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RSS icon Comments on Dino Rossi Is No Moderate

1

Wow, I didn't think I liked the guy. Everything described here sounds great. He gets my vote.

Posted by Ryan | April 17, 2008 1:43 PM
2

(singing) Dino Rossi Asti Spumante... some of the best things in liiiiife--*cough!*

We're too far along for half-measures on transit, and Dino is no grace note.

Posted by treacle | April 17, 2008 1:44 PM
3

ECB is the best judge of a person's 'moderate' creds one could ask for!

Posted by jkg | April 17, 2008 2:05 PM
4

HOV lanes will be open during rush hours and closed the rest of the day? Sure that they will only be restricted during rush hours under the R/E plans?

Posted by bob | April 17, 2008 2:46 PM
5

Saying that Gregoire wants to take your car (i.e. your FREEDOM!) away is like saying Rossi will make everyone of driving age in your household purchase a car... actually, that's closer to the truth.

Why does he care anyhow? Neither of them are going to be alive in 2050.

Posted by Dougsf | April 17, 2008 3:11 PM
6

The only way Red Rossi has a chance is if he declares his personal separation from his former America-hating ways.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 17, 2008 3:20 PM
7

Uh, Erica you have it backwards I think. HOV lanes would be CLOSED to non-HOV during rush hour, and OPEN to all traffic during off-peak hours.

I-405 opens to all traffic during non-peak (eg, after 7pm), which I've found is totally fine (except when I get stuck behind the pokey old people who don't realize it's the passing lane after 7pm).

Posted by him | April 17, 2008 3:36 PM
8

As you point out, ECB, on issues like transportation there are extremely important contrasts. The way that your colleague, Josh Feit, has repeatedly attacked Governor Gregoire in his interview and in slog posts, he seems to be just fine with a Governor Rossi. Why the governor or no one will do a job that we all think is perfect, Josh seems willing to cut off his (our) nose to spite his (our) face.

Posted by JJ Milk | April 17, 2008 4:12 PM
9

Let's see, take voter-approved transit dollars and reprogram them to road building from the state...sounds pretty moderate to me.

When Rossi says he thinks transit should be a local decision and then proposes robbing local jurisdictions for their cash - he isn't talking out of both sides of his mouth, he is saying FU voters.

Posted by Pretty Moderate | April 17, 2008 4:37 PM
10

A candidate who will not add taxes without voter approval to fund his projects, but will reappropriate at his will.

VS

A current governor who will add taxes (plastic bag tax) and other financial burdens (520 toll) WITHOUT voter approval to fund projects at her will.

What do I want? To pay more money to the government without telling them I'm OK with it, or to have projects done without my approval, but which I will not have to pay more for?

*sigh*

As for moderate vs non-moderate...basing your judgment on a single topic - transit, which is YOUR personal pet eco-terroristic project (DOWN WITH CARS!) - is purely asinine. But, then, so are most of your arguments shrilling away against anybody who doesn't subscribe to the full-on environmental suffer-the-people-to-make-them-submit agenda.

Posted by TheMisanthrope | April 17, 2008 4:48 PM
11

As someone who just took a job that will require commuting across 520, I would just like to declare that threatening light rail to Bellevue gives me the strong urge to punch Rossi in the face. I really, really, really want fast, frequent mass transit across the lake in a dedicated, grade separated lane.

Posted by Gitai | April 17, 2008 5:15 PM
12

Rossi has been working to get rid of light rail for a number of years now.

In 2001, Dino Rossi introduced legislation to eliminate Sound Transit, which was had been approved by the voters 4 years earlier.

Rossi introduced Senate Bill 5362 to undo the creation of the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Agency through a revote, and redistribute voter approved revenues to other programs, including monorail, buses and vanpools. The original version of the bill even contained language giving the fledgling Elevated Transportation Company (pre-Seattle Monorail Authority) the power to decide what it wanted to do with Sound Transit's light rail dollars.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate in 2001, but failed to clear the House.

Posted by Jaime | April 17, 2008 6:16 PM
13

the rossi household tipped popcultureicon two dollars for two pizzas PAYING BY CHECK. ROSSI DOESN'T SHARE OUR VALUES.

Posted by mcfnord | April 17, 2008 6:53 PM
14

Skip Berger likes Dino Rossi because he finally found a politician who is smarter than Skippy...esp when it comes to transportation.

I love how Rossi's Kemper Freeman-inspired transportation plans center around taking that light rail dough and spending it on HOV lanes...which Rossi himself fundamentally opposes.

From KUOW's "The Conversation":

REYNOLDS: Wouldn’t opening up the HOV lanes during the middle of the day make it harder for those who have voluntarily decided to carpool or those who’ve decided to ride buses – those who some would argue are being good citizens by not driving on the highways – wouldn’t it make it harder for them to get to their destinations when some would argue they should be rewarded with a single lane that they can use exclusively during that part of the day?

ROSSI: Well, you’re absolutely right that there are tie-ups in the middle of the day and much of that is because there are car accidents during the middle of the day, and the whole point of spacing these cars further – improving the capacity on state 405 – would probably relieve a number of those congestion problems, because people wouldn’t be getting hurt and getting in car accidents. **Picking people and rewarding them for what you believe or others believe is the proper way to commute I don’t believe is the right method.**

Posted by Jaime | April 17, 2008 8:39 PM
15

Speaking of Skip Berger, how is it that this Kirkland resident spends all his airtime on KUOW, and column space at Crosscut/Seattle Weakly/etc bashing all over Paul Allen's development plans?

Kemper Freeman is trying to turn downtown Bellevue into Chicago's Miracle Mile, and has used all kinds of hardball lobbying tactics to get Bellevue to follow his lead (overturning Skip's pastoral Lesser Seattle vision of the region)...yet Skip never utters a negative word about Kemper. Not even when Karl Rove came to visit his perch.

Posted by Jaime | April 17, 2008 8:49 PM
16

Please don't post about me. It will only encourage me. And then I will write crap again, which hurts all of us.

Posted by skip berger | April 17, 2008 9:56 PM
17

Dino is fucking toast. Huge headline in the Times says he wants a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct. Everyone knows Republicans think a tunnel is a taxalicious boondoggle and prefer a rebuild of the viaduct. (It's always the same old codgers in Magnolia that faithfully alternate their "Republican-Lamb-To-Slaughter For Mayor" yard signs with their "Save The Viaduct" yard signs. Can't believe Dino got this one so wrong.

Posted by Dino Is Toast | April 17, 2008 10:34 PM
18

"Huge headline in the Times says he wants a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct. Everyone knows Republicans think a tunnel is a taxalicious boondoggle and prefer a rebuild of the viaduct."

Ah, but not the whack-job Discovery Institute brand of Republicans (all 20 of 'em). Dino had to throw a bone to his Intelligently Designed friends over at the Cascadia Center...and the deep bore tunnel checked that one off the list.

Even more insane is the crap Dino got from Kemper Freeman and his "think tank," the Washington Policy Center. But that's a whole 'nother story.

The guy is clueless, rudderless and just plain ignorant. But at least he's got a nice smile.

Posted by Jaime | April 18, 2008 2:04 AM
19

I got totally turned off by him talking about freedom to drive or whatever.

Do politicians even know what freedom is? Well, beyond a talking point and a commodity that is sold by stock brokers as "the freedom to buy and sell stocks!"

I hate amierca

Posted by Andrew | April 18, 2008 7:52 AM

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