In a nation that impeached a president for lying about a blow job, and in a state where confusion over the wording of a Harvard diploma qualifies as a front page scandal, you’d think our local media would jump on evidence that Dino Rossi perjured himself just days before the gubernatorial election, right? Well… not so much.
Two new depositions of Master Builders Association board members were released over the weekend, and so far our local media has turned a blind eye, despite the fact their testimony directly contradicts that given by Rossi, and sheds new light on the Republican’s role in the ever expanding Buildergate scandal. And no doubt the most damaging testimony relates to a phone call Rossi made to MBA President Doug Barnes in May of 2007:
LOWNEY: How long was your conversation with Mr. Barnes.
ROSSI: I don’t recall.
LOWNEY: Do you recall talking about any financial contributions.
ROSSI: That, I don’t think so. No, I don’t recall that.
LOWNEY: Did you talk about the 2008 governor’s race?
ROSSI: No.
Well, that seems pretty cut an dried. Amongst the many things Rossi couldn’t recall during his deposition was any conversation about financial contributions. But when asked whether he even talked about the 2008 governor’s race during his telephone call with Barnes, Rossi definitively replies: “No.”
Unfortunately for Rossi, that’s not the way Barnes recalls the conversation:
LOWNEY: And what other issues did you speak with him about?
BARNES: Discussed the latest wedge with BIAW’s approach to us on this funding for the governor’s race.
LOWNEY: And what did he say about that particular issue?
BARNES: Mr. Rossi didn’t have specific — he listened and talked with me about what our differences were. There was no real: Okay, here’s a conclusion, here’s an answer, here’s a — it was more just listening: What are the issues that you have?
Huh. So Rossi claims they didn’t talk about the 2008 governor’s race, while Barnes says they not only did, but they even talked about funding for it. And just as important, Rossi “listened,” which contradicts his insistence that he had absolutely no idea, during the spring of 2007, that the BIAW was raising money for the governor’s race:
LOWNEY: So in 2007 in the April, May and June time frame, did you have any idea that the BIAW was trying to create a pot of money for the 2008 governor’s race?
ROSSI: I know they were trying to come together on supporting all candidates across the state that were pro small business candidates. … It was for supporting all small business candidates, Republicans and Democrats alike, and in a very general sense.
Okay, Rossi didn’t really insist that he had no knowledge the BIAW was raising money for the governor’s race, he just kinda sorta implied it by claiming the effort was for all pro small business candidates… not that legally, that is any excuse if he knew that one of those candidates might be himself. But we’ll get to the legal stuff later; for the moment, let’s go back to Barnes’ deposition, where he further details his conversation with Rossi.
LOWNEY: And how did you describe this latest wedge issue to Mr. Rossi?
BARNES: I said it was another example of BIAW – kind of “my way or the highway” is how I typically described it – and that I had two or three major objections with what they were trying to do and that it was way too early; there’s no need for us to even be having this discussion at this point in time. And that was the extent of that.
LOWNEY: And what do you mean, “it was too early”?
BARNES: They were trying to raise funds for an election that was going to happen 15, 18 months from now.
When Rossi is asked if he knew the BIAW was raising money for the governor’s race, he prevaricates; when he’s asked if he even discussed the 2008 governor’s race during his conversation with Barnes, he says “no.” Indeed, since the day this scandal first broke, Rossi has insisted that his numerous phone calls and meetings with MBA officers during the spring and summer of 2007 were merely intended to close the growing rift between them and the BIAW.
But as Barnes makes clear throughout his testimony—testimony that is corroborated by the official minutes of MBA meetings—the “wedge” that was causing this rift was largely focused on the BIAW’s efforts to pile up a “fund for Rossi,” and the MBA’s reluctance to earmark contributions to this fund at such an early date.
BARNES: I didn’t think that we needed to identify a specific funding source for something like this. If we wanted to contribute to a local political race or whatever, we would designate that funding source at that point in time. There’s no need to earmark funds in our budget.
