Crazy, juicy, and hilarious. Dan Sytman, honestly he should be ashamed of himself. He comes from a fine family, doctors, charity, the works, but all he does is this crazy GOP minor league flackery.
Goldy can be insufferable (Darcy Burner, Fukushima) but he has every right to be there. What is McKenna so afraid of? Kudos to The Stranger for standing up to this crap.
Don't you just love when you're right and you're doing the right thing and you're doing it from the high ground and you're doing it at a despicable piece of shit? Isn't that excellent?
For one, Goldy has every right to be at these announcements as does each and every citizen of Washington. Press or no.
McKenna is holding on to the AG role too much and not letting go and being more Gubernatorial.
For one thing, politics is about representing the people. The Supreme Court has clearly labelled Health Care a "tax". That means it is simply a Government program that elected representatives voted for. It is not enshrined in the Constitution. It was not declared a right.
At this point, as a Republican I would be passing the baton to candidate Reagan Dunn.
As the candidate for the Chief Executive position in WA State I would be demonstrating how I would uphold the laws...not litigate them.
Agreed. Shame on McKenna and his team. Still, Godly brings these things on himself. One can be a very effective journalist without resorting to profanity and vulgarity in characterizations about folks who, whether we like them or not, vote for them or not, deserve our respect because they devote their careers to public service.
Yeah...like the Times or the Herald or the News Tribune or the Spokesman-Review or KIRO KING KOMO KCTS KIRO/KOMO Radio KUOW or KPLU or any of the other so-called journalists in this stupid burg will ask that dumb fuck crappy attorney just what he thought he was doing...working for ALEC? What about the PEOPLE of the state that ELECTED him?
it is funny. those of us who remember mcKenna from his King County Council days know that he was is ruthless right wing asshole. somehow he managed to remake his image as attorney general as a 'moderate' committed to the the rule of law. now his sham is starting to unravel under the pressure of running for governor, i hope that the stranger can help push him down that path.
That's what happens when the stranger employes political trolls. I'm sure anyone else from the stranger would have been allowed in, but Toby is a special case, he's not a journalist, but a political opinion columnist (no different than Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olberman), specializing in donkey punch bitch boxing. The guards were probably given a photo of him to memorize to ensure he never got in.
@ 23 perhaps you can publish a list of who are acceptable journalists and then all others will be barred from all press conferences? i am pretty sure we could pass a constitutional amendment to clarify that 'Kinison' has the right to decide who is covered by the first Amendment.
Agreed. McKenna is being an ignorant asshole about this.
Yes, Goldy is a partisan hack, and yes, Goldy sometimes has a potty mouth when describes McKenna. So what? That is part and parcel with having a free press in this country. An "unbiased" media is a relatively recent phenomena anyway. Most newspapers were openly and strongly biased before the middle of the last century. If McKenna doesn't like the questions Goldy asks, that's just too damned bad. He can refuse to answer the questions, but he can't bar Goldy from open meetings and press events just because he doesn't like the Stranger's bias.
@ ratcityreprobate:
He's not using the Solicitor General as his campaign attorney, he's using her in his official capacity as the Attorney General of WA. Had this been a campaign event, and used her, then it would be in violation of the law.
@26, perhaps Kinison has finally so deranged himself that he has mistaken Goldy for Toby Crittenden. (Derangement is surely the only way someone could confuse the two.)
So bloggers are in this weird world of kinda journalists. I got this from Seattle Schools but they finally said, yes, I could go press conferences AND ask questions.
It's a new world and the Rob McKennas need to catch up.
Wow - McKenna is so thin-skinned he can't handle being called a crappy lawyer? How's he going to handle the big boy chair when we're calling him a shitty governor?
Wah. I'll send him some diapers.
Thank you Goldy for showing once again that McKenna has no commitment to First Amendment rights. To think this man is Washington's AG is mind boggling.
I've voted for McKenna twice (I remember his Democratic opponent the second time was a little too close to inept and nutto), but I think it has been pretty clear for some time that he's a good little Republican who's devoted to toeing the party line.
McKenna is not scared, and he knows the law quite well. He simply doesn't care because he figures he's going to win. (I hope he's wrong but I don't have much hope for Inslee.)
Judging from those emails and the way he hung up on Dominic, Sytman is a complete toady. It's very easy to imagine him being a bully to his underlings and a pathetic suckass to his bosses. Those emails are very petulant and immature - "Whaaaat? I didn't do nothing! See, he's in there now! Leave me alone!" Naturally he's a lapdog for a major GOP candidate.
I just remembered that Goldy has a radio background, too. Does this mean that Sytman knows Goldy from the old days? Makes it even more of a dick move by Sytman.
