The International Association of Fire Fighters is scheduled today to announce its endorsement of Democratic Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd for president. It's a big boost for Dodd who has run in the second tier, at best, among Democratic candidates. The Hartford Courant reports:

The 280,000-member union, whose backing was sought by most major candidates, will provide Dodd with an instant network of local workers throughout the country as well as some potential for more fundraising.

...

IAFF President Harold Schaitberger, a well-known figure in political and Washington insider circles, is expected to make the announcement today at a downtown hotel. Dodd will then immediately embark on a multi-state tour with firefighters, who are particularly active in New Hampshire, the nation's first primary state.

As the New York Times points out, only one major candidate had zero chance of getting the union's backing — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

In fact, the union has made it a mission to attack his candidacy, issuing a video harshly critical of his management as mayor of New York in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Giuliani today will appear with his own firefighters and law enforcement types, including Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn. Giuliani will hold a press conference in South Carolina with the chairmen of "First Responders for Rudy."

Giuliani will appear at a fire station in Greenville with Reichert, chairman of the Law Enforcement Coalition, former New York City police and fire commissioner Howard Safir and Jim Bowie, executive director of the South Carolina State Firefighters Association.

Giuliani spokesman Elliot Bundy said the event is in South Carolina because it is an important early primary state and because there are about 300 professional and volunteer firefighters who have signed on to the Firefighters Coalition for Rudy. Reichert is a former King County sheriff and has some national profile from his work investigating the Green River killer. Said Bundy:

"Reichert's involvement is a recruiting tool for building this coalition across the country. He will have a very active role in the campaign from here on out."

Reichert may be able to help with firefighters, too. The Seattle firefighters union and the State Council of Firefighters endorsed him for re-election last year.

There are benefits for Reichert, too. Said his chief of staff, Mike Shields:

"Its flattering. To be utilized as a surrogate in an important early primary state is exciting."

But I also think that if Reichert can have a meaningful role with the Giuliani campaign it may help take attention away from his close ties to President Bush.

It's interesting timing this week. Monday, Bush was here for Reichert, a visit that turned into a fundraising bonanza for Darcy Burner. Today Reichert appears with Giuliani on the other side of the country. Bush is the past, Giuliani the future — or so Reichert hopes.

Most of the money, $500,000, raised by President Bush's Monday visit was for Congressman Dave Reichert and the state party. Reichert Chief of Staff Mike Shields said they don't yet know how much of that was from maxed out Reichert donors and will have to be forwarded to the party.

But Democrat Darcy Burner also raised $122,000 from visit, said Burner aide Sandeep Kaushik. That came from 3,192 online donors and exceeded the goal of 3,000 donors to "Burn Bush for Burner" that had been set by the nation's top liberal blogger, Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos. Kaushik told me the campaign was "still a little thunderstruck by it."

"It shows the growing power of the netroots. And their growing sophistication."

The protests or collateral money raised by Burner didn't diminish the Reichert camp's pleasure with having the president in the district. Shields said of the president:

"We asked him very early, put a request in in January, as soon as the last campaign was over almost, because we knew he would be able to come in and raise a tremendous amount of money for us."

The Idaho Statesman interviewed Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, in May about an allegation that he had sex with a man he had met in a restroom in a D.C. train station. Craig denied that, as well as other allegations the paper had discovered in reporting on long-standing rumors about the senator's private sexual life. The paper said today:

Until Monday, the Statesman had declined to run a story about Craig's sex life, because the paper didn't have enough corroborating evidence and because of the senator's steadfast denial.

News in Roll Call yesterday, though, about Craig's arrest and guilty plea for allegedly cruising for sex in a Minneapolis airport bathroom, prompted the paper to run its story today. The Minneapolis incident happened a month after Craig's denial to the paper.

In an interview on May 14, Craig told the Idaho Statesman he'd never engaged in sex with a man or solicited sex with a man. The Craig interview was the culmination of a Statesman investigation that began after a blogger accused Craig of homosexual sex in October. Over five months, the Statesman examined rumors about Craig dating to his college days and his 1982 pre-emptive denial that he had sex with underage congressional pages.

The most serious finding by the Statesman was the report by a professional man with close ties to Republican officials. The 40-year-old man reported having oral sex with Craig at Washington's Union Station, probably in 2004. The Statesman also spoke with a man who said Craig made a sexual advance toward him at the University of Idaho in 1967 and a man who said Craig "cruised" him for sex in 1994 at the REI store in Boise. The Statesman also explored dozens of allegations that proved untrue, unclear or unverifiable.

I am going to be taking some time off and working part-time, at best, for the next week or so. I am going to try to enjoy the final days of summer and hope you can do the same.

CNN mentions former Sen. Slade Gorton among the names being floated as possible nominees for President Bush's next attorney general.

Gorton's work with the 9/11 Commission gave him his highest profile since his 2000 defeat. He was critical of the administration at times in that role, as well as more recently in regards to the firing of former U.S. Attorney John McKay. Gorton told the New York Times it was a mistake for the Justice Department to say that McKay had been fired for performance reasons.

