Brian Baird (D-WA) is seeking a Communications Director. Duties include developing and implementing a comprehensive communications strategy, including: writing press releases, floor statements and editorials; responding to press inquiries; producing newsletters and e-newsletters; proactively creating new media opportunities, fostering strong relationships with media contacts, and managing office website. A successful candidate will be an excellent writer with good interpersonal skills and a sense of humor. Salary commensurate with experience. E-mail cover letter, writing sample, and resume to Lisa.Austin, Chief of Staff at BairdResume@mail.house.gov.
Tucked away on Seattle's Portage Bay, a sleek, 85-foot speedboat sat idle for years - save for an annual jaunt to maintain its engine.
The Navy paid $4.5 million to build the boat. But months before the hull ever touched water, the Navy gave the boat to the University of Washington. The school never found a use for it, either.
Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?
Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.
Year after year, the Washington lawmakers did favors for the tiny company, inserting four "earmarks" into different bills to force the Navy and Coast Guard to buy boats they didn't ask for - $17.65 million in all. None of the boats was used as Congress intended.
The congressional trio say they were helping Guardian Marine because it had a great product. But each has also received generous campaign donations from the company's three executives, its sole employees: $14,277 to Baird, $15,000 to Murray, and $16,750 to Dicks.
This nexus, between Bush Dogs and corrupt practices, just keeps popping up. I've spoken with a number of savvy local political figures, activists and insiders, and by most accounts, Brian Baird's a terrifically smart and cynical Congressman. Whether it was voting for the Bankruptcy Bill, acting badly on Terry Schiavo, or changing his mind on the surge to pull in right-wing support, he's been able to hew a relatively conservative line on some key issues because of memories of Republican Linda Smith, the crazy evangelical he beat in 1998. Baird's upset a good number of local activists with his bad Iraq stance, and rumor has it that he reduced one longtime supporter to tears. He's also upset environmentalists on his logging work, and the distict is shifting along with the country to a more strident progressive and antiwar stance.
With this earmarked useless boat done in return for political purposes, Baird has lost even more goodwill and opened up a clear spot for a primary challenger in 2008 or 2010.
U.S. Rep. Brian Baird said today he'll hold a town-hall meeting in Olympia at the end of the week, giving local residents their first chance to quiz him about his position in support of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq longer. The event is at 7 p.m. Friday evening at Capital High School on Olympia's west side. Baird is under increasing fire from anti-war critics, who plan their own town hall meeting in Vancouver on Thursday evening. The anti-Baird meeting is at Fort Vancouver High in Vancouver.
Baird is a weird, smart, and manipulative politician. He thinks that pretending to listen while holding firm on supporting Bush will matter to his constituents.
If you live in Vancouver, let him know it doesn't.
Meantime, Baird has so many requests for interviews that he already has offered a two-hour media availability Monday, after Petraeus and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, testify before the House.
The House leadership is collapsing on Iraq, but it's possible to stop the limpid compromise in the Senate. Meanwhile, Baird continues to get lots of press for his new position.
Democrats opposed to the war held their tongues about Baird last week. But on Thursday, Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., told Congressional Quarterly: "I'll give Brian a gun and let him go to Iraq and shoot whoever he wants."
When asked about Stark's comment, Baird said, "What was that all about?"
Democratic colleagues attacking Baird personally in his local press market is real progress. And then there's this.
Meantime, Baird has so many requests for interviews that he already has offered a two-hour media availability Monday, after Petraeus and the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, testify before the House.
To be a part of the Bush Dog Democrat campaign, sign up here.
First let me say that I live in Brian's district and am active in my county's Democratic Party chapter. Secondly, let me say that I have commented previously on this matter to the effect that we will have a primary opponent for Mr. Baird next August.
local activist Paul Spencer, commenting on Open Left
"It could well cost me the next election," Baird said at the end of the meeting. "That's alright."
