The Tacoma News Tribune endorsed Dave Reichert in today's paper. This from the same editorial board that endorsed Maria Cantwell last Sunday. Much like the Seattle Times' endorsement of Reichert, however, it's the content of the editorial itself, not just the endorsement, which tells the true tale.
The Tribune says, "voters have good cause to be concerned about the course of the country and the possibility of two more years of Republican rule of Congress and the White House."
Yet, they describe Burner as an "overtly partisan political novice." Thus, leading them to this conclusion:
As much as this editorial board shares those concerns about what's happening on the national political stage, it gives greater weight to what's best for the district and the value of incumbency. Burner might present a convincing case for booting Republicans out of power, but she doesn't convince us that Reichert himself has got to go.
The editorial further examines Reichert's independent streak, offering the comparison that "Burner, on the other hand, offers straight Democratic positions."
Newspaper endorsements are by no means everything in an election, but are an important tool for campaign momentum, especially for challengers. The fact Burner isn't getting such endorsements from the Times and the Tribune, who share a number of her concerns with current affairs in Washington, DC, says much about the state of her candidacy and her campaign.
Posted by Eric Earling at October 20, 2006 06:40 AM | Email Thisverses a guy who couldn't catch the worst mass murderer in American History despite the murderer getting identified seven times, and touts his independence but doesn't say from what (I think common sense). Brags about how much money he can spend and touts socialism ideology like 1 billion in government spending equals 47,500 jobs. Claims he is pro-life yet votes to with hold food and water from a person over the wishes of her parents, but can't bring himself to support the execution of the worst mass murderer in American History. Supports soft on crime judges, and does creepy things with Pelosi's shoe, I'll bet he is one Republican that will keep chairmanship when the dems take over. He is no conservative, he is not liberal, he is not moderate.
Who would have thought that 7 days from election Reichert is fighting for his job ... :-) this is so sweet. Go Darcy Go.
Posted by: John McDonald on October 20, 2006 06:56 AM
And, you're right, Darcy is "from" a military, not "part of". She doesn't identify with the military in any way.
Posted by: sro on October 20, 2006 07:13 AMIf you want Reichert to win, go make phone calls, write letters, put stamps on mailers.
If all you do is sit here and whine, don't come complaining on Nov 8 that the world has changed.
If you don't think the other side is mobilized, you haven't been paying attention.
Posted by: Janet S on October 20, 2006 08:10 AMMay want to check your calendar again, Einstein.
Posted by: jimg on October 20, 2006 08:30 AMverses a guy who couldn't catch the worst mass murderer in American History despite the murderer getting identified seven times, and touts his independence but doesn't say from what (I think common sense). Brags about how much money he can spend and touts socialism ideology like 1 billion in government spending equals 47,500 jobs. Claims he is pro-life yet votes to with hold food and water from a person over the wishes of her parents, but can't bring himself to support the execution of the worst mass murderer in American History. Supports soft on crime judges, and does creepy things with Pelosi's shoe, I'll bet he is one Republican that will keep chairmanship when the dems take over. He is no conservative, he is not liberal, he is not moderate.
Who would have thought that 7 days from election Reichert is fighting for his job ... :-) this is so sweet. Go Darcy Go."
No. We have a choice between a woman who thinks because her family was in the military, she is somehow a soldier too, and a man who actually served in the military - the REALL one, NOT Civil Air Patrol.
But leave it to a Lie-ber-all such as John McDonald to lie about the facts.
As such he looks for failings amongst Republicans, and, when he can't find them, makes them up.
Posted by: alphabet soup on October 20, 2006 09:13 AMThis comment keeps up the drumbeat that I've been harping on in the last several Darcy Burner comment threads. The Tacoma News Tribune article only underscores what I've been pointing out. Darcy is a political neophyte. The wheels of he campaign have fallen off as every one of her meekly disguised inadequacies has surfaced.
All that's left is a go-for-broke Bush Derangement campaign in a last ditch effort to appeal to any latent Nutroots sentiment in the 8th CD, of which there is very little as any historical analysis will confirm.
Hence the appearance of "John McDonald," fake Republican, in the hopes that a few on-the-fence Republicans can be swayed by his petty arguments, as if any normal on-the-fence Republican is a hyper political junkie type that would read this comment thread.
It's over! Darcy Burner has already lost. I predict that it won't just be a Burner defeat, but an embarrassing one.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 20, 2006 09:45 AM
The military has nothing to fear from Darcy and we're not going to redeploy immediately out of Iraq if Darcy's position is the majority in the new Democratic controlled Congress.
Posted by: jd on October 20, 2006 09:47 AMI disagree with about 90 percent of what the man says in his comments and on his website. I see little difference between his views and those of a majority who comment here.
But he calls like it is on Reichert. Reichert is for all intents and purposes an empty suit.
Posted by: jd on October 20, 2006 09:55 AM5. Who would have thought that 7 days from election Reichert is fighting for his jobMay want to check your calendar again, Einstein.
Why tell this braintrust that the election isn't next week? He might have wasted his time and eventually decided not to vote. Now he'll show up fresh and wideeyed on November 8th and actually vote. Sheesh.
Posted by: Troll on October 20, 2006 11:20 AMThanks to Stefan's voter database, I've now taken to checking up on moonbats with whom I argue politics. I've been delighted to find that many of the moonbats with whom I've argued, are not even registered to vote.
