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After I lavished praise yesterday on King County Executive Ron Sims’ leadership skills, The Seattle Times reminds me today that leadership comes in different forms:

Gov. Christine Gregoire’s strong suit is getting feuding interests in a heated political fight together until they reach agreement. The latest example is her notable leadership on medical-malpractice law. […] Gregoire’s hard-nosed negotiating skills prove once again to be one of her most successful leadership traits.

While I’m a huge fan of Sims’ willingness to step up to the bully pulpit, take a stance (however unpopular,) and lead, Gov. Gregoire deserves a ton of credit for the quiet, methodical way she gets things done. The Times notes her accomplishments as the lead negotiator on the multibillion dollar tobacco lawsuit as Attorney General, and on the Hanford cleanup settlement as state ecology director. Just as impressive was the way she brokered a bipartisan deal last year on the transportation improvement package, even as the state GOP worked tirelessly to undermine her authority with their muck-strewn election contest lawsuit.

This compromise medical malpractice legislation — coming in the immediate wake of bitter, dueling initiatives — is yet another example of Gov. Gregoire’s talent at “herding cats”… a talent that has made her an extraordinarily effective governor. It is particularly impressive considering the classically partisan nature of this epic conflict between trial lawyers and the insurance industry.

The Republicans have never simply approached medical malpractice as an opportunity to enact good policy (though I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that that is at least part of their goal.) Indeed, some GOP leaders sounded downright disappointed at news of a compromise.

Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla later said the measure fell so far short of a solution for the “med-mal” problem that it was really “mini-mal.” Hewitt’s caucus has long supported caps on damages.

Of course they do. That’s because trial lawyers generally give to Democrats, whereas the insurance industry on the other side of the table generally gives to Republicans. To the GOP, the enduring appeal of tort reform — just like so-called “right to work” legislation and its resulting blow to organized labor — has always been the opportunity to defund the Democratic Party. (Just take a look at the electoral shift in Texas for an example of how successful that strategy can be.)

That Gov. Gregoire was able to broker a deal in this context makes her feat all the more impressive. That’s leadership for you.

The good news is, our weekly podcasts from Drinking Liberally continue to improve. The bad news is, much of the improvement came this week… without me. Anyway, download the latest installment here.

Will did a great job subbing for me as host, and I’m cool with that. In fact, to show my appreciation, I’m taking him out for a little quail hunting.

UPDATE:
I just finished listening to the whole thing, I have to say it was thoroughly enjoyable. And I almost forgot… special thanks once again to Richard and Gavin for producing the show; I also highly recommend their own podcast, The Confab Show.

In the heat of last year’s King County executive race, somebody asked me what it was about Republican challenger David Irons that made me come down on him so hard, and I answered without hesitation, simply… that he wasn’t Ron Sims.

Sims is without a doubt my favorite politician in the state for any number of reasons, but mostly for a rare willingness to expend political capital. What some critics decry as arrogance, I applaud as leadership, even when I occasionally disagree with him on policy. Ron Sims clearly believes in what he is doing as county executive, and I believe in Ron Sims.

Apparently, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. has become a bit of a believer as well.

Ron Sims, the county executive in Washington state’s King County, believes government’s job is “to help create wealth more efficiently.” That view comes naturally to a leader of the entrepreneurial Seattle region, which has improved the nation’s experience of everything from technology to coffee.

I can’t say that Dionne is one of my favorite writers, but he’s certainly one of the most experienced and best respected political columnists in the nation. In this capacity Dionne meets an awful lot of politicians, and for a local elected to draw such glowing coverage is truly a feather in Sims’ cap… though not surprising. Most people who have the opportunity to meet with Sims come away as impressed as Dionne by his passion and dedication.

Meeting Sims and reading the Urban Institute manuscript provided a bracing reminder that there is an authentic search going on outside of conventional politics for the new ideas to animate a new political era — precisely what Democrats are supposed to be seeking.

Sims is a bluff, warm man who gets excited about problem-solving. A Democrat, he will talk your ear off about the King County government’s effort to work with local employers in creating a new heath care delivery system. The idea is that government can be a catalyst for negotiation, research and reform and save both public and private employers money while producing better health outcomes for consumers.

It fits with Sims’s larger idea that government, far from being a drain on the nation’s wealth, ought to “provide the social infrastructure and the physical infrastructure to help wealth be created.” He said during lunch here the other day that Democrats should run under the slogan: “Rebuild America.”

Sims notes that after World War II, the federal government helped unleash an era of exceptional growth through investments in schools, interstate highways and higher education. Both India and China are “making intelligent moves for economic growth” and the United States cannot stand by and watch. “You need people and brains to create an economy,” he says. “You need transportation to move an economy. And you need an environmental policy to create clean air and clean water.”

