Why Larry Hoff shouldn't be elected, Chapter 12

In addition to Hoff's total political inexperience and lack of involvement (I've been politically involved in this area generally for 29 years generally and the 18th District, my district, specifically for the last 14 years... and I've never heard of nor seen this guy until now) and the obvious RINO support from those such as Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers (D-Strategies 360) and Sen. Lynda "The Liar" Wilson (D-Tracy) who despise conservatives so much the Wilsons have dropped $2000 in on a guy who, to date, lacks the guts... or the knowledge... or simply the ability... to articulate any positions on anything, nor any ability to explain where, for example, he would have voted any differently than Gas Tax Rivers over the past 3 idiotic sessions she's been screwing us...

Or, he simply hasn't been told what... if anything... to write down AS his "issues.

I have, for example, REPEATEDLY asked him to articulate where... and how... he would have voted differently than Gas Tax Rivers.

To date, he refuses to even acknowledge me, let alone answer me.

We come to find out that major democrat funder David Nierenberg is writing checks and has, to date, dropped a paltry $4000 more on this clown.

Nierenberg was a the force behind the Madore Hate PAC last cycle that leftists and RINOs joined together to oppose conservative David Madore.

Let's take a look at those who've been getting cash from this leftist, shall we?

Jack Burkman, Washington State Democrats, Tim Probst, Brent Boger, Arch Miller, James McIntire, Sam Reed, Planned Parenthood, Democrat front group "Stand for Children" ($10,000), Julie Olson, Deb Wallace, Jim Jacks, Christine Gregoire, Paul Harris, Monica Stonier, Jimmy Moeller, Tim "The Liar" Leavitt, Clark County Democrats, Mainstream Republicans, Craig Pridemore, John Blom, Jay Inslee, Joe Tanner, Yes on I-1000 (Death With Dignity), Lynda Wilson, Pam Brokaw, Kathy Gillespie, Jay Inslee, Marc Boldt... and now, Larry Hoff.

So what David does is finance those who do things TO us... instead of FOR us.

And this, of course, is no exception.  It's also another in the growing list of reasons to vote for anyone not named Hoff.

Note from election night, 2008. How'd I do?

The following was my first knee-jerk analysis of the 2008 general election.

How'd I do?

Thoughts on a dismal night.

It’s 4 a.m. as I write this. This country in its infinite wisdom has accomplished two things tonight: we’ve elected the worst possible choice for president and we’ve set the tone for decades to come for most all upcoming elections.

And it’s hard to tell which is worse at this point.

“Change” is what was offered. “Change,” to a greater or lesser degree, is what we’re gonna get. Change to what remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look like any positive view that I can see.

I’m not going to replay the many valid arguments against electing Obama. The cult of personality has achieved the impossible in the face of a wide variety of common-sense reasons why he should not have made this happen. Stupidity, ignorance, and hatred on a wide scale have won out. In the words of then local Congresswoman Jolene Unseold upon the stunning Republican tide of 1994 (and her removal from office by a write-in candidate, Linda Smith) “The winds of hate have swept the land,” she told us.

The very real and negative impacts to this country will, ultimately, have to be experienced to be believed.

The primary problem is this: will they be believed, even when they happen; or will a mass media, having set itself up as Obama’s PR arm, continue to violate the public trust by acting to spin, to mitigate, to censor their own information to re-enforce him has “the one?”

The mainstream media colluded to achieve Obama’s election. By any statistical or other summary, any pretense of fairness or objectivity was never present when they reported. Issues that would have destroyed any other candidacy were ignored, belittled, censored or swept under the rug. As a result, this country has elected a man to the most powerful office on the planet when he otherwise would be disqualified from holding high security clearances because of his relationship with at least one known terrorist.

The mainstream media has a vested outcome in Obama’s success. Were he to fail or be anything but an outstanding, at-least-as-good-as-Lincoln president, then the mainstream media’s undeniable culpability in his elevation would be too obvious to be denied. In short, Obama is a creation of the MSM, lacking any other substance, and the people of this country have bought into his packaging… packaging accomplished by a less than fair media. Essentially, they own him. And since they own him, his continued popularity is their number one concern.

None other than Chris Matthews rammed the above observation home:

Journalist Chris Matthews Will Do Everything in His Power to Make Obama's Presidency Successful

Were you still debating whether Chris Matthews is in the tank for Barack Obama? Then find a new hobby, because the writing's on the stall. But then Matthews went overboard this morning, on colleague Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe, and pretty much nominated himself the new president's press secretary.

"The worst thing you can do in journalism is try to figure out motive. There's no way to determine it," Matthews said. Not only is this statement patently false — figuring out motive is pretty important, like George Bush's motives for invading Iraq — but Matthews followed it up with this: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work." Yes, that is Matthews the journalist speaking.

CM: I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work.

JS: Is that your job?

CM: Yeah that's my job.

JS: Your job as a journalist is to make this presidency work?

CM: To make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now.

[...]

CM: How can you not route for the success of the new president?

JS: As Americans, Chris Matthews, we're all rooting for the success of Barack Obama … But you just talked about being a journalist and your job as a journalist is not to question motives, and then two seconds later you said your job is to make this presidency a success … I just think that's curious.

From my perspective, this means that Matthews has a vested interest in positive outcome for Mr. Obama. In addition, that means he’s going to tank his coverage to something much less than journalism… and more like advocacy. This is the final, telling blow for journalism in this country.

This is not to absolve Senator McCain from his own responsibility in this matter. This was arguably one of the least strategic campaigns ever for the presidency… reminiscent of Dole in ’96. Poorly conceived and terribly executed, McCain acted more like he had been bought than someone who actually wanted to be president.

I could write pages on missed opportunities, failures in proper translation of events, failures to engage in strategic messaging, failures to follow the path set up by the later part of the Clinton campaign; failure to use both Clinton and Biden video to drive home the point that Obama is not ready to govern. However, adding to the cacophony of others will not solve any of these issues.

Essentially, this was a campaign that wrote itself… but McCain never got the script.

Addendum from a few days later.

Now at the state level, the outcomes have been astounding, considering the supposed height of the Obama Tsunami wave. Here in Clark County, for example, Mr. Obama took 52% of the vote, while Mr. McCain took 46%.

We had, essentially, two close races here locally: Benton/Carrier in the 17th and Mielke/Brokaw in the Commissioner 1 race.

In the former, Benton was down 150 on election night. He’s now up 1300 or so.

Mielke, on the other hand, was down 4282 election night. As I write this, he’s up 78… or a 4360 vote swing from the late ballots.

I believe that this is a direct result of David Barnett getting caught interfering in yet another election. Like a serial killer, where arrogance is frequently their downfall, an arrogance that grows as they get away with it more and more. In this instance, he tried to nuke the election late because he was wrongly informed that the Grande Ronde were playing in this race.

Steve Horenstein lied to Joe King, telling him as late as the 30th that Barnett was out. Moreover, Barnett then dumped so much money in, so fast, that we didn’t get the hit pieces until late Tuesday night from our PO Box, which meant we received them that day, since we had picked up the mail the day before.

Up to this point, Barnett has seemingly grown a Teflon skin. But with this election, he’s been caught interfering… and he’s been caught dead to rights. And this time, the media actually covered it. And this time, the people appear to have swung hard right as they exercised their ballot as a protest… because the ballots swinging right for Mielke are doing so at a much harder rate than I have ever seen anywhere… even harder than the Smith congressional race in ‘96 when she made up a 2300 or so vote deficit to beat Baird by around 850… with a nine county or so area to cover.

Barnett has threatened to spend as much as $2.5 million dollars to unseat Snohomish County Commissioner Dave Somers, a democrat opposed to yet another massive Barnett project just north of Seattle. This outcome might force him to back off. Somers is apparently up in ’09. We have the option of consulting with him to help him get ready to nail Barnett and increase the resentment factor in the upcoming election.

