Thank you for stopping by my site

And in further connection to, since the subject is at hand,how is it that this Dinno come lately suddenly becomes a national thing of (R) pure and true intrest?Has the world gone mad?For crying out loud, he made his money in by aquiring very many propertys ,houses,buying low,phoney fixing and selling high.Relators and car salesmen ,but hay,he started out as a janitor, with down to earth grass roots.Don,t you just buy that lot of stuff?A real bill of goods right?Don,t you know it was one of his biggest supporters the BIAW a builders association non union lot ,with srtong ties into develoupment,and cheep labor, that tipped off the cap on the voter fraud thing,after all the best place to round up cheep labor is right out of the old county jails.isn,t that just a fact?

If I may in further addition to, If there was a conspiracy and fellon voters are at the deep rooted center of a suspected conspiracy,and the conspiracy was wide spread ,or state wide,than some one or some people must,could or would have been heading up such a thing.At the end of the Rossi challenge to the governors race results, in court several fellons testified .As it seems three of four voted for Rossi.By the by, that was the end,and Rossi,s case closed.But that so called conspiracy ,I really don,t know that, (it) is a closed issue. If it happened,than what is the truth? Developers, construction ,and politics.

Rossi seemed to be playing to roll of Mr. smiling good guy who was robbed.All threw the recount procedure ,fellon votes and voter card tampering,and phrases that presented innuendos of wide spread corruption within the democratic party in Washington State ,including one by some sheriff (R) in one county in patticular that said ,it is a result of wide spred voter fraud.Indicating that the democrates were at the top of this, (a suspected conspiracy.)Since when does a lower level politican such as a mear sheriff get the gumption to declare threw politically party motivated inclinations,that are directed to and threw a prefered view,moreso the republican right wing?If for instance he were intrested in investagating a conspiracy as it was so called,than wouldn,t a ranking member of a law inforcement agency present facts to support such high crimes? But no, he did not, refused to and will not. Case closed directly after statement made.As was the case in every statement made by Rossi, or the Rossi machine.They could not and will not hold weight or shape, it all just falls apart.No state really needs what that is.One thing is for sure, the governer of Washington is not out to please those that are very rich,and disire to become moreso rich threw high level political gains.No pun intended or directed to the few that are rich,But Rossi,come now indeed.

Chris:

YOu might note that while the Democrats often (about half the time) nominate a "dark horse" unknown to most of the country a year before the election, the GOP has not done so since Willkie in 1940. The Republicans ALMOST ALWAYS nominate one of their best-known leaders.

Secondly, the Republicans USUALLY nominate someone whose name has been either on the ticket or in the primaries once before. (E.g., Dewey, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Dole.)

By these criteria, the historical odds strongly favor John McCain as the GOP nominee in 2008.

Chris, I think you've been taken in by the WA state GOP's hopeful fantasy of political retribution. It didn't work for the Dems nationally after 2000; it won't word for the R's in WA after 2004.

The first test of the expected wave of backlash was 2005. The R's ran against King County Executive Ron Sims almost entirely on the 2004 election controversy... and he won a third term by a comfortable 16-point margin. The R's also put an initiative on the ballot repealing a gas-tax increase, and sold it as an opportunity to send a message to Gov. Gregoire. It failed statewide by a 10-point margin, bucking a recent trend of successful anti-tax initiatives.

Finally, as the latest Elway Poll shows, WA continues to turn more "blue" with every passing year, and the climate for Republicans now is downright depressing. Sen. Cantwell's reelection was once billed by the R's as a victim of their anticipated backlash... but it's simply not materializing. I've posted a detailed analysis of the Elway Poll here:

http://www.horsesass.org/wp-trackback.php/1422

Gregoire has been a quiet but effective governor, and she's starting to get a lot of credit as such. The most recent SurveyUSA poll shows she's steadily climbed to an even 47-47% approve-disapprove, and there's no reason to expect that she won't be comfortably in positive territory two years from now.

Yes, Dino Rossi still has his martyr mystique. But Gregoire didn't take him as a serious threat last time around, and thus there was little effort to go negative. She won't make that mistake next time around, and once voters understand how truly conservative he is on the issues Washingtonians care about most, he'll lose his appeal with moderate Democrats and independents.

Out here in this Washington, Gregoire and the Democratic legislature are doing a great job, focusing on real issues like improving early childhood education, transportation, emergency preparation, energy independence and environmental safeguards.

