Search Results for: Reichert

While Jon focused solely on the WA-03 money race, Publicola brings us the numbers from WA-08, where Republican incumbent Dave Reichert reportedly raised about $350,000 in the first quarter and is sitting on about $700,000, while Democratic challenger Suzan DelBene raised $225,000 in the quarter for $840,000 cash on hand.

But in attempting to clarify these numbers, Publicola only muddles things up:

Footnote on DelBene: She spent $160,000 this quarter and has almost $400,000 in liabilities, which means she actually has about $460,000 in cash after having raised $920,000 overall. Reichert, who’s raised about $1 million overall, has over $700,000 in cash after liabilities.

Yeah, well, not really. DelBene’s “almost $400,000 in liabilities” largely refers to a $350,000 personal loan. From a financial strength perspective, whether she pays herself back or not really isn’t an issue as long as she doesn’t pay herself back until after the election.

Reichert, although lacking the resources to self-finance, similarly benefits from loans of a sort, routinely spending his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt, which he eventually pays off with money raised for the next campaign. That’s why, while raising over $1.3 million this cycle (not the “$920,000” total Publicola reports), Reichert only has $715,000 cash on hand; most of the rest of the money went to paying off last election’s debt.

So an apple to apple comparison does indeed show that DelBene currently enjoys an $839K to $715K cash on hand advantage over the incumbent. As for fundraising strength and enthusiasm, yes, DelBene’s totals are inflated by about $534K in self-financing, but that’s roughly equivalent to Reichert’s advantage in big money contributions from PACs. Overall, Reichert has raised only slightly more in individual contributions, while DelBene enjoys more individual contributors.

In other words, it looks like Reichert is facing yet another competitive challenger, as opposed to our state delegation’s other seven incumbents, who by comparison, all currently enjoy a better than five to one money advantage over their closest opponent.

At a town hall meeting last week, after being asked about the possibility of going to jail for failing to buy health insurance, U.S. Tom Coburn (R-OK) warned the audience not to believe everything they hear, explaining “That makes for good TV news on FOX but that isn’t the intention.”

This of course got Fox host Bill O’Reilly’s undies in a knot, who castigated Coburn the other day, insisting that he “find one person on Fox News who told this audience that they would go to jail if they don’t buy health insurance.”

Well, Kate Pickert at Time Magazine’s Swampland blog took up the challenge, and who was the first person she found to spread this lie on Fox News? None other than our own Rep. Dave Reichert.

Ironically, Reichert himself recently went out of his way to warn supporters not to question the lies they hear on TV or read online:

“Don’t believe everything you hear. Find out the truth. And I’ll tell you why it’s so important to find out the truth. Because it has to do with keeping this country free. It has to do with keeping our country, our freedom. It has to do with us having that responsibility and gaining that knowledge. It will keep us free, because there are people who want to divide us. And we all know that a house divided will fall. And if we let ourselves become divided this country will fail, and for that and for the future of our children and our grandchildren we cannot allow it to happen.”

Which I guess is about the most useful advice we’ve heard from Reichert in while.

I just got finished listening to 25 minutes of Rep. Dave Reichert recorded at his recent campaign kickoff fundraising breakfast, and from his rambling, pointless and incoherent speech, one might think his head injury was more serious than was first let on… that is, if we didn’t already know Reichert for his rambling, pointless and incoherent speeches.

In fact, what’s most striking about Reichert’s comments is not what he says, but what he doesn’t say. Mostly he talks about his head injury, his hospitalization and his hair, with a sprinkling of platitudes about how he stands with Americans and for freedom. But what he doesn’t talk about are any issues. Nothing about the economy, nothing about unemployment, nothing about the environment or immigration or  Wall Street regulatory reform or any of the many other problems we send our representatives to the other Washington to solve.

In fact, the only policy issue Reichert even remotely addresses is health care, and even then, only to regale his audience with tales of his own brush with our health care system, and to reassure them that he took advantage of every opportunity he had to vote against extending health care access to millions of under- and uninsured Americans.

