(Updated) Obama in Bellevue (WA): "Republicans out of step with American values"

President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Bellevue, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012. Obama is on a three-day trip to the West Coast.Photo: AP / SL

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal reports from Medina (WA):

“Across the board, I have not seen in my lifetime as stark a choice as we have in 2012,” Mr. Obama said. “And that means we’re going to have to work harder this time than last time.”

Mr. Obama referenced Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who stood nearby, as he spoke about including tax increases as part of a plan to reduce the deficit. MORE...

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

BELLEVUE -- President Obama, at a fundraiser here, weaved the achievements of past Republican presidents -- from Lincoln's land grant colleges to Eisenhower's interstate highways -- to put down today's GOP as disconnected to values and investments that built America.

The President touted manufacturing jobs at Boeing, charmed kids at an unexpected Medina Elementary School stop, but was mainly about the business of collecting campaign cash on a West Coast trip expected to raise $8 million.

The Republican targets of Obama's put downs went nameless, but he applied the rapier during a speech to a $1,000 plate Bellevue Westin lunch that didn't end until the middle of the evening rush hour. MORE...

Joel Connelly on Occupy Olympia

Protesters, including Regan Bailey, center left, and Heather McKimmie, center right, both of Seattle, demonstrate against budget cuts outside the capitol in Olympia on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, on the first day of a special session of the Washington state Legislature.Photo: AP, Ted S. Warren / AP

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

The Legislature ought to be putting on the ballot a proposal to close tax loopholes enjoyed by out-of-state banks, or perhaps a modest per-barrel tax on oil companies to restore cuts in cleanup and conservation programs.

Still, sometimes, you take what you can get and come back later for more. The approach has worked -- to near perfection -- in establishing and expanding rights for same-sex couples. Marriage equality is a distinct possibility in next year's regular session of the Legislature.
MORE...

Joel Connelly "Welcomes" Darcy Burner to the First Congressional District

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

Launching her third bid for Congress, Darcy Burner has used a national web site to deliver a pretty clear message to voters in what will be Washington’s redrawn 1st District: I will use you to pursue my national agenda.

Burner, a Democrat, was lionized on Friday evening in the “Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY” column on the liberal dailykos. com web site. She did a puff interview with column author, “Bill in Portland, Maine.”

“On Wednesday, progressive champion, Net Roots Nation keynote speaker and true-orange Kossack Darcy Burner announced her candidacy for Congress in Washington’s 1st District,” Bill exclaimed.

“Darcy’s resume makes my head spin,” adds Bill, talking about a candidate who ran into resume-padding trouble in 2008.

He asked Burner why she declared in the 1st District, instead of mounting a third challenge to 8th District Republican Rep. Dave Reichert. Burner replied that redistricting will likely remove Democratic areas from the 8th District and put them into the 1st.

No matter that three Democratic legislators, a former legislator and two civic and party activists are already running. It’s all about Burner, who sees an easier road to Capitol Hill, saying:

“So, instead of running against a Republican in a Republican district, I get to run for an open seat in a Democratic district. Yay, redistricting — I think this will be way more fun.” MORE...

Howie P.S.: Love the way Joel repeats the "resume padding" charge as a fact, even though the charge was/is @best kinda shaky. And criticizing a candidate for the U.S. Congress for "pursuing a national agenda" makes my head spin. Would Joel make the same charge against a certain incumbent congresscritter who happens to live in the 7th? BTW, I have no horse in the race for the Democratic nomination in this contest. Goldy, who came out strong for Darcy earlier this week, gives her a full-throated defense, as only Goldy can do.

Joel Connelly: WA "Election 2011: The hottest races"

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

Light rail across Lake Washington, tolls to pay for rebuilding the S.R. 520 bridge, and the future of state-run liquor stores top the Election 2011 ballot, along with a spotty list of high-profile races across Western Washington.

Here is what you will miss if you are part of the 53 percent of registered voters who, according to Secretary of State Sam Reed, will NOT mail in ballots by midnight on Nov. 8. The hot issues and races: MORE...

Howie P.S.: Best soundbite from the story:

The key question: Which is more distasteful, having Washington in the liquor business or letting a big company buy an election?

"Occupy Wall Street: The Right's smear machine goes to work"

A woman is dressed as Lady Liberty at an Occupy Seattle rally in downtown Seattle near the Westlake Center on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011.
Photo: JOE DYER / SEATTLEPI.COM

Joel Connelly:

The Seattle cab driver pulled over and given a ticket, for the offense of honking his horn to support Occupy Seattle, was hit with a greater penalty than bank and home mortgage executives who set off America's Great Recession.

