Article
"I'm Not There."
1. The quote of the weekend didn't come from US Rep. Jay Inslee, who's running for governor, or Rep. Jim McDermott or Rep. Dennis Kucinich, all of whom spoke to a crowded room of left-wing Democrats and activists on Saturday at the Northwest Progressive Institute conference at a basement comedy club in Pioneer Square. (However, Kucinich did come close by calling for "heart-centered intelligence" and citing "violence against animals" as a central problem with our culture. )
No, the quote of the weekend came from an audience member during the Q&A after Kucinich's fiery anti-war speech, in which Kucinich also bashed Wall Street and talked about "a second New Deal" to create jobs by taking over the Federal Reserve and spending government money on infrastructure projects.
"You're the first person to come in this room and really grab this room. Why is that such a problem for professional Democrats?" a man in the back of the club wanted to know after Kucinich finished critiquing "Wall Street policy" and "an economy that's about making the rich richer." [pullquote]Inslee's speech, mostly his bio and his standard rap about investing in alternative energy companies, didn't energize the partisan crowd.[/pullquote]
The Kucinich compliment also read as a dig at Inslee, who certainly tried to brandish his lefty cred during his speech to the group earlier in the day, noting his vote against the Iraq war, his adamant fight for net neutrality and Internet radio and against media consolidation, and the fact that he's signed on to a new bill to reinstate Glass-Steagall.
But balance that with what else he said. "I'm not there" on legalizing marijuana; "I haven't stepped over the line to say yes or no" on the idea of a state bank (flyers were going around the club in support of the idea); "I support continued research" on nuclear power (to unfriendly head shaking in the front row); while also ignoring a question on whether or not he supported a single payer health care proposal for Washington State.
Indeed, Inslee's speech, mostly his bio and his standard rap about investing in alternative energy companies, didn't energize the partisan crowd. He even had the gall to correct one woman in the audience by saying he didn't believe Republicans were "evil," and cited former Republican Governor Dan Evans as example of Washington's progressive tradition.
Rep. Jay Inslee at the Comedy Underground in Pioneer Square
Afterward, Fizz asked Inslee, who's running for governor, about Kucinich's potential run for Inslee's open congressional seat. "I can't hear you," Inslee joked. "We have a lot of good candidates here."
Perhaps. But none, evidently, that are grabbing the base of the party.
2. Another noteworthy quote: Listen to what Ron Paananen, the Washington Department of Transportation's Highway 99 administrator, told the press on Friday when asked about Tim Eyman's new initiative, I-1125, which among other things (including stopping light rail on I-90) would mandate fixed tolling rather than variable tolling that can change depending on the time of day.
The Seattle Times reports:
"A flat toll rate would not achieve our objective as far as financing the project [the tunnel] ... We would have to work with legislators and the governor's office, as far as handling that difference."
Is a potential Republican governor named Rob McKenna or legislators, who already capped their contribution on the tunnel at $2.4 billion and voted against covering any cost overruns, really going to vote to cover the difference for the tunnel if Eyman's initiative torpedoes the $400 million that's needed in tolling money?
Lefty tunnel opponents may be voting with Eyman on this one.
3. Speaking of ballot measures, the campaign for the $231 million Families and Education Levy should start handing out copies of a piece that ran in Sunday's New York Times Magazine that challenges the education reform movement to acknowledge the context outside the classroom.
4. Heads up. We started running a new daily column last week—Campaign Fizz by Erica C. Barnett. For the latest from the city council campaign trail, you'll need to check it every afternoon.
No, the quote of the weekend came from an audience member during the Q&A after Kucinich's fiery anti-war speech, in which Kucinich also bashed Wall Street and talked about "a second New Deal" to create jobs by taking over the Federal Reserve and spending government money on infrastructure projects.
"You're the first person to come in this room and really grab this room. Why is that such a problem for professional Democrats?" a man in the back of the club wanted to know after Kucinich finished critiquing "Wall Street policy" and "an economy that's about making the rich richer." [pullquote]Inslee's speech, mostly his bio and his standard rap about investing in alternative energy companies, didn't energize the partisan crowd.[/pullquote]
The Kucinich compliment also read as a dig at Inslee, who certainly tried to brandish his lefty cred during his speech to the group earlier in the day, noting his vote against the Iraq war, his adamant fight for net neutrality and Internet radio and against media consolidation, and the fact that he's signed on to a new bill to reinstate Glass-Steagall.
But balance that with what else he said. "I'm not there" on legalizing marijuana; "I haven't stepped over the line to say yes or no" on the idea of a state bank (flyers were going around the club in support of the idea); "I support continued research" on nuclear power (to unfriendly head shaking in the front row); while also ignoring a question on whether or not he supported a single payer health care proposal for Washington State.
Indeed, Inslee's speech, mostly his bio and his standard rap about investing in alternative energy companies, didn't energize the partisan crowd. He even had the gall to correct one woman in the audience by saying he didn't believe Republicans were "evil," and cited former Republican Governor Dan Evans as example of Washington's progressive tradition.
Rep. Jay Inslee at the Comedy Underground in Pioneer Square
Afterward, Fizz asked Inslee, who's running for governor, about Kucinich's potential run for Inslee's open congressional seat. "I can't hear you," Inslee joked. "We have a lot of good candidates here."
Perhaps. But none, evidently, that are grabbing the base of the party.
2. Another noteworthy quote: Listen to what Ron Paananen, the Washington Department of Transportation's Highway 99 administrator, told the press on Friday when asked about Tim Eyman's new initiative, I-1125, which among other things (including stopping light rail on I-90) would mandate fixed tolling rather than variable tolling that can change depending on the time of day.
The Seattle Times reports:
"A flat toll rate would not achieve our objective as far as financing the project [the tunnel] ... We would have to work with legislators and the governor's office, as far as handling that difference."
Is a potential Republican governor named Rob McKenna or legislators, who already capped their contribution on the tunnel at $2.4 billion and voted against covering any cost overruns, really going to vote to cover the difference for the tunnel if Eyman's initiative torpedoes the $400 million that's needed in tolling money?
Lefty tunnel opponents may be voting with Eyman on this one.
3. Speaking of ballot measures, the campaign for the $231 million Families and Education Levy should start handing out copies of a piece that ran in Sunday's New York Times Magazine that challenges the education reform movement to acknowledge the context outside the classroom.
As Paul Reville, the Massachusetts secretary of education, wrote recently in Education Week, traditional reform strategies “will not, on average, enable us to overcome the barriers to student learning posed by the conditions of poverty.” Reformers also need to take concrete steps to address the whole range of factors that hold poor students back. That doesn’t mean sitting around hoping for utopian social change. It means supplementing classroom strategies with targeted, evidence-based interventions outside the classroom: working intensively with the most disadvantaged families to improve home environments for young children; providing high-quality early-childhood education to children from the neediest families; and, once school begins, providing low-income students with a robust system of emotional and psychological support, as well as academic support.
4. Heads up. We started running a new daily column last week—Campaign Fizz by Erica C. Barnett. For the latest from the city council campaign trail, you'll need to check it every afternoon.