@52 Dan co-hosted a show with David Bose at KTTH the same time I had a show at KIRO, both owned by Entercom (and then Bonneville) and run out of the same building. My show was on the weekends, but we occasionally crossed paths when I would fill in weekdays for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan.
Can't say we ever had much of a conversation.
Ironically, I had McKenna on my radio show a couple times, and we got along just fine. I guess he just doesn't value my audience here at The Stranger as much as he valued my audience on 710-KIRO.
However, being a crappy lawyer is going to win McKenna big nativist points with the Seattle Times. Almost every citizen of Washington is either a crappy lawyer too, or would be a crappy lawyer if they tried to practice law. Only a fraction of a percent of the electorate is competent lawyers. And they all vote Democrat anyhow.
Rob McKenna: as crappy a lawyer as you are, Washington. Seattle Times approved!
Politicians should be afraid for their lives; it keeps them honest.
I'm really very surprised how lenient we are with our politicians. You'd think, for example, that the legal punishments for a public employee should be much more severe than that for a private employee, as the public employee not only draws their paycheck from the public largesse, but has particularly large influence on public matters. Taking bribes shouldn't carry a slap on the wrist punishment, but should bring with it a life sentence or execution. But somehow, politicians are completely insulated from suffering the natural and righteous consequences of their behavior. Maybe it's because politicians also make all the laws; hell, often-times they can even increase their own paycheck by legislation.
When Goldy reports the fact wrong, does that make him a "crappy journalist" or no journalist at all? (SupCt said McKenna was right on the point he raised, which caused a MASSIVE misreporting on FOX (YEAH!) and CNN, etc. but that the law could proceed as a tax. Fair enough.
Second, if McKenna held the press conf. as AG he was entitled to us public staff and, fairly the public should have been allowed in, as a principle. Although the Open Public Meetings Act is hardly applicable - hire a new lawyer on that one.
Third, could you have your lawyer give Goldbird something to right about the media right to HEAR, ATTEND, and HAVE ACCESS? Remember good friends the Pentagon papers, the media has no inherent right to access anything except where the law permits. Their unfettered right is to SAY (report) anything ONCE THEY GET IT BY WHATEVER MEANS.
If McKenna had only made it a campaign press conference, he would have been utterly within his rights to give Goldmember the boot.
The Stranger takes the high road. McKenna's staffers sound and act like children.
So why don't you finish the job and tell your reporter to stop acting out. You seem to throw your hands in the air and say, "That's just Goldy being Goldy." As if you have no control.
Mr. Goldstein writes well enough and is politically savvy. He can espouse whatever political philosophy he wants but you should tell him part of his job description is to not throw tantrums when he represents The Stranger in a public forum. You've got your Pulitzer. Now act like it.
(Unless, of course, you think having your reporter act like a spoiled 12-year-old elevates the public discourse and helps the public better understand its political choices. And thus fulfills your professional responsibility as a member of the Fourth Estate. If so, that's a whole different conversation.)
McKenna has a history of being bully-like and dismissive of people he believes aren't going to attract attention. To me, this sort of behavior by him and his butt-head minions tells me who they really are. And they really are troglodytes who have a hard time keeping their trogloydytee personalities at bay.
It also tells me that political reporters for mainstream media are too soft on politicians. If what Goldy does results in such a cry-baby reaction from McKenna, it tells me that newspaper and television reporters are shitty people-pleasers who can't ask a hard hitting question lest they displease their asshole corporate owners. If McKenna ever actually did get a real probing, he'd have a thicker skin.
If the AG has no fucking clue about the 1st Amendment, then he shouldn't be the AG or the governor. Absolutely no other position he holds matters.
However, I think voters don't have the intellectual chops to make these sorts of assessments of candidates. They certainly can't make sense of the positions the candidates hold. And it doesn't help at all that Inslee is not doing a very good job campaigning.
It's times like these that I am really glad that The Stranger is what it is. McKenna really screwed up, wasted loads of WA taxpayer dollars chasing healthcare, and he should be completely called to task for it. The methods and language might be a bit coarse at times, but that seems to mirror the style of McKenna's staff. All is fair play in politics these days.
I thought the conservatives were constitutional experts and could channel the "founding fathers" through angels or something. How could the state AG have it so wrong?
Goldstein you are a great journalist and add a sparkle of blue to my daily morning here in Red Yakima, the county were progress comes to die.
He can espouse whatever political philosophy he wants but you should tell him part of his job description is to not throw tantrums when he represents The Stranger in a public forum.