Is it any wonder that national opinion surveys -- the latest, a CBS News/New York Times poll -- show a plurality of Americans supporting the goals of nationwide protests dubbed Occupy Wall Street?

The protests have alarmed the country's right-wing media and its wealthy keeper-manipulators. The tireless promoters of the Tea Party "citizen" protest in 2009 have set out to discredit what has in 2011 become a big, spontaneous -- if loosely organized -- citizen protest. MORE...

"McGinn: Can this mayor be rescued?"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

It's funny, though. I'm still rooting for McGinn to catch his political sea legs, whatever the critical stuff I've written about him and in spite of the press conference set-to.

A hopeless mayor hurts a city. Grant money -- the taxpayers' dollars -- gets wasted if it is used to create a feast for interest groups. If government is keyed to specific groups' agendas (e.g. Cascade Bicycle Club, Transportation Choices, Sierra Club) those left out resist and we witness the kind of conflict seen on the tunnel.

So, here's hoping the "Green Economy" isn't a Potemkin promise, that competent contractors get brought in, workers trained and homes weatherized. Mayor McGinn has it in his powers to shut me up.

On the other hand, it's our duty to shake off the choreography and spin and demand an answer to the question immortalized by an old lady named Sarah Peller in those famous Wendy's ads: "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" MORE...

"Cantwell builds a political firewall — with greenbacks"

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

Cantwell has earned her stripes, helping hammer out Wall Street reform and working on health care reform as a member of the Senate Finance Committee. She’s done likewise politically, hosting a pricey Arctic Club lunch for Harry Reid as the Senate Majority Leader fought to hold onto his Senate seat. MORE...

Dennis in Seattle: "Red meat from a vegan — Kucinich"

Joel Connelly:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is a vegan, but showed late Saturday that he knows how to dish out red meat to the liberal faithful.

Fresh from a trip to Damascus, Syria — he gets on well with President Assad — Kucinich used the daylong NW Roots conference to deliver a message of fiery old-time populism, mixed with New Age, with a call to bring the troops home — everywhere.

The Ohio Democrat has been displaying his wares here, four times since Presidents’ Day. Kucinich is likely to lose his seat to redistricting, and is looking to Washington as a state where he once saw a UFO (staying at Shirley MacLaine’s home in Graham) and “marched with the Teamsters and turtles” against the World Trade Organization. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I wonder if he is interested in being a mayor again, a transplanted Jerry Brown municipal re-run kind of campaign.

Connelly: "Stay home, Dennis Kucinich"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

"My Next Move?" was the headline on a Wednesday fundraising letter, in which Kucinich boasted: "I've been approached by supporters across the country -- from Washington to Maine -- to explore options outside Ohio should redistricting force me out of my current district."

It's Kucinich's choice where to run, but ultimately Washington voters' decision on whether to have him.

If he must come here, how 'bout working out a trade: We send Mayor McGinn to Cleveland. MORE...

Howie P.S.: I have to admit that is a very tempting trade.

"Goldy to The Stranger": Gamechanger for Seatttle Politics?

Goldy (on the left) in action @ a "Health Care Celebration"in March of this year.

Joel Connelly:

Among Northwest scribes he is the equal only of Dan Savage in "f" bombs and first-person references, and now David Goldstein (aka Goldy) of the Horsesass.org website is joining Savage at The Stranger.

It was announced late Friday that Goldstein will be a full-time news writer at the Capitol Hill-based newspaper and website starting next month. No reference was made to the future of Horsesass.org.

Goldstein, a Philadelphia product, broke into Washington politics with a ballot initiative that sought to designate professional initiative promoter Tim Eyman as the rear end of a horse. MORE...

Howie P.S.: With McGinn's election, The Stranger established itself firmly as a major player in Seattle politics. Therefore, my answer is "Yes!" This gives David a great platform, (and a regular paycheck!).

Connelly: "Will Gulf of Mexico spill cap oil drilling?"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

Was it a dream or did I hear, on National Public Radio, Big Oil's best friend in Congress take BP to task for its "attention to safety, the attention to maintenance and the attention to using the best available control technology?"

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee in 2006 when House leaders attempted to ram through refinery legislation that contained a clause to repeal tanker size limits and safeguards on Puget Sound.

He was one of the believers when British Petroleum changed its name and told us that BP stood for "Beyond Petroleum."

In a variation of that timeless nugget of wisdom -- there's nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus the mind -- it takes an oil spill disaster to focus public attention on environmental dangers.MORE

Howie P.S.: As I have opined previously, drilling won't cease until we invest in creating alternative energy sources that are price competitive with oil and coal. Joel's final question,

"Isn't it time for a time-out, or a turn in direction?"

does have an obvious answer.

