The Seattle P-I = "Preposterous"

Seattle's dying Post-Intelligencer newspaper has always been one of the most extreme left-wing daily publications in the country. It almost always follows the Democrat party line.

When semiannual circulation figures have been revealed, the P-I has shown significant readership declines in every recent instance. Here we see just how dishonest they can be in defending the local political machine in this unsigned editorial:

Absolutely preposterous. Dino Rossi's call for a rerun of the governor's election has no basis, at least so far.

Christine Gregoire, Rossi's Democratic opponent, is now governor-elect as the result of a stunningly close election. By the very nature of the 129-vote margin, the election will always be subject to uncertainty. But that's life, not automatic grounds for another election, requiring more money and possibly ending with similarly close vote totals.

Gregoire's conduct throughout the difficult post-election period has been exemplary. She showed optimism, patience and a disciplined pursuit of legally valid processes on the basis of facts and principles, not vague feelings.

In contrast to Gregoire's dignified patience, Rossi now wants another shot at winning the election without meeting the high legal standards that should be required. On Wednesday, the Republican suggested skipping a court fight, avoiding any prolonged attempt to determine the grounds to overturn Gregoire's victory and giving him one more try at grabbing the governorship.

Gregoire was right to reject the request for a new election. It's one more sign that she is well suited for the office.

As we noted previously, however, Rossi has every right to pursue a judicial or legislative appeal. We would prefer legal proceedings. But any challenge to the election results should be undertaken with a patient pursuit of the facts, acceptance of existing law and self-restraint.

We are not surprised by much in politics, but Rossi's request that now Gov.-elect Gregoire join him in asking for a new vote was amazing. He said the election was "a total mess," an absurdly subjective way to describe the generally well-conducted election. A letter he sent to Gregoire needlessly frets about the effects on the state of a drawn-out process. And he complains the state Supreme Court "changed the rules," an insulting assertion that Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican like Rossi, flatly rejected yesterday.

There has been nothing "dignified" about Christine Gregoire's "patience" during this process. She used every sleazy trick in the book with her trial lawyer friends to change the rules after the election until she could get a count that went her way. She has been the same nasty person we've seen her be for many years. That's probably why many Kerry voters didn't choose her even though both are Democrats.

Rossi speaks for most of the state of Washington when he calls the election "a total mess". How Op-Ed page editor Mark Trahant of the P-I doesn't see that I can't imagine.

With each day (and help from a number of Puget Sound-area bloggers) more evidence of corruption has been uncovered. The Seattle media is there to protect Gregoire and the machine, while the new media is doing the investigating they refuse to take on for fear it will hurt Gregoire.

The editorial fails to point out that Rossi won the first two counts and was declared Governor-elect. Only when a less accurate third hand recount was conducted, with King County adding new ballots almost 10 times, did Gregoire squeak by him.

Trahant and his sinking ship resort to emotions in their editorial which really make them no better than any of the rest of us in our strong feelings about this illegally stolen election. The difference is that in their typical arrogance, the P-I staffers truly place themselves on a pedestal.