Rossi also denies that he talked about the race for governor at a lunch meeting with MBA officers, yet MBA President-elect John Day, who set up the lunch, testifies in his deposition that this was the whole purpose of the meeting:
DAY: I wanted to get the chair officers together with Dino so that we could have an opportunity to try to convince him to run for governor.
Whether Rossi’s sworn testimony rises to the level of perjury, well, I’m no attorney, so I don’t know. But the depositions make clear that Rossi was much more involved in the BIAW’s illegal fundraising scheme than he has heretofore admitted, and that what little active participation he does acknowledge puts him and the BIAW in direct violation of WA’s campaign finance and disclosure statutes.
Rossi’s fallback position has always been that he wasn’t aware of BIAW’s efforts on his behalf and that he never helped them raise any money for the gubernatorial race, but that even if he did, that would have been okay, because he wasn’t officially a candidate at the time. But that’s not what the law says.
RCW 42.17.020, Definitions
(9) “Candidate” means any individual who seeks nomination for election or election to public office. An individual seeks nomination or election when he or she first:
(a) Receives contributions or makes expenditures or reserves space or facilities with intent to promote his or her candidacy for office;
(b) Announces publicly or files for office;
(c) Purchases commercial advertising space or broadcast time to promote his or her candidacy; or
(d) Gives his or her consent to another person to take on behalf of the individual any of the actions in (a) or (c) of this subsection.
And even Rossi testifies that at the same time he was talking with MBA officers—conversations these same officers testify focused on the 2008 gubernatorial race and the BIAW’s efforts to raise money for it—he was indeed considering a run for governor:
ROSSI: I was about 75 percent sure I wouldn’t run…
Of course, no astute observer of Washington state politics believes for a minute that in May of 2007, there was only a one in four chance that Rossi would run for governor, but even that admission is enough to establish that he was in fact considering a run at that time, which would have barred any participation in the BIAW’s fundraising efforts. Indeed, under state law, the very act of coordinating with the BIAW on their “fund for Rossi” made Rossi a legal candidate, and thus made such coordination illegal.
But I’m guessing you won’t read any of this on the front pages of our local newspapers, because you know… they wouldn’t want to play politics so close to an election.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and take down Rossi AND some of the old-guards in our (quite shitty) local media.
How can you be 75% sure of anything? If you’re 75% sure you won’t run, does that mean you’re 25% sure your will run? 25% sure you might run?
Maybe you’ll run, maybe you won’t? Rossi is a meat tube just for using a statistic like that, 75% for sure.
Bought and paid for tool of BIAW. The phony organization with secret donors and a nice little salary to draw on.
A kept man.
Why I’m Glad I Voted For Brad Owen
Yes, some of my liberal friends have dissed him in these comments; I’m aware of that. But as a voter, you’ve got only two choices — Owen, the Democratic incumbent, and Marcia McCraw, the Republican challenger.
The Seattle Times, in endorsing McCraw, said she has “a complicated personal story that gives us pause.” I knew about her DUI arrest, but turns out to be the least colorful part of her “personal story.” I got the rest from a helpful little political quiz in Danny Westneat’s column today. To wit:
“What was the paper talking about?
“A. That she lost an 8,000-square-foot house to foreclosure.
“B. That she was arrested for drunken driving.
“C. That she dates a 74-year-old who invented the ‘dial-a-porn’ industry.
“D. All of the above.”
I answered “B,” figuring I’d nail that one. Well, imagine my jaw bouncing off my paws when I checked the answer key and read the correct answer is “D, all of the above!” That was 1 of 3 questions on Westneat’s quiz I answered wrong, so I got 13 of 16 right.
Sorry guys, but this chick is too weird for me. Besides, I’m worried that her taste for big houses and dirty old rich men, combined with lack of sobriety, plus being a Republican, might make her sticky-fingered. I prefer to vouch for my Owen vote.