Connelly on Hizzoner McGinn: "create chaos, then conquer."

Chris Grygiel (seattlepi.com):

One gets the feeling that if Mike McGinn were an advisor to Napoleon, he would've told the French emperor that the British, Spanish and Russians weren't enough of a challenge. Why not take on China and Japan as well, just to make things interesting.

Seattle's mayor on Wednesday forcefully renewed his objections to the $4.2 billion tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct, saying he'd veto a technical agreement between the city and state that will likely be signed in the next few weeks. McGinn, who is fighting battles on multiple fronts right now, wants a controversial provision requiring Seattle to pay for cost overruns removed from the legislation state lawmakers approved two years ago. Considering the city's precarious budget situation, the mayor says it would be irresponsible to move forward with the provision in place.

"Don't you wish that someone at Washington Mutual had said, "Maybe we shouldn't make those sub-prime loans?'" McGinn said during a briefing with reporters. "That is where we are right now."

Nonsense, say City Councilmembers and Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"I think this is just another effort on McGinn's part to try to slow down and stop the project," said Tom Rasmussen, chairman of the City Council's transportation committee. "If there are cost overruns - and we're doing everything we can to prevent that - the state would have to take further action to make Seattle area property owners pay for those...I wouldn't stand for a veto, I wouldn't support a veto. We're working to develop agreements with the state that will protect the city's interests."

Viet Shelton, Gregoire's spokesman, said the mayor's delaying action "actually increases the likelihood of increased costs and overruns."

McGinn is also battling the Council and Gregoire right now over the State Route 520 bridge replacement. Most Councilmembers and Gregoire favor a six auto-lane option for the Lake Washington span; McGinn wants two auto lanes now dedicated to buses and carpools reserved for buses only and wants greater assurances that 520 will be able to take light rail in the future. And he and the Council are engaged in an increasingly testy war of words over Seattle's busted operating budget, which is at least $120 million in the red through 2012.

The mayor cast his latest objection to the tunnel as an appeal to frugality. If the project goes just 1 percent over budget, city taxpayers could be on the hook for $31 million, he said. If it goes 50 percent over cost estimates, the bill could be $1.5 billion - which exceeds the city's operating budget for this year by more than $600 million.

Unlike last month's debate over the aggressive panhandling bill, this is a fight McGinn is unlikely to win. He vetoed the panhandling bill and the Council seems unable to muster the six votes needed to overturn McGinn's rejection. On the viaduct tunnel, it looks like there will be enough votes to stymie a mayoral veto. McGinn acknowledged this fact Wednesday. "If the Council votes to proceed under any circumstances, I am bound by their vote."

What the mayor is trying to put his rivals on the Council in a politically awkward position. He wants them to own future cost overruns by reserving the right to say: "I told you so."

Not surprisingly, this is driving his many critics nuts. The Council played nice with Gregoire on the 520 bridge. Not without justification, Councilmembers point to the significant concessions state planners made to the city in final bridge design unveiled last month. Its better to work with people, not against them, they say.

City infighting about the tunnel is counterproductive, according to Councilmembers.

"It's a huge benefit for Seattle to get this thing done," said Council President Richard Conlin. "The surest way is to create cost overruns is to create delay."

The viaduct fight makes everything else that much more difficult, Conlin said. "We really need to work together. This budget is going to be a huge challenge. It's just not helpful when we have this kind of cross purposes."

The problem for Conlin and others is the mayor is most happy when he's duking it out. And this latest skirmish brings McGinn back to his original campaign issue. "I don't like the tunnel. I never liked the tunnel," the mayor said Wednesday.

My seattlepi.com colleague Joel Connelly has described McGinn's overarching strategy as "create chaos, then conquer." He has succeeded with the former. Whether he can accomplish the latter remains to be seen.

Howie P.S.: Once again the comments are instructive. And Erica C. Barnett (Publicola) tells the story; the headline is "McGinn Says He’ll Veto Tunnel Agreement; Council President Says Mayor is “Grandstanding.”

Joel Connelly on "McGinn's problem"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

Asked what advice his colleagues are sending up to Mayor McGinn on the 7th floor, Seattle City Council president Richard Conlin quipped this week, "The word at City Hall is, 'You don't try to storm the Bastille from within'."

It's wise counsel for lead-with-his-chin McGinn to ponder. With provocative letters and wing-it speeches, McGinn has gotten on the wrong side of everybody from city workers, on whom his performance depends, to Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer.

The big question hanging over a two-month-old administration is whether McGinn can grow out of an "Us against Them" attitude that spawns contentious behavior. It's not sufficient to bring new people into your inner circle if all they get asked to do is circle the wagons.

