Greetings from Olympia,

"Oh my God, look at all those people" Karen exclaimed. Indeed the crowd was big at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia.

It was the 11^th of January, 2005. Today at a joint session, the House and Senate vote to certify the election results of a very close governor’s race. Governor elect Christine Gregoire holds the lead with a 129 vote margin after a manual statewide re-count.

In the spring of 2004 I donated some cash and volunteered at a few Gregoire fundraisers. During the summer and fall I was too busy and too distant to help out or closely monitor the news about the race.

When we saw Governor Locke at Ohio State University he led us to believe the race was tight. An addition, with some subsequent internet searching, I found out her opponent had lied on his resume.

It is not uncommon to put the best light on your skills and accomplishments in your resume. However, to claim you held jobs you never had is just a flat lie.

It is difficult to effectively run an organization be it a family, business, or government when you have people lying to you. Lying is childish behavior and a bad idea.

I don’t support liars. We already have too many of them in public office and the boardrooms of this country. If there is anything I can do to keep the lying, cheating, fraudulent Enron Republicans from plunging us into moral and fiscal bankruptcy, I am all over it. That brings us to the rally at hand…

Up ahead, somewhere in the throng, is my activist buddy Seattleite Wyatt Wood snapping pictures and talking to politicians. Another Democratic activist friend, Julie Goldberg is hustling down the sidewalk with Karen as we move towards the crowd gracing the Capitol lawn today.

On my left, the supporters of the guy who claimed he held two jobs he never did (Read my lips, "LIAR"). On my Right, supporters of the statewide hand recount winner.

Insults and taunts flew through the air as the two groups screamed at each other. People were shouting things like: "YOU WILL GET A RE-VOTE AS SOON AS WE GET ONE IN OHIO", "YOU GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF LOOSERS", "DINO IS A CRYBABY", and "GO BACK TO SEATTLE".

The Washington State Patrol took it all in stride and kept the Peace.

I played the roving reporter, snapping photos and interviewing people from both sides.

The Republicans had a few speakers address their crowd. I listened to Retired Army Officer Larry Allen from Olympia. He was disappointed his Navy Active Duty step daughter did not get an absentee ballot. He seemed to be one of the few speakers who actually had something to say that made sense. Most of the speakers outside of the Capitol were appealing to the emotions rather than the intellect. Broad sweeping generalizations devoid of facts and heavy on the whining were the rule of the day.

A few days after the Capitol rally, I heard that all the military absentee ballots were mailed out of King County (the largest and most despised bastion of liberalism) within the Federal deadline/timeline for ballots.

Looking back on my time in the Navy, there was no way for any of us to receive absentee ballots (or other US mail) when we were riding in a submarine under the ocean for 74 days at a stretch. I am not sure how to fix the military problem, but the insinuation that Democrats are behind this longstanding problem is a sham. Efforts to paint this as a "Republicans are getting screwed" issue is another example of dishonesty in our society. Let’s deal with the facts. It is hard enough dealing with the facts, let alone imaginary problems biased on petty politics.

Photo by Sabrina Weiner

How a minority Pastor can not consider Gay Rights a Civil Rights issue is beyond me. When you get right down to it, how is the right for black people to marry white people fundamentally any different from the right of Joan to marry Lisa? Why should the gay, lesbian, and trans-gender members of our community be forced to the back of our society’s bus?

It just seems to me a minority Pastor such as Pastor Hutcherson would be more understanding, but how can I be surprised if he claims to be best friends with Rush Limbaugh?

I thought about the machine that put President Bush in office….. the very same machine that hand picked Christine Gregoire’s opponent. I can’t provide any support for a machine that burdens our kids, our troops, our nation, and our world. I don’t feed that kind of machine.

I don’t buy the smiling face of the smooth talking con man. I’d like to think I’m doing my part by hauling the trash to the garbage can every chance I get. Mama didn’t raise no fool.

I’ve heard a lot of grousing about the last election. However, in my travels I have come to realize that Washington State has some of the best laws, attitudes, and standards with regard to voting. If you really want to experience serious voting problems, go to Ohio where the voting system is intentionally manipulated to abuse and suppress the rights of some voters.

Later on in the day, with an 80- 65 vote, the Legislature certified the election results. The following day, 12 January, 2005, Christine Gregoire was sworn in as Washington States Governor.

Although the governor wasn’t inside her office, our old floating home neighbors Tim Zenk and his wife Perrin were. Tim served as Christine Gregoire’s campaign manager. Undoubtedly, that was one very tough job. Hats off to those like Tim who step up to the plate and work hard.

"The future will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines. The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better." Paul Wellstone

We cruised through a large tent on the south side of the capitol that held the finger food, the booze, and a band. I tracked down the folks who were serving coffee. After scoring a cup of coffee, a few desserts, and an ample plate of hors d’oeuvres we chatted with Rhenda Strub of Thurston County, whom we had met the previous day holding up her "Stick a fork in it Dino, It’s Done" sign.

After snagging a few more hors d’oeuvres from a passing tray, we talked with former King County Democratic Chair, Greg Rodriguez. Greg, and a few others, are vying for the State Democratic Party Chair position in the upcoming elections.

I’ve got to admit it, we had fun. On one level it seemed like payoff for all the hard work (I am not talking about "W" style "hard work") over the last year and a half. My hope is that we get to enjoy many inaugural balls in the future.

The cascading fountain of chocolate was a big hit. A crowd was lined up to dip strawberries and marshmallows in the sweet liquid chocolate.

After a speech, the Governor was swarmed by hundreds of people who wanted to congratulate her. After an hour or so, the mob still hadn’t let up, so we saved our congratulations and explored others areas of the capitol.

Mike Armstrong (R) District 12 graciously offered me some pizza.

I passed on the pizza. I like it too much and I gain weight too easily. Not to be deprived, I had plans to swing through the catered food area downstairs for a final pass through the lower calorie fare.

As it turned out, the low calorie snacks were gone. I had no other choice but to suffer J through some great oysters on the half shell – courtesy of the folks from Taylor Shellfish. I liked their Kumomoto variety from Totten Bay for the fine flavor and a semi-firm yet slippery texture that facilitated sliding down the hatch with ease and surprising velocity. Burp..

I later heard that we missed Karen’s blogger friend Goldy (David Goldstein) of www.Horsesass.org as he had been loitering earlier at the oyster bar packing down the tasty morsels. In 2003 Goldy filed initiative 831, seeking to officially proclaim anti-tax entrepreneur Tim Eyman a Horse’s Ass.

As we meandered through the marble passageways sipping wine, we saw a few more of our friends including Ray Minchew (founder and Director of Democracy for Washington) and his wife Jennifer, Jeremy and Bruce from the WA State Democrats, and Jason Bennett (just back from vacation in Puerto Vallarta).

All in all, it was a grand night out --- The glitter, the bright lights, the paparazzi. J It is not often we Burns’s get a chance to dress up like the rich and famous.

John Burns

Seattle

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