HorsesAss.Org

Meriwether Goldy is back

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I know there are history buffs who question if Meriwether Lewis actually died by his own hand as the record contends, but after visiting some of the landmarks along the final stage of his epic journey of discovery, I’m not one of them. From Dismal Nitch to Point Distress to Cape Disappointment, I was constantly struck by the depressing names Captain Lewis assigned to places of such natural splendor.

This was clearly not a happy fella. I kept imagining the expedition struggling down the mighty Columbia, rounding a jagged outcropping they believed to be the final obstacle before the Pacific, only to discover that they were still miles away from their goal. Named on the spur of the moment, that place of utter beauty would forever be known as Point Sonofabitch.

Anyway, I’m back from my own epic journey of discovery and I want to extend a big thanks to Darryl of Hominid Views for keeping HA going in my absence. It’s nice to know that if I ever commit suicide by, say… shooting myself first in the head and then in the chest, before cutting up my body with razor blades, HA — like Lewis’ diaries — might survive me.

Maria Cantwell blogs about the GOP minimum wage/inheritance tax bill

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Maria Cantwell is now a blogger!

Check this out at the Northwest Progressive Institute’s Official Blog.

I cannot support what amounts to a minimum wage penalty for over 122,000 Washington minimum wage earners. Why would the federal government work to lower the maximum wage rather than setting a minimum protection?

I am not buying this cynical Republican ploy.

And blogging with an edge!

Am I politically motivated?

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In my absence there has been some speculation over my role in the shareholder lawsuit challenging former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick’s golden parachute. I suppose I should have clarified things the day the story broke, but my dog and daughter and I have been chasing birds in Long Beach the past couple days, mostly out of cell phone range, and entirely without Internet access but for brief morning visits to a local WiFi hotspot. (Long Beach Coffee has great java by the way… but rather spotty Internet service.)

Besides, there’s not really much to clarify, as Robert Mak pretty much got the sequence of events right in his Tuesday night report.

Here’s what I happened. A couple months ago I was talking to Knoll Lowney about his lawsuit overturning Initiative 747 when he mentioned the shareholder lawsuit he was working on. From the sounds of it he was fairly far along, and rather confident that he had a strong case that at least some of McGavick’s compensation package was illegal, which all sounded pretty good to me. I offered to help him find plaintiffs, and about a week later put up a short post on HA looking for pissed off SAFECO shareholders.

I got one firm response, Ashley Bullitt, and after a brief email exchange I passed her contact information on to Knoll. Her daughter Emma Schwartzman ultimately became the lead plaintiff in the case. Essentially, if not for me, Knoll likely would have ended up with a different plaintiff. (It’s not like pissed off SAFECO shareholders are all that scarce in Seattle.)

That’s pretty much the extent of my involvement. In fact, considering how little Internet access I’ve had the past few days, most of you probably know more about the details of this case than I do. I’d love to take more credit than I have, but truth be told, if Knoll had posted a notice on Craig’s List, he’d probably have gotten a bigger response than I did on HA.

Now, I understand that the McGavick campaign is trying to dismiss this lawsuit as nothing but dirty, partisan politics, and that my good friend Stefan over at (un)Sound Politics is pointing to my bit part as confirmation. But, well… unfortunately for the R’s, reality tends to be a tad more nuanced.

Was my role in this case politically motivated? Of course it was. Nearly everything I do is political. Hell, when I take a dump I wipe my ass with Dave Reichert’s franked mail. (It has less literary value than toilet paper, and is twice as plentiful.)

I’d have to be an idiot not to see the partisan, political value in what Knoll was doing, and that’s why I offered to help. Duh-uh.

But to conclude from that, as (u)SP’s Eric Earling does, that the entire lawsuit is baseless… well, that either shows a lack of critical thinking on his part… or a total lack of respect for his reader’s intelligence.

The facts of this scenario speak for themselves in showing not only is the lawsuit entirely political, but that it doesn’t have any merit even as simply a shareholder complaint.

Uh-huh. What a brilliant legal analysis. But then, that’s typical of (u)SP’s oeuvre, lazily hawking dismissiveness rather than relying on inconvenient things like facts or, um… thinking.