Political barometer readings indicate storms ahead if there is not a course change and steadier hand at the wheel.

Soft spoken Councilman Tom Rasmussen has turned steely in his reaction to McGinn's half-baked proposal for a spring sea wall levy vote and hints at obstructing the deep bore tunnel that will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

The City Council made news by hiring a separate lobbyist to work with the Legislature. The city's lawmakers have gone on to establish back channels to deal with Microsoft on S.R. 520 bridge issues. Even The Stranger, McGinn's diehard defender, headlined as "testy" Hizzoner's letter to Ballmer.

McGinn spoke of targeting "political appointees" who work for the city. Longtime city employees have targeted him: Look at the leaks to PubliCola. Or visit a council office when "golden pheasants" of the bureaucracy are venting their complaints.

Where is McGinn coming from? O.K., he's a former Sierra Club chapter president. But the club's Northwest office has shown tactical skill in battle plus an ability to negotiate with adversaries. .

The role model goes back further.

"There's a little bit of Weaver in me," McGinn joked not long ago. Hizzoner was referring to fiery former U.S. Rep. Jim Weaver, D-Oregon, for whom he worked on Capitol Hill.

(He was "the late" Jim Weaver in a Seattle Times story last fall, but when reached at his Eugene home, Weaver evoked the Mark Twain observation that reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated.)

Weaver was a fighter, and a prophetic voice. The voice's most frequent exclamations were "Absolutely Outrageous!" and "Mind Boggling!"

He was among the first to question skyrocketing costs of the Washington Public Power Supply System's nuclear plants. He unearthed documents in which the U.S. Department of Energy chose to ignore experts' reservations and push Hanford as having a favorable "political climate" to host a national nuclear waste dump.

Most famously, Weaver charged -- accurately, it turned out -- that the Rajneesh cult in Oregon had planted salmonella at salad bars in The Dalles in order to cause an exodus of non-Rajneeshees from Central Oregon.

Alas, Weaver was a prophet without honor. He was never popular with colleagues. He tried, and failed, to mount a filibuster on the House floor against the Northwest Power Act. He crossed swords with both Oregon's powerful GOP Sen. Mark Hatfield and future Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley.

The Oregonian newspaper ultimately nailed Weaver for investing -- and losing -- campaign money in the commodities market.

The list of Weaver staff alumni includes his successor in Congress as well as a former Oregon State House speaker, a former Oregon Public Utility Commission chair, a prominent county commissioner, a senior New York public relations executive, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport boss Mark Reis.

They've learned how to make friends and influence people, skills not shown by McGinn over the past 60 days.

It's inside stuff, but outsiders are watching. If the 7th floor stays confrontational and cantankerous, the State Legislature will be tempted to roll Seattle on key transportation issues -- denying the city a role in shaping decisions.

Borrowing a phrase from ex-Mayor Nickels' pricey streets levy, the City Council needs to be bridging the gap.

There's a not-too-distant mirror. As WPPSS' nuclear construction program began to implode, new Seattle Mayor Charley Royer was going through a succession of City Light superintendents. (He finally picked a first-rate nominee in Randy Hardy.)

The City Council's energy committee, under chairman Randy Revelle, played a key role in navigating the city-owned utility through the greatest municipal bankruptcy in American history.

City Hall cannot function like a kindergarten class with no teacher present. A vacuum is unacceptable, especially during hard times. The question now: Will it be filled from the 7th floor of City Hall, or the 4th floor?

Howie P.S.: Here's a bonus report from Mr. Connelly about "A powerful House Democrat slips Into Seattle."

KING 5 News Up Front: "Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels" (video)

KING5-Up Front, with video (24:00).

Howie P.S.: Josh Feit (Publicola) and Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com) talk about Greg Nickels’ legacy—including public safety, light rail, and snow. Missing in action: The Stranger/SLOG crew who, IMHO, made the difference for McGinn.

Joel Connelly: "Health care reform: Politicians and media pundits totally oblivious"

Joel Connelly (Seattle P-I):

The Clover Patch Cafe on Whidbey Island is far from corridors of power in Washington, D.C., but owner Neil Colburn put out a petition beside his cash register last week.

Its message, directed at Sen. Maria Cantwell: We need health care reform -- including a so-called "public option" -- and we need it now.

"Universal access to health care is such an important issue that I couldn't sit on the sidelines," said Colburn. "I've seen waitresses, on their way home, get into an accident and go bankrupt. I have a cook out right now with an ovarian cyst."

Colburn offered insurance to his employees, but nobody could afford it.