I can see the attraction for the Bush administration in a Gorton appointment. He would bring a seriousness to the job that has been missing and no one would question his intelligence or experience. His stock with Democrats in Congress likely went up with his 9/11 work. I can't imagine Gorton would want the job, except to help out George W. Bush, who he has supported since the earliest days of Bush's first campaign for president. It's a longshot, no doubt, but the prospect gives Washington state a little extra interest in the late-summer news out of D.C.

CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller wrote today on the network's blog about what it's like to be on President Bush's press plane when the news is happening elsewhere.

So what happens, while we're half-way to Central Texas? The president walks out to Marine One to announce the resignation of his senior advisor Karl Rove.

And again this morning, the President ends his two-week ranch stay and arrives at TSTC Airfield in Waco — to makes his first public statement on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

But where was most of the traveling press? On yet another press charter just arriving in Seattle, where Mr. Bush would be coming later in the day to do a fund-raiser in nearby Bellevue for Congressman Dave Reichert, R-WA.

I've covered enough presidential visits to know reporters don't get much up-close access. But Knoller lifts the curtain a bit about what life is like in the press pack that follows Bush, though not always as close as you may think.

Truth be told, on most presidential trips, many of us in the press corps cover his statements and actions without actually laying eyes on him.

We hear his statements on audio feeds from the White House Communications Agency or see live video transmissions arranged by the TV Networks. We get written reports from our colleagues in the pool with the President and we get transcripts of his statements from the White House stenographers.

More often than not, we're always in the same city with him. So the dateline on our reports matched the place in which the President actually spoke.

Pool reports, stenography from the White House and watching TV? They could, and should, be doing their jobs poolside in Vegas.

Larry Craig has issued a statement about his arrest in Minneapolis. His site is down because of too much traffic. But the AP reports:

``At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,'' he said. ``I should have had the advice of counsel in resolving this matter. In hindsight, I should not have pled guilty. I was trying to handle this matter myself quickly and expeditiously.''

Roll Call has the story.

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in June at a Minnesota airport by a plainclothes police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's public restroom, according to an arrest report obtained by Roll Call Monday afternoon.

Craig's arrest occurred just after noon on June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. On Aug. 8, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in the Hennepin County District Court. He paid more than $500 in fines and fees, and a 10-day jail sentence was stayed. He also was given one year of probation with the court that began on Aug. 8.

A spokesman for Craig described the incident as a "he said/he said misunderstanding," and said the office would release a fuller statement later Monday afternoon.

Roll Call's site is unavailable due to high traffic. The arrest began when Craig entered a bathroom stall adjacent to where the undercover cop was. There was some activity that the cop said was well known to be signals from someone interested in sex in the airport restroom known for such things. Craig says it was a misunderstanding and he did not mean to signal anyone by moving his foot under the stall to touch the foot of the man in the next stall.

Craig stated "that he has a wide stance when going to the bathroom and that his foot may have touched mine," the report states. Craig also told the arresting officer that he reached down with his right hand to pick up a piece of paper that was on the floor.

Last year the Web site blogactive.com
claimed Craig was a closeted homosexual.

Craig's office told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the charge was "completely ridiculous," saying that the allegations had "no basis in fact."

Democrat Darcy Burner is benefiting from an online, counter-fundraiser to President Bush's visit today for Congressman Dave Reichert. So far that has earned her $79,135 over four days. Burner has been promoting her fundraiser through well-established ties with the netroots. The campaign says the money has come from

ordinary Americans determined to "Send a Message" to President Bush and his close ally, Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, that the war in Iraq must be brought to a responsible close.

This afternoon, while Bush is raising money for Reichert in Bellevue, Burner will hold a "virtual townhall" meeting to "discuss concretely how to get out of Iraq responsibly." A panel discussion will feature military veterans, anti-war activists and UW law professor Clark Lombardi.

Burner showed in her run against Reichert last year that she has a strong online presence that can help her overcome the incumbent's traditional fundraising advantage. But her campaign sees the past days activities as something more. It's an attempt to nationalize the race and get money and attention from around the country from people looking to channel anti-Bush fervor. Burner campaign aide Sandeep Kaushik told me:

"We're talking about essentially a local congressional race that is going to develop a national profile and it allows for people concerned about the direction of the country to really engage to form a national community over the Web, to concentrate their efforts in a specific location."

The fundraising — tagged Burn Bush for Burner — has been organized and pushed by some of the best-read of the national liberal blogs, including DailyKos, firedoglake.com and AmericaBlog. The local bloggers that have been among Burner's most ardent supporters have also helped organize and promote the effort. Says Kaushik:

"I think the way the bloggers see this is as a dry run or test run to create at template they can use in other places to push back against Bush visits. ... It's beyond money. This has been getting intense attention in the blogosphere. People have been seeing stuff about this race, people in D.C. We're engaging the netroots in part, frankly, to get around the jaded traditional media that doesn't quite get how campaigning is changing and what the impact the Web is having on organizing politically and getting messages out to folks."

In addition to the townhall, which will be streamed on her Web site at 3 p.m., Burner will hold a media availability in Bellevue to talk about Reichert and Bush.

The Bush visit is bringing a little negative attention to Burner from the left-wing of the Democratic Party.

There's only one thing wrong with Darcy: she refuses to talk frankly about impeachment.

That's from Bob Fertig.