Speaking of which, here is a clip of one of the biggest crowd pleasers of the morning, an anecdote where he compares the removal of medical tape to waterboarding:

[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/Reichert-Torture.mp3]

Hey, I was tortured while I was at the hospital. Uh, have you ever been in the hospital they put this tape on , for IVs and stuff like that. They use super glue. You know that? I’m not kidding. It’s super glue. I had six IVs: one on the top of my left hand, one on the top of my right, one in each wrist and one on each elbow, and they use super glue.

And uh, so when I’m being released, you know, they got to rip this stuff off. I mean I think I’m tough… am I tough Jon? I thought I was tough. The guy told me, the nurse came in and said, “Hey this is going to hurt.” I said okay, I think I can handle that. And he goes rip. And I go “Holy —!”  Sorry. I said, then he goes, he goes, “I’m sorry.” Yeah right, so he does another rip and I said “Shit…!” You know, I say “Why don’t you just water-board me? What do you want to know? I’ll tell you anything you want to know!”

That’s a joke everybody. I mean, if anybody’s got, if you got your, you got your little video phone or somehow, and post this on Google… I’m against torture. Except if you’re in the hospital, I guess it’s the same. Yeah that hurts, man I’ll tell ya.

So I guess there was a policy statement in there after all, as I suppose we can deduce from this anecdote that Reichert apparently believes that waterboarding is indeed torture. But then, he also believes that ripping off a Band-Aid is torture too, and he’s not afraid to say so, even at the risk of somebody posting it “on Google.”

Oh man… can’t get enough of those torture jokes. Hah, hah!

So many possible jokes… but instead, I guess I should just wish him a speedy recovery.

Joel Connelly says musclebound congressman Dave Reichert hasn’t ruled out a run against incumbent U.S. Senator Patty Murray:

Rumors in Washington, D.C., this week have Reichert being encouraged to run against Murray. “They didn’t come from me,” he joked, saying he has not been nudged by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

But Reichert would not rule out a Senate race.

Well, I don’t know if the NRSC has been nudging Reichert to challenge Murray, but I wouldn’t be surprised if King County Councilman Reagan Dunn were to give him a shove, if only indirectly. Long the heir apparent to his late mother’s old seat, Dunn would likely be the big winner of a Reichert v. Murray contest. Reichert… not so much.

(From Crooks and Liars, via BlatherWatch)

Jesus… could Chris Matthews let Darcy Burner finish a single sentence? Um, no, but I think Darcy stood up to it pretty well. She never lost her patience, and kept a smile on her face, making Matthews come off as a bit of an asshole.

All that aside, isn’t it interesting that when the cable news folks are looking for someone credible to talk to about health care reform, they come to Darcy Burner, and not Do Nuthin’ Dave Reichert?  Hmm.

Over at Publicola, Erica documents Rep. Dave Reichert’s many public statements in opposition to President Obama’s economic stimulus package, which, drawing upon his vast expertise as an economist sheriff, Reichert has repeatedly predicted would fail at its primary goal: creating jobs.

Oops.

This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a report estimating that the stimulus package had created between 600,000 and 1.6 million new jobs, and raised the US gross domestic product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points above what would have been without the program.

Moreover, in the New York Times last month, several prominent economists argued that the stimulus had helped the economy, by creating jobs and hastening the end of the recession.

If only Sheriff Dave had the brains to match his brawn.

While Rep. Dave Reichert worked hard to appear more moderate in response to a tough challenge from Darcy Burner, he’s been veering hard back to the right ever since, culminating in his vote against the House healthcare bill, and his bizarre attacks on the AARP for endorsing it.

Of course, all the polling shows that substantive healthcare reform, including a robust public option, remains popular in Reichert’s district, even amongst seniors, which makes the three-term Republican a prime target for a new round of DNC sponsored radio ads aimed at vulnerable Republicans nationwide.

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/apache.3cdn.net/e625269003db69779a_b6m6va813.mp3]

In last year’s historic election, voters in Washington’s 8th Congressional District supported President Obama and his call for change.