You might want to check up on your local moonbats as well.
Posted by: Jeff B. on October 20, 2006 01:19 PMI wish people would stop saying that Ridgway got justice. How do you kill dozens of women and still get to watch TV, get to play out in the yard, get three nice meals a day? -- I bet some people at Microsoft and software start ups have tougher lives.
Thanks jd, Republicans hate to be held to any standard of consistancy. Imagine what sound politics would have said if Clinton had posted the Bush deficit figures, or the dollar dropping 40% in value, or the perscription drug bill or transportation bill passed during his term, or if Clinton had taken Bush's stance on immigration, or in Clinton had nominated his personal female lawyer for the supreme court LOL. Or drowned New Orleans or could not speak english, or let US soliders in jail for a dog barking in the ear of a prisoner or have our soliders face the death penalty. Or let N. Korea go nuclear, or messed up the intelligence data, or lose sudan, s. lebannon, mauritania, soon Somali, install shria law in afghanistan. ... LOL.
The republicans are not serious about winning the war on terror, they are only serious about marketing the war on terror.
Posted by: John McDonald on October 20, 2006 06:32 PMThat has got to be the one of the most idiotic things I've ever read. You really think that Ridgeway has a better life now than some MS person making $80k a year? Do you know how asinine you sound saying that? And how is Ridgeway spending the rest of his life in prison "getting off"? So let me get this straight, coping a deal with the nut so that he confesses to everything he's done rather than trying him for the 8 or 9 murders they could prove in exchange for not seeking the death penalty, and doing it with the blessing of the victim's families, is letting him "get off"?
You would rather put the families through a trial so they can close the books on 8 or 9 murders just so you can hang the guy rather than give him life in prison, spare the families the trial, and have books closed on, what was it, 49 murders?
Are you seriously that full of s*** that you believe that load of Barbara Striesand?
And last I checked, it was the county prosecuter's office, not the sheriff's department that made that sort of decision.
Posted by: Mike H on October 20, 2006 08:25 PMThat's probably because you never worked 12 hours per day, everyday in a start up so I'm sure hard work and struggling to make something successful and paying taxes is foriegn to you. While a guy like Ridgway gets to watch tv, play basketball, eat pre-prepared meals, work out, read whatever he wants, all at our expense -- some people call that vacation. BTW Reichert completely support Norm's decision and said so publically, and Norm said that he would not have made this decision without Reichert's support - so nice try to deflect the blame.
Not only was this no justice, it also set a standard that other criminals are trying to use to not have to face the death penalty. Norm and Reichert damaged many other cases when they did this deal.
Posted by: John McDonald on October 21, 2006 08:15 AM12 hours per day everyday? No, but that was because when I was working 4 jobs at the same time to save up money for college, my schedules gave the odd 8 hour day... but 80 hour work weeks with days that went from 4am to midnight for months on end are not foreign to me. Neither is working long hours on farms, helping others start their own business, running my own side business, or having to get up at 2am to work. Sorry, but you get no sympathy from me because you have to work long hours to start your own business. And yes, jerk, I do also pay taxes.
As for Ridgeway, I would hardly call this a vacation...
http://www.kirotv.com/news/2895194/detail.html
And you never answered the question. You would rather try him for 8 or 9 murders... with no garuntee of conviction and putting the families through the public spectical of a trial... just so you can hang him, and leave the books open on another 40+ murders, not giving the families of those victim's the resolution of knowing what happened to their loved ones? You would rather do that than cop a plea and give him life in Walla Walla sparing the families the trial and giving all 49 victim's families resolution?
Basically, you're saying he needs to hang, the hundreds of victim's family members be damned. Nice. That's real "justice".
Oh, and I wasn't aware that Maleng only went through with the plea deal because Riechert supported it. And you know what? Good for him. It was the right thing to do for the victim's families.
Also, it set's no precedent whatsoever. If it went to trial he would have hung. The only precedent it sets is that if you confess, you won't hang. I hardly call that a bad thing. Folks have already tried the"well Ridgeway didn't get the death penalty" argument in court and it failed.
Posted by: Mike H on October 21, 2006 10:54 AMBTW, if Reichert represents the 8th District so well, why did the Times only get letters to the editor critical of their endorsement? Looks like the 8th is seeing the Real Reichert despite his sham votes.
Posted by: Michael Caine on October 21, 2006 02:00 PMLike Dave Reichert you seem to think you are qualified to speak for the families of the victims, many of them are disgusted by Dave Reichert and Norm Maleng and said so at the time, yes some were opposed to the death penalty. However, the death penalty was not even a debate as Norm promised he would not seek the Death penalty, and then broke his promise.
With all of Dave's votes the guy is not a conservative, because no conservative would cut a deal with the worst mass murderer in American History ... I sure wouldn't trust Dave in the war on terror with his current attitude. So what you are saying is that we should cut deals with murderering terrorists so we can learn more about how, when, and were the victims are!
49 families got resolution! really! So what you are saying is that if somebody kills a family member of yours, everything will be resolved if you simply know where the body is ... God am I glad I'm not related to you, you sound like Gov. Dukakis.
Anyway Mr. Mike soft of crime H. good luck and try to enjoy life a little more. And for the love of God ... grow a spine.
Posted by: John McDonald on October 21, 2006 04:39 PM