In Brief - October 9th, 2006

Here is today's extended news digest:

• Since Keith Olbermann's amazing August 30th commentary slamming Donald Rumsfeld for his ridiculous interpretation of history, his audience has risen by 69 percent, according to Nielsen Media Research. A week ago, 834,000 Americans tuned in - more than double his average and higher than Keith's competitors at CNN (Nancy Grace and Paula Zahn).
• And speaking of cable TV news, FOX's graphics people seem to be having trouble getting party affiliation right. Earlier, they incorrectly identified Mark Foley as a Democrat from Florida. Their latest mishap is hilarious: they identified incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee, who trails badly in a USA Today poll, as a Democrat, while Chafee's Democratic challenger, Sheldon Whitehouse, was labeled a Republican.
• The international community is not pleased with North Korea's announcement in which the totalitarian dictatorship claims it has successfully tested a nuclear weapon. China and Russia joined South Korea and most of NATO in harshly condemning the development, while expressing some doubt that North Korea actually has a functional nuclear weapon it can use. Meanwhile, the Bush administration was properly blasted by Democrats for mishandling the situation and refusing to sit down with North Korea for bilateral talks.
• Bill Sali, the Republican nominee in Idaho's first district (who is facing off against Larry Grant) is such an awful candidate that other Idaho Republicans are openly trashing him and calling him a liar.
• Michael Hood has a two part series on BlatherWatch today about Dave Reichert's record as King County Sheriff that is a must-read (Part One, Part Two). The series comes on the heels of the Seattle P-I's recently published reports by Lewis Kamb.
• A new USA Today/Gallup poll has surprisingly devastating news for Republicans: voters are in a really bad mood. According to USAToday, which is owned by Gannett, Inc., "Democrats had a 23-point lead over Republicans in every group of people questioned — likely voters, registered voters and adults — on which party's House candidate would get their vote. That's double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994 and the Democrats' largest advantage among registered voters since 1978." More information on the poll and complete results are here.

And finally, a third reminder that Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert will debate tomorrow evening at the Meydenbauer Center in downtown Bellevue at 6:30 PM. Both will respond to questions from a panel of Seattle Times editorial writers and reporters (the Times is sponsoring the debate).

The debate will not be televised live. It will be replayed on TVW the next day (this Wednesday) at 7 PM, and the audio will be replayed on Puget Sound's KUOW just two hours later, also on Wednesday.

Darcy could use all the support she can get, so if you can spare a few hours, be sure to go. Admission is free and downtown Bellevue is well served by Metro and Sound Transit. Seating is available on a first come, first served basis.

If you have something you'd like to add, please leave a comment.