“The facts of this scenario” don’t speak to the merit of the lawsuit at all. In fact — and I know this might be a difficult concept for some of my rightie trolls to wrap their minds around without their heads exploding — it is absolutely possible for this lawsuit to be both politically motivated and entirely with legal merit.

I can’t speak for either Knoll or Emma, but it would surprise me if their involvement was entirely unmotivated by partisan politics. They’re suing a candidate for U.S. Senate for chrisakes. They’re not dumb; they know they’re shoving some bad publicity McGavick’s way. But I also believe that their outrage over McGavick’s golden parachute is as absolutely genuine as my own.

Legal or not, the fact is that McGavick’s golden parachute is an absolute disgrace, and at the very least presents the kind of perception of impropriety that simply should not be acceptable from our highest elected officials. And no, the fact that other executives have been similarly overcompensated at customer, employee and shareholder expense is not an excuse.

Further adding to the outrage is the fact that McGavick had already made millions at SAFECO, and had a generous termination package in place. By rewriting his termination agreement after he announced his voluntary retirement, handing McGavick many millions more than he was contractually due, SAFECO has potentially performed an end-run around our campaign finance laws, indirectly dumping truckloads of cash into this Senate race via McGavick’s own unlimited, personal contributions.

This is just plain wrong, and deserves public attention for moral and ethical reasons alone. But Knoll believes it is also illegal, and considering his legal track record, Knoll’s opinion is good enough for me. Yes, Knoll has a reputation for working on behalf of liberal causes, but remember, both he and Steve Berman are sinking their own money and resources into this case, and they don’t make a dime unless they win. Bloggers like me may be foolish enough to work for free, but lawyering is a business.

As for Emma, anybody who simply dismisses her as a political hack isn’t paying close attention. Her involvement isn’t just about politics, and it certainly isn’t about the money. It’s about respect for an institution in which generations of Bullitts obviously take great pride.

Emma inherited fewer than 50 shares of SAFECO stock, but as she makes a point of stating, these are “original” shares, passed down through generations from her great, great grandfather, a SAFECO founder. Monetarily, the shares are a pittance. But to Emma and her relatives they are a family heirloom… a proud connection to their family’s role in building Seattle into the great city it is today.

That Emma views SAFECO as something more than the sum of its market valuation might be hard for some people to understand, but she is clearly proud to be part of a family that has played a historic role in Seattle’s business and philanthropic community. Emma may not have inherited Bullitt family millions, but she’s certainly inherited her family’s acute sense of social justice.

But that said, all this speculation over the motivations of Knoll or Emma or myself misses the point. McGavick’s golden parachute was improper, if not downright illegal, and since none of the facts in the case are really in dispute, responsible reporting would focus on getting some expert legal opinion to analyze the points of law in dispute. Who cares if my primary motivation was to stick it to McGavick if in fact he and SAFECO broke the law or in some other way violated the trust of shareholders?

McGavick is, after all, running for U.S. Senate, and thus voters have a right to know if he is beyond reproach, or merely straddling its edge. And unlike the state Dems, Knoll didn’t just issue a hotly worded press release… he laid out all the facts and arguments in a legal document that will win or lose on its own merits. Indeed, if there is to be a shareholder lawsuit, the time for it to be filed is now, before the election, so that voters can learn the truth. In that sense, political motivation is a good thing.

Oh, and one final comment on the R’s feigned outrage over this lawsuit: gimme a fucking break.

McGavick’s midlife conversion to “civility” is a joke to anybody who remembers the vicious campaign he ran on behalf of Slade Gorton, and absolutely absurd coming from the party of Karl Rove. Accusations of dirty politics? This coming from the party that swift-boats war heros and slanders multiple amputee veterans as traitors and cowards?

This isn’t dirty. This is just a lawsuit. And whatever its motivation, the facts do indeed speak for themselves.

Goldy comes to terms with the break-up of his marriage

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The Seattle media is All Goldy All the Time this week!

This time Goldy writes for The Stranger about the real reason for his failed marriage:

All this time I thought my marriage had dissolved due to selfishness or immaturity or a failure to communicate, but now I no longer blame myself. I blame the gays for gnawing away at the institution of marriage and tearing asunder my daughter’s once-happy home.

But mostly, I blame Dan Savage.