While I know that Somers is a democrat, anyone running against him that would have a chance would do so counting on Barnett’s now proven-to-be-there support. We have the opportunity to cripple Barnett politically if we can continue to cast him in the political role of pariah.

At this point, it is difficult to arrive at any other conclusion: The overly hard-right swing for Mielke has a major-resentment-towards-Barnett factor built in. We should capitalize on that on every opportunity and tie anyone supportive in government of the megacasino project directly to Barnett.

At the state level, the legislative results defy belief. No one that I know, including myself, believed that we would end this with at least plus one in the Senate or the House, but that seems to be the way it’s shaping up.

This tends to reinforce the idea that local politics were more competently executed than state or national… that local GOP’ers were more in touch with their constituencies than those at the state or national level.

In the Mielke race, the WSRP stepped in and they’ve stepped it up, keeping the local Rossi HQ going with their communications system still up and running to assist us in “curing” ballots. For that, Sen. Esser gets kudos.

That said, we need to press for internal WSRP changes.

In no particular order:

Get over losing control over the primary.

If the parties insist on fighting the top two decision, then the next step will be that taken in King County on 4 November: Expect the Grange and the Farm Bureau to eliminate the parties altogether by going to the people and getting them to agree to make all legislative and local seats to be non-partisan.

Luke… THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. LEAVE IT ALONE. The independent segment determines elections anyway, and your continuing efforts to interfere with the will of the people will not do anything positive for the state or the system. And the blowback may become catastrophic to the entire party system.

Implement a year around minority outreach office.

WSRP needs a full time, year-round, minority outreach program. When the WSRP inevitably attempts to make some minority contacts a few months before the election, the leftists rightfully respond by saying, "they only give a damn about you when they want your vote."

Full-time program. Full-time minority staffing. Full-time recruitment efforts. Full-time minority public relations efforts.

Continuing to ignore the minority community for 21 months every cycle is NEVER going to get it done. And why the WSRP insists on taking that tack is inexplicable.

Will these things happen? I see no sign of them.

And until they do, issues of "message" and "nuance" and the like will make little difference.

Fix the infrastructure.

One thing that Comrade Pelz said has the ring of truth to it: “they (Republicans) do NOT have a bench... they've got McKenna.”

Here in Clark County, the GOP has done a terrible job of candidate development and recruitment.

The democrats in the 17th are vulnerable. Deb Wallace has wasted $93 million for an unneeded, unwanted and unbuildable I-5 Bridge replacement that is expected to cost $4 Billion that no one has... all so they can get light rail across the river and in to Vancouver.

The GOP ran some nice, well-meaning people down here that didn't have a clue or a dime. They lost badly in both open seats (Of course, one of those seats was in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Vancouver) but they were forced to run, for example, a write-in candidate against Pridemore, an independent against Comrade Jim "For election week make my middle name 'Hussein'" Moeller and did they even run anyone against Jacks?

VETTED candidate recruitment (Joseph James? Please.) and development. A short, medium and long-term strategy. Competency in organization. Motivation and a plan, not to mention funding.

It took several years to dive into this toilet. They're not going to get out over night. But if they don't take these basic steps, they're not going anywhere.

We cannot continue to ignore the issues that loom larger with each and every election. Things will get much worse if we do.

I think I was pretty close, actually.

Note from election night, 2008. How'd I do?

The following was my first knee-jerk analysis of the 2008 general election.

How'd I do?

Thoughts on a dismal night.

It’s 4 a.m. as I write this. This country in its infinite wisdom has accomplished two things tonight: we’ve elected the worst possible choice for president and we’ve set the tone for decades to come for most all upcoming elections.

And it’s hard to tell which is worse at this point.

“Change” is what was offered. “Change,” to a greater or lesser degree, is what we’re gonna get. Change to what remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look like any positive view that I can see.

I’m not going to replay the many valid arguments against electing Obama. The cult of personality has achieved the impossible in the face of a wide variety of common-sense reasons why he should not have made this happen. Stupidity, ignorance, and hatred on a wide scale have won out. In the words of then local Congresswoman Jolene Unseold upon the stunning Republican tide of 1994 (and her removal from office by a write-in candidate, Linda Smith) “The winds of hate have swept the land,” she told us.

The very real and negative impacts to this country will, ultimately, have to be experienced to be believed.

The primary problem is this: will they be believed, even when they happen; or will a mass media, having set itself up as Obama’s PR arm, continue to violate the public trust by acting to spin, to mitigate, to censor their own information to re-enforce him has “the one?”

The mainstream media colluded to achieve Obama’s election. By any statistical or other summary, any pretense of fairness or objectivity was never present when they reported. Issues that would have destroyed any other candidacy were ignored, belittled, censored or swept under the rug. As a result, this country has elected a man to the most powerful office on the planet when he otherwise would be disqualified from holding high security clearances because of his relationship with at least one known terrorist.

The mainstream media has a vested outcome in Obama’s success. Were he to fail or be anything but an outstanding, at-least-as-good-as-Lincoln president, then the mainstream media’s undeniable culpability in his elevation would be too obvious to be denied. In short, Obama is a creation of the MSM, lacking any other substance, and the people of this country have bought into his packaging… packaging accomplished by a less than fair media. Essentially, they own him. And since they own him, his continued popularity is their number one concern.

None other than Chris Matthews rammed the above observation home:

Journalist Chris Matthews Will Do Everything in His Power to Make Obama's Presidency Successful

Were you still debating whether Chris Matthews is in the tank for Barack Obama? Then find a new hobby, because the writing's on the stall. But then Matthews went overboard this morning, on colleague Joe Scarborough's Morning Joe, and pretty much nominated himself the new president's press secretary.

"The worst thing you can do in journalism is try to figure out motive. There's no way to determine it," Matthews said. Not only is this statement patently false — figuring out motive is pretty important, like George Bush's motives for invading Iraq — but Matthews followed it up with this: "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work." Yes, that is Matthews the journalist speaking.

CM: I want to do everything I can to make this thing work … this new presidency work.

JS: Is that your job?

CM: Yeah that's my job.

JS: Your job as a journalist is to make this presidency work?

CM: To make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now.

[...]

CM: How can you not route for the success of the new president?

JS: As Americans, Chris Matthews, we're all rooting for the success of Barack Obama … But you just talked about being a journalist and your job as a journalist is not to question motives, and then two seconds later you said your job is to make this presidency a success … I just think that's curious.

From my perspective, this means that Matthews has a vested interest in positive outcome for Mr. Obama. In addition, that means he’s going to tank his coverage to something much less than journalism… and more like advocacy. This is the final, telling blow for journalism in this country.

This is not to absolve Senator McCain from his own responsibility in this matter. This was arguably one of the least strategic campaigns ever for the presidency… reminiscent of Dole in ’96. Poorly conceived and terribly executed, McCain acted more like he had been bought than someone who actually wanted to be president.

I could write pages on missed opportunities, failures in proper translation of events, failures to engage in strategic messaging, failures to follow the path set up by the later part of the Clinton campaign; failure to use both Clinton and Biden video to drive home the point that Obama is not ready to govern. However, adding to the cacophony of others will not solve any of these issues.

Essentially, this was a campaign that wrote itself… but McCain never got the script.

Now at the state level, the outcomes have been astounding, considering the supposed height of the Obama Tsunami wave. Here in Clark County, for example, Mr. Obama took 52% of the vote, while Mr. McCain took 46%.

We had, essentially, two close races here locally: Benton/Carrier in the 17th and Mielke/Brokaw in the Commissioner 1 race.

In the former, Benton was down 150 on election night. He’s now up 1300 or so.

Mielke, on the other hand, was down 4282 election night. As I write this, he’s up 78… or a 4360 vote swing from the late ballots.

