Posted on 05/22/2005 2:53:06 AM PDT by GOPXtreme20
Gregoire: 'No meek and mild' for this embattled governor
By DAVID AMMONS AP POLITICAL WRITER
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- In recent days, Gov. Christine Gregoire has signed a passel of "sin taxes" and the largest gas-tax hike in state history. She has sacked 1,000 middle managers and sent a number of Gary Locke's appointees packing.
The activist rookie was an unexpectedly effective dealmaker in the Legislature, showing the timing and finesse of a seasoned card sharp, even her critics said. On a parallel track, she was prodding the bureaucracy and looking for concrete ways to hold agencies accountable.
She threw some sharp elbows to warn the Pentagon away from closing Washington military bases, crossed swords with President Bush for choking the state financially, and began poking around at long-simmering problems like child welfare, education finance, and long-term care of the state's aging population.
"No meek and mild," she says with a big laugh, perfectly aware that a Chelan County judge hears an election challenge starting Monday that could make her a short-timer.
Hiding out in the governor's mansion isn't the least bit appealing, she says.
"The status quo kills you," Gregoire says.
"She has changed the climate in Olympia," says an admiring state Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt. "Despite the close election, she's 'Let 'er rip.'"
But critics say she's just the latest iteration of tax-and-spend Democratic liberal, with predictably expensive, expansive government now stretching into its 21st year.
Republican Dino Rossi, who lost to Gregoire by a relative handful of votes in a now-disputed election, says that despite all the activity, Gregoire hasn't delivered on her promise of change in Olympia.
"Nothing's really changed," he says. "It's just the same people doing the same things over and over. "This session was incredibly business unfriendly... They did what she said she wouldn't do, which is raise taxes."
Change agent?
After 20 years of Democratic monopoly on the governor's office, Gregoire drew wide skepticism by campaigning as a change agent, knowing that the charismatic Rossi had an exceptionally effective appeal on that very point. Gregoire was widely disbelieved, given that she was a creature of Olympia, entrenched veteran Gary Locke was her mentor, and most of the inner circle was put in place by Democrats.
As attorney general, she knocked heads on a select number of cases, but mostly she was an even-keeled lawyer, rather than a boat-rocker. And her vanilla-flavored, generic campaign gave little hint that she was passionate about much of anything.
Conventional wisdom was that she represented essentially Locke's third term, he being a centrist incrementalist who rattled few cages. When Gregoire won by just 129 votes - on the third tally, no less - it seemed even more likely that she'd keep her head down and let the legislative Democrats run the show.
The reality has been something else.
Blowin' past the bureacuracy
From the earliest moments of her term, Gregoire has been take-charge, scrappy, impatient, intellectually engaged, pushy, and skilled at multitasking - all while being friendly, energetic and utterly comfortable in her own skin. She's clearly having fun.
Although she was the newbie, she quickly caught up with the seasoned pros in the Legislature and jumped to the head of the pack. With Gregoire at the helm, an unexpectedly activist Democratic Legislature had the finest performance of a generation, Berendt purrs.
Democratic interest groups, including labor, education forces, social service types, gays and environmentalists, had grown weary of spending cuts, freezes and timidity over the past decade. But Gregoire's squishy, all-things-to-all-people campaign promises were fleshed out in concrete ways: transportation financing, mental health parity, landmark environmental bills, expansion of college enrollment, full funding of two expensive education initiatives, labor-friendly bills, drug treatment, and, almost, anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians.
People always gripe about Olympia not getting anything done, but the Legislature disproved that in spades, an expansive Gregoire told a post-adjournment news conference.
She didn't quite spell it out, but she was taking some of the credit. It's true, she got rave reviews from fellow Democrats and even grudging admiration from rival Republicans who credited - or blamed - passage of the massive transportation package on her personal, persistent and effective 11th hour push. Over and over, legislators talked about her quick mastery of their arcane process, and said they saw more of the governor this winter than her predecessor in his entire eight years.
Meanwhile, her zeal for multitasking helped her with a parallel life one flight down in the Capitol, in the bustling governor's suite.
