slam dunk, mutherfuckers...

Dino Rossi in a self-deprecating, self-serving little homily, ended his run at the governorship already won fairly by Christine Gregoire.

"I have faith that tomorrow will be a better day," he said, but never apologized for putting us all through this expensive, devisive, politically driven process.

Despite the loss, Republicans have scored politically by sowing seeds of distrust in the minds of the people. The numbers have been running against Gregoire; many citizens, regardless of partisan leanings, think that Dino Rossi won and Gregoire is somehow illegitimate, though many fewer thought she should be actually replaced as governor.

Many observers say this is part of a bigger GOP strategy to, as "Stuffin'" Sharskansky, the transvestite lesbian Republican activist and Stranger sex columnist just said on the radio, to "defeat County Executive Ron Sims and elect Dave Irons in 2005."

Rossi's been out of the line of decision-making fire as he "spends more time with his family," which is what politicians always say they're doing when they're unemployed. He's been playing the long-suffering martyr as he speaks all over the state and talk radio. He's a potent candidate well-positioned for '06, when he could run against Cantwell; or '08 for, in another run at Gregoire.

Gosh, maybe he could run against Ron Sims and make it a real race.

In a monotonal flurry of legal realities, common sense and recitation of statutes, Judge John Bridges gave, this morning, according to Democratic lawyer Jenny Durkan, a "resounding rejection" on every legal point of the GOP's attempt to unseat Gregoire in favor of the more cuddly Rossi, her erstwhile gubernatorial opponent.

(We think the Dems would be well-served to seduce Ms Durkan into running for something important. She led this incredibly capable defense despite her father's (legendary Seattle politico Martin Durkan) death last week. She's a hot-ticket downtown attorney who's been mentioned as a possible opponent or successor to popular Congressman Jim McDermott.

Durkan reminds us of the Russian proverb: "Women can do everything, men can do the rest.").

KVI's John Carlson (m-f, 3-6p) and Sharkurpski are busy spinning this as a defeat for Sims rather than the Republican drubbing that it is.

Republicans had hand-picked the court, hoping to get a sympathetic judge in conservative Chelan County. Instead they got a thorough, fair judge who was sympathetic to the law. who kicked the shit out of this bald-faced attempt to use the courts for pure political gain using fuzzy math and junk science. 

Bridges threw broken chunks of Republican boilerplate right back at them:

“An election such as this," he said, "should not be overturned because one judge picks a number and applies a proportional deduction analysis. To do so within the context of the facts of this case would constitute the ultimate act of judicial egotism and judicial activism.” (the italics are ours).

They tossed aside their usual so-called "values" about frivolous litigation and activist judicial overreach as they frivolously litigated, praying all the while for an activist judge who'd do a little overreaching...for them.

Listen for righties to resume and redouble their complaints about out-of-control judges legislating from the bench. Among other things, that line is one of Republicans' favorite ways to dupe evangelicals into thinking they actually give a shit about abortion and their other anti-sex social issues.

R's should be mad at those pesky Libertarians whose candidate Ruth Bennett took a decisive number of votes away from Rossi. Senator Maria Cantwell won her tight race against Slade Gorton in 2000 largely because of the Libertarian candidate's votes.

Talk radio, with the help of GOP bloggers, drove the media on this mess. Best coverage was on KVI, where, in the last weeks, Kirby Wilbur (KVI m-f, 6-9a) and John Carlson allowed David "Goldy" Goldstein horsesass.com to actually debate the smug Shamkarsky who always ducks a debate.

He and Carlson, a capable debater, tried to gangbang Goldy, who held his own despite being outnumbered.

Goldy predicted Republican defeat months ago. Shuckansky predicted Republican victory weeks ago.

Legal "expert" Mike Siegel (KTTH m-f, 6-9a) predicted Republican victory as well, except no one (except the few who pronounce Gregoire as "GregWIRE") listens to him. Sharkrampsky appeared regularly on his show, exuding marginally more heat than Bob Williams, the other room-temp regular. He's the hyper-conservative ex-Pentagon auditor, policy grouch and Olympia washdog, who's as exciting as you'd expect an auditor would be, and, as they say down at the Deja Vu, the coverage went down from there.

Mega-neeners go out to Stuffin' and all the other partisan false propheteers. For liberals, it's nice to have a win once in a while.

But don't get too comfy: talk radio Republicans got their petition in hand today for Initiative-912 to shoot down the hard-won bipartisan transportation package.

Comments

[Scott]

I wouldn't be too quick to assume that the repukelicans won any PR victory here. I'd like to see an HONEST poll (that means one that neither KVI or KTTH have anything to do with) of what people think NOW that we know there was NO, and I mean ZERO evidence to support the right wing hateriots claims against our lawfully - elected Governor. I bet the next poll will show Chris doing much better.

And the lowlife inbred morons on KVI and at UNSOUND politics will have to come up with a new evil enemy to attack in order to put bread on their inbred children's plates.

It's a great day for Washington and fuck all you right wing cowards and traitors. HE HE!