The fact that Rossi and his campaign are liars is old hat. Consider their pathetic adds. The casino gambling money scandal doozy, for example.
A UW poll cited in the fishwrapper contains a startling statistic:
“Younger voters, ages 18 to 34, are expected to vote heavily for Obama. In Washington’s governor race, though, they appear to be breaking for Rossi, 56 percent to 40 percent, according to the UW poll.
“If true, that could prove significant. State records indicate that more than 340,000 new voters have registered this year, and roughly 60 percent are in that 18-34 age group.”
(quoted under fair use)
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This is hard to explain. I’m tempted to chalk it up to ignorance. One of the most important issues to young people is access to college and ways to pay for it. A decade of Republican parsimony in Olympia led to public university doors swing shut and rising tuition charges. Gregoire added thousands of new seats in state college classrooms and boosted financial aid as well. Rossi is the anti-education candidate of the anti-education party. Young people who vote for him are shooting themselves in both feet. I don’t get it. Could the poll be wildly wrong?
So, it’s settled. Darcy Burner and Rossi are liars.
Frank Blethen believes Rossi wasn’t lying about getting rid of the inheritance tax, and that’s all Frank cares about.
Troll, you troll, I recall you and your ilk making a huge deal out of the fact that Bill Clinton’s word-parsing was done under oath, in a deposition. As was Rossi’s lying and Gonzales-like “forgetfulness”.
Oh, and with Burner it was a matter of oversimplifying a matter — Harvard’s method of defining its academic curriculum and credentials — that would have taken a minute or two to explain in full (and said explanation would likely have further confused simpletons like you).
@7 You’re half right. That’s progress.
Roger @ 6:
On the youth vote- It is scary. Its also fairly simplistic but not wrongheaded, in the sense that many of these voters are following the change mantra. They are overwhelmed and I think confused and just generally rejecting all the ad attacks. Who can blame them?
I spoke to two groups of them this week, one group mostly 22-25 years old, and one group 18-20 yrs of age, total of about 50 people. They quickly got the reasons to oppose Rossi and virtually all of them, and I hope every one of them, were pro Gregoire after the meeting. Biggest issue was minimum wage and his cut, as well as environmental issues. Interesting, I talked about college costs and they seemed to just accept the statuts quo.
Reaching these voters this weekend is perhaps the most important effort of the end of the campaign season. I am very glad that two of my three children, ages 18-23 and luddite poll voters like their old man and registered at home, got persuasion calls today from the Democratic campaign.
I think we will be okay, but this factoid does scare me.
BTW, I will go to the polls with these two of my children in town at ten minutes to 7 AM Tuesday. My youngest will cast her first vote. I can’t wait.
I can see that Dino Rossi might have been thinking against running for Governor in early 2007. Mike McGavick got his ass kicked by nearly 17 points by Maria Cantwell in November 2006, in spite of spending more money than Rossi spent in 2004 and having the endorsement of the Seattle Times and several other major newspapers.
More important would be the state legislature results. When Rossi ran for Governor in 2004, the Republicans had a majority in the state Senate and close to half the seats in the state House. Christine Gregoire then implemented her policies as Governor and got most of them through the legislature. In 2005, the voters decisively voted to retain the gas tax increases Gregoire had passed. In 2006, the voters showed decisive approval of Gregoire’s policies, by defeating numerous Republican legislators and giving a nearly 2-to-1 Democratic majority in both the state Senate and state House.
So I can see how Rossi would have been less enthusiastic about running for Governor in early 2007, given all of this.
roger @6.
I believe it, AND, I blame the Dems.
in ‘late 79 to early ’80 I transitioned from Boston College sophmore on welfare financial aid stacking up huge loans to low wage working stiff back in holyoke, MA.
I was astounded at the number of college friends and working stiff workmates who parroted RayGun’s fantastical lies – I was stunned that they could NOT see him for a christo – fascist lackey. I moved back to Boston in ’82, and I couldn’t count all the condescending commentary I’ve had from my academic betters about how inaccurate and untruthful
yawn
the fascist lies were, and once people … yawn … went to … graduate school ?? they’d see how complex the world was and how wrong the fascists were.