The health care battle in our nation's capital has evolved into a classic Washington, D.C., power game. We hear about "blue dog" Democrats and Republican senators telling conservative groups that this is the issue that will break President Obama.

The struggle within Democrats' ranks is "fascinating," D.C. commentator Cokie Roberts effused Monday on National Public Radio. Roberts is a creature of the capital: Both her parents served in Congress. She has a brother who's a heavyweight lobbyist. She is married to a former White House correspondent with the New York Times.

"They are totally oblivious to the rest of us," Shirley Viall, a Whidbey resident retired community health planner at the University of Washington, said of talking heads in the other Washington.

During an island weekend, and back in the Emerald City, I've talked health care while doing everyday errands. The "finding" is that a lot of folks, from the pregnant pet groomer to the grocery store worker, are gambling that they won't get sick.

"My son has been hit by the hard times: In his new job, he couldn't afford the co-pay," Viall said. "He's just keeping fingers crossed that he stays healthy. Of course, he has no dental coverage or eye coverage."

The Longview Daily News, on Sunday, carried an engrossing story about Allen Heck, the young man who ran into the Cowlitz River and saved a 9-year-old girl, losing his own life in the process.

Heck had diabetes, which kept him from a dreamed-of career in the Army. The story picks up:

"Heck had just been released from the hospital four days before he drowned, one of many hospitalizations in recent months. Because he was so sick, he could not hold a steady job. He'd find work only to lose it after some complication or overexertion landed him back in the hospital.

"Heck fought for two years to get some sort of disability designation because he couldn't come close to affording his treatment and medicine."

Allen Heck ended his life, at age 20, $200,000 in debt.

The Republican National Committee is targeting Heck's congressman, Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., with negative ads for supporting health care reform.

Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rogers, R-Wash., last Saturday gave the Republican response to President Obama's weekly radio speech.

She served up arguments heard when Medicare neared final passage in 1964. Of the Democrats' pending plan, McMorris-Rogers said: "It's a prescription for disaster -- one that will put Washington bureaucrats in charge of your family's personal medical decisions."

She offered political placebos: The country needs universal care, and cooperation.

Dr. Abraham Bergman, a Seattle physician, has worked on public health issues for more than 40 years. He persuaded Sen. Warren Magnuson to sponsor a law that banned flammable children's pajamas. He championed the National Health Service Corps, which put docs in rural places like our Methow Valley. He helped craft legislation that brought health care to Indian reservations.

Over coffee this week, Bergman ticked off names of Republican lawmakers who helped these causes. Indian health could not have passed Congress without Barry Goldwater. Colorado Sen. Peter Dominick became an improbable champion of the health service corps. Bob Dole helped move the Women Infants and Children supplemental feeding program.

"Where are the statesmen?" Bergman asked.

Good question, paired with another: Where is the Fourth Estate?

"The media are obsessed with who's up and who's down: It's a horse race, it's a sound bite. Just tell us the score back in Congress," Bergman lamented.

In such a rarefied environment, Bergman fears, special interests stand to get the uranium mine while Americans who work hard and play by the rules get the shaft.

"As long as large profits are to be made in the health system, we are not going to get a satisfactory solution," he added. "It's greed. Any plan is likely to be conciliatory to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and their job is to make money.

"The big players can spend money on ads and how elections are decided. It's very discouraging when you see the need, when you see the people."

He's right, of course -- unless ordinary Americans join the big dogs in this hunt. As if we don't have enough hot air over us, members of Congress will be flying home for August recess in just over a week.

Of course, we'll see politician-designed health care events. But will we have listening?An Eastside friend, Collin Jergens, took it upon himself to scope out the upcoming recess.

"I figured that I would be one of those annoying constituents who tried to bend the ear of their representatives," Jergens said. "Yet after fairly methodical searching of the Web sites of both senators and, more important for the health care debate, Congressman Reichert, I can't find any mention of constituent meetings in the state scheduled for August."

Howie comments...on "The Passion of Joel" (Connelly)

My comment on Goldy's post, "The Passion of the Joel":

In the fashion of many here, let me preface my own comment by saying many of you seem to be morons. My comment is that from the point of view of political strategy, I think it would be immensely helpful if there was more discussion in the media and blogosphere of Susie’s positions on the issues, and/or her unwillingness to share them with us.

Connelly: Don't drag Hutchison "through the mud"

Joel Connelly takes on "some" liberal bloggers that would be (Goldy and Erica Barnett) for making an issue of her religious practices and accuses the "militant secularists" of sexism, name-calling, guilt by association, broad-brush smears and demeaning sarcasm. Joel's advice to the anti-Hutchison campaigners:

Nor should Hutchison get dragged through the mud over a discrimination suit -- later settled -- that she filed against KIRO-TV after it demoted her and a younger person was brought in to host the evening news.

