King County Executive Ron Sims, the Robert Mugabe of Washington politics, has concluded that he might face difficulty getting himself re-elected next year. Lacking any skills that are useful to anybody in the private sector, Governor-pretender Christine Gregoire has promised Sims a sinecure in her administration, should she manage to steal this election. Look for more magical mystery ballots to miraculously materialize in King County just in time to ensure a happy Christmas for Ron Sims and all of his Kleptocratic Party cronies.
King County Councilmember Larry Phillips is expected to run for Executive next fall. Good news for fellow Councilmember Bob Ferguson, who will be gerrymandered into the same district as Phillips.
Overheard at the King County GOP Reorginization Meeting on Saturday. Attorney General Elect / departing County Councilmember Rob McKenna thanked his Republican Council colleagues "Jane Hague, Kathy Lambert, David Irons, Steve Hammond and the others". An interesting snub of Pete von Reichbauer, who pulled a fast one on McKenna and the caucus and sided with the Democrats to select a gerrymandering commission that is presumed to ensure a safe seat for von Reichbauer.
Also heard at the KCGOP meeting. Someone asked David Irons "So how about that King County Elections Division?" Irons' reply: "Nothing that a thermonuclear weapon can't fix".
And speaking of the County gerrymandering commission, the man chosen to head the commission is Steve Ohlenkamp, identified as "a Seattle business and public affairs consultant who occasionally lobbies the County Council on behalf of his clients". He is also a partner in in a firm called TCG, whose income is indirectly paid by King County Executive Ron Sims:
The partnership's client list includes The Ferguson Group, which represents King County in Washington, D.C., and Zenon Environmental and Thermal Energy, vendors to sewage-treatment providers. The County Council last month appropriated money to acquire land for the $1.6 billion Brightwater sewage-treatment plant.Lots of potential for conflict of interest here. You don't suppose Ohlenkamp would be even a little bit motivated to gerrymander on behalf of his client, Ron Sims, and his Kleptocrat Party machine, do you?
Meanwhile, Ron Sims and his Kleptocrat Party machine are using a midnight requisition from the county budget to file a lawsuit along with a bunch of goofy-assed environmental extremists to obstruct a perfectly legal gravel mine that had already been given the greenlight by the state.
How does "The City and County of Seattle" sound? To a lot of people in suburban and rural King County, it sounds pretty good.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 06, 2004 10:34 PM | Email ThisToo harsh and shrill regarding Ron Sims. Politically, I could not disagree more with Ron. But, normal hardball politics aside, he is one of the good guys. And to compare Ron to a murderous, bigoted, Marxist tyrant like Mugabe is contemptible. I would no more expect Ron to be part of vote fraud than I would expect Dino Rossi. The Glacier mine politics are just normal county hardball politics--Sims cannot ignore those wackos on Vashon allied with the anti-3rd runway nutcakes.
You need to chill a little bit. Passion is good. But for God's Sake, don't start sounding like a Democrat!
Posted by: iconoclast on December 6, 2004 10:53 PMStefan, does this type of racist, vicious, hate-mongering really sell with the pop-neocon crowd? Ick.
You are, of course, well within your First Amendment rights, but I should think that as a Jew you would be more sensitive to the pernicious nature of hate speech. I find it ironic that your site filters comments for potential profanity, yet you would choose to post such an obscenity.
Posted by: David Goldstein on December 6, 2004 11:35 PMHowever, confiscating 65% of an owner's property in an arbitrary and capricious manner is not going to win a lot of fans among those who believe that property rights matter.
Posted by: chunkstyle on December 6, 2004 11:58 PM
As for the Goldsteins of the world...perpetually offended, indeed. If harsh rhetoric hurts his ears, let him start his jihad with his fellow leftys.
I would call them robotcrats since most of them
vote like robots anyway.i dont say this lightly
either have the voting patterns of parties. they
simply dont make an informed decision. have D
next to your name that's all that matters.
only later on do they realize they made
a huge mistake.5 percent voted for dino
and those democrats are to be thanked
for doing there homework.
phil
If Ron Sims is so willing to steal the land of rural King County residents, what makes you think he is in anyway above trying to steal an election? He is NOT one of the good guys. One of the good guys wouldn't need to force his own law down the throats of his consituents. A real good guy would have at least made the decision open to a vote of the people. Government of the people and by the people is supposed to be for the people, not one group of people in favor of another (urban vs. rural).