I believe that this is a direct result of David Barnett getting caught interfering in yet another election. Like a serial killer, where arrogance is frequently their downfall, an arrogance that grows as they get away with it more and more. In this instance, he tried to nuke the election late because he was wrongly informed that the Grande Ronde were playing in this race.

Steve Horenstein lied to Joe King, telling him as late as the 30th that Barnett was out. Moreover, Barnett then dumped so much money in, so fast, that we didn’t get the hit pieces until late Tuesday night from our PO Box, which meant we received them that day, since we had picked up the mail the day before.

Up to this point, Barnett has seemingly grown a Teflon skin. But with this election, he’s been caught interfering… and he’s been caught dead to rights. And this time, the media actually covered it. And this time, the people appear to have swung hard right as they exercised their ballot as a protest… because the ballots swinging right for Mielke are doing so at a much harder rate than I have ever seen anywhere… even harder than the Smith congressional race in ‘96 when she made up a 2300 or so vote deficit to beat Baird by around 850… with a nine county or so area to cover.

Barnett has threatened to spend as much as $2.5 million dollars to unseat Snohomish County Commissioner Dave Somers, a democrat opposed to yet another massive Barnett project just north of Seattle. This outcome might force him to back off. Somers is apparently up in ’09. We have the option of consulting with him to help him get ready to nail Barnett and increase the resentment factor in the upcoming election.

While I know that Somers is a democrat, anyone running against him that would have a chance would do so counting on Barnett’s now proven-to-be-there support. We have the opportunity to cripple Barnett politically if we can continue to cast him in the political role of pariah.

At this point, it is difficult to arrive at any other conclusion: The overly hard-right swing for Mielke has a major-resentment-towards-Barnett factor built in. We should capitalize on that on every opportunity and tie anyone supportive in government of the megacasino project directly to Barnett.

At the state level, the legislative results defy belief. No one that I know, including myself, believed that we would end this with at least plus one in the Senate or the House, but that seems to be the way it’s shaping up.

This tends to reinforce the idea that local politics were more competently executed than state or national… that local GOP’ers were more in touch with their constituencies than those at the state or national level.

In the Mielke race, the WSRP stepped in and they’ve stepped it up, keeping the local Rossi HQ going with their communications system still up and running to assist us in “curing” ballots. For that, Sen. Esser gets kudos.

That said, we need to press for internal WSRP changes.

In no particular order:

Get over losing control over the primary.

If the parties insist on fighting the top two decision, then the next step will be that taken in King County on 4 November: Expect the Grange and the Farm Bureau to eliminate the parties altogether by going to the people and getting them to agree to make all legislative and local seats to be non-partisan.

Luke… THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. LEAVE IT ALONE. The independent segment determines elections anyway, and your continuing efforts to interfere with the will of the people will not do anything positive for the state or the system. And the blowback may become catastrophic to the entire party system.

Implement a year around minority outreach office.

WSRP needs a full time, year-round, minority outreach program. When the WSRP inevitably attempts to make some minority contacts a few months before the election, the leftists rightfully respond by saying, "they only give a damn about you when they want your vote."

Full-time program. Full-time minority staffing. Full-time recruitment efforts. Full-time minority public relations efforts.

Continuing to ignore the minority community for 21 months every cycle is NEVER going to get it done. And why the WSRP insists on taking that tack is inexplicable.

Will these things happen? I see no sign of them.

And until they do, issues of "message" and "nuance" and the like will make little difference.

Fix the infrastructure.

One thing that Comrade Pelz said has the ring of truth to it: “they (Republicans) do NOT have a bench... they've got McKenna.”

Here in Clark County, the GOP has done a terrible job of candidate development and recruitment.

The democrats in the 17th are vulnerable. Deb Wallace has wasted $93 million for an unneeded, unwanted and unbuildable I-5 Bridge replacement that is expected to cost $4 Billion that no one has... all so they can get light rail across the river and in to Vancouver.

The GOP ran some nice, well-meaning people down here that didn't have a clue or a dime. They lost badly in both open seats (Of course, one of those seats was in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Vancouver) but they were forced to run, for example, a write-in candidate against Pridemore, an independent against Comrade Jim "For election week make my middle name 'Hussein'" Moeller and did they even run anyone against Jacks?

VETTED candidate recruitment (Joseph James? Please.) and development. A short, medium and long-term strategy. Competency in organization. Motivation and a plan, not to mention funding.

It took several years to dive into this toilet. They're not going to get out over night. But if they don't take these basic steps, they're not going anywhere.

We cannot continue to ignore the issues that loom larger with each and every election. Things will get much worse if we do.

I think I was pretty close, actually.

Yet another in the increasing numbers of signs of wholesale political slaughter in November

.
As expected, those misguided enough to have supported Craig Pridemore's abortive effort to run for Congress are just a tad upset that Pridemore has accepted the he-never-had-a-chance reality of the situation and bailed out.

Those politically aware enough to put their biases aside and deal with the political reality are surprised that it took him this long. This writer had him bailing months ago, but as Craig now knows, it's tough to let go.

As soon as they announced, I wrote the following:

Face it. Next November is going to be extremely tough on leftists in Congress.

Even now, as democrats work hard to socialize medicine, each day where the focus is on that issue instead of the issues important to the American people makes it less likely that a democrat will win in the 3rd.

The tin ear syndrome will make it very difficult for any of the leftists running to make it to the top. With upwards of 10 candidates announced or about to announce, the top two in the general may be the two who got over 10 percent of the vote.

Who will those two be?

Will, the easier targets are who they won't be.

And they won't be Pridemore, Wallace, Moeller or any other SW Washington democrat representing anyone in Clark County.

It won't be Hatfield. It won't be Russell. It won't be Salazar. It won't be Crist.

The reasons it won't be the democrats mentioned run the gamut from the fact that many of them support that moronic bridge replacement and loot rail; at least one was involved in a job scam; one is clueless and one has been a joke the last two times she ran.

A fake, unethical conservative won't survive.

Looks like I got most of that right, eh?

But now, the mid-left has started to figure it. Democrat candidates at every level are sprinting away from the disaster who is President of the United States at record speed. Odd that they all seem to have to shampoo their hair or something whenever Obama comes to town to campaign.

Thanks to Politics is a Blood Sport, I was pointed to this analysis, which seems to resemble something akin to that bunker scene running around YouTube where the generals are explaining to Hitler that Steiner's Army really doesn't exist.

Open Left's Chris Bowers comments on the limp Democratic turnout in yesterday's primaries and urges the DNC to commission some polling to find out what's behind it. Bowers notes, via Hotline on Call a disturbing decline in Democratic voters, compared to figures for the '06 mid-term elections:

Just 663K OH voters cast ballots in the competitive primary between
LG Lee Fisher (D) and Sec/State Jennifer Brunner (D). That number is lower than the 872K voters who turned out in '06, when neither Gov. Ted Strickland (D) nor Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) faced primary opponents.

...in IN, just 204K Hoosiers voted for Dem House candidates, far fewer than the 357K who turned out in '02 and the 304K who turned out in
'06.

Worse, the GOP turnout numbers were up dramatically, according to Hotline:

By contrast, GOP turnout was up almost across the board. 373K people
voted in Burr's uncompetitive primary, nearly 9% higher than the 343K who voted in the equally non-competitive primary in '04. Turnout in House races in IN rose 14.6% from '06, fueled by the competitive Senate primary, which attracted 550K voters. And 728K voters cast ballots for a GOP Sec/State nominee in Ohio, the highest-ranking statewide election with a primary; in '06, just 444K voters cast ballots in that race.

Bowers notes that "This is more than just a demographic problem based on age--there really is a meaningful enthusiasm gap," and urges the DNC to make a smart investment with some of the $30 mill it has pledged for mid-term GOTV this year:

More:

Politics is a Blood Sport mourned Pridemore's long inevitable exit from the congressional race as did many of the others. Political effectiveness is frequently impacted in a negative way when one allows their emotions to impact their conclusions to the extent that reality plays no role in their deliberations.