Yes, I know Bush will be on his way out the door when Darcy is sworn in on January 6, 2009. But Darcy refused to talk about impeachment in 2006, when she could have impeached Bush had she won. If George Bush is not an issue for the 2008 election, then Darcy should apply that principle across the board and never mention his name — which is absurd because Darcy is happy to talk about Bush every chance she gets, and is happy to raise big bucks from the Netroots while he's visiting her district.

Fertig asks, "does she think the impeachment movement is made up of Dirty Hippies and she'll get the cooties by associating with us?"

Meanwhile, Burner's Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Rodney Tom, has taken a much more low-profile approach to the Bush visit. He says he and his campaign have been helping to encourage people to attend protests near the Bush event. He will join the protest himself. He said:

"It surprises me that Reichert would want to be so blatant with his affiliation to Bush."

I'm taking a few days off and will return early next week.

Seattle City Council candidate Tim Burgess kicked off his general election campaign this morning with an apology to his opponent, incumbent David Della. Last week, Burgess put out a press release accusing Della of voting against an increase in police staffing. The proposal never got a vote, though.

"I apologize for the mistake," Burgess said. "I had erroneously thought that Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck's proposal to significantly increase police staffing due to the extreme shortfall had actually gone to a vote, but it had not. Peter's colleagues did not support his proposal and it was not brought forward for a vote. I regret the error."

It's rare to see a politician issue such a clear-cut apology as Burgess did. The press release he issued this morning includes no shot at Della, doesn't blame it on poor staff work or rely on any of the other usual tricks for a political apology.

The press release on Burgess' campaign Web site has been rewritten. But I doubt the new version will make Della any happier. It now accuses Della and other city officials of having "neglected additional police staffing."

Della objected to Burgess' initial charge and issued his own press release last week with a supporter accusing Burgess of "doctoring David's record on public safety."

The White House is ready for you, according to the counter-protest handbook the Washington Post read.

To counter any demonstrators who do get in, advance teams are told to create "rally squads" of volunteers with large hand-held signs, placards or banners with "favorable messages." Squads should be placed in strategic locations and "at least one squad should be 'roaming' throughout the perimeter of the event to look for potential problems," the manual says.

...

"If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site."

But none of that is operative if the protesters can't be seen by reporters.

"If it is determined that the media will not see or hear them and that they pose no potential disruption to the event, they can be ignored. On the other hand, if the group is carrying signs, trying to shout down the President, or has the potential to cause some greater disruption to the event, action needs to be taken immediately to minimize the demonstrator's effect."

One of the most colorful politicians in the state was forced into retirement last night. Republican state Sen. Jim Clements of Yakima was defeated by primary challenger Curtis King. I'm having a hard time accessing the Yakima-Herald site this morning. But the paper has the story and says, "Jim Clements, R-Selah, called it a career Tuesday night as political newcomer Curtis King easily swept past him after months of grass-roots campaigning ... ."

King got 56 percent of the vote n the two-way primary. He is a conservative businessman and he directed much of his campaign to the GOP base in conservative Yakima. Clements campaigned more as a pragmatist, reportedly telling voters of how well he works with the Democratic majority in Olympia. That didn't sell with primary voters.

Clements is well-known in Olympia for his country ways of speechifying. His comments during floor debates are always colorful, often funny and sometimes totally inexplicable. He referred to himself as "the old porch dog," but that was one of his favorite phrases and he often used it to describe others as well.

Clements is also unusually polite. We don't see that often in politics. I bet today he's feeling a little bit like that cat in a stovepipe he used to talk about.

The group that fought successfully two years ago to keep the state gas tax increase in place is fast raising money to help pass a regional transportation plan that would raise taxes to pay for nearly $18 billion in projects.

Keep Washington Rolling has raised $689,550 this year for the campaign to pass a three-county roads package and an expansion of Sound Transit. Microsoft is the top donor, having given $200,000 earlier this month. The list below shows all the 2007 donors and you'll see that many of the companies and unions are involved in the road- and rail-building business.

08/14 — $200,000 MICROSOFT CORPORATION

08/16 — $75,000 SEATTLE MARINERS

06/29 — $50,000 WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

07/13 — $40,000 NAIOP WA STATE CHAPTER

07/17 — $35,000 ACEC WASHINGTON

08/09 — $33,000 WA ST. BLDG. & CONST. TRADES COUNCIL

08/09 — $30,000 HNTB CORPORATION

08/14 — $30,000 PB AMERICAS INC.

07/31 — $25,000 PEMCO MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY

06/12 -- $25,000 PEMCO MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY

07/25 — $20,000 AGC OF WASHINGTON

08/09 — $20,000 BUILDERS UNITED IN LEGISLATIVE DEV.

07/19 — $20,000 PERTEET INC.

08/10 — $15,000 WOODWORTH & COMPANY INC.

08/16 — $10,000 AEROSPACE MACH. IND. DIST. LODGE #751

07/31 — $10,000 ARCHITECTS & ENGINEERS LEG. COUNCIL

07/13 — $10,000 NAIOP

07/18 — $10,000 WASHINGTON STATE LABOR COUNCIL

08/14 — $10,000 WASHINGTON STATE LABOR COUNCIL

07/16 — $7,000 WA ST. BLDG. & CONST. TRADES COUNCIL

08/16 — $5,000 ARUP NORTH AMERICA LTD.

