Washblog

Jill actually makes a good point though I can see no evidence that Kelly was talking about Rossi policy. No, what Kelly was talking about was the Rossi brand of politics. I would have to agree with Kelly here and some examples are:

1. Rossi has a long record of "dishonest and disreputable" campaigning including out and out lies about his republican and democratic opponents This more than any other factor is why no GOP primary opponent has ever endorsed Dino.
   
2. Even though Rossi dodged PDC fines his evasion of campaign finance laws in the Forward Washington scandal can only be defined as "dishonest or corrupt".
   
3. When Rossi tried to spin the governors good work on behalf of flood victims in Lewis County as a negative thing even while all of the local GOP were praising her efforts this was both "dishonest" and "cheap".

So calling the politics of Dino Rossi "sleazy" looks to have been fair and balanced. What I find more interesting though is that Jill immediately sought to suggest that calling Rossi the man sleazy was out of bounds.

So let us examen Rossi the man. Now most would argue, and do so correctly, that you cannot be a sleazy political candidate and then hold yourself out to be anything but sleazy. Still, when you look at the business relationships and real estate deals that define Mr. Rossi's "business experience," no adjective is more fitting.

Can any of us really imagine working closely with a realtor who was defrauding retired investors and a savings and loan even as we knew a federal fraud investigation was ongoing into the very actions we were participating in? Would any of us continue to help run the company while the owner was in prison and then follow him to two subsequent companies after his release. Would it be wise to hire this man's son to be your first campaign treasurer and then claim after all these ties that you really did not know about any wrongdoing?

Once elected to the senate, in the majority and chair of the Ways and Means committee would an honest man or a corrupt man enter a multi million dollar real estate deal with two powerful lobbyists with many issues they represented before his committee? With the financial backing of these lobbyists Rossi shared in real estate profits in the hundreds of thousands and was the recipient of over $100,000 in real-estate fees.

Is this not sleazy? You be the judge.