Caffeinated News & Gossip. Your Daily Morning Fizz.

1. The Republicans were irked by Joel Connelly's piece in the PI.com yesterday about the fact that AG Rob McKenna gets an ongoing in-kind contribution (use of a Honda Pilot) from Honda Auto Center of Bellevue. To the Republicans' chagrin, everybody was linking the darn story.

"The contribution is perfectly legal and ... McKenna wasn’t accused of cutting any deals with the donor," Josh Amato, spokesperson for the Washington State Republican Party, told Fizz in an email after we linked the piece.

Sure. But Connelly didn't say the donation was illegal, nor did he say McKenna had done any favors for the dealership. So, Amato's grousing didn't seem like much to write about.

Connelly did point out—hinting at an ethics lapse—that dealing with complaints against auto dealers is one of the AG's main beats.

And so, we'll bite on the follow-up email from Amato which pointed out that AG McKenna isn't the only Washington AG in recent times to get cush treatment from auto dealers. During her stint as AG, Democrat Chris Gregoire got free use of a car from Dwayne Lane Auto in Everett and Arlington.

Despite Gregoire's free ride, the Democrats can't get enough of the story. Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz is holding a press conference about the in-kind car contribution today to "highlight how this is part of a developing trend in which McKenna is willing to cozy up to campaign backers at the expense of Washington consumers."

The press release notes:

VISUAL: Backdrop is a Honda Pilot with likeness of Rob McKenna

2. As the Qaddafi regime in Libya appears ready to fall to US and NATO backed rebels, US Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who may move to Washington State to run for US Rep. Jay Inslee's open seat, released a statement this morning condemning the Western role.

(Fizz does love that we can count the always-quotable Kucinich as part of our beat.)

After noting that backing the rebels violated UN resolutions and also pointing out that the stated reason for being in Libya keeps changing, Kucinich concludes:

As the Administration indulges itself with wars in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan - spending hundreds of billions of dollars on military adventurism - the United States has massive economic problems at home. Resources which should be spent creating jobs in America are going to perpetuate war abroad. Resources which should be used to build bridges in America continue to be used to bomb bridges elsewhere.

Millions of Americans are begging for a chance to earn their daily bread while the government spends its money on daily bombing. While the government has yet to produce a viable jobs program to put millions of unemployed back to work, the waste of resources on war is guaranteed to continue: The Iraq and Afghanistan wars are NOT to subject to spending caps in the budget. The American people get myths, rhetoric and unemployment while war profiteers get the gold. Can you imagine what the people of Libya will get?”

3. The Seattle Times reports this morning that the Washington State government workforce has shrunk 7 percent in the past two years, losing 4,700 full-time jobs:

For the first time anyone can recall, state government employment has shrunk for two years in a row due to budget cuts, shedding nearly 4,700 full-time jobs since 2009. That's more than 7 percent of the workforce.

State figures show the biggest job losses have occurred in King, Pierce and Thurston counties.

Most of those who have left the state workforce since fiscal 2009 did so on their own, state figures indicate. About 21 percent of the losses were through layoffs, although that figure varies widely by agency.

Excluding higher education and K-12 jobs, there were 58,909 full-time-equivalent positions in general state government in fiscal year 2011, down from 63,591 in 2009.

The number of public employees has dipped slightly from one year to the next before, but records going back 26 years show no reductions as large as the current one.

The trend is expected to continue because of extensive budget cuts made by the Legislature this year, and renewed signs of a weak economy. Gov. Chris Gregoire recently directed state agencies to prepare for additional cuts of up to $1.7 billion because of lackluster tax collections.