07/31 — $5,000 WASHINGTON STATE LABOR COUNCIL

08/14 — $2,500 PIERCE CO. BLDG. & CONST. TRADES COUNCIL

08/16 — $1,000 RENTON CARPENTERS UNION LOCAL 1797

07/26 — $500 BAYLIS ARCHITECTS

06/25 — $500 DOUG Levy

08/08 — $50 RICHARD D. ALMY

There is an opposition committee organized by the Sierra Club. The Slog looks at how the Sierra Club has split from the wider environmental community on the vote. But so far I don't find any money raised by that group, or by the Eastside Transportation Alliance
Association, which also opposes the fall ballot measure.

It was obvious last year that the 8th Congressional District race was a priority for Republicans who badly wanted Congressman Dave Reichert to keep his seat. Since Reichert's re-election, details have emerged about the extent of that effort. When the House earlier this year began investigating Karl Rove's blending of politics and government operations, we learned Reichert was at the top of the list for help from D.C.

A PowerPoint done by a Rove deputy to the General Services Administration — made public by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — showed Reichert got a boost from 585,164 GOP voter contacts, 41,666 on election day alone and more than 100,000 above what was done in any other district.

Now the Washington Post provides the most detailed look yet at how hard Rove worked to make sure the Bush administration was doing everything it could to help Republican candidates.

The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's re-election agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort.

"The White House determines which members need visits," said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove "deployment" team, "and where we need to be strategically placing our assets.

The Post says that Rove and his deputies gave political briefings more than 100 times so far in Bush's two terms in office. The paper points out that Rove and his deputies were careful about keeping their activities within the law and cautioned against violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by federal employees.

The political sessions touched nearly all of the Cabinet departments and a handful of smaller agencies that often had major roles in providing grants, such as the White House office of drug policy and the State Department's Agency for International Development.

Was Reichert a beneficiary of Rove's work? A look at Reichert's press releases from 2006 show he had grants to announce and administration officials to appear at his side for press conferences and public appearances. (I've listed those below.) The "news" and events certainly sound like the kind of coordination Rove was looking for to help Republican candidates.

I asked Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, if the campaign benefited from Rove's coordination of administration activities.

"The real answer to that is, you have to ask them. We would have no way of knowing why they are offering to help us with something, If they say, 'Would you like to have a cabinet person travel out to the district,' we don't know what the motivation would be. We just know they are offering to send someone out."

Obviously there are legitimate reasons for administration officials to travel to the Seattle area. This month alone, Shields said, there were seven or eight visits from administration officials. Reichert was not involved with any of those.

"It's hard to know, are they doing it because they are pursuing their own agenda or are they doing it because we are there? I would argue they didn't send the trade representative out last week to help us. They just give us a head's up that she was going to be here."

There have been plenty of offers of help from D.C. In fact, even given the administration appearances in the district and grant announcements, more often than not, Shields said, Reichert "respectfully declined their offer to have someone appear out here." Shields has a view of the White House political operation that differs some from the accolades Republicans have for Rove and Democrats' picture of him as the evil genius of the Bush political operation.

"Actually we have been quite frustrated with the administration when they did things that we didn't want them to do, or when they have done things that were politically not very helpful to us."

Here are a couple of examples. In 2005, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released some TV ads designed to fight meth. ONDCP officials appeared in Seattle, with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Just last week the Department of Transportation announced it was giving King County a grant of $138.7 million as part of a new program to fight traffic jams. one of the first communities to participate in a new federal initiative to fight traffic gridlock. Murray was the only member of Congress quoted. The money will be used on SR 520, which is in Reichert's district. Shields said:

"I did ask the White House why that happened."

Shields said that Murray's office seems to have better communication with the administration than his office. (Shields says I overstated this. He said Murray's office does "seem to be able to get a heads up quicker than us very often" but that is not to say that in general her office has better communication with the administration. Fair clarification.) It matters, he says, because "there is a game played in Washington state about who can get their press releases out faster to make an announcement." That can determine who the press gives credit to for congressional action.

"Most of the time it appears that even though Dave is a ranking member on a homeland subcommittee in the House, many, many times we find that she has gotten a head's up about information like that from people before we have."

That said, Reichert last year had news and announcements throughout his campaign against Democrat Darcy Burner:

Oct. 25: Reichert issues a press release praising the Federal Emergency Management Agency "for their expedited action in signing a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) to allow the construction of a new biodiesel production plant" in Grays Harbor.

Oct. 11: Reichert appears at a Bellevue fire station with Admiral Thomas J. Barrett, administrator of the U.S Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. They announce a Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness Grant.

September 25: Reichert issues a press release announcing "port security funds he has advocated for were awarded to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma."

July 11: Reichert issues press release saying he helped to secure "a $2 million grant the City of Renton received from the U.S. Economic Development Administration."

April 10: Reichert holds a field hearing on emergency preparedness and appears at a press conference with George Foresman, Under Secretary of Preparedness for the Department of Homeland Security.