Pridemore's failure had nothing to do with our top two system; it instead was a result of his out of touch, fringe positions that the people of this district and increasingly the people of this country simply do not want in their government.

The GOP side has a competitive race because Herrera is a paper-thin GOP sell out out with no experience, vision, integrity or clue. Her establishment, more of the same crap is ably countered by David Castillo who fortunately is everything that empty-suited rip off Herrera is not.

That, when combined with the gaping SEIU hole in Herrera's credibility and the fact that she's McMorris Roger's puppet makes the GOP side competitive because many actually realize what an opportunist piece of work Herrera is, and how badly we need her out of government, period.

So, don't blame the top two system for leaving the thoroughly out-dated and now disproven political philosophies of Craig Pridemore and his ilk behind.

Instead, blame a lack of political pragmatism and a failure on his part to understand that lurching to the socialist left like the 49th District is not where the vast majority of the people of the 3rd Congressional want to go.

A microcosm of that was the local democrat effort to run a downtown Vancouver, pro-gay marriage, pro-partial birth abortion candidate in the 18th District in 04. That didn't work then, and running that same kind of candidate in the 3rd won't work now.... and it wouldn't work if we had never heard of Denny Heck.
.

More lies from Koenninger: One of the finest legislators EVAR!!!!

.
Koenninger has but one filter he runs legislative service thru to judge it's effectiveness or "correctness:" How closely did the legislator in question toe the Columbian (That is, HIS) line?

No one has ever done it like Wallace.

Wallace is shown as (D-Vancouver) when she should be known as (D-Columbian). There is nothing the Columbian has ever wanted that Wallace hasn't done everything possible to produce. The result?

Slavish endorsements, political eulogies like this Koenninger pap, and the requisite anointment as some sort of local political icon.

Deb Wallace bears direct responsibility for ripping off the taxpayers to the tune of $100 million plus for the pre-ordained outcomes of the CRC. She's been a huge fan of loot rail.

Contrary to what Koenninger spewed, her actions in that regard do not reflect anything this community wants. Printing her lies in that area are just par for the leftist course.

The crock about Wallace's inept fund-raising as an excuse for her to bail on her congressional run is just that, a crock. It's not a viable excuse for EITHER Pridemore or Wallace. What she was "advised she needed" is completely irrelevant.

WHATEVER she needed, she could not raise.

What Koenninger fails to mention is that if the "long hours" of being an "active legislator" got in the way, she could have resigned to campaign full time, like Jaime Herrera did (She kept the job, I know... but she resigned on us, those of us she is alleged to represent.) to raise money.

In fact, we just had a special election in Hawaii because a democrat congressman resigned his seat to run for governor full time, didn't we?

It's a pity that other elected officials don't share his sense of responsibility.

Wallace couldn't raise the money for the same reason Pridemore couldn't raise money: They're democrats in a Republican year and their message sucked.

All the rest of this is smoke and eyewash.

Other local legislators have served 8 years and left without so much as a peep out of Koenninger. But they weren't democrats and they didn't run the Columbian's legislative agenda like it was their own.

So what else should we have expected?

One down, one to go: Deb Wallace calling it a day in the 3rd CD?

.
Apparently, Deb Wallace has figured it out.

Clark County Democrat Congressional Candidate FAQ: why none of them will win.
.
It's fairly obvious that, in the unlikely event a democrat can win this thing, he or she won't be someone living in Clark County. It's bad enough to be a democrat in this day and age anyway, doing everything they can to assist in the GOP resurgence and all; but the leftists of Clark County are particularly hamstrung by more than their political affiliation... though that's certainly bad enough.

For those elected to office already, a record of lacking integrity, gerrymandering or unbelievably wasteful spending would be too much to overcome in the best of times, even attempting to take advantage of the opportunism resulting from Baird bailing.

Both Pridemore and Wallace have been instrumental in spending this state into massive deficits. They both have a years-long paper trail that will make it easy to show that if either were elected, they'd just continue to be rubber stamps for the Belle of Botox, Nancy Pelosi.

More:

So, here's what Politics is a Bloodsport reports:

Deb Wallace out of 3rd CD race?

Special note here: I am unable to get multiple sourcing on this story that first appeared on the Vancouver For Peace mail list, but in doing some background checking, this appears plausible:

Deb Wallace just announced her withdrawal from not only the 3rd congressional race, but also her seat in the state legislature when it expires in January. She has not yet announced her endorsement for the 3rd race, but she is endorsing somebody named Monica Stonier (the last name I'm not sure) for her state spot.

I attended our neighborhood clubhouse where Deb had reserved for this. (She's lives in Pinebrook as I do.) I thought she'd talk about her race against Baird. Instead she said she was withdrawing so that the best Democrat would win. She said Jaime Herrera, R, looks like the candidate for the Repugs and Deb said Jaimie is often absent at the legislature and others press her vote.

Deb did not have an answer when I asked what she'll do. She supports Monica S, a pro-choice woman for the 17th District.

More:

Now, Pridemore, an unabashed fringe leftist, tainted by scandal and his lame gerrymandering bill, along with his moronic vote FOR a budget that he "feared was balanced on the backs of the poor and the powerless" will be next up to get the word.

Of course, with Herrera having someone else vote for her instead of being on the floor doing her job..... she must resign.... immediately.
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Memo to Paulson, Queen Chrissy and Taxandgougeme: What the people "expect" is for YOU to STFU.

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The senseless babble coming out of Olympia and Salem and the Ports concerning our impending rape as reported by our paper seems to have shifted into "ludicrous speed."

Thanks to Wallace and Pridemore, who never saw a tax or fee they didn't want to raise, we've wasted tens of millions of dollars and all we've got is a stack of paper to show for it and little else.

If we actually needed the bridge replaced; if we actually wanted loot rail to come into our county, then the nonsense from the "Bobbsey Twins" might have made a difference:

“citizens of this region have watched our two states discuss and plan for a new bridge for over 20 years, and they expect us to proceed.”

Well, here's a clue, morons: we expect you to proceed TO is to ABANDON THIS FRICKING PROJECT BEFORE YOU WASTE ANY MORE MONEY! THAT'S what we "EXPECT."

There is precisely ZERO need to tear down a perfectly functional bridge to replace it with a bridge that will do absolutely NOTHING to improve freight mobility OR reduce congestion.

You two idiots would blow a hole in our local economy of $100,000,000 A YEAR.

Why is it that when sock puppets like Paulson at the Port babble about how wonderful this dogpile is they never seem to talk about the rape of the commuters who will get stuck with the bill for this massive piece of crap? If the Port of Vancouver... or these two idiots we have for governors... want this steaming pile, then let THEM PAY FOR IT.

How easy it is for batshit crazy types who will NOT have to pay for this to insist that WE have to bear that burden for THEIR agenda?

That's what "the people expect," since the scum in charge lack the guts to ASK us what we want... a feat that speaks for itself.

When this is over, we'll be out billions; nothing will have improved, and the families living in Clark County will have been saddled with additional thousands of dollars of debt. 65,000 commuters and their families will be forced to pay for this senseless debacle... and once again, the phrase "will of the people" will be tossed on the ash heap of history by democrats... just like they tossed I-960.
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Will sanity finally reign in the Gorge? Bill seeks to repeal Gorge compact.

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Here locally, excepting the massive vaporization of a wasted hundred million on that steaming pile of a bridge replacement/loot rail plan by Deb Wallace and her senate sidekick, one Craig Pridemore; it's hard to find a bigger waste of our money than the Columbia River Gorge Commission.

I remember a few years back when now current county commissioner Marc Boldt joined with other legislators on both sides of the river and cut Commission funding in half. Man, that was a HOOT!