But when it came to fixing our broken health insurance system, Congressman Dave Reichert voted for more of the same.

When the U.S. House passed health insurance reform that would provide Americans quality, affordable care, Congressman Reichert stood with the insurance industry, not the people he was elected to represent.

Congressman Reichert voted against ending discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, against reining in skyrocketing premiums, and against expanding health coverage to more Americans.

Congressman Reichert joined Republicans in Washington and voted against real reform. He stood with the health insurance industry instead of us.

Call Congressman Dave Reichert at (202) 225-3121 and tell him it’s time to stand up for reform, not insurance companies.

Reichert is simply out of step with WA-08 voters on this and many other issues. Perhaps when the reconciled bill comes back to the House floor for one final vote, Reichert might “moderate” his stance one more time if constituents remind him that it could him their vote in 2010?

Rep. Dave Reichert, R-WA-08, is “just getting started” in his jihad against AARP. From The News-Tribune:

In e-mails to the office of Washington’s insurance commissioner, Reichert’s staff wanted to know if AARP needed to be regulated under state insurance laws. An official in the insurance commissioner’s office, Gayle Pasero, company licensing manager, responded that AARP didn’t qualify as an insurance company covered by state law.

Wow. Just wow. AARP is now cowering under its covers at the mighty wrath of Dave, who called the state insurance commissioner, and was rejected. EPIC—well, you know.

Next up: Davey turns his back on AARP when it wants to play, staring at the ceiling and pretending not to notice AARP wagging its tail.

I also notice via Think Progress that Grandpa John McCain supposedly wants seniors to cut up their AARP cards to protest the group’s support of health care insurance reform. Yeah, like they’re going to give up those 5% discounts at RV parks, sure.

This is still the fundamental problem with Republicans: they don’t live in the real world. Gun owners may loudly proclaim that some undetermined, mythical entity will have to pry their guns from their “cold, dead fingers,” but try taking away a twenty five cent ketchup coupon from an AARP member. You’ll pull back a stump.

So the GOP’s brilliant new plan to derail health insurance reform is to “ACORN” the AARP. (Pausing while that sinks in a moment)

You know, the AARP, the really, really powerful lobby that is really really powerful and represents the group of Americans who vote the most–seniors.

The slime is already pouring from the right-wing noise machine, a sure indicator of impending wingnut baying and howling.

But wait, it gets even better. One of the GOPoodles leading the charge is none other than Rep. Dave Reichert, R-WA 08. From TPMDC:

The GOP has gone further than rhetoric as well. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) claims to have launched an investigation into AARP in his home state. Reichert says his “ongoing” investigation focuses on whether AARP should be classified as an insurance company because of its revenue from royalties the group gets from licensing its brand for insurance products. AARP says it’s not aware of the investigation, and Reichert suggested to reporters Monday that it was essentially stalled. But the question of whether AARP is an insurance company or not is at the center of the GOP messaging on the group.

I didn’t know a Congressman could make such determinations at the state level. My guess is he can’t, which is probably why his “investigation” is stalled.

Meaning, of course, Reichert is just being a grandstanding fool. People who have followed recent elections in WA-08 won’t be surprised by this, unless they’re political reporters from The Seattle Times. In that case this is a shrewd move by a sensible moderate who has grave concerns blah blah blah blah blah diploma.

For everyone else it’s a sign that Reichert has now performed a triple-shark jump, replete in leather jacket with Pinky dressed as Santa Claus. The crowd goes wild, folks.

Hey, here’s an idea, Dave. If you want to “ACORN” the AARP, why don’t you dress up in a mini-skirt and go filming yourself at some AARP offices? I bet you’ll get on Fox!

A lot of you have probably already seen the photo of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) heckling President Barack Obama, but did you notice that carefully coifed head of silver hair just beneath him? Why that’s Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) of course.

And apparently, Reichert isn’t just close to Wilson in terms of physical proximity. A quick search of OpenSecrets.org finds Reichert has received three contributions totaling $5,000 from Wilson, via his Carolina Majority PAC.

