FOX NEWS: The Queen's Institutional Corruption

Wampumgate: Quid Pro Cash

From cartoonist Eric Devericks at the Seattle Times

A Quo for Every Quid

The Seattle Times today has a lengthy story on how the left-wing organizations that forked over $3.5 million for the manual recount that won Queen Christine the 2004 gubernatorial election have all been handsomely rewarded under her administration.

I have pointed out before that the Queen is definitely no ingrate. As a WEA official puts it, "Absolutely it was money well spent." We have the best Governor that special interests can buy.

Scratch and Win?

John Barnes, Communications Director for the Washington Policy Center, has created a clever response to the Seattle Times story about the Washington Lottery scratch game with labels that look like labels for kids candy such as Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Jolly Rancher, etc.

Queen Christine: Fighting hard to stop the expansion of gambling in Washington.

Quote of the Day

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Gregoire and her political operatives have been shamelessly trying to smear Dino since before our campaign even began. The Washington Education Association ran radio attack ads against Dino in February, the Democratic Governor’s Association and local unions have put more than $800,000 into the new Evergreen Progress PAC that will undoubtedly be used to attack Dino, and the State Democratic Party sends out almost daily press releases filled with distortions. Is Gregoire suddenly going to take a stand against all of these groups? I wouldn’t count on it.

- Dino Rossi spokesperson Jill Strait, June 19, 2008

Neither would I. There are no rules in a knife fight. And the 2008 Washington gubernatorial race is going to be as bitter of a political knife fight as you can imagine. There will be no prizes for Miss (or Mr.) Congeniality.

Eric Earling at Sound Politics is calling for those responsible for the "Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election" sign to knock it off. I completely disagree. It's effective. It will put ballots in the box. I'd like to get a thousand of them to put up in Whitman County. Does anyone doubt that the leftists would not use a similar tactic if the situation was reversed? If Rossi wins what promises to be a very close election again, it won't be by playing to the delicate sensibilities of the latte liberals in the Emerald City.

Dislike of Seattle's one party rule is a VERY valid campaign issue here in Eastern Washington, and it's not just a bad taste left over from 2004. The disaffection is not limited to mouth-breathing wingnuts. Moderates, like Eastern Washington's most respected business leader Ed Schweitzer are fed up too. Remember how the imperious Puget Sound Dems tried to push through legislation this past session concerning global warming and the environment that would have very adversely affected us? I won't even get into the Department of Ecology's business-killing stormwater regulations that have created great antipathy among Eastern Washington's smaller cities. Dems can say "One Washington" all they want, but that doesn't play outside downtown Spokane. The "Cascade Curtain" is wider and deeper than ever before as Queen Christine fiddles while issues like the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the WASL burn.

The Queen's press conference was simply a vain attempt to draw public attention away from the simmering scandal of Wampumgate that is about to overtake her floundering campaign.

Wampumgate

Queen Christine's sleazy payoffs from Indian casinos have state Republicans calling for an investigation.

This certainly is bad enough news for the Dems when the most competitive governors race in years is at stake. Even Gregoire's own party is apparently appalled. According to Seattle Times political reporter David Postman, the day after the story of the deal broke, the Queen's supporters had to stage a "spontaneous" floor demonstration at the state Democratic convention in Spokane. But as Mrs. Gregoire is Obama's most visible supporter in Washington State, it has national repercussions as well.

As we all know, the Obamessiah has promised a change from "politics as usual." However, James Johnson, the former Fannie Mae CEO, who is leading Obama's Veep search has come under fire for some shady deals of his own. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Johnson received some quid pro quo mortgages worth more than $7 million from a lender, including at least two loans below market average. Combined with the Queen's troubles, the stench could be overwhelming come November.

HT: Patrick Bell, WSRP

The Queen of Quid Pro Quo

A story in today's Seattle-PI titled "Tribes give big to Gregoire, avoid sharing casino cash," blows the lid off the connection between some $700,000 in "contributions" to the Democrats and Queen Christine's reelection campaign from Washington Indian tribes and Gregoire's killing of a 2005 compact on sharing tribal casino revenue that cost the state more than $140 million a year. "It's a payoff," one gambling expert calls it.

Ted Van Dyk has a great post about the scandal on the Crosscut blog. He makes some of the connections Ed Schweitzer did the other day about Washington Democrats being in the pockets of big-monied fat cats and doing nothing for the little guy:

Since my return to Seattle more than seven years ago, I have noted many changes in the state and local political cultures. The most disappointing has been the degree to which supposedly "liberal" governors, legislators, mayors and others accept as business-as-usual policies and practices which are shockingly self-interested and against the interests of a majority of their constituents.

At state level, there are the "tax expenditures" — loopholes and subsidies — extended to individual companies and entire sectors which have cut a huge hole in the state revenue base, which then is replenished with largely regressive taxes on those least able to pay. There are the almost automatic grantings of pay increases and other benefits sought by powerful public-employee and teachers' unions. And, of course, the allocation of massive public funds to cost-ineffective public works boondoggles such as the Allentown trolley and Sound Transit light rail.

It's a must-read.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's time for change we can believe in in Olympia.