I though Koenninger would vapor lock, he got so mad. He spewed a column so full of hatred and vitriol against Boldt.... why, that simple idiot even demanded that Boldt resign... before his constituents did it for him!

Course, Marc's only won 5 straight elections since then; but hey, no one can deny that ol' Koenninger's been stuck on stupid about the Gorge all of his life.

But then, Koenninger doesn't have to live under any of the rules or regulations he demands for the second-class, The Constitution of the United States is "different" for those that live in the Gorge folks. It's not unlike his rank hypocrisy about the bridge/loot rail issue: he ain't gonna have to pay for it, so ignoring the will of the people and advocating for a $4 billion pile of crap is an easy exercise for him.

So, kudos to state Representative Rep. Kevin Van De Wege for sticking this waste of millions on the chopping block. Who knows... Michael Lang of the FOG might actually have to go out and find work once this thing is axed!
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A look at the 3rd Congressional money situation.

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A fascinating report came out showing the strengths and weaknesses in terms of fund raising, the "mother's milk of politics," of those candidates running for the now abandoned seat of the WA03 for Congress.

That report was the most recent fund raiser results, which included the last Q of 2009. The numbers are from opensecrets.org.

It's no surprise that Denny Heck has taken the early and substantial lead in these numbers: he dropped a cool $100G of his own cash into the pot to get things rolling.

Like most in the party of class warfare, little is made of their personal wealth. There is little doubt that Heck will put together the biggest bankroll for this race, mostly because he not only can do that; but hell, the man is even capable of getting a state governor to violate the letter, if not the spirit and intent of the law prohibiting her from raising money or using government facilities to campaign for someone else during session.

It's got to be cool to have a governor in your pocket.

So, Heck has put together an impressive $215G...but an amount not quite so impressive when you realize that almost half of it came from one source: the candidate. Heck's fund raising base is an eclectic group, if by eclectic you mean lawyers, consultants and those high up in Washington State Government. They provided, by far, most of his donated cash.

Of particular note in Heck's fundraising realm is Strategies 360, a nice little band that has, through Ron Dotzauer (Of "Boinking Ms. Cantwell" fame) successfully enabled David Barnett to buy an election using money illegally laundered through Progressive Majority for Steve "I'll take it in unmarked bills" Stuart, our most senior county commissioner. Dotzhauer and those connected to him have dropped a paltry $14,000 or so of the $115G Heck has actually raised, all by themselves.

Nothing quite like that one stop shopping!

Next up is David Castillo, leading Republican candidate who was one of 3 slogging along in the trenches before the Queen of Opportunism jumped into the race... and his hard work shows with almost twice as much as his nearest competitor on the "R" side.... at $104G

The Republican Empty Suit, Jaime Herrera has struggled to raise money, when one considers she's the rough equivalent of a wind up toy: Stuff a key in her back, aim her in whatever direction you want, turn the key and the rest takes care of itself.

Normally, a $55G quarter would be rather impressive... until you see that the money in question comes primarily from a whole EIGHT donors.

Then?

Not so much.

Here's a hint, Jaime. When they hand you a list of pre-greased donors? Especially those who've never heard of you?

Make sure you dial "1" BEFORE the area code.... OK?

Jon Russell continues to fade. Herrera's opportunism cost Russell any chance he may have delusional felt he had... and now she's gonna suck all the money out of his room like a turbo-charged Hoover.

Jon's showing $28G, total, proving than his fundraising skills are on par with his political skills.... thus capping off an around $12G quarter.

Deb Wallace, according to the Columbian, has reported $23,000, but I can't find that on the FEC site.

The biggest surprise was the abysmal report submitted by democrat State Sen. Craig "we balanced this budget on the backs of the poor and the powerless, so I'm voting for it" Pridemore.

Because Pridemore has gerrymandered tax districts; rabidly supports the massive waste of billions of dollars known as the bridge and loot rail, and his special-favor for his buddy Steve "cold hard Barnett cash" Stuart, so he could keep $50,000 or so in campaign contributions for a bill Pridemore was running back in what.... 05; he has no chance, anyway. In fact, he and Deb Wallace are "dead men walking" because of their idiotic bridge shenanigans... their political corpses just haven't got the memo.

Pridemore's less than stellar $8,569 SHOULD be sending him a message.

David Hedrick checks in, almost matching the fund raising prowess of Pridemore with $7,216. That's not a bad number for a political neophyte in this kind of climate.

Local illegal alien cheerleader Maria Rodriguez-Salazar won't raise cab fare and is wasting every ones time acting like a candidate... a candidate who has, apparently, yet to even file FEC paperwork.

Is it early? Of course it is. And, unless you're a highly placed democrat, unaffected by the Obama recession, it will be increasingly difficult to find donors with disposable cash to play... thus adding politics to the list of the "Sports of Kings."

Heck will be difficult to beat on the leftist side. He's got the cash and the support of the democrat infrastructure, plus he's unsullied (for now) by the Pridemore/Wallace bridge idiocy.

Castillo is unquestionably the most qualified, followed by my pet Cavalier Spaniel Oliver, Russell, Herrera, and lastly, Hedrick.

Do overall qualifications matter?

They should. Look what happened when we elected an empty suit for president? So, why would we compound that error again?

Meanwhile, these numbers DO count. Even those where all you have to do to get the cash is pick up a check.

Right, Jaime?

Cross posted on Jaime Herrera Watch.
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Democrats are blowing apart... what's it all mean?

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As bad as it was for the GOP in 08 (and let's face it, it was pretty bad) 2010 is shaping up as an "8 killed in the intersection" kind of scenario for the left.

Their frustration is palpable. Safe seats suddenly in jeopardy at both state and national levels; changing parties at all levels as well. Senators like Evan Bayh from a relatively safe seat in Indiana; dems like Brian Baird packing it in and calling it a day.

The problem for the left is not so much that the GOP is winning as much as the left is losing.

Technical and tactical brilliance has rarely been the GOP's forte' at any level.

The Republicans have no bench to speak of, yet the doom and gloom of the democrats is palpable... like a storm cloud following them everywhere they go.

Why? What happened? How did it go so wrong, so fast?

Well, the first rule of leadership that I was taught at a Brigade Leadership Academy was, essentially, to never promise nuthin' you couldn't deliver. And to this point, that has been the entire result of the democrats 08 campaign: undelivered and broken promises.

Even as I write this, the left here in Washington is busy committing political suicide by working double overtime to jack our taxes up in the midst of double digit unemployment and a generally horrific economy.

There is something to the phrase: No society ever taxed itself into prosperity.

Those employed by government appear to view themselves as some sort of protected class. While many have been laid off, many more should be. And those remaining should have their pay slashed by 20% across the board, so they might share some of that sacrifice that the president told us about months ago.

These dismal, short sighted actions, done in an election year, cannot help but decimate the morale of any democrat to the right of Mao. These actions cannot be justified to the vast majority of independents or anyone on the right, and they know this sets the table for their eminent political destruction.

Jopel Connelly, a typically worthless fringe left columnist from the paper-that-used-to-be-the-PI-but-is-now-a-web-site lays it out:

Democrats hold crab feed on stormy seas

LACEY - Usually an upbeat evening in state politics, Washington State Democrats' annual crab feed on Monday had the feel of a ship battening down for a nor'easter or a battalion marching to the sound of the guns.

"We have not had a good couple of months," U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the first member of Washington's congressional delegation to back Barack Obama for president, told the crowd at St. Martin's University.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., predicted that health care reform will pass Congress, but privately commented on the sudden announcement by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, that he won't run for reelection.

"There's a lot of bad blood back there (Washington, D.C.)," McDermott said.

Even if one of their Washington, D.C., luminaries was waving Bayh!, Democrats in the capital of this Washington were coming off a good day.

