In a Seattle Times day-in-the-life piece by Ralph Thomas, Gregoire seems to be uncomfortable with the principle, "the bucks stop here" [sic]:
Gregoire is the most sought-after politician in town. Legislators, lobbyists, labor leaders, business executives and citizen advocates— just about everyone is trying to get in to see her.Uh-oh: everyone that asked for budget increases is right. Government spending is the answer to all their problems; there's not one program that is unnecessary... this does not bode well.
-----"So come up with some more ideas," Gregoire told the group.
As consolation, she told Ward and the others that just about everyone she encountered that day wanted something in the budget.
"My heart goes out, because everybody is right," Gregoire said. "I just don't know how you get there from here."
New carpet in the governor's mansion sure didn't help. She's allergic to the cats that Gary Locke owned, you see, and so the whole mansion was recarpeted, at a cost of about $15,000. And no, you won't find that in the newspapers. (She also got a new $3,500 refrigerator, by the way).
Posted by Brian Crouch at February 28, 2005 11:39 AM | Email ThisNext, get those promotions out to all those that assisted on the campaign. Oh, DOE-done!
Definition of 'moot': So hypothetical as to be meaningless.
What's important is that Rossi is allergic to new taxes.
Posted by: Larry on February 28, 2005 12:33 PM- Don't forget stingy. And mean. And greedy. We are nasty, aren't we!
Posted by: Dogbert on February 28, 2005 12:35 PMStill, I wonder if it would have been possible to simply clean the carpets. Also, I've found that I'm more likely to be affected by chairs and couches that have been lounging spots for cats. Did they clean all the chairs, or did they have to replace them too?
Posted by: Shannon K on February 28, 2005 01:01 PMWhile in school, dems support children learning a foreign language first, cultural separatism, and immersion in the culture they left behind. We must pay to enforce the separate-ness in the name of diversity.
When the student gets out of school and can't read, write, or speak fluently, and can't get into college, high paying jobs, obtain a driver's lisence, or vote in English, then it's a crisis, and we must pay (again), this time for inclusion.
If Gregoire could grasp THAT then I'd be impressed.
Posted by: singer on February 28, 2005 01:03 PMInstead, we have power mad, career politicians that are enjoying the perks of power on our dime and see themsleves as movie stars.
If I were governor, I would shut the governor's mansion down and live in my own house, or simply live there when I was in Olympia with whatever current state it was in, I'm sure it is plenty nice. All the money spent removating governor's mansions and the White House, etc. could instead be used to pay for something needed.
The only exception might be the cleanup job the White House needed after the four year Clinton orgy had passed through, that was justified for health reasons.
What a waste.
Posted by: Jeff B. on February 28, 2005 01:24 PMUm, silly question maybe, but aren't governors supposed to have an idea to get there from here? Don't they tell us they have those ideas before an election?
Posted by: Graham on February 28, 2005 01:33 PM
Regarding the reason for replacing the carpet...I can think of an off-color joke regarding Gregoire's reason but this blog is simply too "top drawer" for that type of humor.
The gutter-stuff is best saved for Goldy & HorsesDerrierre!
No a good leader has the moral fiber and courage to not pander to special intrest groups (including their own party) and performed the duties of the office they hold as specifically defined in the State Constitution.
But I guess principles don't count for much of anything anymore.
Posted by: Difranco on February 28, 2005 02:29 PMThe fireplace incident is darn funny. It's called a damper! Needs to be open.
Did the fire dept really sound the sirens, or were they told not to turn them on?
Jay Manning new head of DOE, and what are the extreme views this guy has? Oh Boy, CAO state wide now.
Posted by: chardonnay on February 28, 2005 02:54 PM"I just don't know how you get there from here."
Mabe it really is time for a REVOTE!
No wonder he was glad to bail out of the mansion and the taxpayers of the state paying for the re-carpeting. Wonder what the cats did to warrent the refrigerator replacement?
Posted by: mel on February 28, 2005 02:59 PMThe way you "get there from here" is to ReVote.
Hike of 1.4% sales tax on new cars purchased in Seattle (everyone will just buy their cars outside of Seattle and this will kill car dealers in Seattle)
Hike of 2.8 cents per gallon of gas in King County (I guess the gas price is not high enough yet, and how much more will the Olympia democraps raise the gas tax in this session)
Hike of new taxes on cosmetic surgery.
Implimentation of the strictest most expensive CAO land steals (state wide thiefs now) and Air polution laws (a huge hike in the price of a car)
Of course property taxes are increasing plenty each year.
She will fold to all of these before long, they are waiting begging at her door! They will be squeeling for more more more soon at that door!
Posted by: gs on February 28, 2005 03:24 PMThe point of all the background is that I've seen that people in high positions of Government trust and responsiblility do appear to get these very nice perks, like a big house, car, driver, personal assistents, new carpet and big refridgerators. However most of that stuff is often not the result of any personal choice they made, comes from a well established budgets for those specific items, and are left behind when they leave the job. The State of Washington did not buy new carpet for Christine Gregiore, the state bought new carpet for the Governor's Mansion. If we see fit to provide an official residence for our chief executive, then we ought to see fit to maintain it as well.
I'm no Gregoire fan, I think Rossi ought to be the one walking on that new carpet. I'm just saying that getting all worked up over petty crap like this does no one any good, and only makes us look petty and nit picking. There are far greater issues to be concerned about. New carpet and refrigerators just distract from the real issues. Don't let yourself get caught up in it.
Posted by: Jason on February 28, 2005 03:34 PM"A good leader tries to see the "rightness" in everyone's position."
When I read this statement, I thought of Harry Truman - and how he would scoff at it.
