The Democrats' point? Rossi is a hypocrite.
However, AP reporter Curt Woodward did a fact check on the Democrats' claims and says they're "untrue"—pointing out that the state earmarks were part of the capital budget (which Rossi did not write), not the general fund budget.
However however—as we reported when this whole earmark business first flared up in June (and by the way, earmarks make up less than one percent of the federal budget—and they don't add spending to it, they replace other spending), Rossi has personally benefited from state earmarks.
In 2007, the Everett Aquasox, of which Rossi was a part owner, got a $433,000 earmark in the state budget to upgrade their stadium. That one actually caught the attention of a conservative think tank, The Washington Policy Center—fans of Rossi, and vice versa—which included the earmark in its 2008 "Piglet Book" documenting wasteful pork in the state budget.
2. There's a nice story about PubliCola in the Kitsap Sun, including some flattering quotes from KUOW's Ross Reynolds and Crosscut's Knute Berger, who's apparently rooting for us. Who knew?
3. In case you missed it over the weekend (it went up Friday afternoon), Erica's got a hot post that takes on last Friday's front-page Seattle Times story, which editorialized against paid parking.
Also posted late in the day on Friday—our daily Afternoon Jolt (the day's winner and loser), featuring a gubernatorial robo call and political consultant Blair Butterworth.
4. Finally, a report from Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. Josh's brother runs a DJ company in D.C., and they did the music before the event. Last time they did the Tea Party rally on the D.C. mall, Josh's brother snuck in a lot of '70s funk—Parliament Funkadelic—as a kind of inside spoof on the mostly white, conservative crowd.
Asked if he planned to pull that off again, Josh's brother reported nope, Beck wanted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, or "Mo Tabs" as Beck called it.
Josh's brother also had a Sarah Palin story.
I did have a moment with Sarah Palin today. After her speech (which was mostly about military heroes), she sat in the front row about 20 feet from where I was set up, there was a presentation going on for a guy who has 56 grand kids. When that was announced, I looked up and made eye contact with SP and I mouthed, "Wow, 56"—she nodded at me and mouthed back "I know."