Gregoire has played a very critical role in bringing people together to pass legislation that has been stalled for decades. I have heard person after person say that she may not be a good campaigner but she is great at governing.

Her numbers are rising. The Republicans are doing nothing of note. She won't have difficulty in 2008.

What people may not know is that Rossi shopped around for a conservative judge and got one. And the judge ultimately after listening to all of the made up Republican charges, dismissed the case with prejudice. None of their arguments had enough traction for Rossi to even appeal the case. The Republicans used the whole thing to create a media campaign of false charges that when scrutinized in court did not hold up. The Republicans are still trying to rally their people around the false argument that the election was stolen and now and then get the media to repeat their spin like you just did. The fact is that the court ruled that Christine Gregoire was elected Governor and she is Washington's Governor.

The next Governor's election will be decided on the candidates' records and Governor Gregoire has one. Rossi last year would not even take a position when asked on a major state wide initiative to repeal a gas tax increase for highway and bridge safety. The voters soundly supported the increase and kept the tax. Gregoire proved a leader by supporting the gas tax which won. Rossi played politics and lost credibility.

It's interesting to note that Rossi's court challenge to the election hinged on election fraud. For fraud to occur, there has to be a conspiracy behind it. When I heard that, it became obvious there were no grounds to overturn the election. Rossi and his minions can play the martyr for only so long before it becomes old. That's what the GOP talking heads said about Florida in 2000.

Looking back at this couple-of-day-old blog post, I think it's telling that no R's posted comments with facts supporting the supposed R backlash in WA - as opposed to conjecture about the race and recount from two years ago.

Contrast that with the posts from D's.

Oh, and what about that controversy about Bush not winning the 2000 election? Anyone who believes that Bush was the rightful president after 2000 should have no trouble believing Gregoire is the rightful governor. By the way Chris, Gregoire's latest approval rating is 47 percent according to SurveyUSA. Citing a two-month old Republican poll isn't exactly that reliable. Doesn't the Washington Post give you access to more updated stuff than that? As for disputed elections hurting a party, you seriously expect us to believe Washington voters are going to vote out a Democratic senator to show their displeasure with the recount? I suppose that's just like the Florida voters voting out Jeb after the Florida recount...oh wait, that didn't happen. Cantwell will win easily. Washington is a blue state and Republicans in DC are sucking pretty bad. End of story. People mad about the recount are sore losers. Rossi lost. He's a loser.

My God this article was pure bullshit. Does this Cilliza guy work for Karl Rove?

How the hell do you write an article on the Washington governor's race and not mention the fact that a 3rd candidate who ran on a pro-gay marriage marriage platform took about 63,000 votes, 99% of which would have gone to Gregoire had that libertarian candidate had not run.
All this piece had in it was republican cry-babies who are pissed that they lost. Get over it. If you think losing the governor's race was bad, you'll be balling like little babies after the midterm elections in November.

Say bye bye to the House, the Senate, and about 8-10 governorships republicans!

Hey!
Wanna stop describing McGavick as a "former Safeco insurance company executive." He IS the Chairman, and WAS the former CEO. That's like describing Scooter as a former Hill staffer! More important, this millionaire flack was the Chief of Staff for Slade Gorton....that's how he gets to run for the Senate with no experience. Get a Grip!

This analysis also over looks the bloody democratic primary that she went through with King County Executive Ron Sims(D- and African American) essentially accusing her of being a racists because of the college sorority she belonged to. Democrats will be more solidly behind her this time, this state IS solidly democratic and there wont be the complacency that there was last time; with people throwing away votes on leftist Libertarian candidates (think Nader voters circa 2000) or african americans staying home to protest Sims' primary loss

I expect the anti-Bush, Anti -Iraq war, anti-Dubai Ports, anti-Illegal spying, and anti-corruption, issue to be bigger players in Cantwell keeping the senate seat blue than the Rossi loss (now if Rossi had run in place of McGavic that would have been intersting).

Biggest sleeper issue in the NW: Bush trying to raise the rates the Bonneville Power Authority charges all of us up here for the Hydroelectric power that is generated by our rivers in WA, OR, ID. Harming our economies, and charging middle class families more for the electricity in the face of rising gas prices - that type of platform would drag anyones chances down in any state, especially after Bush's buddy Ken Lay already ripped a bunch of Washingtonians off by manipulating power markets in the past.

My problem with Ohio goes way beyond the Diebold machines. You know, the hackable ones with no paper trail.

