Can The Times Sink Any Lower?
Sometimes, The Seattle Times has got to make you wonder. It was one thing to go ahead and endorse David Reichert for Congress over Darcy Burner despite widespread dissatisfaction with Republican leadership, but to spin his shameless partisanship as moderation? That's a new low.
In today's Times, chief political reporter David Postman tries to defend Reichert's damning comment (currently viewable in high-rotation Democratic Party attack ad) that, "[W]hen the leadership comes to me and says, 'Dave, we need you to take a vote over here because we want to protect you and keep this majority,' I do it."
For most people, that statement is pretty clear; Reichert follows his orders like a good little Republican lackey. But for Postman, it's a sign of even-handed moderation.
"When Reichert says he has to vote a certain way, he means that in the 8th Congressional District, with its moderate, independent-minded voters, he has to avoid some partisan votes — and does so with the leadership's blessing."
Actually, that still sounds damning: Here's a guy who appeases the folks back home by not voting against their interests and thus stays in office, preserving a Republican majority that, well, is constantly voting against their interests.
And Postman's coup de grâce? "This sounds like Reichert's centrism is pragmatism, not ideology. At the Mainstream Republican conference you can hear well-credentialed moderates like Dan Evans talk about why they think the way they do. And I haven't heard them say they are moderates in order to keep Republicans in power. I think Reichert was misreading his audience and wasn't thinking about how the comments would sound in a campaign context."
That's pretty lame in a day and age in which even the steadfastly centrist New Republic editorializes: "At best, moderate Republicans have been hapless dupes. At worst, they've been co-conspirators. In either case, they have done almost nothing to alleviate the radical or corrupt tendencies of Republican Washington. Extinguishing the moderates at the polls this November is not a vote for mindless partisanship. It is simply a vote for transparency."