The campaign was covered in USA Today, on Fox News, the Politico, and in the New York Observer. Anonymous Democratic strategists are attacking me with the straw man argument that criticism will jeopardize Democratic seats, wingnuts are flipping out, and some local Democrats are very very angry. I've heard of possible primary challenges in several districts where Bush Dog Democrats are in power.
It's really amazing what a little criticism from a few of us can do.
After becoming a sudden star on CNN touting the success of the surge, Bush Dog Democrat Brian Baird got incredible pushback from his constituents at a townhall meeting. First, there was a robocall in the district advertising his town hall. Then there was Jon Soltz from VoteVets, who showed up and made his presence known.
He spoke in a high school auditorium that was packed with at least 500 people who were overwhelmingly vocal in their opposition to Baird's new stance. There were also protesters outside calling for Baird to resign.
He was hammered by Jon Soltz, the young, good looking, charismatic chairman and co-founder of political action committee VoteVets.org. Soltz is also an Iraq war veteran, having served in 2003. Speaking calmly and to raucous applause, he said Baird (who recently returned from a visit to Iraq) was fooled "by a dog and pony show" and is unfortunately providing cover for President Bush.
Afterwards, Soltz told me that his goal is to bring Baird back into the Democratic fold.
Another speaker who brought down the house was Zanne Joi, a Vancouver activist with Code Pink Women for Peace. Joi called Baird "arrogant" for trying to dictate how Iraqis should govern themselves and said the war was only about "American oil profit."
A third speaker, who also spoke to tremendous applause, was Jane Lustig from Vancouver, whose main complain was that Baird was not representing his constituents' point of view.
I also talked to several people as they left the auditorium and asked them if they found Baird-who was there to explain his new position-to be persuasive. To a person, everyone shook their head "no way," including Doris Holmes, active member of the 18th district Democrats, who said, "He lied. He's towing the Bush party line. I can't believe he's a Democrat."
This kind of Bush Dog behavior is not new for Baird, despite his vote against the authorization (which is tempered by a bunch of votes he has taken that are actually pretty right-wing on Iraq since that time). And lest we forget, Baird was a TV star on CNN a few years ago because of his behavior during the Schiavo affair.
This is a Bush Dog through and through. And what this town hall shows is that Bush Dog Democrats are not representing their constituents, despite the nonsense of 'oh those are bloggers who don't like that I'm voting my district'. It turns out that their constituents are also pretty angry.
How many times was Brian Baird on CNN discussing Iraq before he wrote this piece? Follow up: does this op-ed, in and of itself, make Baird a Bush Dog? I think it does.
If you already "hate" the national blogosphere, does it matter that you don't trust us anymore?. First follow-up: if you consider what you are doing a "waste of time," then why should I care? Second follow up: is there anything that Charlie Wilson, a man who couldn't even make it on the ballot for the Democratic primary, could ever do that would be worthy of criticism? Third follow up: if the only people sending you approving links are right-wing blogs, are you still certain that you are defending Democrats? Update from blogger in question:
If in six months he votes to extend FISA the way it is you can go after him all you want, I'll even help you. But right now it sounds like that isn't going to happen.
I think we are basically in agreement here. And btw, my math is superior to Rove's, or pretty much any other professional forecaster, for that matter.
Rather than mandating troop withdrawal, why don't Dems just make it illegal for the Pentagon to hire anymore mercenaries contractors? Talk about cutting the heart out of the war, and the military industrial complex, without ever seeming like you are "opposing the troops." Just end the funding for the mercenaries, and you end the war without even mentioning the troops. Is this doable?
If local governments are giving money to corporations, as I discussed earlier today, why don't they get ownership stakes in those corporations equal to the value of their contributions? Seems like those ownership shares that would end the race to the bottom all by itself. The problem doesn't seem to be that we are giving money to corporations, but rather that local and state government are giving money to corporations without getting anything in return. If someone invested several hundred million dollars in a company, and received no ownership stake in return, wouldn't that person be considered an idiot?
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