Posted by: Jason on December 7, 2004 10:27 AMYour disrespect for other people will be your undoing. You're just as bad as the GOP strategists who stuck veteran Max Cleland next to a picture of Osama bin Laden in one of their TV commercials. (And then they're out there lauding veterans' achievements. Why hasn't Bush gone to a single funeral for one of the soldiers killed in Iraq?) Outrageous, low-down tactics.
The GOP seems to be incapable of running a clean campaign.
What a dumb comment. Ever think that those of us who complained might not have seen it in the paper? And even had we seen it, would that mean we would ignore this comment? (hint, the answer to both questions is No)
Jason:
Critical Space Ordinance--while a terrible miscarriage--does NOT make Ron a tyrant. Having gone through this effort once before (anyone remember the Greenspace Ordinance?), I know that a significant percentage of the misguided souls who supported it were decent folks. Ron is in that catagory.
And yes, as KC Exec, he will enforce the Critical Space Ordinance. Just as he would enforce a number of other laws and regulations that some folks hate. That is his job. Even if he supported passing the Ordinance, he didn't ust pull it out of his butt. The Council approved enforcement of that Ordinance, if I am not mistaken.
Posted by: iconoclast on December 7, 2004 12:11 PM
I wonder what the "Moron," "President Chimp," would have to say about that.
The left has lots of class, and all of it low.
There's also a difference between humor and disrespect. The GOP doesn't know where to draw the line.
I can think of a whole lot more labels invented to trash Kerry than "moron" and "chimp" for President Bush.
Rather than hearing Sims compared to Mugabe, I'd like to hear a better breakdown of Stefan's position on CAO.
Your analysis stinks, Stefan. You're no good at mathematics.Really? I earned a BA with Honors in Mathematics. I took all graduate courses my senior year and my GPA was over 3.9. Most people consider me pretty good at math. You might be even better at math than I am, I don't know that you're not. But now that I know how much you disapprove of gratuitous name calling, please either point out my specific math mistakes, or just admit that you were only engaged in trashy, disrespectful and baseless name-calling. Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on December 7, 2004 03:28 PM
There's also a difference between humor and disrespect. The GOP doesn't know where to draw the line.
No Jenny, I think the problem is that, for the most part, Republicans just aren't funny. I mean, apart from P.J. O'Rourke, name me one fall-down funny conservative or neo-con?
And Stefan... what's with the chip on your shoulders? All your obscure vocabulary and Excel functions and other conspicuous efforts to show off how smart you are comes off as the intellectual equivalent of driving a Hummer.
(See, now that's funny. Not name-calling... funny.)
Posted by: David Goldstein on December 7, 2004 04:53 PM
So that's what you meant, Jenny?
I think the comparison is insightful. Both confiscate property for the benefit of their political supporters. They do so at the expense of property owners.
Of course, they have the County Council, so they don't have to use guns. They're still thugs.
Posted by: South County on December 7, 2004 06:00 PMNone of our elected officials are thugs, unless they have criminal records, which the members of the King County Council do not. You're just unwilling to consider another point of view.
And just because you own property doesn't give you rights. We don't live in eighteenth century America, where you had to own property to vote. Everyone is entitled to their rights under the Constitution whether they own property or not.
And Stefan:
But now that I know how much you disapprove of gratuitous name calling, please either point out my specific math mistakes, or just admit that you were only engaged in trashy, disrespectful and baseless name-calling.
My grounds for saying you aren't good at mathematics have to do with my evaluation of your spreadsheets and my opinion of them. Furthermore, I didn't insult you as a person, I merely commented that I thought your mathematical skills were lacking. I was not trashing your character.
The fact that you can't understand the difference proves my point completely.
Posted by: Jenny on December 7, 2004 08:09 PMSo Jenny, I could conclude that I, along with either a majority of the King County Council or 50%+1 of the people, have absolute right to limit use of YOUR HOUSE in a matter in which we see fit to achieve some greater societal goal (which I presume was the intent of Critical Spaces Ordinance).
Or are you going to scream something about the Takings Clause of the 5th Amendment while I limit your house usage?
Posted by: Brad S on December 7, 2004 08:59 PMHaving the King County Council (ie, Seattle politicians) deciding land use policy for rural King County makes as much sense as England deciding law for the colonies. The King wore out his welcome; I expect Ron Sims has also. Rather than saying that only landholders have rights (which is your straw man, not mine) Ron Sims is saying that rural landholders have NO rights. I'll believe that this body of regulation is based upon environmental concern (as opposed to turning rural King County into a park for the amusement of Seattle) when the regulations apply to Ballard also.
Posted by: South County on December 8, 2004 07:27 AM