Lackoff’s elephant sized tome explaining why lies like ‘death tax’ work,
vs. pointing out in 400 pages that it is a lie,
really hasn’t yet sunk in to too many ‘leader’ dems,
hence message that is so lame that these u.w. nitwits are doing voting against their own self interest due to lies which aren’t fundamentally different from what RayGun was spouting 28 years ago.
rmm.
Thing is Richard, that Rossi was running for office every day between the court decision and today. First it was under the “book tour” then as a paid candidate under forward WA and then as a, gasp, declared candidate. The lies are so deep many have become used to them and the press seems to have a rule about only reporting about a lie one time.
Well let us hope that this guy does not get elected. His history shows that every time he gets away with a lie he just goes a little farther. By the end of his first term, I have no doubt he would be lead away by the feds to a cozy cell.
Thing is, that would set our state back 10 years and as much as I would love for this crook to get what he has coming, I would rather see our state spared the trauma.
Roger Rabbit, I suspect that there are two reasons for young Obama voters going for Rossi. First, Rossi has aggressively adopted the “change” mantra and attempted to link his crusade to Obama’s. Second, Gregoire has run an absolutely terrible campaign, particularly in reaching younger voters.
I work for state government. I think Gregoire has done a pretty decent job, particularly when you consider how long the Dems have been in power. If this were any other state, you’d see rampant corruption and inefficiency instead of one of the best-run state governments in the country.
Alas, like Al Gore, Gregoire is a terrible candidate. She’s not charismatic, and she doesn’t have a very good “political” sense. And what’s with the people she hires for her campaigns?
Rossi is really bad news, but if he wins it will partially be because Gregoire ran such an awful campaign. What’s so infuriating is that we all knew this would be a tight race, so there’s really no excuse for Gregoire not being ready for Rossi.
If Gregoire wins then the Dem insiders who run the party need to tell her point blank that this was her last state-wide race — she will not be supported in a run for, say, US Senate if a position opens up any time soon. In the future Gregoire should look for appointed positions, such as with an Obama administration.
But back to younger voters’ support for Rossi. This illustrates the fragility of political movements in the electronic era. If youth adopt an almost religious zeal in supporting Obama but then vote for Rossi, that says a lot about the power of media manipulation.
This is hardly the “progressive moment,” folks. If that were the case an effective Democratic INCUMBENT governor would be 10-15 points ahead of the W. Bush clone.
If this were any other state, you’d see rampant corruption and inefficiency instead of one of the best-run state governments in the country
If Rossi is elected, yes, WA will join other states in terms of rampant corruption and inefficiency.
All signs point to that not happening but it’s going to be another close one.
I just spent 45 minutes listening to Governor Gregoire speak to about 300 of us volunteers. I would agree with you that the campaign lacks pizazz. I disgree with you strongly that she is not charismatic. Maybe not so much on TV, but in person she lights up the room with her passion and enthusiasm. It’s the Dem insiders who need to be replaced. Whoever came up with the idea to waste time and money to go after Rossi for not listing “Republican” after his name was incredibly stupid. She needs to get the people who ran the Obama campaign to get out her message, and create a climate where she can just get out there and look people in the eye and let them get to know her.
17 – I thought it was legitimate, the “prefers G.O.P Party” thing. It shows what a dishonest sleaze the bastard is.
Certainly not the most important thing to talk about but definitely in the top 10.
An excellent video about Republican vote suppression, misinformation and intimidation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP7FdBEpVBo
The video gives the impression that the Obama campaign is on top of it.
I just wanted to remind everyone here to vote.
The Republicans vote on Tuesday.
The left wing-nuts vote on Wednesday.
May the best liar win.
Is that the best you got? You guys are so fucked.
No such thing as voter fraud?
But isn’t that what left wing-nuts were chanting when kerry lost 4 years ago?
