Crosscut speculates:
With the King County courthouse and the business community full of rumors that federal security checks and interviews by the F.B.I. were taking place for Executive Ron Sims, it looks like Sims might be headed for an important post in the Obama administration, despite his early endorsement of Hillary Clinton.[Are we certain that the FBI's interest in Sims is because of a job offer, and not because of, um, something else? -Ed.]
One good guess is a job in the transportation field. Sims is the head of Metro and has become a national figure in his support for clean-fuel buses and demand management through variable tolling. Sims' other area of national expertise is climate change and the necessary shifts in carbon fuels.Yes, now that Sims has succeeded at reversing global warming here in Seattle, he'll do the same for the rest of America, or something. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 15, 2008 03:04 PM | Email This
It's pretty sad just how good Gary Locke looks in comparison to Sims.
Posted by: cliff on December 15, 2008 05:10 PMhow about Ambassador to Ethiopia? Ghana? Namibia? Chad? hanging Chad? Bosnia? Lybia?
hey 1--maybe--gone but never gone--can you imagine the havoc he'll wreak on us back here with global taxes & cap n trade? think brightwater; like an ex-spouse, he knows all our weaknesses;
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on December 15, 2008 06:52 PMSims to D.C. would just prove that the entire Obamanation administration is incapable of reading.
Wonder how much it would cost us to sell Sims? Not his seat, just him. Here our Governors don't sell seats. Here we just sell our Governors.
He fits right in with the Chicago style politics that Obama is entrenched in.
Posted by: Truth Detector on December 16, 2008 05:05 AMLarry Phelps is the likely replacement, not really what I want, but better than Sims.
Posted by: Cicero on December 16, 2008 06:13 AMEight weeks later, after directing his staff to black-ball that community group, Sims would present his Smart Growth Initiative with members of the community group in attendance, where he then lied through his teeth claiming to have been working with that group on their transportation issues. He would then continue the cover-up of wrongdoing by allowing DOT a do-over on their roads analysis, and while equally flawed, would deny the public their right to a public hearing to expose this equally-corrupt report, and then he allowed this new analysis to excuse years of cooking the books on a massive development that will eventually cost taxpayers hundreds of millions to fix its road impacts.
If DC wants Sims, I say please take him. I figure no one can screw up the federal government any more than its about to be screwed up, and King County could sure use a break from Sims-style leadership and pandering to the growth industry.
It's too bad he can't take his Brightwater fiasco with him.
Posted by: MJC on December 16, 2008 10:30 AMHopefully he would not get the Transportation Secretary position. That would be a real disservice to the nation. Some Undersecretary position where he wouldn't do as much damage would probably be a better fit anyway for him.
Posted by: Krava Hovno on December 16, 2008 11:11 AMDoesn't that just make you laugh?
Posted by: Camille on December 16, 2008 01:09 PMDoes David Brewster know anything about Sims? He says Sims has expertise "climate change."
The sheer amount of taxpayer dollars Sims can waste on the federal level will be unimaginable.
Posted by: dl on December 16, 2008 10:15 PM