts and closures down the road. While Manhas speaks bluntly of the Legislature’s stunning failure to adequately fund K-12 education, he never made an effort to unite the city’s parents in a drive to pressure their elected officials for more money. Instead, in a Vichy-like acquiescence to the political needs of a handful of timid legislators, he made school closures the centerpiece of his reform efforts, thus turning the district’s parents against each other. For all of his business acumen, and for all of his good intentions, Manhas simply could not provide the leadership our school district desperately needs. And neither can the current school board.

It has become politically unfashionable to throw money at a problem, but that is exactly what our schools most desperately need at the moment — specifically, a thousand dollars per student per year more, granted directly into the classroom. How did I come up with that number? I didn’t. The “free market” did. For that is how much the parents of our most affluent North Seattle and Eastside schools raise each year to pay for smaller class size, teaching assistants, art, music, foreign language and other enrichment programs that they deem necessary for their own children’s academic success. That is what the children of our poorer, predominantly minority neighborhoods are being denied.

On the surface, Washington state has one of the most equitable school funding systems in the nation, with only about a quarter of any district’s operating budget coming from local taxpayers. But over the years, as the state has failed to live up to it’s financial obligations, and per-student spending has steadily shrunk in real dollars, parents who could afford to make up the difference through PTA fundraisers, did. In Seattle, that has only exacerbated the disparities that already existed, creating a handful of affluent North End schools that are public in name but half-private in nature.

There is a stunning lack of equity between Seattle schools, and all the parents see it. So while it is unfortunate that the anger and frustration generated by the closure process should boil over into racial epithets, it is entirely understandable. Those of us faced with closure were asked to sacrifice our schools and the educational stability of our children for the good of all the district’s children, but deep down, we understand that it just doesn’t work that way. Some children simply benefit more from the current system than others, and nothing in the closure process suggests that this will change.

If like me, you believe that all children should have access to a quality public education, regardless of race, income, geography or individual special needs, then you must believe that all our public schools should be adequately and equitably funded. And until we meet this very basic need, no amount of well-intentioned reform will quell the rancor displayed at last week’s School Board meeting.

Rep. Norm Dicks answers the call

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No doubt more than a few establishment Democrats are chafing at blogger Chris Bowers’ in-you-face “Use It or Lose It” campaign to cajole Dems in safe seats to contribute 30 percent of their campaign surpluses to fellow Dems in competitive races, but according to Lynn at Evergreen Politics, Washington’s own Norm Dicks has answered the call:

Congressman Norm Dicks of the 6th CD responded positively to the calls that folks made to ask him to contribute money from his campaign chest to Democrats running in more competitive districts. He donated $100,000 + according to Chris Bowers, reporting back on his “Use It or Lose It” program. This was on top of the nearly $600,000 that he raised yesterday for the DCCC from the lunch he hosted downtown for Al Gore. Also today, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy each donated $500,000 to the DSCC. This program is working. We may not get the entire $15 million we are looking for but it will be close.

Thanks Norm.

As Lynn reports, Dicks had already contributed a considerable amount of money to fellow Dems, and helped raise quite a bit more. But when the Netroots called and asked for one last effort, Dicks was one of the first to respond. We’ll remember this.

NRCC warns donors: McMorris at risk!

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As reported yesterday on Daily Kos, the GOP is pulling out all the stops in WA-05, sliming Democratic challenger Peter Goldmark with outrageous lies and dirty tricks. You know, like harassing voters with obscene, automated phone calls, waking people up at all hours of the night, claiming to be coming from the Goldmark campaign. (Would you vote for a candidate who robo-calls you at 2 am? The McMorris campaign didn’t think so.) Local police and the FBI are now investigating.

Why are McMorris and the Republicans resorting to such desperate tactics? Because, well… they’re desperate.

As reported this morning by The Hill, the NRCC just sent to donors its “Final Push List” of the 33 GOP members and candidates “most in need of support right now.” And lookie who’s on it.

In an e-mail to congressional officials, NRCC PAC Director Jenny Sheffield states, “…it’s crucial at this point to send in some late money to some [of] our campaigns. The funds our candidates receive now will allow them to increase their TV buys and will make the difference on Nov. 7.

“I have attached our Final Push list for those Members and candidates most in need of support right now. If your boss has not maxed out to those on the attached list, please ask him or her to consider sending a check from a leadership PAC and/or reelection account … IMMEDIATELY!”

Republicans have also sent the list to lobbyists, seeking donations. The NRCC list (see chart) has many endangered Republicans, including four each from Ohio and New York, and three from Pennsylvania. It also contains some surprises, such as Rep. Cathy McMorris (R-Wash.), whose seat was considered safe earlier this month.

I’m not one to say “I told you so,” but… no wait… I am. I told you so. I’ve been warning the Spokane media for months that one of the biggest stories of the ’06 midterms was developing in their own backyard. Well, welcome to the party guys.

Other at-risk Northwest Republicans on the Final Push List? Well, Dave Reichert in WA-08 and Bill Sali in ID-01 of course. As The Hill points out, it’s gonna be an awfully long election night for House Republicans if they’re so worried about protecting seats in conservative districts in places like Idaho and Eastern WA.

Still don’t believe me that Goldmark can win? Then perhaps you’ll believe McMorris:

In Washington’s 5th Congressional District, where former speaker Thomas S. Foley (D) famously lost in 1994 when Republicans seized control of the House, confirmation of an unexpectedly strong Democratic challenge emerged in recent days from a well-placed source: the Republican incumbent, Rep. Cathy McMorris.

“It’s a closer race than I first imagined,” she told Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), according to the Spokesman-Review, a newspaper in Spokane. Changing voter attitudes in her conservative, mostly rural district, she said, have been “pretty dramatic.”

McMorris and Craig apparently thought they were speaking privately before the start of a campaign teleconference with veterans. But an operator had connected Spokesman-Review reporter Jim Camden, who was on mute and could not announce his presence.

Craig, who is not up for reelection, told McMorris that she was not alone in feeling Democratic heat. “The new numbers are just devastating,” he reportedly said.

McMorris’s Democratic opponent is Peter Goldmark, a rancher whose surprising strength has attracted the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which last week began spending $323,000 on television ads opposing McMorris.

That said, Republicans are sinking millions of dollars into Washington state in a last ditch effort to save McMorris and Reichert’s asses, and we can’t let Peter and Darcy become victims of their own success. This is the final push, and if we want to win we need to stay competitive dollar for dollar.

299 of my readers have now contributed $22,969.38 via HA’s Act Blue page, but we need to do more. If you care about the future direction of our nation, please give whatever you can to Darcy and Peter so that they can afford to get their message out to voters and respond to their opponents’ lies. And if you’ve already given all you can, then please personally plead with your friends and family to give whatever they can afford.

We’ve got the issues. We’ve got the candidates. We’ve got the wave. The rest is up to you.

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