March 21: Reichert holds roundtable discussion with local law enforcement officials and John Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. A press release says: "The topic of the roundtable will be the successes King County and Pierce County have achieved in their fight against meth."

Reichert and Walters also tour the Pediatric Interim Care Center in Kent and hold a press conference together.

Congressman Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, is featured in a front page Washington Post story this morning about Democrats' changing view on Iraq.

Not every Democrat has come back from Iraq supporting a drawdown of U.S. forces in the coming months, as party leaders have advocated. Staking out positions that could complicate efforts to achieve party unity in September, a few Democratic lawmakers have returned expressing support for a continued troop presence. One of them, Rep. Brian Baird (Wash.), said yesterday that he will no longer vote for binding troop withdrawal timelines.

But the Post has been hit with a common journalistic malady: Rampant pluralism. A careful reading shows that so far Baird stands alone with a substantive change of heart about Iraq. The Post points out that Republicans are eager to use any positive statements about Iraq from Democrats to show the party splitting on the war. (And this morning the Republican National Committee features on its homepage a Washington Times story, "Democrats See 'Results' In Iraq." But as the Post points out:

At times, such statements have been clearly taken out of context. When Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) returned from Iraq and said, "We're making some measurable progress," the GOP declared that the Democratic leadership had splintered on the war. What Republicans left out was the rest of Durbin's remarks: "We cannot win this war militarily. We just can't send enough troops."

The paper says "some Democrats have shifted their views" and use Baird as the best example. He clearly has changed his mind and no longer supports the Democrats' withdrawal plan.

That followed comments by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) suggesting that his trip to Iraq made him more flexible in his search for a bipartisan accord on the future U.S. role in the conflict. "If anything, I'm more willing to work to find a way forward," he told reporters late last month.

Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.), who was with McNerney, told his local paper that the troop increase "has really made a difference and really has gotten al-Qaeda on their heels."

But neither Mahoney or McNerney came back "expressing support for a continued troop presence" — at least not in conflict with the Democratic conventional wisdom.

The Contra Costa Times reported late last month:

Freshman Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney remains committed to a timeline for U.S. withdrawal of troops from Iraq but expressed willingness to be more flexible following a weekend trip to visit American troops and Iraqi leaders in Baghdad and Ramadi.

He did say he's more willing to work toward a bipartisan agreement on Iraq. But he remains committed to a timetable for bringing U.S. troops home.

Ready or not, McNerney says he delivered a clear message to the Iraqi leaders: The U.S. cannot remain in Iraq indefinitely.

"The timetable is really important," he said. "We do want to give them enough time to ... get them into a situation where they can resist (the insurgents) but we can't stay there forever."

And McNerney made clear in an essay on his Web site that he has not backed off a withdrawal timetable.

Even though we were shown some successes, Iraq is still engaged in a religious civil war. I believe we must keep the pressure on to end the conflict and bring our troops home. The most direct way to do this is through setting a timeline. We need to set a definite start date and a definite strategy to end our military involvement. And in between, we need definite benchmarks.

Mahoney also still supports setting a deadline for withdrawal, according to his homestate press.

Yet, for the U.S., the question is not "whether" to stage a drawdown of U.S. forces deployed in Iraq, but "how," Mahoney said Monday after a fact-finding trip to Iraq last weekend.

There may be a split among Democrats when Congress reconvenes and hears the much anticipated progress report on the Iraq surge. But it hasn't happened yet, despite a few encouraging words from a few Democrats.

Carolyn Busch, the chief of staff to the state Senate Democratic Caucus and one of Majority Leader Lisa Brown's closest aides, is leaving to take a job with the University of Washington. Busch announced her depature in an e-mail this afternoon. Her new job will be with the UW's Planning and Budget Division.

Washington's Democratic delegation was united last month when Congress called to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq this year with a timetable that would have most out by April 2008.

But Congressman Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, said he only reluctantly voted for the resolution after failing to dissuade fellow Democrats from the tactic during closed-door caucus meetings. If he had to do it again, he said, he'd vote against the Democrats' move.

Now, fresh from a trip to Iraq and the Middle East, Baird is making his differences clear. He says there has been progress in Iraq in recent months due to the U.S. military surge and cooperation among rival Iraqi factions. He voted against the invasion of Iraq and says he's glad he did that. The invasion and occupation have included some of the worst diplomatic and military mistakes in history, he said.

But today Baird has trust in, and respect for, U.S. military and diplomatic leaders in Iraq. After years of doubts he said he feels he's getting "fully honest reports" about the war from the Bush administration.

At the core of Baird's evolution on Iraq is a fundamental change in his view of the "pretty standard wisdom" about the benefits of a troop withdrawal. That has been, he said, "if we didn't talk about pulling out there wouldn't be pressure on the Iraqis to make progress."

"I've come to see it almost in the opposite way."

Baird says a threat of a quick withdrawal brings a fear of a pending civil war. That, he said, could lead the Maliki government to foster closer ties to Iran out of "self defense." Forces on all sides in Iraq may decide to "retreat to the trenches and build their alliances."

"It seems to me the threat of withdrawal is not such a clean instrument and may be counter-productive."

Beyond strategic concerns, Baird says Americans have to remember the full story of Iraq.

