Archives for Thursday, 1/26/06

It seems to me that almost from the moment Paul Berendt announced his retirement, the race to replace him as state Democratic chair has pretty much split the party in two, between those who support Dwight Pelz and… um… those who don’t support Dwight Pelz.

And so it comes as no surprise that as the party heads into this Saturday’s vote, it’s pretty much shaping up to be a two-person contest. First Greg Rodriguez, and then Phil Talmadge dropped out of the race. And tonight Snohomish County chair Mark Hintz tells me that he has withdrawn his name, and asked his supporters to “vote their conscience.” Good thing we’re not Republicans, as such an instruction might result in a lot of blank ballots.

I know that technically there’s still a couple of other candidates, but with Hintz’s withdrawal, realistically, this has now come down to a race between front-runner Pelz and Laura Ruderman. I keep hearing that Ruderman is coming on strong, particularly in Eastern Washington… but probably not strong enough. And Pelz just got a huge boost this evening when he captured the endorsement of the sixty-thousand strong SEIU Washington State Council.

I know a lot of people have gotten awfully worked up over the race for party chair, but me, not so much. Perhaps I’m naive or ignorant, but while their strengths may lie in different areas, both Pelz and Ruderman seem qualified. So at the risk of incurring Ivan’s wrath again, I just want to repeat that all I ask from the new chair is an open mind and an open door.

It makes me want to throw up.

That was the blunt, emotional response of Rep. Larry Haler (R-Richland) when asked about the fake “Sex Offender Notification” postcards the state GOP mailed out to 25,000 families across the state… and he’s not the only Republican lawmaker expressing disgust with their party’s leadership. But even while several Republican legislators have quietly apologized to their colleagues across the aisle, House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt (R-Chehalis) not only remains unapologetic, he refuses to even accept responsibility for the actions of his caucus’s own PAC.

DeBolt

Of course, we all know that they’re constantly drinking liberally at the The Stranger. (I once quipped that I could never work there, because I don’t drink hard liquor.) But there’s also a very nice piece by Cienna Madrid in this week’s paper, revealing to a larger world the sublime pleasures of our weekly gathering of the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally.

My only question for Cienna is: how much did Darryl suck up to you to be the only blogger to finagle a link? (Damn! He just got another one. Clever bastard.)

When I first stumbled into politics with my “Tim Eyman is a horse’s ass” initiative, one of my slogans which really seemed to resonate with supporters was my promise to “put the party back into politics.” I can’t tell you have many contributions and petitions came in with a request for an invitation to the election night party.

The truth is, politics can be godawful boring, and progressive politics doubly so… we’re all just so fucking earnest.

And as important as it is, the tedium of the actual process of party politics can bring on horrifying flashbacks of grinding your way through the worst high school teacher you ever had. It’s heard enough to get the average joe to show up at his legislative district meeting… but it’s nearly impossible to get him to come back.

I’ve always been a big believer in making progressive politics more fun and more social, and to be honest, what first attracted me to Drinking Liberally was simply… the name. The first DL I attended was pretty much me, The Him, Nick, and a couple of Nick’s friends. And the crowd didn’t consistently get much bigger than that for the first couple months.

But with word of mouth and some steady promotion on the blogs, DL has grown into a large crowd of regulars (and a few irregulars) that this week took over half the Montlake Ale House. And for those who can’t attend, next week will mark the release of my first weekly podcast from DL… that is, assuming it doesn’t suck.

No doubt Cienna’s piece will help boost attendance, but DL has already reached the kind of critical mass that ensures its continued growth through word of mouth alone. Chapters are already established in Bellingham and Spokane (which I hear kicks ass), and new chapters recently opened in Olympia and Walla Walla. New chapters are scheduled to open next month in Tacoma and Burien… proudly making Washington one of the most liberally drinking states in the union, third only to New York and Pennsylvania.

Cienna warns that “without some new blood, DL could be dismissed as a good-old-boys club stuffed with bloggers and politicos,” and certainly we need to balance out the gender ratio if DL is to achieve its full potential. But this is one “good-old-boys club” that’s open to all comers, and it is that informal, social aspect that makes DL different from all other political organizations.

We meet every Tuesday, 8:00 pm, at the Montlake Alehouse, 2307 24th Avenue E. Hope to see you there soon.

UPDATE:
Ooops. Jim at McCranium reminds me that I forgot the recently founded Tri-Cities chapter of DL that meets Wednesday nights, 5:30 pm, at the Tuscany Lounge, 1515 George Washington Way, Richland.

Portraying the Alito nomination as just another volley in the culture wars vastly underestimates its significance. The judge’s record strongly suggests that he is an eager lieutenant in the ranks of the conservative theorists who ignore our system of checks and balances, elevating the presidency over everything else. He has expressed little enthusiasm for restrictions on presidential power and has espoused the peculiar argument that a president’s intent in signing a bill is just as important as the intent of Congress in writing it. This would be worrisome at any time, but it takes on far more significance now, when the Bush administration seems determined to use the cover of the “war on terror” and presidential privilege to ignore every restraint, from the Constitution to Congressional demands for information.
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A filibuster is a radical tool. It’s easy to see why Democrats are frightened of it. But from our perspective, there are some things far more frightening. One of them is Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court.

Read the whole thing.