Democratic Podcast: Make Bush Pay

Newly elected Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington delivered the Democratic response to the presidential radio address today.

Gregoire, whose 129-vote margin of victory was determined by a recount, took office Jan. 12. Her opponent, Republican Dino Rossi, is asking courts to overturn the result and call a new election.

Selected by the Democratic Governors' Association to give the speech, Gregoire criticized President Bush for shortchanging state funding on expensive federal programs in education, transportation, and homeland security.

The transcript of her remarks:

Good morning. I'm Governor Christine Gregoire from the state of Washington.
I want to congratulate President Bush on his inauguration. The time-honored pageantry and ceremonies of an inauguration remind us we are part of a democracy with a rich and long history.
Our nation faces many challenges, both abroad and at home. I know I join all Americans in wishing President Bush well as he embarks upon his second term and sets a course to face these challenges.
I also was recently inaugurated as Washington state's governor. Our state's inaugural ceremonies aren't as extravagant as those in the other Washington, but the ceremonies are meaningful and honor the durability of our governmental institutions.
Like other governors, we face tough challenges here in Washington state, challenges that frequently require a partnership with the federal government. But too often, the states feel the federal partnership is more promise than reality.
I'd, therefore, like to urge that we make this week an inaugural for President Bush's new term as well as a new federal-state partnership.
Let me give you some examples of the need for a stronger partnership.
Consider our relations with the federal Homeland Security Department in our nation's war against terrorism.
The federal government is imposing new security requirements on our cities and counties without providing the necessary financial assistance to local law enforcement -- cops and firefighters, whose resources are already stretched too thin.
Our highways and other transportation infrastructure represent the nation's economic future, yet we can't get a transportation bill out of Congress that provides funding for the states. President Bush could help us all if he would insist Congress pass this legislation.
It's been said that the best social program is a job. The state of Washington lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs in the last recession, most of them going overseas.
We need to get our country back to work, and this transportation bill would be a great stimulus. Every billion dollars in new transportation spending creates 47,000 new jobs.
The states have another partnership with the federal government that is under tremendous strain, including here in Washington state. Skyrocketing health-care costs are already stretching state budgets to the breaking point. In our state, health-care costs represent 20 percent of Washington state's budget. And health-care costs have been increasing by double digits for the past four years.
This is not the time for the administration to abandon its responsibility to address the health-care crisis facing our nation. We must forge a renewed partnership to address this issue.
Educating our children calls out for another key partnership between the state and federal government. President Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative had laudable goals but has never been adequately funded. We must do better for our children.
The states are on the front lines. Governors and legislatures work directly with the problems facing our communities, and they have to balance competing needs and budgets in creative and innovative ways.
I urge President Bush to use his new term to open the doors to the states and form lasting partnerships, which will help us make our people safer, bolster our economy and improve the future for all our children.
I'm Christine Gregoire, governor from the state of Washington.
Thank you for listening.

States are struggling to meet huge federal mandates like the No Child Left Behind act, which puts extensive new testing requirements on schools without bothering to pay for them.

U.S. Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii, writing in the Honolulu Advertiser in April 2004, said the law is the poster child for the failure of federal involvement in public schools:

The No Child Left Behind Act is today an immense unfinanced federal mandate. For the current fiscal year, this law set federal compliance costs at $32 billion, but the current administration only asked for $22 billion. For the upcoming year, the figures are $34 billion and $25 billion, respectively. The message is simple: We don't mind requiring it, but we can't afford it all, so you, states and localities, make up the difference.

Politics · Podcasts · 2005/01/22 · 11 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I dunno if you want to quote Gregoire, since it's looking more and more probable every day that the Washington election is going to be overturned due to fairly large amounts of really inept vote fraud.

#1 · Chad Irby · 2005/01/23

If you're referring to voting felons, that wouldn't have affected the outcome because they voted for both candidates.

I'd be surprised if any of the other stuff was touched by a court or anyone else, considering that the election has been certified and Democrats control that state's legislature.

#2 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/01/23

I'm referring to the voting felons, the "excess votes" (in some precincts, there were more recorded votes than recorded voters), and the several instances of "found votes" that always magically seemed to be in favor of Gregoire, not to mention the military absentee ballots that were sent out late.