With help from unions, a big noontime crowd rallied at the State Capitol to call for preserving social programs facing the meat-axe if the state cannot find new revenue sources. It far outstripped a no-new-taxes rally earlier in the day.

"The tea baggers had 500 people: We had 5,000 - it sends a message," said Ivan Weiss, a longtime Seattle Times editor who, in retirement, has become a leader of the 34th District Democrats.

Actually, the crowd at the save-social-spending rally may have been smaller, but progressive forces in the state remain organized and ready to fight.

But Republicans are fielding a fairly strong lineup of legislative candidates, and will make a major run at the 3rd District congressional seat of retiring Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash. They are also directing a stream of negative boilerplate press releases at Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.

The Democrats' response, on display Monday night, has been to adopt populist soundings - Larsen promised to "hold Wall Street accountable for driving us into a ditch" - and to depict Republicans as a party of naysayers.

If the crab feed had a theme, however, it might be summed up as "Rocky Days are Here Again."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., while a favorite for re-election, acknowledged to the crowd that "there's a lot of teabaggers and whatever out there . . ."

"It is not a time to give up: This is the time we show wisdom and courage and stand up for what we believe in as Democrats," said Murray. The three-term senator is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership.

Old pep lines did not seem to rouse the crowd.

"Are we ready for 2010?" shouted Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"Yeah," responded a few of the party faithful. "I don't know about that," Andrew Villeneuve of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a savvy young party activist, quietly observed.

The governor kept up her queries, as if addressing a sleepy high school class. "Patty Murray in 2010 by a landslide? Right?" asked Gregoire. Again, the response was underwhelming.

The crab feed was used to roll out four Democratic hopefuls hoping to take Baird's place in Congress. After they spoke, state Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz made the candidates show their prowess - or lack of it - at juggling and tying balloons together in the shape of creatures.

Only one of the four 3rd District candidates - state Sen. Craig Pridemore of Vancouver - actively worked tables of Democrats munching on crabs.

Pridemore came across as a proud liberal, hitting such themes as abortion rights and the right of same-sex couples to marry.

State Rep. Deb Wallace noted that she unseated a Republican legislator and has held onto a "swing" district in Clark County. Wallace argued that she would be in the best position to take on state Rep. Jaime Herrera, being pushed by national Republican strategists who see the opportunity to elect an Hispanic woman.

"I've spent the last 10 years growing companies and growing jobs," said Denny Heck, onetime legislator and TVW channel co-founder. A less known candidate, Cheryl Crist, came across as a peace advocate eager to get American out of "these wars."

The seeming dysfunction of the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. - where more than 200 House-passed bills await action - drew a sharp rebuke from Craig Pridemore. He noted the lawmakers of his party who have failed to follow President Obama.

"A lot of Democrats let him down and let us down," said Pridemore.

In the 2006 and 2008 campaigns, 8th District hopeful Darcy Burner received an enthusiastic welcome at the crab feed. She ran twice and lost to Republican Rep. Dave Reichert.
Former Microsoft executive Suzan DelBene, running against Reichert this year, has assembled a crack campaign team and raised more than $1 million - but didn't exactly raise the roof last night.

DelBene spent much of her time at a VIP reception, did not work tables, and delivered a tepid speech that received a like reception.

All of this, of course, speaks for itself. What's missing is any sense of reality... and vision of how to lead themselves out of the political wilderness they've strive so mightily to attain. From the lie of Ivan (it wasn't 500... WSP called it around 3000) to Murray's disrespect of a huge segment of her constituency, the delusion... the lack of a plan or a clue... a road to victory continues to elude them.

Because they don't have any way available.

The tin ear of the left simply can't be overstated. The campaign lies of the president, which now seem to amount to almost every thing he uttered during his campaign, are going to haunt those like Murray, who drank kool aid that put Jim Jones' paltry effort to shame in her support of Obama's efforts and agenda.

Those who've been so strongly supportive of Obama's efforts will have the most to answer for.

And that means they all do.

Which is why the Crab Feed was such a miserable failure.

Locally, Heck is the only democrat that stands a chance because Pridemore has been infected with the corruption virus and both Pridemore and Wallace will have the moronic bridge hung around their neck in such a way that they'll drown with it.

If Heck does anything but oppose the bridge replacement, he, too will be over.

Any decent, fully funded effort will take out Murray, who has 18 years of pork and will have 2 years of gluing herself to Obama and his programs to answer for.

And legislators will not be capable of explaining their efforts to ditch the will of the people so soon after it was expressed, so they can increase taxes in the midst of a recession to deal with a budget deficit entirely their making.

Yes, it will truly suck to be a democrat this November... because even the few who manage to win will ultimately wind up losing; all the while asking themselves the main question: how could this have happened?

I don't really know what lemmings ask themselves before they dive off the cliff into the ocean to drown. But my guess is that, come November, we're all going to find out.
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Congrats to the local paper for reporting what I blogged about several days ago.

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In yet another typically gagging, cloying puff piece on the unneeded, unwanted and unnecessary multi-billion dollar waste known the I-5 Bridge replacement, the local rag finally gets it. As I blogged back in December, the cabal deciding what bridge/loot rail combination they plan on ramming down our collective throats agreed to a 6 lane bridge weeks ago (Not including loot rail lanes). Congrats to our local stain on our community for finally figuring it out.

So, when Tim "The Liar" Leavitt babbles that such an arrangement "...wouldn’t be acceptable to our community,” he's failing to acknowledge that there is NO bridge of ANY size that would be "acceptable to our community," and he KNOWS that.

But no matter what ultimately comes our of this steaming pile, ol' Tim will be on board. Because, as well know, the little slime ball "isn't an obstructionist."

Our local excuse for a paper continues to use lies such as this:

The request comes amid fraying support for the project.

In June and July of 2008, the 12-lane “locally preferred alternative” received the
conditional support of city councils, transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations on both sides of the river.

Support began to wane last year.

The main problem with the lie about "fraying support" is that this community NEVER supported replacing the bridge or bringing loot rail here under ANY circumstances, least of all with $1300 per year (to begin with) tolls.

Now, The Liar KNOWS that this thing can't be built WITHOUT tolls, but that didn't stop him from REPEATEDLY lying that the mayor of Vancouver could STOP tolls, while telling us all along that even WITH tolls, HE would SUPPORT the new bridge.

And if this bridge comes out with the already-agreed-to 6 lane design, he'll agree to that as well, BECAUSE HE CAN'T STOP IT.

NO bridge design here EVER had more than 6 through lanes. To that end, a 6 lane bridge was going to be the outcome REGARDLESS; a colassal, multi-billion dollar pile of money dumped down a toilet; blowing a $100,000,000 per year hole in our local economy, cheerled by hypocrites who wouldn't ever have to pay the tolls... unlike those of us in the commuting public.

As for Steve "Unmarked Bills, Mr. Barnett" Stuart, here's a clue.

We want this shut down NOW. And we do not WANT a "re-start." WE WANT A THIRD AND FOURTH BRIDGE, WITH NO FRICKING LOOT RAIL.

You've already blown $100,000,000 tax payer dollars, thanks to Tweedle Dumb (Craig Pridemore) and Tweedle Dumber (Deb Wallace) and we have absolutely nothing to show for it... money that SHOULD have been spent on locating and designing a 3rd and 4th bridge that would both relieve pressure on the I-5 Bridge AND reduce congestion WHILE increasing freight mobility, something that a new bridge in the same place would absolutely NOT do.

Get used to dealing with your massive wastes of our money, Mr. Stuart... and start polishing your resume'.

Between the bridge and getting paid to be Barnett's butt boy, this November?

You are going DOWN.
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Clark County Democrat Congressional Candidate FAQ: why none of them will win.