Instead, we should ask a question she didn't answer at Thursday's debate: Will Hutchison try to change (read dismantle) King County's urban growth boundaries? Will the Building Industry Association of Washington find in her a willing ally? Hutchison has excoriated the county's Critical Areas ordinance as a scourge on rural residents. "It tells citizens who own land how they will use it," she told a Bellevue debate on Thursday.

Howie P.S.: As one who has publicly chided the local media (not Joel!) for their under-reporting on this race, I feel some responsibility to chime in here: I think Joel's advice is wise. There is plenty to talk about Susan on the secular issues. In Goldy's defense, he did post "Susan Hutchison: “I oppose legal abortion” --a legitimate political issue, but not one central to the King County Executive job, as far as I can tell. For evidence of Goldy's interest in Hutchison's religous views, see "Is Susan Hutchison a “wedge” candidate?"

Joel Connelly: Like "That One" I palled around with Ayers

Joel Connelly (Seattle P-I):

AFTER HEARING THE unleashed Sarah Palin accuse Sen. Barack Obama of "pallin' around with terrorists" -- and Sen. John McCain's brother call northern Virginia "communist country" -- this scribe is moved to a confession.

One-time Weathermen leader William Ayers, the target in Palin's day of rage, was once a guest in my kitchen. Not only that, but I brewed him a pot of tea and heated up a bagel.

Ayers consorted with our family's standard poodle, S'Murphy Brown, after she extended a paw to the top of his knee.

Circumstances don't matter in wing nuts' land of guilt-by-association, but I had no choice.

The Hi Spot Cafe, notorious liberal hangout in Madrona -- Seattle's equivalent to Chicago's Hyde Park -- had just closed. We needed to do an interview about Ayers' memoir "Fugitive Days," a timely topic, since the terrorist atrocity of 9/11 had taken place just 16 days earlier.

The 2008 presidential campaign has taken an ugly turn. In tones reminiscent of Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, McCain's campaign seeks to tie Obama to Ayers. (The two men are Hyde Park neighbors.) Media have been targeted: An African-American journalist at a Palin rally was reportedly told by someone in the crowd, "Sit down, boy."

It represents an incredible turnaround for a candidate who denounced guilt-by-association just last March.

Asked about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, McCain said: "I think that when people support you, it doesn't mean that you support everything they say. I know that, for example, I've had endorsements of some people that I didn't share their views, but they endorsed mine. And so I think we've got to be very careful about that."

McCain has since put his soul in blind trust.

Breathlessly, Tuesday, the McCain-Palin campaign put out a "damning" release confirming that Obama "continued to serve on a charitable board" with Ayers even while knowing he participated in such Vietnam-era actions as the "Days of Rage."

What they were doing was deciding how to spend an educational grant from Walter Annenberg, a Republican and Richard Nixon intimate who served as ambassador to Great Britain.

Of Ayers, I am reminded of an old quip by the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, longtime University of Notre Dame president. He reversed the adage about giving people enough rope and they'll hang themselves.

"If you give student dissenters enough time, they'll redeem themselves," Hesburgh said.

America is a forgiving place. It allows people to redeem, remake and repackage themselves.

A remaking example comes to mind, William F. Buckley's National Review, the magazine that revived conservatism in the 1960s. Its masthead was loaded with right-thinking folk who were Communist Party members in their youth.

David Horowitz, once editor of the radical magazine Ramparts, has been reborn as a conservative polemicist who campaigns against political correctness and compiles enemies' lists of liberal professors.

Ayers' father was president of Commonwealth Edison, Chicago's big electrical utility. When a federal appeals court threw out federal charges against the Weathermen, William Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, ended 10 years of life on the lam and made productive lives in the Windy City.

Ayers is distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Dohrn is a Chicago lawyer and director of Northwestern University's Children and Family Justice Center.

The couple's work has won the praise of Mayor Richard Daley, whose father, Mayor Richard J. Daley, sent police after window-smashing Weathermen.

The stuff being hurled at Obama isn't new. Far-right Web sites, and Fox News, have spent months on the smear beat.

Again, in March, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis declared, "Throughout his life, John McCain has held himself to the highest standards, and

he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues."

What do such folk as ex-Gov. Dan Evans and ex-Secretary of State Ralph Munro -- who signed up with McCain of 2000 -- think of today's character assassin?

Is Evans going to break out his hip boots, used in a 1988 TV spot to damn dirty Democrats, so as to wade through the dirt of McCain 2008?

Of course, those who throw mud often have clay feet.