"We have to really remind the American people that we destroyed their civil government, their police force, the military, their infrastructure; we left the borders unguarded and open ... and we also shut down most state industry, leaving people out of work and filled with resentment.

"We have a moral responsibility to try to help these people whose lives we have impacted."

Compare that to what one of Baird's Washington colleagues said after the July vote.

Rep. Jay Inslee, a Washington Democrat, said the United States has given Iraqi leaders "a reasonable chance" to work out their differences, and it was time for American troops to come home.

"The moral obligation to Iraq has been completed," he said. "The moral obligation to our families now needs to be honored."

I asked Baird if his views made him an outlier among House Democrats. He said that's probably true, though he hasn't heard much from colleagues since he returned from Iraq last week.

Baird was in Iraq and the Middle East in May. He said after that trip he sensed some progress. But this time he said he saw even more improvements in the U.S. battle to calm the Iraq insurgency. He was in Yusufiyah, on the Tigris River, which he described as "one of the corners of the Triangle of Death."

It has been a "very, very difficult place to hold" for U.S. troops. There were regular rocket and mortar attacks on the U.S. base and, Baird said, "every time they'd go out they were hit with IEDs and ambushes and they were getting no cooperation from local community leaders."

The congressman met there with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, Gen. David Petraeus and other officials. He said that last week he saw Sheiks and community leaders embracing U.S. troops figuratively and literally, whereas before they only met with military officials rarely and in secret.

Locals spray paint locations of IEDs and warn soldiers about the explosive devices. Mortar attacks are now rare, he said.

Baird said he would never say, as Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence did, that his visit was like going to his local farmer's market. Said Baird:

"There's a long way to go but the progress is real."

This will put him at odds with many state Democrats.

"You have to ask yourself on the progressive side, are we really comfortable leaving people -- who did nothing to have us attack them -- at the mercy of people who will cut heads off civilians and car-bomb schools because there are girls there? Are we really comfortable, morally, leaving that fate to those people and possibly allowing that to expand and spread?

"We are where we are and it's not about whether we like George Bush or not or whether we think one position will help win the next election or not."

The insurance industry-backed campaign
to repeal a new state insurance law began airing a TV commercial statewide today.

The spot continues the story line of the law firm "Sooem, Settle & Kashin" — the insurer's parody of a greedy law firm. They used the same take during the campaign to collect signatures for the referendum.

There is going to be an expensive campaign around Referendum 67. The Olympian's Brad Shannon reports today that the insurance industry continues to give generously.

New data on file with the state Public Disclosure Commission shows that the insurer-backed Consumers Against Higher Insurance Rates committee has raised $4.78 million for its no-on-Ref. 67 effort. The same group had collected signatures forcing the Legislature's action onto the Nov. 6 ballot.

Of the donations, more than two-thirds, or roughly $3.4 million, comes from out of state, led by the $1.6 million given by Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., according to an Olympian analysis of data filed with the PDC.

The other side, Approve 67, continues to rely heavily on trial lawyers, but has raised only $471,333,

Poulsbo's presidential candidate, Democrat Dal LaMagna, has left his New Hampshire encampment to return to the Middle East. His campaign said today:

Representatives of the Coalition Forces have responded to the proposal from various groups comprising the Iraq Nationalist Forces that Mohammed al-Dynee and Dal had submitted to General Paul Newton about a month ago.

LaMagna began his very long-shot campaign for president from Baghdad. He met there, and earlier in Amman, with various Iraqi figures, including a controversial leader of the Iraqi resistance.

Newton is a British general that LaMagna met on his most recent trip. That meeting is the focus of a piece on This American Life about LaMagna's one-man peacemaking venture.

Dal LaMagna, millionaire and creator of the Tweezerman tweezer, prepares to go to Iraq on a diplomatic mission he invented for himself — despite concern (and mocking) from his own sister.

It's an interesting piece and though LaMagna recorded all the conversations himself, it ends up presenting what struck me as a balanced view of his quixotic trip. After a long meeting with another British officer, Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, and his Iraqi connections, LaMagna stops on the way out to press the general to negotiate a ceasefire.

LaMagna: And I hope something useful can come from this.

Lamb: The answer is that for four years I have been having these conversations.

This would allow everyone to concentrate on al-Qaeda, the criminals at large in Iraq, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard members who have infiltrated the Militias, and even the Ministry of Interior in Iraq.

Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr will be chairman of the state's new public records committee, says the AP. And that isn't sitting well with one prominent advocate for open records. The AP quotes Greg Overstreet, AG Rob McKenna's former public records ombudsman, as saying there is no "more polarizing figure."

Overstreet is unhappy with the Carr appointment largely because of two specific cases. One was the city's withholding of information when the PI made public records requests statewide in preparation for a story on police DUIs. The other was a case known as Hangartner that went to the state Supreme Court. The high court sided with Seattle that Sound Transit documents could be kept private because they were protected by attorney-client privilege.

Gregoire is not likely to be sympathetic to arguements that someone who iscompromised on the question of public records because they argued for that decision -- a ruling the media and public records advocates said was a major step back in disclosure law. Gregoire was on the same side as Carr.

As attorney general, she urged the justices to make sure that the privilege protecting conversations between lawyers and their clients be recognized for attorneys who represent public agencies."

