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Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
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Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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Tom McCabe, the Mr. Hardball of Washington state politics, doesn't exactly toss rose petals in his letter to the editor published today in the Wall Street Journal.
For your reading enjoyment, I have lifted it in its entirety. I'm sure the Journal won't mind.
Washington State and Free Speech
Your editorial calling Washington State "scoundrel country" ("Money and Speech," Sept. 26) is spot on. As a conservative, pro-small business association in a state run by labor unions, Indian tribes and environmental extremists, the Building Industry Association of Washington has battled for years to protect our right to champion conservative causes in the political arena.
These left-leaning groups unapologetically flex their political muscle to influence state policy while fighting tooth and nail to deny BIAW the same. Not content to enjoy the inordinate power they enjoy in this liberal, anti-small business state, these groups have worked relentlessly over the past ten years to defund BIAW in an effort to silence the association's lone conservative political voice. After failing in the executive and legislative branches, this most recent attempt to abuse the court system in an effort to do their dirty work also failed.
The judge hearing the case, as did the Journal, saw through the bogus lawsuit and upheld BIAW's free speech rights. Now BIAW is free to continue exercising our First Amendment right to spend money to replace Washington State's anti-small business, pro-big government governor with Dino Rossi. BIAW will vigorously exercise this right until our political foes throw up the next roadblock. But when that happens, we'll beat it back too.
Tom McCabe
Executive Vice President
Building Industry Association of Washington
Olympia, Wash.
Note that neither the Journal nor McCabe mentioned that Washington's Republican (sorry, I mean GOP) attorney general has filed suit against the BIAW for public-disclosure violations involving its independent, big-bucks campaign against Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire. Does that make Rob McKenna a scoundrel, too?