Please provide an example of me throwing a tantrum in a public forum. Or are you just parroting Sytman's slanderous totally unsupported claim that I've been disruptive at press conferences?
@59: I'm not an attorney, crappy or otherwise, but I would argue that I had a right to attend that press conference under the First Amendment, under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, under RCW 42.30.910 that declares that "the purposes of [the Open Public Meetings Act] are hereby declared remedial and shall be liberally construed," and under the most thorough definition of "news media" you'll find in state law, the Reporter Shield law that McKenna claims he authored.
you could argue those things but you would sound like an idiot.
seriously.
no one has a 'right' to attend a press conference.
under the first A or anything else.
'due process'?
your just using big words you don't know the meaning of.
like 'slander'.
you are a pathetic crude immature partisan loudmouth but in this country you can still call yourself a 'journalist'.
or 'pope'.....
but, sorry, the title doesn't come with a decoder ring.
or magical powers.
or special access.
you are free to be an asshole in your coverage of McK.
and he is free to ban you from his events.
don't be a fucking crybaby.
The emperor has no clothes! If it takes calling McKenna, Romney or any other corporate stooge, asswipe to get the point across, so be it. Go get them, Goldy!
Sue - if it turns out McKenna has broken the law, then get it on his record. That will end his political career and very likely his legal career toot sweet, and it sounds like he should be flipping burgers - if he can find someplace disreputable enough to take him.
Good thing McKenna's just running for governor of Washington and not emperor-for-life of the Central African Republic. Otherwise, he might have fed Goldy to his pet crocodiles.
65, OH yes he does have a right to attend a press conference. If Rob McKenna's press conference was on his work as AG, then it is an open event and anyone can attend in person. If you don't personally think the 1st Amendment applies across the spectrum of journalists, then Washington State law would also support Goldy.
While McKenna was probably using his public employee work as a platform for his run at governor, he was still talking about work he did as a Washington State public employee. He certainly used other Washington State public employees to further block Goldy as evidenced by the chain of e-mails.
So in the rule of Rob McKenna ethics, you can use public employees for private gain if you are Rob McKenna. If you are any other public employee, not so much. No matter what feeble minded republican argument is put forth to bar attendance by people that he disagrees with (proving what an absolute glass jaw wimp he really is) McKenna is just plain wrong. The state's Attorney General doesn't know the law. Chew on that, sparky.
The Seattle Times editorial board endorses Rob McKenna, Republican, for governor of Washington.
June 29, 2012
I agree with SLOG.
For one, Goldy has every right to be at these announcements as does each and every citizen of Washington. Press or no.
McKenna is holding on to the AG role too much and not letting go and being more Gubernatorial.
For one thing, politics is about representing the people. The Supreme Court has clearly labelled Health Care a "tax". That means it is simply a Government program that elected representatives voted for. It is not enshrined in the Constitution. It was not declared a right.
At this point, as a Republican I would be passing the baton to candidate Reagan Dunn.
As the candidate for the Chief Executive position in WA State I would be demonstrating how I would uphold the laws...not litigate them.
...good fucking question, man.
Perhaps it's because a presser regarding his utter failure on ACA is AG biz and not related directly to the campaign.
So chill out.
Yeah...like the Times or the Herald or the News Tribune or the Spokesman-Review or KIRO KING KOMO KCTS KIRO/KOMO Radio KUOW or KPLU or any of the other so-called journalists in this stupid burg will ask that dumb fuck crappy attorney just what he thought he was doing...working for ALEC? What about the PEOPLE of the state that ELECTED him?
Fuck!
Fascists.
Yes, Goldy is a partisan hack, and yes, Goldy sometimes has a potty mouth when describes McKenna. So what? That is part and parcel with having a free press in this country. An "unbiased" media is a relatively recent phenomena anyway. Most newspapers were openly and strongly biased before the middle of the last century. If McKenna doesn't like the questions Goldy asks, that's just too damned bad. He can refuse to answer the questions, but he can't bar Goldy from open meetings and press events just because he doesn't like the Stranger's bias.
He's not using the Solicitor General as his campaign attorney, he's using her in his official capacity as the Attorney General of WA. Had this been a campaign event, and used her, then it would be in violation of the law.
McKenna needs to pay the ultimate price for this stunt, losing to Congressman Inslee in November.
We're still waiting for the TRUTH regarding how his political/campaign documents were left in his old King County Council office.
McKenna needs to pay the ultimate price for this stunt, losing to Congressman Inslee in November.
We're still waiting for the TRUTH regarding how his political/campaign documents were left in his old King County Council office.
Mckenna needs to toughen the fuck up.
It's a new world and the Rob McKennas need to catch up.