Sims’s idea reminds Democrats that a commitment to active government is not simply about redistributing wealth. It is also rooted in the historically sound insight that effective government has always been essential to robust economic growth. Government, in the Sims formulation, should be a dynamic player in our nation’s economic life.

What Dionne describes — what Ron Sims embodies — is the very essence of American liberalism… a profound belief in the power of government to improve the lives of all its citizens. It is an optimistic political philosophy grounded in the American experience

While it has become fashionable for neo-conservative cynics to simply dismissively ridicule us liberals, I find their nearly blind, deterministic faith in the power of unfettered markets to be sad, simplistic, and willfully ignorant of history. It was under the sway of liberalism that America climbed out of the Great Depression, defeated the Axis powers, and grew into the greatest economic, military and political power in the history of the world. It is under the neo-con policies of the Bush administration and our Republican congress that America risks collapsing into a debtor nation and a failed empire.

Dionne concludes that Sims’ “practical focus on government’s role in wealth creation” is both “good public policy” and “good politics.” It also happens to be backed up by history.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.

Unfortunately, I’m stuck down here in Florida, forced to endure 80 degrees and sunshine, so I want be able to join you tonight.

And FYI, the first gathering of the Burien chapter meets tomorrow, 7PM at Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, 435 SW 152nd St. I promise to stop by the first chance I get.

According to the Palm Beach Post, it looks like Ann Coulter will be investigated for felony voter fraud after all.

Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson said on Friday that Coulter’s voting in the wrong precinct this month in a Palm Beach Town Council election was an isolated incident, one that will be referred to State Attorney Barry Krischer. When that happens, Democrat Krischer, who didn’t return calls for comment, will be investigating two White House cheerleaders based on The Island. The other one is radio talker Rush Limbaugh, subject of a doctor-shopping probe.

Both Coulter and Limbaugh under investigation? Hmm. Perhaps I should reconsider my support of restoring voting rights to convicted felons?

Carl doesn’t always have a lot to say, but he’s constantly pointing me towards interesting people who do. Like this nice, pithy piece from Washington Outsiders, a local blog I’d never even heard of.

Remember when the Washington State Republican Legislators announced they had a plan, a “Commitment to Washington”? Well they have a progress report on their plan. And it turns out their plan is to take credit for what the Democrats have done!

Apparently, House GOP Floor leader Doug Ericksen — the only Republican to join 30 Dems in co-sponsoring HB 2370 — now claims the bill’s passage as a GOP victory.

Hmm. Don’t know why they feel the need to pad their legislative accomplishments. For example, we’d never have that new bill banning fake sex offender notices, if not for the actions of the House GOP.

Today is blatherWatch‘s first blogoversary, and well… I feel somewhat ashamed. Michael Hood had asked me for a testimonial to join the many others he’s posted online, and well… I just plain forgot.

I may actually be blatherWatch’s most loyal reader, having “discovered” it on it’s 2nd day of life… after Michael sent me an email fishing for a link in my blogroll. I’ve been a regular reader ever since, not just because I’m fascinated by his subject matter, but because it happens to be one of best written and most entertaining blogs out there.

I also feel a touch of pride over blatherWatch’s success, and not just because of my early efforts to kick traffic its way. Looking back at our first email exchange, I see that I not only enthusiastically welcomed Michael’s efforts, I also discovered that I made a tiny contribution to blatherWatch’s unique personality:

I’ve actually imagined just such a blog, and would be happy to offer you my tagline: “Listening to talk radio, so you don’t have to.” Or something like that.

And the rest is history. Thanks Michael, for a great first year, for unselfishly taking this extraordinary burden upon yourself… and for giving that tagline a better home than I ever could have.

A couple weeks ago I criticized a Seattle Times editorial urging the state Supreme Court to force Sound Transit to pay off its bonds and stop collecting the car tabs that I-776 attempted to eliminate. I argued that the Times editorial board was wrong both on policy and on points of law.

But in closing, I also took a swipe at the Times’ penchant for instructing courts how to rule on the law:

The Times has an established history of attempting to influence the courts, but personally, I’ve always felt that judicial decisions should be based purely on statute and the constitution, free from the pressure generated by special interest groups like, you know… editorial boards.

Well, they’re at it again.

In a Sunday editorial the Times chides justices for ruling that property owners are “not entitled to actual individualized notice” of condemnation hearings. The Times admits that “the law is fuzzy on it,” but criticizes the court for siding with Sound Transit:

Notice of the property to be condemned should also have been delivered to the people who own it. “Due process of law” should require no less.