McCain once "attended meetings" at which (later-imprisoned) savings-and-loan mogul Charles Keating asked senators to pressure federal regulators to lay off.

Palin has been associated with -- as recently as a February speech to its state convention -- the Alaska Independence Party. The party advocates that the 49th state become a commonwealth or independent state.

The AIP's founder, Joe Vogler, famously declared: "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America and her damned institutions."

In our long-ago conversation, Ayers acknowledged the Weathermen's "stupidity" and "wrongness." "We were not terrorists," he argued. "We flirted with it. We toyed with it. We killed ourselves."

Is that so different from Palin toying with the AIP, or McCain flirting with a crook who cost the taxpayers billions?

Still, my life is stained by that pot of tea. S'Murphy Brown is no longer with us, but I half-expect to hear some mouth on Fox News describe her as a "notorious terrorist bitch."

Barack Obama

"Plenty going on in this off-year election"

Joel Connelly (Seattle P-I):

Given its abundance of odd moments, excesses, underachievers and below-the-belt hits, 2007 has indeed been an "off year" election. Here is my list of the lows and highs:

Wretched excess: The insurance industry poured $11.5 million into the campaign against Referendum 67, a measure that would allow ratepayers to seek damages when insurers deny legitimate claims.

The anti-R-67 campaign wound up appropriately low. A final broadside quoted a Spokane lawyer who represents insurance companies, and a one-time Olympia columnist best known for arguing that African-Americans are better off because their ancestors were brought to the New World as slaves.

Classic welcome: At a news conference called after his Minnesota airport bathroom bust, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, began by saying, "I would like to thank all of you for coming out."

Craig denied being gay, but announced that he would resign from the Senate. He has since decided to stay on.

Non-support: Contesting the King County Prosecutor's Office for the first time in 30 years, Democrats fielded a nominee rated "Outstanding" by the Municipal League.

Yet, two state party leaders -- Gov. Chris Gregoire and King County Executive Ron Sims -- did not even endorse Bill Sherman.

Sims did find time for the dregs. He supported underachieving Seattle City Councilman David Della. And Sims was pictured with Bob Edwards in a mailer where the Seattle port commissioner smeared his reformist opponent.

Danny v. Fannie: Seattle Times scribe Danny Westneat went to Portland, rode 14 different trains, and came home reporting how light rail has revitalized the Rose City.

Opposing Proposition 1, however, Fairview Fannie's neoconservative editorialist ridiculed Portland's light rail system, with statistics substituting for observation and demonstrating myopic ignorance of a major transit success story.

Tortoise of the year: Lawyer and onetime University of Washington linebacker Bruce Harrell gave bland stump speeches laden with bring-us-together rhetoric, with occasional references to himself in the third person.

Still, Harrell learned in the "house of Don James" that not making mistakes can keep you in the game. He watched as primary opponent Al Runte -- well-known from a race against Mayor Greg Nickels -- showed little awareness of any issue beyond the activist 1960s.

And then, after a candidates forum in which she clearly bested Harrell -- opponent Venus Velazquez went off for dinner and drinks, and was arrested for driving under the influence.

Toughest customer: Seattle Port Commission candidate Gael Tarleton didn't come crying to the press when smeared by a desperate foe: She met him on the playing field.

After getting under 29 percent of the primary election vote, Edwards sought to smear Tarleton with her past work for a defense-port security contractor. "Gael Tarleton -- Port Security from the Company that Brought You the Iraq War," said an Edwards mailer, decorated with a picture of President Bush.

Never mind that Tarleton left the contractor five years ago, before the war.

Tarleton's reply: A mailer listing headline after headline on the Seattle Port Commission's dysfunctions, from the proposed $300,000 golden parachute to departing CEO Mic Dinsmore to cost overruns in the airport baggage system.

Master of the mud: With Della and Edwards as clients, Seattle political consultant Michael Grossman could not claim to have Secretariat and Seattle Slew as election mounts.

Grossman's response -- muddy the track. He has launched nasty, negative, personal mailings, demonizing Della's challenger Tim Burgess as an agent of the far right, and saddling a former Tarleton employer with the Iraq war.

He overdid it, but Karl Rove wannabes at The Stranger have argued that Democratic presidential campaigns should hire Grossman.

Change in play: During 40 years of doing business, the Sierra Club locally (Cascade chapter and Northwest office) has played hard, but shown a knack for knowing when to compromise for more than half a loaf.

It has negotiated boundaries of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, played a crucial part in creating the North Cascades National Park, helped get money to buy privately owned ancient forests, and -- recently -- helped beat four politicians on greens' national "Dirty Dozen" list.

