This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
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.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
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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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.
For most voters, race wasn’t the point of Tuesday’s election, nor was Barack Obama’s ethnicity in itself a qualification for the presidency.
Still, it’s impossible not to be moved by the way black Americans have greeted his election.
Throughout the country, African Americans have celebrated in streets, homes and churches with pure and open joy. Many of them say the United States looks a lot different to them now than it did just last Monday.
Said one man in Philadelphia, “Our parents left this planet thinking that we would never, ever see this day, when an African American could be elected by all the people to the highest seat in the land.” As he spoke to the Associated Press reporter, his wife wept.
This editorial will appear in Friday's published edition.
Random thoughts
on ballot measure results
•Initiative 1000
The “Death with Dignity” measure modeled on Oregon’s decade-old law passed easily. That’s really not a big surprise; Washington voters have a libertarian streak that tends to favor individual rights – the same attitude that has rejected anti-abortion measures in the past.
The majority might not choose to use physician-assisted aid in dying themselves, but they don’t see why others should be denied the right to end their own lives a little earlier if they are terminally ill.
More was spent on this initiative than on any other ballot measure: $4.9 million by supporters and $1.6 million by opponents. The best arguments for the initiative were made by two former governors of Oregon, who claimed that its assisted suicide law had not been abused.
It's an honor, sort of.
Jim McDermott, Seattle's congressman for life, was named by the Wall Street Journal's editorial page as one of eight congressional Democrats who could get the new Democratic president in trouble.
The Journal editorial today singled out McDermott for dishonorable mention because he is supposedly interested in legislation that would effectively nationalize pensions.
McDermott heads the House Ways and Means subcommittee that would initiate any such legislation.
Other Democratic bogeymen named by the Journal as "Great Society liberals" and "old men in a hurry" include Sen. Chuck Schumer and Reps. Barney Frank, David Obey, George Miller, John Conyers, Pete Stark and Henry Waxman.
From editor emeritus Dave Seago, on the road on the East Coast.
I've long had a jaundiced view of Leo Hindery Jr., the Bellarmine Prep grad who became a big cheese in the go-go telecom industry of the '90s.
But that may change, now that Hindery - perhaps as atonement - is taking a lead role in speaking out against excessive executive compensation.
Many Tacomans will remember when Hindery, as head of AT&T's broadband division, returned to fight Tacoma Power's plans to build a fiber-optic network and launch its own cable TV service.
Hindery's bid failed, in large part because TCI, the monopoly cable company Hindery had headed, was widely despised in Tacoma for its poor service. At the time, AT&T had recently acquired TCI and wanted to keep its monopoly markets intact.
Later, we learned that Hindery had embellished part of his life story. He also got caught up in an accounting scandal as head of the high-flying Global Crossing telecom, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2003.
During the good times, however, Hindery donated $1 million to Bellarmine for minority scholarships.
Hindery is in the news again this week as author of a Business Week article (republished at msnbc.com) calling excessive executive pay "almost obscene" and a "cancer" on the U.S. economy. The New York Times took note of his article today.
Hindery writes:
This editorial appeared in today's print edition.
No recounts.
That’s a blessed result of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s surprisingly comfortable success in her rematch with Republican challenger, Dino Rossi.
Fervent Republicans have never abandoned the belief that Rossi was robbed of a rightful victory in 2004, just as many Democrats believe Al Gore was robbed in Florida in 2000. Gregoire’s re-election should lay to rest all doubt about her legitimacy, even among Republican diehards.
Clearly, most Washingtonians took a good look at her performance over the last four years and liked what they saw.
Looking forward, Gregoire’s biggest challenges are going to come from within her own party. The Legislature is virtually owned by the Democrats right now, and Democratic constituencies – the Washington Education Association, for example – tend to want a bigger piece of the state general fund.
Add the looming $3 billion-plus deficit to the picture, and you’ve got the makings of a ruthless tug-of-war over the state budget.
During an economic downturn, tax increases can only be a last, desperate resort. You cannot tax an economy out of slump; you can tax an economy deeper into one.
