You can’t get into the chamber wearing that jacket.
The second thought, which normally comes after the first one, involving the prospect, which is growing dimmer day by day, that our U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, could become Secretary of Interior, having already been passed over for Energy, is who would replace him, if by “replace” you mean purely in the congressional sense and not in any other.
We speculated about it here before. By “we” I mean Jake, Registered Voter and me. Someone named Gumshoe weighed in, too. Speaking of Registered Voter, RV is making appearances over at Lary Coppola’s “West Sound Politics” blog. Mayor Coppola has asked for contributors who are “thoughtful, informed, pragmatic, centrists, as opposed to partisan pinheads who can’t think for themselves.” If you fall into those categories and have a hankerin’ to see your name above the comments, he’s got instructions as to how to contact him.
Getting back to my multiple-comma’d statement about Inslee, some people threw out names. On Wednesday I asked state Rep. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, whether she was interested in the gig should Inslee vacate. She said she was not. She said she had heard of lots of jockeying for position going on among some. There are those prepared to throw their reputations on the line by engaging in a three-month ordeal to become a member of Congress.
One name Rolfes said she heard was that of Rick Steves.
Steves is a world traveler and makes a living offering tips and tales of how to enjoy yourself in places where you can’t watch Magnum P.I. reruns or tell the talking sign that you don’t want a lemon in that.
Steves also has a political side to him. In 2006 he wrote on “The real threat to U.S. security” in the Seattle Times:
“So let’s try something different. Imagine if we required our military to manage with a budget no bigger than all the militaries of our hemisphere combined: That’s Canada — $15 billion; Mexico — $6 billion; everyone from there to Tierra del Fuego — about $16 billion. Round the total up to $40 billion. Add to that a healthy sum to support the United Nations and our allies in their peacekeeping work (say $60 billion a year). Grand total: $100 billion.”
He made headlines a while back advocating the end of marijuana prohibition.
Steves has thoughts on a lot of issues. You can read about them here. He also appears to have given $250 to Inslee’s campaign, assuming he is the sole Rick Steves in Edmonds.
I tried to contact Steves today about the speculation and have yet to hear back from him.
Alas, more stories are appearing about Interior, and more of them don’t include Inslee than do. So it appears Steves could have kept this whole Congress thing quiet had it not been for people talking. If Steves were to run and emerge as the top Democrat and Larry Ishmael the top Republican, you’d have two candidates who’ve done a fair amount of world traveling.
Rick Steves might not get past the dog sniffers at the Capitol Building. “My nose went up like an in-field fly . . . ”
Rolfes may seem like our local saint Christine but the majority of the 1st Congressional is on the other side of the pond. I don’t think the other Dem committees are going to be as enamored of Rolfes as Gardner appears to be.
And what’s with the rip-off of OReilly’s “pinhead” phrase. Let’s be original or get full attribution.
Really, you have to attribute “pinhead” now?
Those dogs at the capitol are apparently more sensitive than all those ones at the airports.
Bill OReilly is NOT the first person to use the term “pinhead” and it was a part of our language long before he got his stupid show.
Well I for one don’t really want to see Jay go over to the Executive branch. I mean we need voices like his in the house to counter the noise and to keep congress focused on clean energy. So it is a double edge sword if he leaves congress to head Interior or EPA.
I don’t think bomb sniffing dogs are trained to sniff for weed. Besides honestly I think that booze is a bigger threat to public health than pot and that is SOLD BY THE STATE in a state run monopoly.
Besides tradition- why is marijuana not just as legal as a glass of wine?
Because people are not OK with thinking in terms of freedom beyond their own personal choices. Because people see a worst case scenario, not a “use vs. abuse” issue.
We are working hard to spread freedom across the globe – maybe we should take some of the filters off of freedom here at home. Those filters weren’t put in place by terrorists or foreign governments.
Let us hope that Steves continues traveling… far away from here.
Speaking of Registered Voter, RV is making appearances over at Lary Coppola’s “West Sound Politics” blog. Mayor Coppola has asked for contributors who are “thoughtful, informed, pragmatic, centrists, as opposed to partisan pinheads who can’t think for themselves.” If you fall into those categories and have a hankerin’ to see your name above the comments, he’s got instructions as to how to contact him.
I did not volunteer, but was instead recommended to Coppola by a left-leaning journalist. I agreed in order to help out a friend. There are many more in this region much more interested in the local political scene than I. Perhaps they’ll contact Lary.
Jake — have you had a sheltered upbringing of what. You showed as certain lack of knowledge of the art of the dog: “I don’t think bomb sniffing dogs are trained to sniff for weed. Besides honestly I think that booze is a bigger threat to public health than pot and that is SOLD BY THE STATE in a state run monopoly.”
Dogs are smarter than you and they can dual track: bombs and drugs.
Let Steves know how to plot his defense using your rationale.
James,
It appears that Jake is correct. WSP trains the bomb detection and drug detection dogs separately.
http://www.wsp.wa.gov/crime/canine.htm