As a policy issue, I cannot argue with the Times’ conclusion. If it were my property being considered for condemnation, I would damn well expect to receive an official notice of the hearing.

But… courts don’t decide policy issues, they decide legal issues… so rather than berating justices for ruling based on the statute, the Times should be urging the Legislature to change it.

And I most emphatically object to the headline the Times affixed to the editorial: “More arbitrary taking of land by the court.”

Arbitrary or no, the court did not take anybody’s land… Sound Transit did. All the court did was rule that Sound Transit acted within the constraints of current law in doing so.

Such a grossly slanted headline is particularly irresponsible in the context of the looming battle over the Farm Bureau’s developer windfall initiative. At the very least, such misleading rhetoric fans the flames of the property rights folk. At its worse, one wonders if the Times is telegraphing an intention to aggressively support the Farm Bureau in its efforts?

I do not blame the Times for being disappointed by the court’s ruling, but reasonable people can disagree over the interpretation of “fuzzy” law. And to use this decision as an opportunity to label the court a bunch of arbitrary land stealers, adds nothing constructive to the public debate… and suggests ulterior motives. If Frank Blethen and his editorial board wish to advocate a particular policy position, they should at least be forthright in doing so.

To my friends in the traditional media: notice has been served:

1. The Washington Farm Bureau is shamelessly lying to you in support of their dangerous, land use initiative, and
2. Us bloggers are going to make you look awfully damn foolish if you repeat these lies unchallenged.

Noemie Maxwell has posted an absolute, must-read piece over on WashBlog, dissecting just some of the lies with which Washington Farm Bureau President Steve Appel peppered his initiative campaign kickoff speech. Noemie presents a solid bit of sleuthing that pulls the veil from the Farm Bureau’s efforts to mislead the public on this very important issue; it’s a tad wonkish, but a fascinating read.

And I especially encourage reporters and columnists who plan to cover this initiative to pay close attention, because I promise you that this is the type of relentless fact checking local bloggers will pursue throughout this initiative campaign… and if you fail to do same, we will do everything in our power to mercilessly expose your lack of professionalism.

In this particular instance, Noemie focuses on the claims of Bruce Ritter, a small landowner whose plight Appel highlights as typical of thousands of others across the state. That the head of the Farm Bureau could not find an actual farmer to serve as his property rights poster boy was the first thing to touch off Noemie’s suspicions. But …

Odder than this choice of a representative landowner, and more troubling, is the inaccuracy in Mr. Appels’ statement about the Ritter property. Half of the assertions made by Mr. Appel are easily debunked. The other half are not substantiated and are, in fact, shown by the public record to almost certainly be untrue.

Noemie then proceeds to debunk Appel’s assertion that under the proposed Thurston County Critical Areas Ordinance, Appel would lose the use of 90% of two adjoining, 5-acre parcels, his “mobile home, horse barn, well, and septic system all regulated out of existence… his land would be virtually worthless.”

Yeah. Right.

In fact, as Noemie points out, the proposed regulations are public record, and they clearly state that not only are existing structures grandfathered, a “reasonable accommodation” of up to 5000 square feet is allowed per parcel.

Noemie then delves into testimony before the Thurston County Planning Commission, and other public records, and easily discovers further holes in the Ritter anecdote. In fact, a good portion of Ritter’s property is covered by wetlands, and thus development was already restricted under current regulations at the time Ritter purchased the properties in 1995. Thus the poster boy for the Farm Bureau’s initiative is a non-agricultural landowner who wants to obtain via initiative development rights on critical wetlands that he did not have at the time he purchased the property.

And how have these claims been reported in the press? Well, looking at an article in the Seattle P-I, exactly as the Farm Bureau cynically intended:

He points to people such as Bruce Ritter, who owns two adjacent 5-acre lots in Thurston County crisscrossed with wetlands and streams. Under proposed ordinances, he wouldn’t be able to build on 9 acres, Boyer said.

“When you draw all these buffers around these waterways, suddenly he’s left with no usable land, and the home and horse barn and well and septic system that he’s been sitting on for years are literally regulated out of existence,” he said.

This was a statement of fact, not of opinion, and thus the P-I had a professional obligation to fact check it before substantiating it in print. The fact that reporter Jennifer Langston cloaked the statement in attribution is no excuse, for it is demonstrably false, and thus should have been exposed as such, if repeated at all.

