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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Women congregate in quest for true-red GOP candidates

Republicans should support Republicans at all levels of elected office, including nonpartisan races. That was the message presented at Marge Chadderdon’s home to about 20 Republican Women by their national leader on Oct. 17. The fun started when GOPoohbah Shirley Sadler of Washington, D.C., concluded her comments by calling on Councilwoman Deanna Goodlander to say a few words about her race with challenger Dan Gookin, a former Libertarian. Goodlander gave a brief pitch before noting that not all the women in the room supported her candidacy. Which was the cue for Duane Rasmussen, the local GOP Central Committee vice chairman, to claim that challenger Dan Gookin wasn’t a true-blue, er, true-red Republican, like Goodlander. Which was a cue for OpenCDA.com’s Mary Souza to tout Gookin’s candidacy. During his turn, Rasmussen told the gathering how he’d heard Gookin tell two other local Repub leaders in a private meeting that he didn’t want “Republican” tattooed on his butt – only Duane used more colorful language. Which caused the female pachyderm herd to gasp collectively. Which caused Souza to exit stage right in a huff a short time later. Only 10 shopping days left until Election 2009.

Still shrinking

The Incredible Shrinking County Clerk is smaller still – five weeks after stomach bypass surgery. Dan English dropped by Huckleberries Central recently to show off his smaller self. Much smaller self. Now, Dan has dropped 70 pounds from his record high of 255 and plans to shed 35 pounds more to get down to his 1969 high school wrestling weight (offseason) of about 150. Dan actually wrestled at 136 in high school but he doesn’t think he’s in danger of breaking that barrier, stapled stomach or not. Funny thing? Dan tells Huckleberries: “I have had a few people who actually commented they thought I was a little taller.” Optical illusion? Or, as Dan speculates, maybe it’s just that when the weight comes off the springs a bit and they aren’t compressed so much you actually get a 1/2 inch back … ?

Huckleberries

At the UIdaho Argonaut, columnist Cheyenne Hollis argued for a drinking age of 38 as a means to stop the type of drinking that causes so many problems in this country. Why 38? Cheyenne: “College students will always get their grubby mitts on liquor but now they will be forced to have a creepy 38-year-old person around when drinking” … Shrinkage: Post Falls police handled my Scanner Traffic post of the week online – at 8:22 a.m. Monday: “A naked man and a woman spotted at Q’emiln Park on the Spokane River/Post Falls may be going for a swim” … BTW, at OpenCDA.com, aforementioned Mary Souza tried to connect the dots for challenger Jim Brannon’s recent layoff at Habitat for Humanity: “Interestingly, and somewhat surprisingly, the city of CdA gave Habitat a chunk of the HUD money this year (they ignored them totally last year). Is it possible that the HUD money, which was just awarded a couple months ago, was in exchange for axing Jim Brannon?” In two words? Not likely.

Parting shot

While you slept, CPD Blue was running down a veggie rustler. Seems Mike Plante caught a neighbor helping himself to his winter squash (butternut, buttercup and acorn) and tomatoes earlier this month. Adding insult to injury, Neighbor Dearest had chided Mike when he first put in the garden this spring, according to police report. Sarcastically, he’d asked Mike: “What are you doing – building a farm?” So why was Neighbor Dearest and a buddy swiping Mike’s veggies? He told Mike: “Because they were there.” Seems the neighbor copped a ’tude with the cops, too. He refused to cooperate. And Mike, understandably, later refused to discuss a possible payment for his produce. Hell hath no fury like a gardener scorned (especially when tomatoes are involved).