I genuinely feel sorry for Republican King County Council member Reagan Dunn. He’s had a couple tough years. His political ambitions suffered a major blow when he lost his race for Attorney General. He’s recently divorced with two young children, and that totally sucks. And now we learn of his struggle with alcohol addiction and his guilty plea to a drunk driving charge.
I feel for him. And I sincerely hope he manages to stay dry and get everything but his political ambitions back on track. But I gotta say, I’m pretty stunned by this admission from the Seattle Times:
In discussing the plea, Dunn said he had voluntarily completed an inpatient alcohol-treatment program in the Los Angeles area in 2011.
(The Times learned of the treatment just before the August 2013 primary race for his seat, but after investigating it chose not to publish the information because it was two years old, Dunn had not committed a crime and there was no evidence that alcohol was affecting his job.)
So, I’ve got two problems with that decision. First, I think it’s just plain wrong. Voters deserved to know that Dunn had an alcohol problem so severe that it drove him to seek treatment (and anybody who has dealt with alcoholism and/or alcoholics knows how severe the problem must get before an alcoholic is generally willing to take that step). Maybe there was no evidence that Dunn had committed a crime or that his drinking was affecting his job, but drunks with cars tend to drive drunk. They just usually don’t get caught. And it’s hard to believe that an addiction so severe that it drove Dunn to seek treatment, hadn’t affected his job. So yeah, voters deserved to know.
And I gotta wonder if the editors would have been so protective had they possessed such devastating information about Dunn’s Democratic opponent?
But my second problem is: Who the fuck do they think they are to take it upon themselves to make this decision in the first place? The only daily newspaper in town, that’s who. And so they play the role of gatekeeper, however poorly, just because they can.
I’ve raked my fair share of mud over the years. And I don’t always enjoy it. But this was legitimate news, goddammit, and as a newspaper, the Seattle Times had an obligation to report it.
Not a crime? It isn’t a felony, but of course drunk driving is a crime.
@1, while over staying on your visa or fleeing north of the Rio Grande to avoid crime gangs and death squads certainly makes one an illegal alien, driving drunk while serving as the county’s great GOP hope is not a “crime” because IOKIYAR.
You libs really need to learn to respect the decissions of your betters.
Exactly. Ryan Blethen and Reagan Dunn know what it’s like to be born white, male, rich, and powerful. They’ve been tasked from birth with the awesome responsibility to decide what the rest of us should know, and to make the laws we little people must obey. We should just respect their unique understanding of their lives’ resultant problems.
Also, Goldy, I found this on the ST’s About Us page which should answer your question “Who the fuck do they think they are to take it upon themselves to make this decision in the first place?
*emphasis added.
So, Goldy, who the Fk do you think you are to question a news media company dedicated to the highest standards of journalism?
Did you find out about ST’s prior knowledge of Dunn’s treatment anywhere else other than the ST?
but …. one does wonder if anyone on Dunn’s campaign staff knew of ST’s pre-election knowledge of Dunn’s inpatient alcohol-treatment program in the Los Angeles area in 2011.
It’d be irresponsible not to speculate.
Compare and contrast, candidate makes a statement about their degree that is semantically incorrect but accurate in the parlance of everyone who earned a double major at a University that isn’t Harvard. Candidate is an admitted alcoholic. One of those is a front page character issue. One is a no page issue.
@5, but Darcy’s statement was less than 2 years old so by the highest standards of journalism! it was a front page controversy; QED.
@5 Yeah, I was thinking that exactly. But from me it would be sour grapes.
Сиэтл Времена – единственная истина вам нужно!
“Voters deserved to know that Dunn had an alcohol problem so severe that it drove him to seek treatment out of state so nobody back home would know about it (and anybody who has dealt with alcoholism and/or alcoholics knows how severe the problem must get before an alcoholic is generally willing to take that step).”
There, fixed.
The drinking didn’t affect his voting record either. Right?
@8 Лошади задницу – правда Сиэтл Времена не печатает!
The Scottish Independence election has been called: “No” wins. But observers say “Scotland won’t be the same” and “people want change.”
Love that guy. Especially the time he stated in a tv debate that he was opposed to dead people voting.
Should have gotten the AG’s job on the strength of that one alone.
What a guy!
I don’t feel sorry for Dunn in the least. He lost the attorney general race because his political ambition and sense of entitlement outstripped his intelligence. His alcohol problem could possibly have detrimentally affected his marriage and also affected his rather long service on the Council. None of that is praiseworthy or sympathy-worthy.
@5: Not defending the Times, I think the biggest difference is that Burner was in a very competitive race. Dunn, not so much. Assuming this news did break last year, do you really see Shari Song overcoming the 58-42 split in the 9th District?
And, just like the Burner races, Goldy assumes a.) people actually read the Times and b.) people actually care what the Times says.
It’s not like the King County Council (or the attorney general, a job he ran for after he had the treatment but apparently didn’t think it was worth anyone knowing) has anything to do with the enforcement of our laws about drunk driving, or alcohol enforcement in general, And we’ve never seen a prosecutor or legislator push really hard to do unto others what they would not have done unto them.
Does anybody believe that if the Seattle Times had similar information about Bob Ferguson in 2012 during the AG campaign they would’ve held back from publishing it?
has fellow republican with alcohol problem member of king county council jane hague weighed in on this news yet?
I do care what the Times says, because it’s the major paper in Western Washington and thus the general public does read it. Not caring what your opposition says in the political arena is not a smart attitude.
I can find some sympathy for his addiction issues, but not the drunk driving. He can afford a driver. The risk to others, because you can’t be bothered to arrange another way to get where you’re going, is a trivial cost compared to the lives he endangered.
We as liberals generally ‘get’ that guns are freaking dangerous, and people who are irresponsible with them deserve contempt and disgust, and perhaps criminal sanctions. We need to start thinking about cars–the irresponsible use of which (not just driving drunk but driving distracted or tired, speeding, etc) kills far more people–the same way.
@20 You stupid humans will never change. You’ll get drunk and sleep with bad women until the end of time! The solution is to let computers do the driving. Sure there may be a few accidents while the software is being debugged, but that’s just a necessary price of progress.