Sheriff Dave, the 8th District Congressional placeholder, wearing his signature pink pumps did KUOW's Weekday (m-f 9-11a) for an hour of blanc mange and high-toned nice-nice.
Haven't heard anyone talk so much and say so little since Jennifer Dunn was caught with Newt Gingrich's shorts in her laundry basket.
Wading through the tofu with the genteel Steve Scher, we couldn't really say what Reichert said, only that we were comatose at the end of it- exactly the state of bliss we'd been praying for.
How could anyone become such a hack in one two-year Congressional term?
His tactic is to steer every question back to a) his heroics catching the Green River killer, b) his heroics avoiding getting anything on him during the WTO riots, c) his heroics voting against tanker traffic in Puget Sound.
Once you're past the hero part, it's all mush-mouthed tropes and dithering syntax about Freedom, The Environment and The American Way. The fact is, despite all his moderate, independent lip service, he votes with the hard right Republican House leadership 97% of the time.
Folks in the 8th had a chance in 2004 to elect Dave Ross, one of the bright stars of local radio over the smarmy Sheriff. Ross went back to KIRO (m-f, 3-6p) and is now, unfortunately, ensnared in an exasperating 3-hour talk trap sharing equal time with "Traffic and Weather Together on the 3's." He'd have had more talking time in one of our marriages than he's getting on this so-called talk show...
Republicans like Reichert from moderate districts, business moderates like Senate candidate Mike McGavick or whiny Seattle urban Republicans as celebrated last year in Matt Rosenberg's Seattle Weekly cover piece must face the music that their choice of political party puts them naked and in bed with the likes of anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-sex, extra-Christians like Ken Hutcherson and Joe Fuiton; and extreme social conservatives like Pam Roach, Daniel Lapin, John Carlson, Val Stevens, Carol Cassaday, Dan Swecker, and Jabba the Hut. Not to speak of Tom Delay and George W.Bush. The state GOP base ran off the Dan Evans wing long ago and only lets so-called mainstreamers like Sam Reed and Rob McKenna run for what they hope are non-political offices like Sec. of State and Attorney General.
Had us yearning for the action-specific talk of Darcy Burner, the hot young Democrat who's running against Sheriff Dave.
There's a lot of buzz about the bright, accomplished Burner as well there should be- she's a Harvard grad and ex-Microsoftie the likes of whom we rarely see drawn into politics.
She's in Jay Inslee's league- a young, solution-specific policy cruncher- a stark contrast to Reicher's obfuscating nice guy who must create a fog of verbiage to distract voters away from his troubling allegiance to a troubled, scandal-ridden Bush administration.
You really hit the nail on the head. I caught the interview with Saccharine Dave this morning. I kept drifting off, thinking about things like weeding my lawn, checking the tread-depth of my tires, and re-doing the grout between the the bathroom tiles...
Posted by: darryl | January 26, 2006 at 05:43 PM
The Sheriff is recognized by the GOP as one of those who will need a lot of help getting re-elected..and that was right out of the gate, which I thought was interesting....
Posted by: sparky | January 26, 2006 at 08:29 PM
Those ex sheriff's remind me of ex military officers with the exception of Gen Hackworth and perhaps Wesley Clark--all of the fight is pretty much gone once they're out of their league. I always thought Bob Keppel did all the legwork on the Green River investigation, how lame-o of Reichart to claim credit.
Posted by: chris | January 26, 2006 at 09:52 PM
She's in Jay Enslee's league
Really? Don't you mean Jay Inslee?
http://www.house.gov/inslee/
I thought so.
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Posted by: tom | January 26, 2006 at 11:16 PM