That was one of the reasons that David Zeeck, executive editor of The News Tribune, once wrote about Gregoire:

When it comes to open government, Gregoire is -- as we say in Texas about people who play at being cowboys -- more hat than cattle.

Congressman Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, is back from a trip to Iraq and says he'll be in no hurry to withdraw U.S. troops. Brad Shannon of The Olympian reports:

With Congress poised next month to look at U.S. progress in Iraq and a vote looming on U.S. funding for the war, Baird said he's inclined to seek a continued U.S. presence in Iraq beyond what many impatient Americans want. He also expects Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. troops in Iraq, to seek a redeployment of forces. "People may be upset. I wish I didn't have to say this," Baird said. He added that the United States needs to continue with its military troops surge "at least into early next year, then engage in a gradual redeployment. ... I know it's going to cost hundreds of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars."

Baird voted against the initial invasion of Iraq. He says that was the right decision. But, he told Shannon, "we're making real progress" and "I think the consequences of pulling back precipitously would be potentially catastrophic for the Iraqi people themselves."

Telephones were ringing throughout the 8th Congressional District the evening of Aug. 6. It was Congressman Dave Reichert calling 47,000 of his constituents. If they were home, they heard this recorded message:

Hi, this is Congressman Dave Reichert. I'm currently holding a live town meeting over the phone. We'll be discussing issues important to you and I'll be happy to take your questions. If you'd like to join, please press one on your phone. Again, I'm here on the line. To hear the latest updates on activity in Washington and ask me a question, please press one and we'll have a chance to talk.

About 400 people pressed "1" and joined Reichert for his first district-wide "tele-town hall." It was about an hour-long conference call that for Reichert has replaced the old-fashioned, in-person, town hall meeting.

Actually, Reichert, a two-term Republican, has never held a traditional town hall meeting. Early in his first term he convened a panel discussion to talk about Social Security. But that didn't go well.

"People started chanting and yelling," Reichert's chief of staff, Mike Shields, said this week. The forum was moderated by Times editorial page editor Jim Vesely. He wrote afterward that the event turned into a "hockey game." That was the end of any plans for open-door town halls for Reichert. Said Shields:

The old school town hall meting where Norman Rockwell-like citizens stand up to ask their elected representative a question just isn't possible. ... It'd be better to just say, "Let's have a rumble." It's political theater. That's what town halls have turned into.

Reichert has not stopped meeting with constituents. There are small-group meetings in the district. In D.C., Shields said, "he meets with anyone who wants to see him." That has included representatives of the liberal group MoveOn.org, union officials and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.

Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane has also used the tele-town hall, though she continues to do in-person events as well. I checked with a few other members of the delegation. Democratic Reps. Adam Smith, Brian Baird and Jay Inslee haven't done any conference calls and continue schedules of in-person events. Baird has done an online session. He has three in-person town halls scheduled this month, which will bring his total to 285 town halls since being elected in 1998. Smith has a town hall in SeaTac Aug. 22 and Inslee has three scheduled next month.

Tele-town halls are operated by a contractor who has a database of active voters in the district. For Reichert's event last week, only registered voters who voted in both of the two most recent elections — so-called two-of-twos — got calls inviting them to join the discussion. That provides an audience of the most regular voters.

If people have a question, they push a button on their phone and they talk to a call screener. Reichert's staff worked with the screener and a moderator to choose the questions, Shields said. Argumentative people can easily be cut off. Repetitious questions can be avoided. Shields said:

The tone, the demeanor is different. People aren't going on a rant. We just think that's a better way to communicate with people.

But it also allows Congressional staff to screen out any potentially embarrassing questions or even challenging or probing questions. Shields said they didn't do that. Reichert wasn't asked any questions about Iraq. But Shields said that's because no one posed a question about the war. He said there was no censorship.

There were questions about immigration, energy policy, campaign finance and a plea for Reichert to support a Constitutional amendment for congressional term limits. (He doesn't support that.)

The tele-town hall allows members to take instant polls of their constituents. About half-way through Reichert's call, the moderator announced there would be a survey that callers could answer by pushing buttons on their telephones:

An interesting feature of these conference calls is we can take live calls and get live feedback with folks who are on the phone and sort of hear about what you're thinking. And the congressman can get your votes on certain current issues and we can talk a little about how people are feeling and get live data reported right back to us.

The question was about what people thought should have happened with the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which Congress recently renewed.

Reichert voted against the renewal because he objected to how it would be financed.

Reichert said he could not vote for an expansion of the children's program that would be funded partially by cuts to Medicare Advantage, a Republican-backed program that provides seniors with health care from private insurers.

Reichert gave a lengthy explanation of the bill and outlined his objections. He said that he knew the vote would be used against him. He told callers:

Over the next few weeks you'll hear some media, they'll say, "Reichert doesn't support children's health care." Dave Reichert does support children's health care, but not at the cost of taking health care away from our seniors.

And that's how the question was posed:

Press the corresponding button on your phone to indicate your opinion: To pay for this critical children's health care program we should, 1) cut Medicare, 2) raise tobacco taxes or, 3) we shouldn't renew the program.

