Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Rossi does a "duck dive" on I-912

Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly writes this morning:
Statehouse: Republican governor-in-waiting Dino Rossi says he has no position on Initiative 912, the gas tax rollback. He's doing a duck dive. The state Republican Party backs I-912. But 27 GOP legislators voted for the transportation package -- and business groups are mobilizing to defeat the initiative.

What Rossi promised last year, however, was "leadership" and that he was a guy who would make "tough decisions" needed to move the state.

On I-912, then, Rossi should answer the question with which the father of modern conservatism, Sen. Barry Goldwater, closed hundreds of his columns: "How do you stand, sir?"
We couldn't agree more.

Dino Rossi is trying to have it both ways. But that's not going to work out so well for him. The business community can see what he's trying to do, and they're not happy about it.

This transportation package is a huge issue for them - and it should be.

Simply put, you can't have a functional economy without a functional transportation system. Business leaders understand this very well.

We agree that a functional economy is important, but public safety is even more important. People will die if the Alaskan Way Viaduct comes crashing down in an earthquake. Likewise, people will die if the State Route 520 floating bridge sinks or breaks apart in an earthquake.

And those two structures are just the most highly visible ones. There are dozens of invisible dangers around the state. This package includes funding to replace over thirty bridges that don't meet current seismic and safety standards. These bridges aren't just in Seattle, either. They're in every corner of the Evergreen State.

Dino Rossi is a coward. The GOP's conservative base has won out; the state committee recently endorsed Initiative 912. And Rossi has nothing to say. So much for tough leadership. There's no leadership here - nothing but pandering to anti-tax zealots.

Since Dino Rossi has shown he can't be a leader, he should remain a private citizen and never run for public office again. He can leave the leading to people who will pursue a positive vision for Washington State instead of hiding their positions on our most important problems.

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