When Langston repeats such untruths, unchallenged, she becomes — willing or not — a collaborator with those who are trying to mislead the public for political gain. Indeed, our daily newspapers and other traditional media outlets are the essential cogs in the propaganda machine that transforms calculated lies into common knowledge: Ritter’s misleading testimony is cited by Appel who is cited by the P-I which is cited by others as an authoritative, objective source. This is the news equivalent of money-laundering, and it requires the passive assistance of professional journalists, if not their actual complicit cooperation.

Don’t get me wrong… I admire the profession. I am an avid news consumer, and I personally like and respect nearly every journalist I have met. I even consider some of them my friends. Hell… I’d kill for a shot as a paid columnist at a regional daily.

But this initiative is simply too important to hold my tongue when my friends and (gasp) colleagues screw up!

So notice has been served. Noemie and I and others will be scrutinizing every word you write on this subject between now and November, and I encourage all my fellow bloggers to link to Noemie’s post, and announce to your readers that you will be joining us in our campaign to keep this an honest debate.

Well, even if ignorance of the law was an excuse, Ann Coulter is going to have a tough time arguing it in her defense:

A Palm Beach poll worker says he tried to help GOP-loving pundit Ann Coulter vote in the right precinct last week. But, Jim Whited says, Coulter dashed out of the polling place when he told her she needed to file a change of address.

“I even ran out after her,” he says. “But she was fast.”

Later, elections records show, Coulter cast her ballot 2 miles up the road

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Don’t you people have anything better to do? Apparently not.

The official story, as faithfully repeated in the press, is that Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot his hunting companion, Harry Whittington, from a distance of 90 feet. But a forensic firearms expert who prefers to remain anonymous, tells me that this account seems highly unlikely.

Judging from published reports of the type of firearm and ammunition used, the tightly focused pattern of pellet wounds on the victim, and the severity of the injuries, my source says that the distance between shooter and victim was likely closer to 20 feet. And as it turns out, my anonymous expert is not alone in questioning Cheney’s story.

According to Slate, Whittington’s own local hunting buddies are skeptical about the official story that he was shot at a distance of 30 yards.

Hunters at the Vaughn Building are skeptical. The hunt took place on a cold, windy afternoon. Whittington and his fellow hunters were probably wearing warm clothing

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Well, the Legislature may have failed to act, but at least Governor Gregoire has showed some leadership when it comes to teen gambling addiction.

After a failed attempt to raise the state gambling age from 18 to 21, and the controversial disclosure of a WA State Lottery marketing plan that bluntly targets teens, Gov. Gregoire has instructed the Lottery, in no uncertain terms, to develop a new marketing plan that ensures that “we are not, in any way, marketing lottery products to youth.”

The directive comes in a Feb. 10 letter (PDF) addressed to Washington State Lottery Director Chris Liu, and posted to the website of problem gambling advocacy group Second Chance Washington.

“Because there may be little to no difference between marketing and advertising strategies directed at teenagers under 18, and those 18 and 19 years old, I ask that you refrain from using tools that entice those young adults to play. My concern is that, by following such a path, we would increase the likelihood of younger teenagers becoming involved in gambling at an age when they do not fully understand the risks involved.

I understand that this may mean a reduction in revenue from young adults who can play legally. In the interest of protecting more vulnerable children and teenagers, as I believe we have a responsibility to do, I am willing to take that chance.”

I know I don’t get much support in my comment threads for my personal advocacy for raising the gambling age, but I wonder how anybody can oppose the governor’s new directive? It is one thing for the Lottery to meet the demands of an existing market, it is another thing entirely for it to focus its substantial marketing, advertising and product development budget on addicting a new generation of youth.

Problem gambling is the nation’s fastest growing teen addiction, and teen problem gamblers use tobacco, alcohol and other drugs more than any other group. The Lottery’s own prevalence studies strongly suggest that lottery tickets often serve as a gateway towards other, higher stakes forms of gambling, and lifelong addiction.

While Second Chance Washington may have failed this session in its efforts to raise the gambling age, it deserves a ton of credit for raising the profile of teen problem gambling. If not for their hard work, and the commonsense judgement of Gov. Gregoire, the Lottery would still be spending our tax dollars promoting gambling to kids.

Longtime local blogger (Peace Tree Farm) and HA regular N in Seattle has a post over on Washblog, announcing the 43rd Legislative District’s experiment in “open platform building.” During the week prior to the March 4 precinct caucuses — the Dem’s official first step towards building a party platform — the 43rd will be holding a series of three platform forums to invite more open and direct grassroots participation in the process. As N explains:

The hierarchical structure of 2004 — precincts elect delegates to the LD and county, LDs elect delegates to the Congressional District, CDs elect national delegates — worked well when the ultimate goal was to choose a presidential candidate. But when we’re trying to work on specific points of the party platform, to refine proposed positions on a dozen big issues, starting the process with a couple hundred tiny groups in front of a couple hundred blank slates doesn’t sound like the best way to start.