The Washington State race is either going to be overturned or will need to be redone completely.

#3 · Chad Irby · 2005/01/24

Hi! Thank you for providing a podcast of the weekly democratic address.
Where do you pick up the mp3?
I asked the governor's staff where I could find it and they were unable to tell me.
Guess they should hire you to help with new media.
Thanks in advance
Ph
PS: I'll put the link on VoB...
PPS: by the way I don't think the election results will be overturned, sorry guys, but what happened in Ohio and can we trust voting macines ran by Bush's pals? I don't think so.

#4 · philippe boucher · 2005/01/31

It is always amusing to see partisan shills try to spin the issue of the WA Gov race.

> Gregoire, whose 129-vote margin of victory was determined by a recount, took office Jan. 12. Her opponent, Republican Dino Rossi, is asking courts to overturn the result and call a new election.

Rossi has openly and very publicly demanded that the process be fair and proper, he does not want the vote overturned so as be installed as Gov (although a win is obviously the goal of any candidate running), the point is to have another election that does not suffer from the same problems (and there have been more than enough of those). If Gregoire actually wins the next election then fine, but at least play by the rules.

There have been too many problems and mysterious "missing" votes that just happened to be for Gregoire.
Many votes were also unguarded, left in an unsecured location (which for those too slow to understand the implications of that means that they could have been tampered with).
There were also incidents of election officials "correcting" ballots with black marker pens, and in so doing SPOILING the ballot permanently.

> If you're referring to voting felons, that wouldn't have affected the outcome because they voted for both candidates.

What an amazingly dimwitted observation! The margin of 'victory' was so incredibly slim that ANY and I repeat ANY votes that were improper could have changed the result regardless of who they were cast for.

#5 · · 2005/04/13

If Al Gore didn't deserve a do-over election after the widely documented voting problems in Florida five years ago -- in a state he probably won -- why does Dino Rossi deserve one now? I thought that kind of talk was strictly for us Sore/Losermanns.

#6 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/04/14

Rossi won both of the first two counts, only after they "found" new "missing" votes did Gregoire pull ahead. Very different from Bush v Gore 2001.

If you really seriously want to argue the case for Gore 2001 then go ahead, but don't suggest that somehow Gregoire deserves to get this as "payback" for a perceived swindle in 2001. The Florida election is a very complex problem and one that the Supreme Court was unfortunately forced to participate in, and Gore certainly did not help his side by violating Bush's constitutional rights by demanding (and getting) selective recounts in mainly (D) leaning counties.

#7 · · 2005/04/14

The only difference between Gore/Bush in Florida and Rossi/Gregoire in Washington is that the recount process was fully completed in Washington and the lead changed hands.

If the Supreme Court had not invented the concept of a presumptive winner whose legitimacy must be protected, we might have learned that Gore received more legitimately cast votes.

I'm not suggesting this is payback. It's just obvious that like Rossi, you'd only favor overturning the election if your guy lost. Rossi didn't say a peep about a do-over while he led the count.

#8 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/04/14

If it isn't payback for a perceived wrong which never took place then why do you persist in this folly? Talking about 2000 every single time a comment is made about problems with the Gov race in WA reeks of payback. There was no swindle in Bush v. Gore. It is an urban myth that Gore won in 2000, saying it over and over again doesnâ€™t make it true.

>It's just obvious that like Rossi, you'd only favor overturning the election if your guy lost. Rossi didn't say a peep about a do-over while he led the count.

I personally know lots of Democrats who voted for Gore, voted for both our Senators, voted for Locke the first time and voted for John Kerry in 04 who voted for Rossi. They feel just as strongly as I do about this, so direct your comments at them too not just me.

#9 · · 2005/04/17

I don't have a stake in the Washington gubernatorial race. I'm just enjoying the hypocrisy.

#10 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/04/18

If we didn't have a stake none of us would bother forming opinions or posting comments now would we.

> I'm just enjoying the hypocrisy.

Well its very good to hear you are enjoying yourself.

#11 · · 2005/04/18