If democrats aren’t in favor of voter fraud, why are they so scared of requiring ID to vote? Hell, obama requires ID to get in to hear him read off the teleprompter. Double standard?
When it comes to hate, the left is the champ.
How about a liberal radio talk show host wanting joe the plumber dead. Oh yeah, like byebyegoop, headless and steve there is profanity. Get the kids out of the room
Lib Radio Host Karel Calls For Joe Wurzelbacher’s Death In On-Air Obscenity Laced Tirade
Goldy covers himself (legally) by putting a question mark after the lie statement.
Evidently the readers of this blog do not know the definition of the word “lie”.
From Merriam-Webster:
1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive
2 : to create a false or misleading impression
Under #2, the headline is a lie, question mark or not.
Under no definition of the word did Rossi lie.
Under #1 and #2, Darcy Burner lied about both her having a Harvard degree in Economics and about being a Microsoft Executive. (She doesn’t and she wasn’t and she knew it.)
Further, under no definition of the word did Bush LIE about WMD. To lie about it, one would have to know IN FACT there were none. Believe me if anyone had any evidence that shows he did, it would have surfaced by now.
One may make statements that are untrue, and THAT not a lie.
When one knows to the contrary and makes the statement anyway, THAT is a lie.
Use the language correctly people.
Not to rain on your parade or anything, but you should be aware of the liberal media bias and how they inflate the poll numbers.
Remember new hampshire in the dem primary?
We must be getting under their skin, folks – two trolls and, let’s see…five of the last six posts.
Keep calling. Keep canvassing.
Oh, and the trolls can keep on blovating – keeps them out of our way while we work to defeat them in the polls, where it counts.
@24- well, as long as we are back to the original thread, I must say, your lack of analysis and logic is actually quite mind boggling, as is the whole Rossi campaign.
It escapes the attention of the wingnuts that Rossi filed his Rossi 2008 campaign with the PDC in 2005, and raised hundreds of thousands which he spent on his various recount activities. More inconvenient truths. Then Mr Slim Shady decided to susppend that registration, and start up his Forward WA foundation so he could raise unreported money, in huge sums, tax free, and run the state as a spokesperson for his “organization” and not as a candidate. He got some shady legal advice from his shady people around him on this concept. Unfortunately, another inconvenient truth for Rossi is that his activities with BIAW would make him a candidate under the law, and it does not matter if he is declared or not.
Rossi’s dep does not appear to match his own public statements of three weeks ago when he acknowledged the content of his conversations with the local presidents as he discussed with them, and in my view, clearly was persuading them on the fundraising plan. The local presidents he talked to confirmed that fact. He confirmed it a couple weeks ago, but hung on the thread of “not being a candidate” (har, har, har, thats a laugher)- and now he says he can’t remember what he said.
So that does not meet your definition of “creating a false or misleading impression.” Only a true wingnut would buy that.
If Chris Gregoire did even one of the many shady acts Rossi has committed, we would never hear the end of the screaming from wingnuts. If she or any Democrat had some phony baloney tax free foundation to tour the state with you’d scream from high heaven. If she had illegally coordinated illegal campaign activity by her major donors, you would be storming the Capitol.
Oh, and one other question. Is this your basis for finding him qualified to be our Governor- that he allegedly did not lie in his deposition, so is not guilty of perjury, and therefore, should be elected Governor? OK, a quiz.
How about leaving off the Gary Locke proposed budget of 2003 he tweaked and made worse, and takes credit for, and quick, tell me three meaningful actions Rossi took in the legislature? Or, even one? And tell me three, or even one example of his managerial experience and accomplishments he has, that leads us to think he can run the state? Wow, thats a stumper, isn’t it?
I hope the Repubs can find some decent candidates again someday. He is not it.
This site hillbuzz. wordpress. com says it all.
I guess the full hillbuzz link is now blocked by the Minions.