There were many, many irregularities in the state. Perhaps you are just conveniently ignoring the incredibly long lines and shortage of machines in minority areas, and the plethora of easy quick voting in GOP strongholds?

As for auditing the results, isn't it great when the machines can be fixed to match the results?

Until you can show me that there was any sort of real investigation of the charges... until we can bring to the electorate, machines with a paper trail that cannot be hacked by a company that pledged to deliver votes to Bush, yeah, I will be suspicious.

Let me guess you believe the Diebold electronic machine was the vehicle behind which Bush stole Ohio. Get real it was not even really that close in Ohio, it was a lot closer in Wisconsin and Minnisota, states that Kerry won, than in Ohio. Lest us forget, Bush won by several Millon votes. Sometimes the truth is more than some people can handle so they invent crazy conspiracys to make them feel better.

Actually, I am one of the "silly Democrats" who believe that Kerry did indeed win Ohio.

I also believe that dirty tricks at the polls are the reason Bush has been in office for 6 years.

Check out "Fooled Again" by Mark Crispin Miller and refute the well-documented charges.

I have yet to see the substantive arguments getting any sort of fair media review.

But, gee, let's speculate on a Democratic victory in Washington.

Par for the course, Mr. Cillizza.

It's time to wake up and smell the coffee. The election's over, and bringing up the close vote just reminds people here of the Bush/Cheney electoral fraud, which doesn't help the GOP at all.

That said, a more important issue is how much will the State make Seattle pay for Yet Another Sports Stadium for the Sonics, even though none of us want to pay a red cent to them.

"Same can be said about Bush 2000" with a heck of a lot more justification, I hasten to add.

Same can be said about Bush 2000.

Let's move on. She's the Governor of WA.

The People of the State of Washington know the King County Government office of Elections committed fraudulent acts to assure the victory of Gregoire.

It is not Republican Spin.

It is a fact that the Democrats fixed the election for their candidate.

Sheesh,
Such lazy reporting. Out here is WA the story is so OLD already. Voters have short memories and even the rigged Superbowl is hardly mentioned anymore.

I am beginning to wonder if Chris draws a paycheck from the Republican National Committee. Seems like every article you write has the same theme: The Republicans are doing great, the Democrats are still losing, and the majority of Americans are too stupid to know the difference.

My my, Chris, tell us that again in November. I think you will be upset with the results and the fact that the average Americans have had enough to this President and his Correpublicans, as in Corrupt Republicans.

I view most polls as suspect. We have some silly democrats in Ohio who still believe Kerry won based on the election day poll. If the republicans did what the dems did (stole the election) in WA. they would still be whining and screaming bloody murder. The WA. will be in trouble if she runs again but it won't rub off on the 06 senate race.

It might be appropriate to stop reading right after the statement "A survey conducted by the GOP polling firm Strategic Vision...."

Give me Rasmussen or even Zogby or some other respected, INDEPENDENT firm. I'd like to see what methodology they used in obtaining these answers. How about a link to their website providing all of this?

Oh, and by the way, an independent pollster has Cantwell up by _30_ points.

http://www.horsesass.org/index.php?p=1413

So much for the R's theory...

Remember, the WA gov race in '04 was only as close as it was because a libertarian running to Gregoire's _left_ took 2-3 percent. Add most of those votes to her, and she wins with no recount.

In addition, Rossi was able to run the first time as Mr. All Smiles, even though his policy positions are far-right-wing. Doubtful he could do it again; WA voters are smarter than Bush voters.

GOP superspin at all costs. Such a waste of bandwidth.

Chris, you can keep on hacking away, but I cant wait to see the look on your face when the Dems rule in '06/'08. I cant wait for the Dems to set this country straight.

I got to say this is definitly the pot calling the kettle black.
I still don't think it will make that much of a difference in the 2006 elections. The UAE port deal is gonna be BIG news up there which is gonna help Cantwell. Give her another two years and see how Rossi does then.

She certainly didn't obtain elected office without controversy. But at least she didn't go out of her way to cheat and disenfranchise voters the way Republicans have done repeatedly - as they did in 2000 and 2004.

http://www.intepidliberaljournal.blogspot.com

Chris, now this is just great! This is how you cover Democrats! I especially love the way you ignored the exact parallel between this situation and Bush 2000! Beautiful.

Now, can we have more of the patented "Czilla stream of fawning coverage of conseravtive Republicans" please?!