Best of the Web Today used my tip for this item:
Breaking News From 1928The Times article of course refers to the King County Republicans attack on disgruntled former Republican perennial candidate turned Democrat candidate Richard Pope.
"Republicans Tear Into Pope"--headline, Seattle Times, Oct. 8
(The pun of course refers to the 1928 presidential campaign when Democrat Al Smith was the first major Catholic candidate for the White House)
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 08, 2007 01:41 PM | Email ThisBut, I don't condone that type of attack ad. This guy was going to get maybe 30% of the vote, so why go after him with a vengeance? Or did internal polling show otherwise?
The stuff on pope I think is good for the blogosphere but I wouldn't want it to show up in my house mail. But, I wouldn't want the stuff Pope has been pulling to show up, either- whether in the press or as a mailer.
Posted by: swatter on October 8, 2007 01:58 PMPope is a lunatic, we've known that for a while, but Hague certainly doesn't inspire confidence as of late.
Posted by: cliff on October 8, 2007 05:33 PMWhy spend good money and effort on attacking a second rate hack candidate? He does a better job hurting himself when he opens his mouth than anything the GOP could say about him.
The problem is the lack of voice in this state on the part of the GOP. The population of this state tends to get active around specific agendas, and the GOP seems unwilling or unable to provide one.
For pete's sake GOP leadership, pick some issues and demogogue them! Lord knows there's plenty wrong with the way the state and local government handles itself, but no one is going to vote the dems out if we don't elevate the issues and give voters a reason to vote GOP candidates in.
Posted by: johnny on October 9, 2007 07:16 AMjohnny, he has been hinting he will come out guns blazing on the ineptness of Gregoire and the Democrats. Hopefully, the Rs have some talent in the wings they can trot out to ride the coattails.
Rossi is one of the reasons I think Washington is in play if Giuliani is the nominee. I don't know about Romney, though.
Posted by: swatter on October 9, 2007 08:24 AMSweet Jebus, not Chris Vance again!
Haven't you found a new boogieman yet? He's been gone for coming on 2 years now.
Posted by: cliff on October 9, 2007 08:50 AMI watched Rossi run, liked him personally when I met him, voted for him and contributed the legal limit to his campaign, but he's one guy and his campaign was very much about building a coalition of some very dissimilar interest groups. I'm still not 100% sure I could tell you in the way of "If Rossi wins he's going to do x." The whole "I can work with all sides and build a majority" thing works for Rossi but it's not something the whole GOP can hang its hat on.
The GOP needs a party platform with some stakes in the ground on what it stands for and why we're relevant to Washington state. Are they going to save our states children from the wasteful education bureaucracy and incompetence of DSHS? Are they going to get property taxes under control so people stop getting taxed out of their homes? Are they going to counter the management philosophy that puts the bums in control of our parks so that kids can't play there and gives more rights to the ex-cons living in half-way houses than to tax-paying homeowners in the same neighborhoods?
It's not for nothing that Gregiore is engaged in the public tiff with the halfway house near UW, but the problem is quietly going on in neighborhoods all over Puget Sound. There is an untapped audience of people that are waiting for someone to give them a voice. A lot of votes would be had by handing out campaign flyers to families visiting parks where they watch the bums smoking crack and drinking themselves to death while the cops stand by and do nothing.
It's time someone drew a line and started defending the real taxpayers in this state and the GOP has been oddly silent. What about our rights? We pay for those parks and we pay our mortgages. Why do the vagrants and perverts get more rights than we do?
Those are the kind of problems and promises people want to hear about and that need to be heard. ESPECIALLY in places like Seattle and western King Count, which is a part of the state the GOP has given up on for entirely too long.
I - like a lot of folks - am a believer in the two party system. What makes America great is the debate that keeps both sides honest.
In Washington DC we saw too much control by one side and it wasn't good. There was abuse, waste and corruption. Anyone who isn't blinded by partisanship can admit that the GOP deserved to lose some seats over it. (It could be strongly argued that the political corruption in Ohio and the emailing pervert state rep in Florida did a heck of a lot more damage to the GOP in the last cycle than the Iraq war._
In Washington state we have the same thing happening. Boondoggle billion dollar projects, social services bureaucracies out of control, bankrupt education systems, abuses of power such as all the "emergency" legislation for trivial perks to protect politicians cronies.
It's time to create a division of power again but there's a need for the GOP to remind people they can provide the check and balance.
The state republicans have a chance to cast themselves as the party to rein in the spending and abuse, but it just ain't happening and it's frustrating. I think the party in this state has gotten so used to reading the opinion polls that they forget they have the power to mold and change opinions.
Say what you will about the Contract with America of the Newt era, but at least the people were presented with a choice, and I'm just not hearing that right now.
End of rant. (Getting off my soapbox now.)
Posted by: johnny on October 9, 2007 11:29 AM