In 2007, however, the club has: a) come out against a transit package dominated by light rail; b) allowed itself to be used in ads sponsored by a historical foe, Eastside developer Kemper Freeman Jr.; and c) taken swipes at arguments by environmental groups that back Prop. 1.

Can't catch a break: Spokane has endured its fill of gay sex scandals involving community pillars, recently the late Mayor Jim West. Its local Catholic diocese is paying millions to victims of pedophile priests.

Still, the Lilac City can't catch a break. In Spokane for a GOP caucus retreat, Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, brought a young man back to the posh Davenport Hotel and later told police he was an extortion victim.

Curtis has resigned. While the sordid tale cost Olympia one more foe of gay civil rights legislation, it sustained Spokane's reputation for kinky happenings.

Howie P.S.: Joel only left one little thing off his list: Dan Satterburg's massive last-minute dollar dump, financed by the usual Republican suspects.

"Connelly at KOS: Bloggers hijack the 'bus'"

Seattle P.I. (Strange Bedfellows blog):

CHICAGO - As a member of what's called the "MSM" - the mainstream media - this pundit found himself awkwardly moderating a panel at which four experts advised a big audience on how to bypass standard news organizations in learning about the 2008 campaign.

The key concept was making the campaign "interactive." In short, letting citizens talk back to the candidates and the commentators.

Since a young Rolling Stone writer named Timothy Crouse penned a 1970s bestseller called "The Boys on the Bus," reporters and columnists have relished the cachet that comes with covering national campaigns.

The advent of the Internet has challenged the influence of the news professions- prima donnas. We in the MSM now have broad competition in how people get information. Web sites post stories today that once would have been tomorrow's headlines.

Candidates who catch on quickly can raise enormous sums of money, either through their own Web sites, or in getting blessed by such popular sites as the liberal Daily KOS.

Contenders discounted in the national media, such as Libertarian Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul, have been able to go around the MSM and build a following on the Internet.

A welcome irreverence has been introduced to the process. Used to be that candidates fought like Hollywood starlets for the limelight and attention from veteran New York and D.C. commentators - informally nicknamed "big feet" on the campaign trail.

At the weekend Yearly KOS convention here panelists lampooned windy defenses of the two party system by David Broder of the Washington Post and predictions that didn't pan out made by Joe Klein of Time magazine.

In a panel entitled "Blogs and Journalism, the New News" former Washington Post writer and senior Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal went on and on about how the "new journalism" of the early 1970s set the stage for today's opinion blogs.

Cara DeGette, who writes for coloradoconfidential.com, made a far more telling point that major news organizations have been closing bureaus and pulling back coverage. She took Denver's two newspapers to the woodshed for having a combined total of just one reporter to cover Colorado Springs and it's surrounding environs.

The advent of Web sites has put lots of independent voices into the field, where they do digging.

Conservative bloggers were instrumental in finding discrepancies in the 2004 "60 Minutes" piece that dissected President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. Liberal Web sites have flushed together key details on the Bush Administration's purge of eight independent-minded U.S. Attorneys.

When Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly took out after the Yearly KOS convention here - smearing it as a gathering of haters - Daily KOS and other sites promptly uncovered multiple examples of hate speech by people commenting on O'Reilly's own Web site. The result was a record number of hits on Daily KOS and O'Reilly losing his temper on the air.

Of course there's a downside to the proliferation of Web journalism. Ideological Web sites can be a quick route for spreading smears and sleaze. As John Kerry wrapped up the 2004 Democratic nomination the Drudge Report hit him with allegations of an affair with a Senate aide. The allegation was untrue and was shot down.

In the waning days of the Clinton Administration Drudge also made false accusations of spousal abuse against Blumenthal, who sued him. In Seattle, Republican and Democratic operatives feed friendly Web sites with hits designed to keep promising candidates of the other party off balance. GOP senate candidate Mike McGavick, hoping for an issues-based 2006 race, found himself under personal attack from the get go.

The positive side of Web politics is obvious: People are getting re-introduced to participating in their country's politics after years of plopping out in front of the TV set. Web sites announce meet-ups of candidates' supporters. Small donors, motivated by Web appeals, can match the take from a pricey $1,000-a-person fundraiser at a downtown hotel. And 1,500 people took four days in their lives to attend a convention in Chicago and hear out seven Democratic presidential contenders. They got a lot more interesting questions than is usually the case on meet the press.

This commentary will appear on the P-I's Web site. The Web site has my newspaper back to being a 24-hour a day, seven-day a week news gathering outfit.

Such competition is stimulating, even for somebody who has enjoyed his seat on the bus.

Howie P.S.: As you might expect, a commenter here takes Joel to task for mentioning McGavick as a victim of personal attacks.