James Vesely, the Seattle Times columnist who referred to Darcy Burner as “Miss Bruner” several times during the Reichert-Burner debate he moderated last fall, comes to some odd conclusions in his Sunday column:
Winners: Anti-incumbents; legislators who see Seattle as losing some of its power; Dino Rossi; eager challengers to City Council members; King County Executive Ron Sims, who is working on a surface and tolling plan; and maybe the Port of Seattle by staying out of this mess.
I’m not sure which incumbents Vesely is talking about. David Della, a rebuild supporter, is the biggest target in this fall’s city elections. With every single Democratic legislative district declining to endorse a Viaduct rebuild, Della will have to clam up about his support of a big freeway on the waterfront.
Dino Rossi doesn’t seem to understand the basic parameters of the debate. Why Vesley makes him a winner is astounding. The Seattle Times seems to be going out of it’s way to make the irrelevant former senator relevant again.
Then there’s this:
The most passionate, emotional voice for the tunnel is Peter Steinbrueck’s; the calmest and most logical against a tunnel is Nick Licata’s. Go figure.
That’s weird. I was standing 10 feet away from Peter at a Friends of Seattle event when he bashed the hell out of th tunnel. You see, Peter’s for the “surface plus transit” option.
Actually Peter is for “Repair & Prepare.” Which is smart. Thanks god we have at least one smart Councilmember.
I think the surface option looks good on paper, but clogs up arterials. In addition, trucks that haul will have more difficulty getting out, not to mention what it would do to I-5. I thing Gov. Gregoire is being the most pragmatic, although Mayor Nickle has an eloquent them vs us editorial in today’s Times.
Friends, Vesley really screwed that one up– a correction should appear soon in the Seattle Times. I am DEFINITELY NOT for the tunnel, and I am STAUNCHLY AND PASSIONATELY opposed to any aerial rebuild!!! As for the tunnel option, it’s sure not an environmental solution (my biggest beef, besides it being too expensive) and besides any lamebrain can see its politically dead.
For those interested, I voted NO and NO on the ballot measures.
Cheers, Peter
Frank Rich: Experts Warn Al Qaeda “To Detonate Nuclear Device” In US, But Bush Punts on Threat:
To read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....42066.html
Vesely is out of touch with reality. He needs to get out of Fairview Fanny and go out and walk the streets for a while. There’s a city out there. There’s people out there. There’s even rabbits out there.
AL SHARPTON SHOULD SUE STROM THURMOND FOR REPARATIONS!
I saw a news item today that says Al Sharpton is a descendent of a slave owned by Strom Thurmond’s ancestor. Hell, knowing what we know about what those white folks did back then, they’re probably relatives!
Too bad old Strom kicked the bucket. It would be worth money to see the look on his face when Al walked up to him and said, “How ya doing, cousin?”
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
My lastest post on this issue, over at WB:
Lloyds of London
What seems lost in the shuffle here (I think I saw this at Goldy’s a month ago), is that y’all gonna be stuck with the “surface without transit” for more than a decade once demolition/construction starts!
Take out a good insurance policy, work on transit, shore up the pillars and wait for it to collapse on it’s own accord :)
Dave Gibney Pullman
I hear rumors that Belltowner may be re-welcomed at WB, if so, I think it’s great. If not(or even if), I will continue to post hear every now and then to make the signal to noise ratio a bit better >)
Roger @6;
I read the relative of Al Sharpton was male. Would have been cool though.
James Vesely is clueless and useless. Anyone remember his memorably loopy “bass-casual” column from a few years ago? Between him and the White House press corps, I’m embarrassed enough to seriously consider going back to my alma mater and getting my journalism degree revoked.
You might, however, spell his name right. Unless he’s been misspelling yours, and that wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
That having been said, what happens if the viaduct wins? Della looks smart while the local Democrats have to figure out what went wrong. Republicans will delude themselves into thinking they have a chance in Seattle, but the episode will eventually come across as looking more like Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers outtake moment than any permanent schism.
Arrrgh. I hate not being able to edit blog posts.
Gregoire — Rossi
This will be abut and only about one issue … campaign money. Gregoire’s strategy as governor has been to ingratiate herself to industry by all these foreign sales trips and of course to the unions, esp. the teachers.
What she has not done is improve her image as a leader. Her screw ups on the freeway are awesome. Her failure to show leadership in education is depressing. There is no one issue where she has emerged as an innovator or leader.
What this does is leave an opening for Rossi. Today’s campaigns are about money and if he can beat her with ads she will need to have some credibility as an incumbent.
For now, I’ll bet she will win unless by some miracle the Pubicans come up with a credible candidate. If that happens, she is in deep trubble.
@ 9
I fixed the spelling. It was accidental, and not some clever trick.
I have no doubt that if Mr. Steinbrueck complains to the Times about Mr. Vesely’s “little bitty error”, they’ll be happy to publish a “correction”–after the election.
Rossi is a crook. It will be about money alright. Follow the money. Really schwartz, back off on the meds.
I guess Vesely feels that whatever makes for a hard decision (politically) is good for Rossi. He may be right. The Viaduct/Tunnel issue is bound to get about 2/3 of the people angry at whatever politician takes a public stand on the issue. The Rossi supporters figure that the last election is so close, that if he can get just a handful of former Gregoire voters to refuse to vote for her in the next election, then Rossi wins.
But in doing so, he makes the same mistakes generals make when they keep trying to re-fight the last war. The climate will be substantially different by 2008. Rossi might not even make it out of the primaries, and Gregoire might win by a comfortable margin (my bet), or lose by an equally uncomfortable margin.
Although there may be some merit to continuing to treat Rossi as a “nobody” to be ignored, personally I think we are making a mistake by giving him a “pass” on this issue. He ferverently hopes that he doesn’t have to take a position which he can’t wiggle out of later, after things have settled down. He can then attack Gregoire for whatever position she took, arguing that any other option would have been better. We need to hold his feet to the fire on a daily basis, forcing him to take a position or being in a position to ridicule him when he doesn’t. He should come limping into the primaries in 2008 as thoroughly damaged goods.
The inane posturing regarding SR 99 by Seattle’s electeds demonstrates they can not be trusted to plan or execute transportation infrastructure projects in a deliberate, thoughtful, and efficient manner. They’re just posturing for their potential re-election campaign contributors. Meanwhile they ignore the most important unresolved issue: designing and paying for the SR 520 replacement. Councilman Steinbrueck: Assuming RTID passes and the proposed tolls are implemented, what taxes would you advocate imposing to close the (likely) $3BLN-plus funding gap remaining on the SR 520 project? And please don’t just say “The State will come up with that money.” That gap will need to be closed primarily from Seattle taxpayers.
rhp6033 @ 15
Agreed. And what is the sum total of Rossi’s deep thoughts in regard to this complex issue?
“I would let the engeneers work it out” Rossi said
What a load of crap. More likely he would side with the engeneer who pays him off. That would be more his style.
BTW Goldy, while you may understand the need for Repair to the Viaduct during an interim period while the Transit infrastructure is being built, some of your Surface/Transit buddies such as Eli Sanders and Josh Feit are dead-set against any Repair and believe that indeed we should just tear down the Viaduct cold turkey.
So don’t act so shocked — MOI!!?? — that I thought you were of a like mind as old-turkey tear-down is indeed the prevailing approach.