Read the whole thing here.

Open thread—busy news week edition

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There’s lots of news besides the McGavick lawsuit to talk about….

Update: This week’s Podcasting Liberally was hosted by Will with guests Mollie, Gavin, Nick, and Carl. The 57:06, 39.4 MB show is available here (mp3). The show was recorded at Seattle’s Drinking Liberally and produced by Confab creators Gavin and Richard.

You really, really like Goldy!

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Today is a day full of accomplishments for Goldy. The only problem is, he is largely unplugged and off in the boondocks somewhere trying to vacation or something.

First, he has the distinction of appearing in two pieces in the Seattle Weekly today. The Weekly came out with their Best of Seattle issue, and it looks like, once again, HorsesAss has been voted the Best Local Blog.

David Goldstein’s HORSESASS.ORG blog is the one you like best, presumably because it is reliably liberal, ruthless, and funny. Goldstein also helps host and promote the local Drinking Liberally club gatherings at the Montlake Alehouse, where pols and wonks make regular appearances. Those events are recorded and disseminated via podcast. And this year, Goldstein expanded his liberal empire to the airwaves of KIRO-AM (710), where he holds forth Sunday evenings.

“Liberal empire.” Cool!

Last year, Goldy ran something of a campaign to win the honor. This year, however, I didn’t hear a peep out of Mr. Goldstein about it.

I noticed that Tim Eyman was voted Best Fish Market this year. Oh…wait… that was Best activist/hell-raiser. WTF? I guess voting took place before the I-917 debacle. Feel the love:

TIM EYMAN? You voted for Tim Eyman? The washed-up, citizens-initiative-addicted watch salesman whose obsession with monkey-wrenching worthy public spending knows no bounds? The guy who recently delivered petitions in Olympia wearing a Buzz Lightyear costume? This is some sort of counterintuitive subliminal message you’re sending, right?

Given his spectacular string of failures lately, I suspect this will be Tim’s last “activist award” for awhile. Well…unless he uses The Force….

Speaking of Hell Raisers! Goldy also made the front page of the Weekly online edition for another reason:

Democratic activist, blogger, and KIRO-AM radio host David Goldstein confirms that he played a role in the lawsuit filed on Tues., Aug. 1, against Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Safeco CEO Mike McGavick. KING-5’s Robert Mak first reported that Goldstein had provided a crucial nexus in the lawsuit.

Wow…Goldy is now a “crucial nexus!”

David Postman at the Seattle Times follows the story up with some incredible journalism!

(Speaking of Postman, he was awarded the Weekly’s Critics’ Pick for Best Mainstream-Media Blog. Congratulations!)

Back to Goldy. If all that isn’t enough, I noticed today that sometime within the last 24 hours, HorsesAss had its millionth visitor (937,000 tallied visitors plus an estimated 63,000 before Sitemeter was installed).

Man…you guys really do like Goldy!

Cantwell’s bigger lead

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Rasmussen released a new poll yesterday showing Maria Cantwell up by 11% points over Mike!™ McGavick.

The poll dated July 17 has Cantwell at 48% and McGavick at 37%. Cantwell’s lead over McGavick is outside of the 4.5% margin of error, meaning that she has fully pulled ahead of McGavick after being in a statistical tie (although numerically leading) for three months. At 37%, Mike!™ is exactly where he started last November, down from his peak of 41% in May. Cantwell has gained 4% since last month. Additionally, her favorability has increased three points to 56% since last month.

Apparently, Cantwell’s new campaign ad is largely responsible:

The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll of 500 likely voters was taken a week after the launch of the 30-second television spot, “First,” which touts Cantwell’s accomplishments on behalf of Washington state’s families.

Wow…a four point rise after a one week media blitz!

Surely, McGavick will respond by unleashing his own media blitz very soon. Oh…wait…what was it Goldy was saying just last month?

McGavick has been running a paid media campaign

McGavick’s “stolen parachute”

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In some sense, Mike McGavick took his first political bribe before he even swung into full campaign mode earlier this year. McGavick resigned last year as the CEO of Safeco Insurance Company in order to challenge Maria Cantwell for her Senate seat. In the process, he walked off with $28 million in bonuses and stock options.