Posted by: Larry on February 28, 2005 03:37 PMGov. Jodi Rell of Connecticut is doing exactly that. She is commuting to work every day from her home in Bookfield, which I know from having lived back there is a bit of a drive. Having made the commute for many years already as a state legislator and then lieutenant governor, she saw no reason to change when she succeeded John Rowland, who'd resigned in disgrace, as governor.
Posted by: J.A. on February 28, 2005 03:38 PM
Leadership at it's finest?
I do understand that, but the bulk of the comments here are about carpet and $3500 fridges. I'm just cautioning against allowing the noise to overtake the real issues. It's fun to make jokes and such, but some people start lumping in stuff like this as additional reasons for why Gregiore should not be Governor. I'm saying that if we do then we begin to lose legitimacy, because she isn't the first, nor the last Governor to get new appliances, furniture, cars, jets, or whatever else comes with the job. Rossi would have gotten similar perks. They don't matter unless they are excessive. New carpet and a $3500 fridge for the Governor's mansion are not excessive. For all we know, that fridge is a commercial/restaurant model that is needed for an official residence that does a lot of official entertaining of large groups. Excessive would be if she bought 10 of these fridges for her top ten campaign contributors.
Bottom line, this is noise, and gets in the way of real discussion of real issues, like the fact that Gregiore apparently never met a tax she didn't like.
Posted by: Jason on February 28, 2005 04:40 PMI think you missed one of my points, which is that often people in the positions aren't making decisions at the level of what kind of fridge is bought for the Governor's Mansion. It's not like your own house. It is a Government building, with it's own staff and budget. A lot of times decisions like these are actually made by the people who work there, rather than the people who live there.
I have no idea if Gregiore personally picked the fridge or not, but from my own experience, it very likely was a detail handled by someone well below her pay grade, and likely without her direct knowledge. I'm sure she was aware of some expenditures related to her moving in, and I'm sure she had to approve them, but it was likely a summary detail with a final cost at the bottom that got about 5 seconds of her time. I don't think it deserves much more of our time.
Um, I have friends who have lived in the same place for WELL over 8 years and didn't replace carpet. Replacing carpet is one of those things one does as needed, not just because you can get the taxpayers to pay for it, IMHO.
And $35,000??? That's a HUGE amount of money. Why can't carpets just be replaced where needed, instead of a total recarpeting? Why can't anything else be looked at rather than a "get everything new" attitude -- esp here, in the environmental state, one would think that people would pay attention to this.
I don't care if it was Gregoire's idea or not. It's something that can be looked at for cutting funds by whoever does it. (And frankly, if they have $40,000 in the "change governor budget" just for changing inhabitants... I have to think we've found some fat right there that can be slashed.)
Maybe the cat is a Mexican Hairless?? :-)
Seriously - The Governor (or in this case, the caretaker - as neither Gregoire nor Rossi have won this election outright) has the privelage as office holder to certain perks. As much as I depise the idea of an unelected Governor residing in the mansion, she has been legally appointed to serve in the role until the office is either vacated or the next election occurs. Thus she (or Rossi or Owen - which ever assumes the role next) have a right to certain amenties/perks that come with the office.
On the other hand, these can all be nuggets of ammo for an ugly campaign that will most certainly take place in the 1 to 3 years.
Posted by: flexnfx on February 28, 2005 10:30 PMDino demonstrated as the chief budget person that HE knew quite well how to get "from there to here". He still would.
And yes, why couldn't they just clean the carpets? I well understand allergies, but cleaning seems the economical solution. New carpets have their own issues-- the cost, plus they belch dozens of nasty chemicals that can (and have) damaged human immune systems. Hope she dosen't run into that problem!
Posted by: Michele on February 28, 2005 10:45 PMHello..? Sometimes you have to go without... my in-cabinet microwave has been broken for 2 months... but you don't see my buying a gold microwave with taxpayers money. I'm just learning to do without.
Posted by: John on March 1, 2005 08:46 AMHowever, a $40k recarpet job is ill timed given our budgetary mess in this state. I can reasonably assure you that my General with 3 stars on his collar, would not be recarpeting his residence if he had troops in the field or a supply line problem, in fact he would be sleeping for 15 minutes at a time whenever he could in the HUMMVEE in between meetings.
Our governor pro tem does not seem to have a similar approach to leadership. If you are in charge you eat last, you sleep last, you get up first and you are the last to leave, that is leadership.
Posted by: ranger06 on March 1, 2005 09:46 AM"A good leader tries to see the "rightness" in everyone's position."
Larry wrote:
"When I read this statement, I thought of Harry Truman - and how he would scoff at it."
My response:
Funny you should invoke Truman, because while I'm not an expert on him, I'm in the middle of David McCullough Pulitzer-winning biography of this fanously liberal president. A couple of quotes:
"'He does so like to agree with whoever is with him at the moment,' wrote Henry Wallace ... Wallace found that Truman invariably agreed with him. Yet Wallace knew the contrary views the President was receiving ... and felt sure that in private Truman agreed with them, too."
...
"The speech, an uncompromising reaffirmation of his liberal program, delivered before Congress on January 7, 1948 ... In less than an hour at the podium, Truman called again for a national health insurance program, a massive housing program, increased support for education, increased support for farmers, the conservation of natural resources, and a raise in the mnimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour. To compensate for rising prices, he proposed a 'poor man's tax cut'.... Further, Truman announced he would be sending Congress a special message on civil rights."
At least in the 3/5 of the book that I've read, Truman is a liberal who wants government to help with all sorts of problems. I'm sure he had to make tradeoffs, as does any executive, but he appeared sympathetic to a wide variety of needs.