Rossi keeping mum on campaign plans, for now

He’s tanned, he’s rested, he’s ready. So is Dino Rossi running for governor in 2008?

“We’ll see,” was all Rossi would say Tuesday when people in the crowd of the Mike McGavick gathering asked.

Taking Rossi at his word that he hasn’t yet made up his mind, it should be noted that he did look the part of a candidate. In fact, he looked a bit like George Hamilton, sent from Central Casting to play the part, shaking hands and making with the schmooze in his navy blazer, khaki pants and light blue shirt. And the tan. “I’ve been playing a lot of golf,” Rossi explained.

He was off the links last week to hit the campaign trail with McGavick, introducing the Senate candidate at some stops, explaining how McGavick talked him into running for guv in 2004, so he turned the tables for this year’s campaign.

So it is McGavick’s campaign trail. This year.

Remembering the ‘90s

Open the floor to questions, and a candidate never knows what will be asked. Mike McGavick got a question about term limits – remember those? – last week in Spokane.

Not a fan, he replied.

“I remember a fella from right here that signed up for that program,” McGavick said.

Because this was a mostly Republican crowd, everyone knew he meant the most famous former term-limit proponent, George Nethercutt, who switched sides upon hitting the three-term mark.

He wouldn’t agree to voluntary limits because it would put Washington at a disadvantage against other states that keep their folks in Congress, building seniority and clout.

“That’s the same conclusion George came to, eventually.”

Words from a familiar source

Speaking of Nethercutt, he weighed in Wednesday on a possible shift from Republicans to Democrats in Congress.

In a guest column for the Wall Street Journal, Nethercutt opined as how it is possible, but this year’s Democrats don’t yet seem to be partying like it’s 1994.

The Ds don’t seem to have the issues the upstart Republicans had when they came up with the Contract with America, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is no Newt Gingrich, he said.

But at the same time, Republicans “seem tired, conflicted and defensive about holding their majority in the face of huge budget deficits, an unpopular and difficult war, and the inefficiencies that come with a bigger government bureaucracy.”

Not to put too fine a point on it, but at this stage of the 1994 campaign, Republicans hadn’t come up with the Contract with America.

That happened after Labor Day. In July, they were still casting about for a winning strategy.

Democrats didn’t manage to seal their fate until they ignored – then ridiculed – the C with A, turning a blind eye to the fact that it was hitting a nerve in the body politic.

Signing off

Reports of campaign signs being stolen from yards and thoroughfares are already coming in, and it’s not even filing week.

Those new-fangled plastic signs that will go years without fading or wilting went up early this year. Plus, all the district court candidates have to establish dominance in name recognition on key traffic corridors.

But a basic theorem of politics is: When signs go up, some get stolen.

Spin Control decries and denounces this unlawful infringement of a candidate’s right to political free speech. Those responsible should stop, or face serious legal consequences – up to and including flogging.

So if you see someone stealing a campaign sign from your yard, neighborhood or anywhere else, do not contact the newspaper.

Take down the key descriptive information (size, shape, coloring, clothing of the miscreant; make, model, license plate number of the vehicle) and call people in the appropriate law enforcement agency who can do something about it.

Telling the newspaper that some candidate’s signs were stolen in some random place at some unknown time might get sympathy. But not coverage.

Rough estimate

How many candidates for the nine district court judgeships Spokane will have won’t be known until filing closes at 5 p.m. Friday. But already the number is substantial.

How substantial? In discussing a lawsuit over a possible tenth district court seat, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio said an extra position would just add to the candidate cacophony. “We have more judges running for district court than Carter has liver pills,” he said.

Figuratively true, but technically not correct. Carter no longer has liver pills. They had to change the name to Carter’s Little Pills, and later Carter’s Laxative, because the feds said there’s nothing in them related to liver.