So considering his close relationship with Wilson, I’d be curious to hear what Reichert has to say about his patron’s inappropriate outburst, and whether he too believes that President Obama “lied” in stating that his plan would not insure illegal immigrants?

UPDATE:
You know what else Reichert and Wilson have in common? The uncommon ability to inspire unprecedented generosity… for their opponents. Since heckling the President last night, over 10,000 individuals have contributed over $350,000 to the campaign of Wilson’s challenger, Rob Miller, over $179,000 of it coming via Daily Kos alone, prompting elections analyst Charlie Cook to downgrade Wilson’s reelection prospects.

Send a few bucks of your own Miller’s way, and send a very loud message back to Rep. Wilson.

So, predictably, conservatives are attacking Democrat Brian Baird, WA-03, for refusing to play their stupid “mob rule” game and will have telephone town halls instead of the rugby scrums desired by the tea birthers.

Which got me to wondering who else has used telephone town halls.

From a 2007 post by former Seattle Times reporter David Postman.

About 400 people pressed “1” and joined Reichert for his first district-wide “tele-town hall.” It was about an hour-long conference call that for Reichert has replaced the old-fashioned, in-person, town hall meeting.

Actually, Reichert, a two-term Republican, has never held a traditional town hall meeting. Early in his first term he convened a panel discussion to talk about Social Security. But that didn’t go well.

“People started chanting and yelling,” Reichert’s chief of staff, Mike Shields, said this week. The forum was moderated by Times editorial page editor Jim Vesely. He wrote afterward that the event turned into a “hockey game.” That was the end of any plans for open-door town halls for Reichert.

Go figure. It’s okay for Republicans, as always.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1o1p_ly7Yw[/youtube]

Mike Stark is at it again, this time ambushing Republican congresspersons to ask them whether or not they believe Barack Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States, and thus constitutionally eligible to be president.

Some of them, like our own Dave Reichert (WA-08), simply obfuscate (his inarticulate and poorly illustrated response is particularly amusing), while others, like Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) actually run away from the camera… though not before admitting “We’re all going to find out… I’d like to see the documents.”

Huh. She sure does sound like a birther to me. Even while Ann Coulter, of all people, is calling the birthers “cranks.”

When Coulter has become the GOP’s voice of reason, you know the party is in trouble.

Today is the national Parade of Reason organized by Fuse and other progressive organizations, in which thousands of Americans will stop by their Congressperson’s local office and drop off a small memento illustrating their personal reasons for urging Congress to act now on climate change. You can get more information and find your local Congressional office here.

Oil and coal interests did some real damage to the climate change bill in committee, but there are still a lot of good provisions left, and… well… we gotta start somewhere, and soon. We all know Rep. Jay Inslee is a driving force on this and other environmental issues, but most of the rest  of the Western Washington delegation appears to be standing on the sideline. That’s why we need to urge Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Adam Smith and Rick Larsen to get behind this bill now, help strengthen it on the floor, and get it passed when it comes up for a vote in a couple weeks.

And then there’s Rep. Dave Reichert.

Reichert likes to portray himself as moderate. The Seattle Times likes to portray him as a moderate. And faced with two tough, well financed challenges from Darcy Burner, Reichert occasionally found himself last session pushed into a few moderate votes, if only to save his own skin in November.

Of course, I’ve always insisted Reichert’s alleged “conscience driven independence” is a fraud, his votes against the party line always coming after the conclusion was foregone, and only after consistently opposing the measure in numerous procedural votes. So here’s his chance to prove me wrong.

Indeed, not only does Reichert have the chance to cast one of the only Republican votes for this legislation, he has the unparalleled opportunity to be the lone Republican getting out in front of this bill and leading the way. He and his handlers must know that climate change legislation has overwhelming support in his district—a pro-environment, hydro-powered district less economically dependent on fossil fuels than nearly any in the nation—so if he really wants to prove his moderation and independence (not to mention his legislative competence), now’s the time to show a little leadership and help shepherd this important piece of legislation through Congress.

But I’m not holding my breath.