Think about it. McGavick—a former lobbyist for the insurance industry—is paid by the insurance company he heads some $28 million to quit his job and become a Senator. “Win-win,” right?

To you and me that kind of a deal has the stench of corruption, both because of the potential for back-room agreements and because of the way it cleverly bypasses campaign finance laws:

Technically, Safeco is constrained by the same campaign finance limits as you or I, but insurance industry lobbyist cum CEO cum senate candidate McGavick is free to spend as much on his own campaign as his new-found personal fortune affords him. How convenient.

But not everyone sees this as a political scandal. Take, for example, 27 year old Emma Schwartzman. Today she filed a lawsuit against McGavick over his “excessive” severance package.

To Ms. Schwartzman this is not about politics. Instead, it is about theft. And it’s about family honor. Specifically, it’s about McGavick stealing from Safeco—a company founded by her great, great grandfather—and its shareholders.

In her own words:

Our lawsuit alleges that Mike McGavick didn’t earn the $28 million, he knew he wasn’t entitled to it, but he took it anyway.

I have brought this lawsuit to protect the assets and integrity of Safeco Corporation—a company that is important to me, my family, and my community.

My great, great grandfather was a founder of General Insurance Company, which later became Safeco. My great grandmother sat on the board and was an adviser to the company in its early years—at a time when most women had little role in corporate affairs. I own original shares passed down to me from my great great grandfather.

I have always been proud of my family’s role in building Safeco into a major employer in our state and a trusted member of the business community.

But under Mike McGavick’s leadership, Safeco lost its ethical compass. His greed has diminished the value of my investment and, more importantly, the ethical values of this great company.

As expected, the McGavick campaign responded with charges of “Political Smear!”

This is a politically motivated character attack. The allies of the incumbent senator have found yet another avenue to continue their daily personal attacks on me. […] These allegations regarding my compensation are without merit and obviously politically inspired.

Are the charges politically inspired, or contractually inspired? Here is the rationale for the lawsuit given by Ms. Schwartzman’s lawyers:

When McGavick became Safeco’s CEO in 2001, he drove a hard bargain. In addition to an annual compensation package worth as much as eight million dollars, McGavick also bargained for a “golden parachute” provision. This meant that if McGavick were fired, he would receive a multi-million dollar termination payment.

But Mike McGavick did not get fired from Safeco; he voluntarily resigned. And his employment contract clearly stated that if he resigned he would forfeit his right to a big payout. He would forfeit all compensation, including bonuses and stock options, and would get only his last paycheck. These employment contracts are quoted in the complaint, included in your packets, and posted on our website.

Instead of resigning from Safeco with his final paycheck, as his contract clearly provided, McGavick walked away with $28 million.

This lawsuit will prove that this $28 million payment was improper and fraudulent on numerous counts, and McGavick acted dishonestly and unethically in bargaining for and receiving this payment.

Ouch!

Just how did the bribe severance agreement circumvent McGavick’s contract?

Fraud

Minimum Wage Rally Tomorrow

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Andrew at NPI just posted about an emergency rally for tomorrow to protest the flawed minimum wage bill:

HR 5970, which has passed the House and is now heading to the U.S. Senate, contains two cynical provisions inserted by Republicans serving their corporate masters:

  • Permanent cuts to the estate tax for very wealthy estates – exempting up to $5 million per person or $10 million per couple
  • Invalidation of state laws providing a minimum wage for restaurant and other tipped employees, a provision that will affect thousands of workers here in Washington

HR 5970 hurts the thousands of workers in our state who receive tips by invalidating our state law that sets the minimum hourly wage for tipped employees at the same minimum wage as all other employees. Washington is one of only seven states with such a law. Not surprisingly, though, Washington’s 3 Republicans – Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings, and Cathy McMorris – voted for HR 5970.

Reichert voted to hurt low wage employees in his district? Go figure.

The rally will be held at the Seattle Center tomorrow at 2:15 PM at the base of the Space Needle. Speakers will include Jay Inslee (the organizer) and Darcy Burner. (Note to Wingnuts: the Seattle Center is not in the 8th District. In fact, it is not in Inslee’s 1st District, either. But this isn’t a campaign event now, is it? The Seattle Center is a great place for people in the entire region to gather and protest.)