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It's fairly obvious that, in the unlikely event a democrat can win this thing, he or she won't be someone living in Clark County. It's bad enough to be a democrat in this day and age anyway, doing everything they can to assist in the GOP resurgence and all; but the leftists of Clark County are particularly hamstrung by more than their political affiliation... though that's certainly bad enough.

For those elected to office already, a record of lacking integrity, gerrymandering or unbelievably wasteful spending would be too much to overcome in the best of times, even attempting to take advantage of the opportunism resulting from Baird bailing.

Both Pridemore and Wallace have been instrumental in spending this state into massive deficits. They both have a years-long paper trail that will make it easy to show that if either were elected, they'd just continue to be rubber stamps for the Belle of Botox, Nancy Pelosi.

Those not elected around here are grandstanding to further their respective causes... and doing so knowing full well they have no chance.

The following candidates are running or announced on the D slate and are actually Clark County residents (Unlike Heck, who weirdly CLAIMS that "Clark County is his home") :

Craig Pridemore

Deb Wallace

Maria Rodriguez-Salazar

Now, Pridemore is elected and represents most of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Vancouver. Endorsed by militantly fringe-leftist Jim Moeller, Pridemore apparently fails to understand that tip-toeing on the precipice of socialism as he has, ain't gonna get it done in this, one of nine districts that Cook's now refers to as "toss ups."

Pridemore's problems include corruption (he altered a campaign finance bill to allow Steve "Easy Money" Stuart to keep tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations for a commissioner run) gerrymandering (he successfully ran a bill that will exclude tens of thousands of voters from voting on a tax increase to operate loot rail by gerrymandering the tax district lines, while forcing those excluded from voting to pay the tax, should it pass) and, of course, voting for a budget after condemning it as being balanced on the "backs of the poor and the powerless."

Wallace is elected, though never seriously challenged, (Oddly, since her massive vulnerabilities should have seen her tossed after one term... but then, the GOP hasn't been one to brag about around here.) and represents the district directly east of the 49th. Wallace has about 100,000,000 problems getting elected.... each of the dollars she's personally responsible for wasting on the CRC study.

Both of them voted for the institutional age discrimination of the special rights for homosexuals and those over 61... an act that resulted in R71 which, while passing statewide, lost by almost 12,000 votes in the 3rd Congressional.

I-1033 passed in the 3rd, and both opposed it.

Both supported Obama, and, as it turned out, showed horrific judgment in the process.

These easily understood litmus tests are just for this past election.

If one were to research past initiatives and referenda, how hard would it be to review the outcomes in the 3rd, and the diametrically opposite positions held by these two?

Taking it a step further, both Wallace and Pridemore obviously support the horrific waste of billions known as the I-5 Bridge and Loot Rail. Additionally, they support imposing $1300 or more in tolls, an abysmal specter hanging over the heads of the 65,000 who will have to pay for this monstrosity.

These 65,000, properly organized, could become THE voter block to determine the direction of politics in SW Washington for years to come. And the vast majority of those voters, organized or no, will PULVERIZE any pro-bridge candidate like these two, or any others who don't rally to their cause.

The easily documented desire of these two to spend our money in the billions locally, disqualifies them from service nationally, where we could be sure that trillions of dollars of waste would be the order of their days.

Maria Rodriguez-Salazar? She's the one who sold out to Tim "The Liar" Leavitt, as he used his city council seat to further his mayoral campaign with his worthless and nonsensical "hate crimes" resolution.

No impact here, except for getting the "illegal" vote.

It will be interesting and entertaining to watch these two hack away at each other, only to fall far short in the end.
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Another day, another Columbian bridge puff piece.

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Recently, it became fairly clear that when it comes to the I-5 Bridge rip off/loot rail replacement, two groups of people fail to understand the issue with Tim "The Liar" Leavitt.

The first surprised me. The second has me wondering at the motives for that failure.

The first? Local GOP'ers who supported The Liar's campaign.

Reviewing the bidding; we find that Leavitt's campaign was run by democrats including the democrat county chair, democrat county commissioner Steve "Owned and operated by David Barnett" Stuart, democrat former county commissioner Betty Sue Morris, and democrat operative Heather Melton.

And then, of course, we re-iterate what was already known: The Liar does not, and never did, oppose tolling. He merely manufactured an issue out of whole cloth to seperate himself from Pollard; and he developed this bogus tolling issue as the vehicle to do that.

Then we find out that secret negotiations between Leavitt, "Easy Money" Stuart and Sam "If you're under 18 in Portland, you can have an" Adams have taken place to reduce the size of the bridge even more... to 3 through lanes and one loot rail lane each way, period (the babbling supporters continuing lies about 6 lanes going both ways notwithstanding; there was never more then 6 through lines on the bridge proposal, just like the 6 lanes we have, well, right now)

The issue that surprised me the most on the issue of support is that the GOP'ers would be so badly taken in and hosed by The Liar.

The second here is that our local fishwrapper, hypocritically rabid bridger/looters who won't, like most bridger/looters, have to pay for the project that will blow a $100,000,000 yearly hole in our local economy seems unable to grasp the fact that Leavitt does, in fact, support tolling; always has and always will.

When a clown like Leavitt SAYS he opposes tolls but then won't oppose the bridge when tolls are required because that lying moron isn't an "obstructionist," well, that makes both him AND his so-called "opposition" worthless.

Democrats who want to ram the project down our throats ran Leavitt's campaign. Is there anyone out there who can't make the connection?

Now, there is no doubt that the people of Clark County don't want this thing. It's a massive and unneeded waste of money that anyone paying attention to would see in a minute. Thanks to Deb Wallace and Craig Pridemore, we've wasted $100,000,000 on studies with pre-ordained outcomes (It was never in doubt that the only acceptable option to the Downtown Mafia was replacing the I-5 Bridge and bringing loot rail in using the new bridge... in fact, loot rail was the only real reason to replace the bridge from the start)

And the powers that be, including our massive waste of wood pulp known as a "paper," would rather dive into a boiling vat of hydrochloric acid then do what ethics and morality require (if not the law) and put this massive waste of money to a vote.

This project engages in massive over-promising and under-delivering and it would sentence 65,000 current commuters to paying, in addition to Oregon income tax, a $1300 per year fee just to go to work.

So, we have Kulongoski appointing yet another captain to our particular Titanic.

Well done. But then, I guess he needs someone to blame it on as well, right?
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Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: Wagner named "co-director" of the $4 billion rip off.

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As a blind man could see in a minute, the people of this region do not want to be saddled with the agenda of others... particularly when those "others" won't have to pay for it.

Those cheering the loudest for this colossal waste of money have several glaring issues to deal with.

First and foremost, their hypocrisy.

The cancer on our society known as the paper has provided coverage that ignores the massive opposition to this steaming pile; that lies about the positive impacts while ignoring the negative; that has published absolutely nonsensical, untrue polls to "prove" the local community's support; that has through columns, specifically trashed the opposition and continued to support those like Craig Pridemore who strive to gerrymander taxing districts to exclude the overwhelming opposition from voting against these taxes... but not to exclude us from paying them.

This is, in addition, a further result of the fact that these clowns will impose on 65,000 OTHERS (but not themselves) a $1300 per year fee that THEY won't have to pay.

Second, the undeniable act that WE DO NOT WANT THIS CRAP HEAP BUILT.

Politicians are aware of this: Republican Tom Mielke won against democrat Pam Brokaw in a county that voted for the empty suit. Mielke was aided in large measure by a failure on Brokaw's part to have the guts to take positions on important issues, including replacing a bridge and bringing in loot rail to a community that DOES NOT WANT IT.

Note to politicians: Obama-ing the message will NOT WORK this time.

This amounted to a referendum on the bridge, loot rail and tolls. Clearly, Brokaw wanted all three, her denials of taking a position notwithstanding; with more than equal clarity, Commissioner Mielke did not.