In short order, Gregoire:
-Reshaped the Cabinet. She required all Locke holdovers to compete if they wanted to stay - and replaced a surprising number. Nearly all of the top brass are new - at prisons, Social and Health Services, Labor & Industries, Ecology, Employment Security, budget, Revenue, state patrol, utilities and transportation commission, licensing and personnel. Gregoire, only the second woman governor in state history, has appointed a large number of women and minorities.
Those she did reappoint were ultra-popular people like those at Agriculture, Health and the Military Department.
-Demanded a mood of change. Gregoire repeatedly told the new administration she expected a new day in Olympia, with smarter, more effective government and less hidebound bureaucracy.
She eliminated 1,000 middle managers for both symbolic and real effect, saying she wants flatter management and more people producing front line services. She said she'll "blow past the bureaucracy" when required.
Occasionally, she sounds quite impatient.
"I'm one who believes you've got to get things done and I get frustrated when the bureaucracy sits and spins, when we see these stories about things not working and things not getting done. I came here the same attitude as the general public - get on with it, get things done, no more business-as-usual."
-Embraced vigorous audits. She got the Legislature to mandate performance audits and the country's first state system for tracking progress on agency goals. The rigor will keep agencies on their toes and help restore public confidence, she figures.
-Took a high profile. In her first four months in office, Gregoire has seemed to clone herself, with a high profile both in and outside the capital city. Aides calculate that she's given 256 speeches, held 65 news conferences and produced 89 press releases, held over 2,000 in-office appointments, responded to 35,000 constituent contacts, and made 470 appointments to the Cabinet and various boards.
Eye of the beholder...
Independent pollster Stuart Elway says Gregoire's take-charge style has given her a much sharper edge -- and polarized people. The governor has given abundant ammunition to allies and adversaries, he says.
"Both ends of the spectrum have hardened," he says. "People who wanted to like her say `Boy, she's better than I thought,' and people who voted for Rossi are going `See?!'"
If she is forced into a revote, her high-intensity incumbency will be a mixed blessing, Elway says.
Berendt says Gregoire has completely shored up her political base and that many others are at least willing to move on and let her have a full term.
Of course, plenty of critics either don't like the kind of change Gregoire has wrought -- or don't see it as true change.
State GOP Chairman Chris Vance says Gregoire is "following the same path we've been on for 20 years," and that she views change as jacking up taxes and tilting the state more liberal.
"Unfortunately, Gregoire's short tenure as governor has shown that nothing has changed in Olympia," he says.
Former House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, says he's been stunned by Gregoire's activism and he thinks it's wrong for someone who won the election by such a close margin.
"When you see the governor high-fiving everyone because she just raised taxes... it's almost like a gleeful act.
"It's kind of an aggressive, in-your-face, we've got the power and we're going to rub your nose in it. I've been surprised at the lack of political awareness. It's like when someone wins a basketball or football game and you run around and laugh and jeer. I've been stunned."
When there's no 'Ican-controlled branch of the government, why is it surprising that a 'Rat former Attorney General can get things done while squatting in the governor's mansion?
Yawn!...goodbye Haywire...you don't impress me at all....
This looks like the dems in Washington are expecting a revote and the media is doing its part to campaign for her. And, on another note, what has become of the left's charge of "not duly elected" as an excuse for not getting things done?
Rossi v. Gregoire: How Elections Are Stolen
various FR links & stories | 01-13-05 | the heavy equipment guy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1319819/posts
Must've been tough for the guy to type his 'story' w/his lips superglued to her ass.
...This unpaid political advertisement brought to you by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is one of two major daily newspapers here (the Seattle Times being the other). The Seattle Times has an obvious left-wing tilt to it and they are unapologetic about it. The Post-Intelligencer is even further to the left and seem to cater to the Move-On types which there are an abundance of around here. In the coming days and weeks, this 'newspaper' will do what all MSM media does for democrats. It will become a defacto Ministry of Propoganda....wait a minute...it already is.
Too bad. What will you pay for gasoline when the new tax is included ?
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