"Reichert once bragged he ratted out bus driver" (with audio)

Chris McGann in today's Seattle P-I:

After a long, expensive campaign, Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner's eleventh-hour hopes of ousting Republican Rep. Dave Reichert may now float on the wings of a bird -- a bird flipped at President Bush by an Issaquah school bus driver.

At issue is the veracity of comments Reichert made at a Republican Party picnic Aug. 12. He said the driver raised her middle finger to Bush's motorcade as it passed by a bus full of children near the Woodland Park Zoo.

Reichert told supporters at the event that he had called the district to report the incident and gave the impression that he was responsible for getting the driver fired.
(snip)
According to school officials, Reichert didn't speak to the superintendent for weeks, and that by the time he did, the bus driver was already in the process of being let go.
(snip)
"So the very next day, you know what I did? I called the superintendent of that school district and that bus driver no longer works for that school," Reichert, a former King County sheriff, said to applause. "That's the old sheriff part of me still around."