If you can make it tomorrow, please do! Either way, be sure to contact your Senators and express your concern about this cynical Republican stunt disguised as legislation.

Update: Those of you interested in an alternative to the low-wage-employee-hating Rep. Doc Hastings can tune in to KUOW 94.9 FM tomorrow at 9:00. Congressional candidate Richard Wright will be Steve Scheer’s guest on Weekday.

Update II: Correction…Richard Wright will be on KUOW 94.9 FM on Thursday, August 3rd at 9:00 AM.

Drinking Liberally

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The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight.

What do we really do each week at Drinking Liberally? Well, this week I suppose I’ll propose a toast to good health for Fidel Castro (better intestinal fortitude?)…while…um…burning an American flag…and…and…we’ll sing the national anthem—in Spanish—while smoking Cuban cigars. Yeah…that’s the kind of fun we have each week.

Won’t you join us?

We meet at the Montlake Ale House (2307 24th Avenue E). The fun begins at 8:00 p.m.

Drinking Liberally is hosted by Seattle bloggers Nick Beaudrot of Electoral Math and Thehim of Blog Reload. If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, check out Drinking Liberally at the Atomic Ale in Richland. Jimmy has the details.

The Goldy and Stefan Show

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As far as I know I’ve never met Stefan Sharkansky. But he wrote a friendly email to me about a year ago pointing out, among other things, that we overlapped as undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1980s. So, who knows, I might have had a beer with him on the Memorial Union terrace, played a pick-up raquette ball game with him, or worked with him on a team programming project for a computer science course. If so, I am sure I enjoyed his company—if we had discussed politics at all, we would have shared the common ground that neither of us had ever voted for a Republican for President.

So why am I seemingly sucking up to Stefan? Well, first because I feel a little bad that I never responded to his email last August. I was on the road in NY state that month, and had lousy Internet access. But, more importantly, I am about to gobble-up some of his bandwidth by linking to an audio file on his site. Sorry Stefan…when Goldy left me the keys to the blog, he didn’t give me file upload capability. In any case, there would have been all that trouble of asking permission to use the file….

What the hell is this all about, you ask? This Monday afternoon, Goldy and Stefan held a debate at Microsoft for the Microsoft PAC lunch. Stefan recorded and posted an audio file of the event. You can read his post about it here, or go directly to the audio here (15MB .WMA file).

I’ve listened to the debate and I must say that I sensed surprisingly little animosity between them. They laughed at each others jokes, they were not rude to each other, were pretty good about not interrupting each other, and they actually agreed on occasion. They produced an interesting debate over some issues like Darcy Burner and the 2004 election contest. The whole thing seemed shockingly civil! The debate is definitely worth a listen, whatever brand of politics you subscribe to.

In the late 1990s, Jay Leno suggested a hilarious practical joke in which he and David Letterman would swap places for a night (unannounced, of course). I once suggested something similar to Goldy—have Stefan post on Horsesass for a day and have Goldy post on Sound Politics for a day. My puckish suggestion may never happen, but after listening to these two rivals being civil in—and maybe even enjoying—their face-to-face interactions, it reminds me that the medium of blogs (and particularly blog comment threads) can sometimes act as an artificial barrier. Perhaps people who seem to hate each other in Goldy’s comment threads might find that they have common ground in their day-to-day concerns, and actually enjoy discussing topics like sports, microbrews or their favorite recipes. Hell…we might like some of the enemy!

Okay….enough of that feel-good shit. Back to the verbal daggers!

More guest blogging

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I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. I just got back from Oregon yesterday afternoon, and I’m about to jump in the car and drive down to Long Beach for a couple days.

Anyway, Darryl did such an excellent job keeping HA running over the weekend that I’ve handed him the keys for another few days to supplement my anticipated meager postings. And just possibly, you might even see post or two from the mysterious “Blogger X”.

It’s official: NRCC admits Reichert is vulnerable

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HA’s Washington D.C. bureau chief tipped me off to the following from today’s issue of Roll Call:

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.) named names Friday, indicating where he believes the committee will be most active this fall. Questioned at a news conference held 102 days before Election Day, Reynolds identified the 14 Republican Members he believes could face the toughest time getting re-elected, and an additional three he is monitoring just in case.

[…]

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