Reichert's position is No. 2, raise tobacco taxes. In an e-mail newsletter sent afterwards, Reichert said:

I wanted to poll the callers on how they would fund health care for children — giving callers the same choice I had when I took my vote: to fund the program through cigarette taxes or by cutting seniors' health care by $200 billion. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of taxing cigarettes. Not one person chose to cut seniors' health care, echoing my vote on the floor.

A day after the bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, Sen. Patty Murray joined other Senate Democrats to accuse the Bush administration of failing to maintain the country's bridges. And she had a dynamite anecdote:

"I have learned of a bridge where school buses have to stop and let all of the children out and pick them up on the other side because of weight restrictions."

The Hill reports that the anecdote was quickly repeated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"The children have to walk across the bridge!" he declared in outrage.

The Hill's Under the Dome blog — third item — tried to get some specifics on the bridge.

So where's this limited-purpose bridge? Reid's office said to ask Murray. Murray said to call her office. Spokesman Mike Spahn looked into it. A couple of weeks later, where is that bridge?

Well, Spahn doesn't know. He said an unnamed member told Murray the story minutes before she addressed reporters, but she didn't hear where it was.

Ah, well, everybody loves a good story.

UPDATE: In the comments, Toby Nixon shows Murray's staff and lazy reporters like me how it's done.

Somebody needs to teach Sen. Murray's staff how to search the web. It took me about 30 seconds to find a reference to this school bus story in U.S. Senate testimony from the president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers in September 2002 (he says it was in Washington County, Alabama, but doesn't cite a source):

I also found this reference to a similar situation in Guam:

Boeing is getting "buddy-buddy" with influential reporters as its campaign against Northrop Grumman/EADS heats up to see who gets to build the Air Force's new aerial tanker. David Axe, a D.C.-based military writer, tells all on his blog about a recent Boeing press junket for influential bloggers.

Some military news stories are the result of careful study of leaked internal documents. Some come from stomping around places like Iraq and Afghanistan in a helmet and body armor. And some stories are handed to you on silver platters. This is definitely the latter. Boeing is flying around a dozen bloggers out to Everett, Washington to schmooze with corporate big wigs and see the 767 assembly line. Food and transportation are covered. We bloggers pay only for one night in a moderately priced hotel.

Axe says Boeing spends $2 million a year on its media campaign around the bid for the new tanker. The recent D.C.-to-Everett trip included Axe, writing for Defense Technology International, and reporters for NPR, Reuters, The Hill, The Weekly Standard and a couple of military blogs. Some of those news organizations, he said in an addendum, donated money to charity to make up for the cost of the trip. Boeing said it could not accept reimbursement.

The Hill's Roxana Tiron included mention of the junket in her story.

The rally at Boeing's Everett facility was meant to bring awareness to the program and the job creation not only in Washington but also around the country. Part of Boeing's aggressive PR campaign was to fly a group of reporters based in the national capital to Everett for the event and a tour of the facility.

And the paper said in her tag line that she was one of the reporters invited on the trip.

The media outreach reflects a chance in the politics of military procurement. From the Harper's blog, where I found the link to Axe's work:

Traditionally it was a fairly small circle of defense insiders and key figures in Congress who influenced how federal military contracts were awarded. But in recent years competition for big contracts has grown more heated and that circle has widened. Now, many more members of Congress are part of the process, and today defense contractors routinely run media campaigns in order to influence lawmakers and the general public. (Hence those full-page ads for various weapons programs that are regularly placed in Capitol Hill publications like The Hill and Roll Call.)

The Everett trip was also part of an effort to improve Boeing's image in the wake of the scandal that erupted when the Air Force initially considered letting a contract for new tankers. A former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, was convicted of showing favoritism toward Boeing in the competition while she was talking to the company about a job. Axe says Druyun's name came up during the bloggers' visit to a home of Boeing's vice president of communications:

Mary Foerster's lavish second home overlooks beautiful Lake Washington near Everett. Pleasure craft bob in the crystal-clear water; sea birds wing overhead. On the street, a small army of valets park just half a dozen cars. Inside, the caterer has set up a tidy little bar next to a table heaped with grilled salmon, fried chicken and corn bread. It sure is good to be Boeing's vice president for communications.

But then things take an unsettling turn. Foerster describes an encounter with Druyun in the ladies' room. Druyun, she says, wouldn't say good morning even if you greeted her first. A reporter chimes in, saying that Druyun had a reputation for being cold — a "dragon lady," the reporter says. The implication seems to be that a reserved personality means a corrupt person. By that line of reasoning, are nice people always ethical?

Shame on Boeing and its supporters for appealing to some Americans' jingoism — and for continuing to heap personal scorn on Darleen Druyun in hopes of somehow making the current generation of Boeing execs look saintly by comparison. Emotions shouldn't decide this contest.

Axe told Harper's Ken Silverstein that there didn't "appear to be much journalism taking place" at Foerster's house. It doesn't sound like there was much journalism during any part of the trip.

Then it was time to fly home on the Boeing jet, with a meal of beef cutlet and potatoes and chocolate cake for dessert. "The whole thing had a buddy-buddy atmosphere," Axe said. "There was a sheer shamelessness to the whole thing and I willingly participated."

Silverstein