What N is trying to politely say is that the platform portion of traditional caucuses sucks. Usually, each precinct is just dominated by some loudmouth like me with a bug up his ass about some issue or another, and the LD ends up debating an OCD-like manifesto that reads more like a hijacker’s list of demands than a practical political agenda.

So I’m really looking forward to seeing how the 43rd’s experiment works out, and while I don’t live in the district, I’ll probably stop by the Feb. 26 forum, if only to hear the keynote speech by Congressman Jim McDermott.

For more information, including dates, locations and forum agendas, please read N’s full post at Washblog.

UPDATE:
Writing in the comment thread, Emmett O’Connell informs me that Thurston County is planning similar platform forums. More information here.

One of the many bills that died as the clock ran out in the state House yesterday was HB 2872, which in its amended form would have raised the legal gambling age from 18 to 21 at card rooms and mini-casinos, and would have instructed the state Lottery not to market to teens.

It was a simple, straight forward proposal — backed up by science — that garnered broad, bipartisan support in both houses… yet failed to reach the floor in either. In the Senate the bill was blocked by Sen. Margarita Prentice for reasons only she can explain. In the House… well… I’m not exactly sure what happened in the House, but clearly it was not a priority of Frank Chopp and the Democratic leadership, who opted not to give it a vote.

With little or no public opposition from the gambling industry, I had naively expected some version of this bill to pass this session, but the legislative process is a complex one, and thus often both infuriating and disappointing. But perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the process is that while a bill’s merits are loudly trumpeted by its sponsors at its birth, a bill’s death is most often left shrouded in the mysteries of the caucus. Good bills die without explanation from those responsible (usually, a committee chair,) and it is this lack of transparency that encourages speculation about ulterior motives.

Personally, I have my own suspicions that (gasp) “politics” may have played a role in the bill’s demise — a not unreasonable thing to suspect of politicians — and I have been openly critical of some of the legislator’s motives. And yet, I not only profess a profound belief in the wisdom of our (small “r”) republican form of government, I am also an ardent supporter of the (big “D”) Democrats who control the state Legislature.

So if a legislative booster such as myself can be inspired to voice suspicions, imagine the paranoid fantasies of some of the anti-government folk on the right. The problem as I see it, is that not only does the leadership do a lousy job of explaining their decision making process, they often make no effort whatsoever.

This may have sufficed in the past when it was almost guaranteed that most bills would die with little if any public scrutiny, for the Olympia press corps operates under time and column-inch constraints that leaves little room for in depth coverage of any but the most controversial or dramatic bills. But times have changed, and bloggers such as myself do not have the same constraints, nor follow the same journalistic rules. Lacking the time, cooperation or even the inclination to conduct a thorough interview, I am not above running with analysis, speculation, and opinion, rather than pure factual reporting. (As if such a beast actually exists.)

The point is, as chair of the Ways & Means Committee, the senate rules give Sen. Prentice the prerogative to kill nearly any bill, without explanation or public comment. But she does so at her own risk, for if she and her colleagues refuse to reveal the back room dealings and other machinations behind their legislative triage, then bloggers like me can’t help but fill the void with speculation. And increasingly the most impassioned and active voters on both sides of the political spectrum are getting their news from bloggers like me and our evil-twin counterparts on the right.

Professional initiative sponsor and renowned horse’s ass Tim Eyman likes to justify his own existence by highlighting real or imagined examples of legislative arrogance, and in truth, many of our legislators are arrogant… even some of those I admire most. After all, it takes a certain amount of arrogance just to run for public office.

But if our legislators want to instill public trust and confidence in the legislative process, they must start making this process more transparent. “Because I know better,” “because I can,” and just plain “because” may be all that is needed to exercise power in the halls of the Capitol, but it is hard to blame voters for resorting to the initiative process when these are the only explanations offered the public.

The gambling age bill died in the Senate Ways & Means Committee without a vote, and without explanation; the House version made it through all its committees, but was allowed to die without a floor vote as the clock ran out. I want to know why, and I shouldn’t have to personally ask Frank Chopp or Margarita Prentice for an explanation.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but the legislative leadership needs to do a better and more proactive job of communicating its priorities and explaining its decision making process. Bills like HB 2872 die for a reason, and the public deserves to know the reason why. If the leadership can’t adequately explain its decisions, don’t blame us bloggers for attempting to fill the void.