[Political Pulpit]

It took KVI all of about three minutes after the judge's ruling to squeek out the words, "Judicial Activist". That was when I got the epiphany: a judge is only an 'activist' if they rule against the demands of the Republicans.

Of course, Dino Rossi reinforced that late this afternoon by saying:

"With today's decision, and because of the political makeup of the Washington State Supreme Court, which makes it almost impossible to overturn this ruling, I am ending the election contest."

Roughly translated that means, "If we had Conservative stooges on the Supreme Court in this state, I might stand a chance of overturning this almost airtight ruling today"

Okay, now that we have all of the "victim" stuff out of the way, maybe both sides could get together and fix the dificiencies in our voting procedures. The funny thing is, both sides are quite able to find the problems, but neither side seems able to come up with any solutions.

[Bush Lies]

I'm glad to hear that the judge let the Republikans know that they are MFs! Now, if we can figure out a way to get Ron Sims elevated to a higher office, our state will reaffirm our commitment to excellence and diversity. We are on the roll, and soon the crazy right wing Nazis on this state will be pushed out and their voices squelched. Democracy in action is such a beautiful thing....

[Eddie]

Who needs an election challenge to win a PR battle when this kind of immature dialog is the model for the "winning side"
Some one needs a day in timeout for the potty mouth. Now go stand in the corner and think of a rational adult way to express yourself.
There is not one person calling Rossi names that didn't think Bush stole the 2000 election. Some of you think he stole 2004.. yet there is not one count that didn't go his way.
Here 2 of three counts gave Rossi the win, and only after weeks of bad accounting and miss management did King County manage to find enough votes for Gregoire.

Using the Judge's rational.. no one could ever be convicted on evidence, you could only convict if the felon testified that they broke the law.

So clam down spend sometime figuring out how much billions in new taxes will cost you under Gregoire.

[Lumpy]

Actually, Rossi won two of four counts if you include the subtraction by Judge Bridges of four votes cast fraudulently on the behalf of deceased individuals for Rossi.

[Duane]

If you fucking liberals think the King County elections board is above reproach I pity all of you and the rest of us.
Never have we had such inept people in charge of our election process in King County. Can you imagine how long any of these morons would last working at a bank when they couldn't reconcile the books daily? Oh no, that's NOT a roll of quaters in my pants....It's Chris Gregwhore's dildo.
Rossi did the right thing by bowing out now. If the court overturned the election the shreiking from the left would be far worse than it is now crying about Gregwhore's poor numbers. Tosche, assholes.

[Scott]

That lying punk Rossi bowed out because:

1) He's a coward
2) He doesn't have the courage of his convictions
3) He knew he never had a case to begin with
4) A REPUBLICAN judge in a REPUBLICAN county bitch-slapped him and hard

As for the right wing turds complaining about OUR comments here, did you listen to hate radio KVI this morning? There were all kinds of Ruby Ridge types calling to say they would stuff ballot boxes next time and that violence was the answer.

Well I say, bring it on bitches. You're in Democratic territory. You want a war, we'll give you one. All republicans can eat shit and die!

[Bush Lies]

Thank you Scott! I am so tired of the right wing extremists and their name calling. Liberals don't need to stoop to their level.

As for Rossi, he can go back to being the lying, swarmy, real estate a-hole that he has always been. He sucks and so do all Republikans!

[WrongArgument]

More than 129 felons voted. Felons are Democrats. Rossi won. QED.
They wasted money on the wrong argument.
Oh well, look out Patty and Maria.

[chris]

why would a felon vote for the top law enforcement officer in the state who happened to be running for gov? Once again, the radicals in the GOP can't get their stories straight, which is what Judge Bridges alluded to all along.

[sparky]

Felons are Democrats? And your proof is...?

I listened to a director of one of the prisons and he laughed when someone asked him if the prisoners were likely to vote for Christine. He said " Excuse me, she put a lot of them in here..why would they want her to be Governor?"

[sparky]

A roll of quaters? Tosche? And why do you need Christine's dildo???

[chris]

Yes, and this is the funny part truthseekers. They thought the republican Sec of State was going to see things their way and when that panned out, they threatened to recall him. And then they went to one of the most conservative counties with a conservative judge to try to null and void the whole issue and "Gasp"... Horrors of Horrors"! He was rational and looked at all the 'evidence' and once again, sanity prevailed. Will the ugly republicans try to eat their own once again like they did with Reed?

[sparky]

Well, dont forget...when Al Gore wanted to challenge the outcome of the 2000 Presidential election, he was a " sore loser." When Libs protested that something had gone wrong in Ohio in the 2004 election, they were conspiracy wackos.
When Republicans lose and challenge a race, they are virtuous truth seekers. When Dems lose, they are just whiny children.
Dont ever forget that rule.

[blathering Michael]

Touche, there Mr. Scrilla. You're good. The GOP and Mike Webb are both hypocrites...the R's proclaim to be unapologetic capitalists with their discrimination threshhold so low they even give billionaires taxbreaks; and Mike Webb berates yuppies and corporate running dogs...

[Scrilla]

Other thread.