Wah. I'll send him some diapers.
"Yes, Goldy is a partisan hack, and yes, Goldy sometimes has a potty mouth when describes McKenna. So what?"
Exactly right.
Why is McKenna so afraid of Goldy and The Stranger? Is it because he can't get away with sneering "Get a job!" ?!?!?
Period.
And no amount of endorsements or Karl Rove and Koch Super PAC dollars will change that.
Nothing on the Wikipedia page about his involvement barring a reporter from a press conference yet, though.
Can't say we ever had much of a conversation.
Ironically, I had McKenna on my radio show a couple times, and we got along just fine. I guess he just doesn't value my audience here at The Stranger as much as he valued my audience on 710-KIRO.
Rob McKenna: as crappy a lawyer as you are, Washington. Seattle Times approved!
I'm really very surprised how lenient we are with our politicians. You'd think, for example, that the legal punishments for a public employee should be much more severe than that for a private employee, as the public employee not only draws their paycheck from the public largesse, but has particularly large influence on public matters. Taking bribes shouldn't carry a slap on the wrist punishment, but should bring with it a life sentence or execution. But somehow, politicians are completely insulated from suffering the natural and righteous consequences of their behavior. Maybe it's because politicians also make all the laws; hell, often-times they can even increase their own paycheck by legislation.
Fucking scum.
Second, if McKenna held the press conf. as AG he was entitled to us public staff and, fairly the public should have been allowed in, as a principle. Although the Open Public Meetings Act is hardly applicable - hire a new lawyer on that one.
Third, could you have your lawyer give Goldbird something to right about the media right to HEAR, ATTEND, and HAVE ACCESS? Remember good friends the Pentagon papers, the media has no inherent right to access anything except where the law permits. Their unfettered right is to SAY (report) anything ONCE THEY GET IT BY WHATEVER MEANS.
If McKenna had only made it a campaign press conference, he would have been utterly within his rights to give Goldmember the boot.
So why don't you finish the job and tell your reporter to stop acting out. You seem to throw your hands in the air and say, "That's just Goldy being Goldy." As if you have no control.
Mr. Goldstein writes well enough and is politically savvy. He can espouse whatever political philosophy he wants but you should tell him part of his job description is to not throw tantrums when he represents The Stranger in a public forum. You've got your Pulitzer. Now act like it.
(Unless, of course, you think having your reporter act like a spoiled 12-year-old elevates the public discourse and helps the public better understand its political choices. And thus fulfills your professional responsibility as a member of the Fourth Estate. If so, that's a whole different conversation.)
It also tells me that political reporters for mainstream media are too soft on politicians. If what Goldy does results in such a cry-baby reaction from McKenna, it tells me that newspaper and television reporters are shitty people-pleasers who can't ask a hard hitting question lest they displease their asshole corporate owners. If McKenna ever actually did get a real probing, he'd have a thicker skin.
If the AG has no fucking clue about the 1st Amendment, then he shouldn't be the AG or the governor. Absolutely no other position he holds matters.
However, I think voters don't have the intellectual chops to make these sorts of assessments of candidates. They certainly can't make sense of the positions the candidates hold. And it doesn't help at all that Inslee is not doing a very good job campaigning.
Goldstein you are a great journalist and add a sparkle of blue to my daily morning here in Red Yakima, the county were progress comes to die.
Get the RO monday!
Please provide an example of me throwing a tantrum in a public forum. Or are you just parroting Sytman's slanderous totally unsupported claim that I've been disruptive at press conferences?
So there.
you could argue those things but you would sound like an idiot.
seriously.
no one has a 'right' to attend a press conference.
under the first A or anything else.
'due process'?
your just using big words you don't know the meaning of.
like 'slander'.
you are a pathetic crude immature partisan loudmouth but in this country you can still call yourself a 'journalist'.
or 'pope'.....
but, sorry, the title doesn't come with a decoder ring.
or magical powers.
or special access.
you are free to be an asshole in your coverage of McK.
and he is free to ban you from his events.
don't be a fucking crybaby.
If so, where the fuck have I been? I had no idea.
While McKenna was probably using his public employee work as a platform for his run at governor, he was still talking about work he did as a Washington State public employee. He certainly used other Washington State public employees to further block Goldy as evidenced by the chain of e-mails.
So in the rule of Rob McKenna ethics, you can use public employees for private gain if you are Rob McKenna. If you are any other public employee, not so much. No matter what feeble minded republican argument is put forth to bar attendance by people that he disagrees with (proving what an absolute glass jaw wimp he really is) McKenna is just plain wrong. The state's Attorney General doesn't know the law. Chew on that, sparky.