They don’t like Obama
“We must be getting under their skin, folks – two trolls and, let’s see…five of the last six posts”.
Hey, Rossi doesn’t refer to them as Trolls. He prefers “useful idiots”.
“NOTE: Republicans, we’re your reinforcements. PUMA is short hand for Democrats who witnessed the constant fraud, voter intimidation, thuggery, and dirty Chicago politics Obama used during the primaries — and challenged the Democratic Party to honor its ideals and principles and set right the wrongs Obama committed. The DNC under Howard Dean, Donna Brazile, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid turned a blind eye to all of this — and with that, the Democratic Party abandoned its identity as the party of the New Deal Coalition; the party left us, we didn’t leave the party. REAL Democrats, lifelong Democrats, Clinton and New Deal Democrats, are PUMAs now (where good people united mean action!).”
4 Hey, Roger, weird I can deal with. In fact, I have a sufficiently dirty mind and I’m old enough that I’d like to think that if perish the thought I found myself a widower at 74 that there’d be some halfway decent looking 50-something out there who might be as compatible with my perverse and snarky nature as the wonderful lady to whom I’ve been married for the last 33 years. I’d say, in fact, that I’m more comfortable with weird than I am with dull, especially the brand of dull that tries to coerce other people to join in communal dullness. That’s Brad Owen’s brand of dull.
Weird’s just fine by me. Crooked, on the other hand, is another matter. The more I learn about Dino Rossi, the more certain I am that he’s so crooked he could copulate with a P-trap.
More Donkey hate abounds.
@31: You were never a democrat – you are too busy listening to the right wing radio and to neocons like Krauthammer – the idiot who was a major cheerleader for the unnecessary Iraq war.
Yup – republicans have been for deregulation for years – yet nary a peep out of them now…they have also been demanding the privitization of Social Security – where are those demands now that most retirees would have lost the majority of their SS securtiy savings?
REpublicans claim to be for fiscal contraint – yet the largest budget deficits in history were made by Reagan and Bush (Bush just set the record).
Republicans claimed to be for efficiency in governemnt – but republicans have stacked the non-partisan parts of government with hacks, partisans and created biased or partisan policy decisions based on political or religous beliefs instead of the law. The Justice dept. has been completely corrupted. The EPA scientists are overuled by political appointees, the FDA is in the control of the drug companies and the SEC was a rubber stamp for the banks and security companies to run the housing ponzi scheme.
It is time to throw the bums out!
A heck of a lot more republicans are leaving the party after Palin – even Colin Powell was disgusted by the pandering to the rabid racist right wing.
@24
Yep, Rossi did both of those. Rossi Lied and committed perjury.
Can felons be Governors?
@33
You can’t get good governance from people that hate government. It is that simple. Back in the day when you had people like Eisenhower or Dan Evan’s running things the Republicans did alright; they believed that government was a good and necessary thing.
re 32: Maybe you are hated for good reason? Give me one good reason why I should not hate you.
Sarah Palin’s son is in Iraq because he had a choice of going to jail for dealing drugs or joining the military.Sarah Palin is a socialist because her proudest moment as a politician was in getting the oil companies to give Alaskans more free money.
Palin is the socialistic re-distributer of wealth.
Yet colin powell appeared as a character witness for ted stevens.
What do ted stevens and obama have in common besides the support of colin powell?
Because you already have the reputation for hating black people. Isn’t it time you stopped hating people?
More smears from dailypus. It appears racists like you aren’t capable of logical thought, just parroting the words of left wing-nuts.
The newspapers in Washington state basically go to sleep the Friday before a big general election. That’s about how it has always been with few exceptions.
The big difference now is that it looks like over 50% have already voted.
It is doubtful that any new information would change the race for Governor. (Even another instance of Dino Rossi lying.)
It looks like polls have become hard. Have been for the past month or so. (There have been modest variations in daily tracking polls but not outside the margin of error.)
It looks like Gregoire is going to win by 2-6% – a landslide compared to 133 votes.