In the Vancouver mayoral race (Where I supported Pollard because he at least told the truth on this issue) Tim "The Liar" Leavitt was elected by a populace desperate to believe his lies... and a populace that was also opposed to the bridge replacement, loot rail and tolls.

These things are facts. They've been in place for years. But only now is this stain on journalism beginning to regularly acknowledge the reality we live in, because that reality opposes their agenda.

Thus, we have what this paper is gently referring to as "escalating political difficulties." That's the same thing as saying when Obama was lying through his teeth during his campaign about transparency, he was "misspeaking."

The opposition to this project, for which Deb Wallace has arranged to waste over $100,000,000 taxpayer dollars to date, is overwhelming. And neither Don Wagner nor anyone else can put this genie back into the bottle.

The problem is that we do not want this bridge; we do not need this bridge; and the only reason they want to waste this massive amount of money at all is to bring loot rail into Vancouver.

Replacing the bridge? Well, that's just cover for loot rail. These scum want to force us to pay billions entirely to get loot rail into Vancouver.

The new "co-director" of the CRC (Odd they didn't mention how much he's getting paid for that) himself has said the following:

Wagner said he has no doubts the existing crossings are safe, so much so that he drives and cycles across the spans without hesitation.

"If we don't have an earthquake of any magnitude, those two bridges are going to stay there until something hits them," he said.

(That, of course, put the immediate lie to the paper and other bridge/looters that the I-5 Bridges were "unsafe.")

It's odd that they would put the official who has done the most to damage their arguments for this project in charge of it.

But then, this entire scam has been odd from the beginning.
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Is Denny Heck just more of the same?

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We already know Herrera certainly is. But what about Heck?

As I follow the process, Denny Heck's name has come up many times for the 3rd Congressional, and I thought I'd share a few of my initial impressions.

Like all but 3 candidates for this seat, Heck suffers from a lack of, well, guts.

The 3 candidates I refer to are Castillo, Hedrick and Russell.

The other candidates, each and every one of them (including Heck) are engaging in rank political opportunism, not unlike buzzards scavenging a dead cow.

For the congressional campaign, we need to face the fact that we never would have heard of Heck, Herrera, Wallace, Pridemore, McKibben, Salazar, Crist or anyone else announcing since Baird's timely departure from the local political scene.

While so far unsullied by the despicable nonsense and waste of the multi-billion dollar fraud that is the unneeded and unwanted bridge replacement along with loot rail and the imposition of what amounts to a $1300 surcharge to 65,000 voters in this district, is their any doubt that Heck won't become a proponent for that project? A project that will screw the very people he wants to, allegedly, "Serve?"

ALL candidates need to take a position on this. Those supporting it; or, in the alternative, attempting to "Brokaw" the message; that is, refusing to take a pro OR con position on the issue, will suffer politically as a result.

ALL candidates running need to explain, in excruciating detail, what efforts they intend to make to kill the Cowlitz Criminal Megacasino. Again, those refusing to take a position or supporting that massive economic black hole for out of area interests will suffer accordingly.

ALL candidates need to explain how they would have voted differently then Baird on the Porkulus, Cap and Swindle, and Obama's socialist health care bill. Further, unlike Baird, would you have the guts to require a 72 hour window to vote "yes" on any bill? Continuing the theme, those who would just be the mirror image of Baird? Politically problematic.

Specific to democrats, a brand that becomes increasingly damaged by the day, just BEING a democrat will be a severe handicap in the upcoming election.

As the democrat House, controlled by the Belle of Botox, Nancy Pelosi, continues to turn an increasingly deaf ear to what We The People actually want; it becomes problematic to explain to the voter why we should make her stronger by sending a democrat... well... anywhere, let alone to Congress.

Going back specifically to Heck, this was not a good start for him.

Inaccuracy in staking out a claim comes perilously close to lying and exaggerating at least as bad as Herrera. For example, Heck claims:

“I’m the only practicing capitalist in this race. Nobody has to teach me that 70 percent of jobs are created by small businesses. I’ve done that.”

As despicable a person and candidate as Russell is, the paper was right in addressing that claim:

In fact, Republican congressional candidate Jon Russell, a Washougal city councilor who owns a family health clinic, might consider himself a “practicing capitalist” as well.

Words have meanings, Mr. Heck. Your "depth and breadth of experience" should have taught you that.

And, I appreciate the fact that the unemployment rate is one of your chief concerns. But Like all democrats supporting this empty suited, hypocritical anti-American racist bigot, you are going to have to explain to us precisely what you intend to do to help stop the ACORN in Chief from screwing up our economy even more than he already has.

"Stimulating job growth" is primarily done with tax cuts. What taxes are you going to fight to cut, and how much?

Engaging in idiocy like calling "Clark County my home" since you haven't lived here in 25 years, does nothing to help your cause. Clark County is a different PLANET then it was when you lived here. This is NOT your home, and no amount of claiming that it is makes it so. In fact, such claims tend to show you both as a liar and a moron.

That you're willing to twist words and spin messages this way is particularly troubling. In short, don't pee on our legs and tell us it's raining.

LYING in this day and age like that is not what we want in our congressional candidate.

So, Mr. Heck, you have a lot of work to do. If you're going to be "clear-eyed" about something, be "clear-eyed" about the truth. And this article, today, has you saying things that are false.

Continue to lie, and, well, you might as well keep your money... because you ain't winning.

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Local democrats have such a sense of humor about their endorsements.

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Big article today (would you expect anything less from our local democrat paper?) blabbing about endorsements for Wallace and Pridemore... as if anyone cared, or as if they made any difference.

The "yuk-yuk" moment?

Describing Val Ogden as "moderate." It's kind of like calling the Columbian "unbiased..." a lie on it's face.

17th District leftists endorsed a 17th District House member who has no chance because she is responsible for the waste of 10's of millions of tax payer dollars and demanding the imposition of hundreds of millions of dollars of tolls in the midst of our recession, and the waste of billions for a bridge we don't want.

Big deal



49th District leftists endorsed Pridemore, responsible for gerrymandering a tax district to keep tens of thousands of us from voting on loot rail operations... but not from paying the taxes he wants to rip out of our pockets. Responsible for voting "yes" for a budget that even HE claimed was "balanced ... on the backs of the poor and the powerless." The stupidity of a Moeller endorsement in a swing district is self-evident. Steve "The Tribe Bought Me" Stuart's endorsement? As bad as, if not worse than, Moellers.

Was it all that long ago that Pridemore was calling Stuart a "sell out?"

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Democrat State Senator Pridemore gets it: Steve Stuart's a sellout.

You’ve got to love it. Pridemore’s got Stuart figured out, but the idjits like the “progressives” and the rest of the “environmentally aware” leftist fringe? Why, they don’t have a clue.

Pridemore, a legendary hypocrite who just this past session voted FOR a state democrat budget that even HE said was “balanced on the backs of the poor and the powerless,” has finally said what needed to be said about Steve Stuart.

Pridemore nails it when he tells us that Stuart’s a sellout: “Morris has set a deadline of finishing her work before the November election when Commissioner Steve Stuart, the only commissioner who sought to defend the existing plan, will be on the ballot. I believe that if Stuart doesn't do as Morris commands him, her friends with the homebuilders will pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign against him. It's little wonder that he's slow to speak out against something he should know is ethically wrong and legally indefensible.”

Pridemore goes on to tell us that he is ”disgusted and appalled by what” Stuart is doing to “our community’s future.”

Time, apparently, does heal all wounds.

Something of a quid-pro-quo, considering Pridemore's efforts to keep 10's of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions around for "Easy Money" Stuart.

We will see frequent articles lacking in any news value about these two, neither one of whom stand a chance of winning; and one of whom having a great deal of difficulty raising money.

But these endorsements?

Meaningless, except in a negative sense. Partisan endorsements typically are.
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