The Stench of Desperation

Gordon Smith started the trend, and is indeed still at it.

Chris Shays, too, apparently feeling the heat from Orange to Blue challenger Jim Himes campaign.

What's afoot? The need to distance themselves as far as possible from a failed Republican brand, summed up by this recent McClatchy headline: Absence of Bush and Cheney cheers Republican delegates. Unfortunately for McCain, that distancing extends beyond just Bush and Cheney, but to him, too. In fact, Gordon Smith is so desperate to disassociate himself from the top of the ticket, he's skipping the convention, despite the fact that his is one of the marquee Senate races for Republicans this cycle.

But none of it is quite as dishonest and despicable as Dino Rossi, the Realtor turned candidate for governor in Washington state, who also happens to be a wholly owned subsidiary of the Building Industry Association of Washington. Rossi went on TV the night of Obama's acceptance speech, congratulating the Senator (leaving McCain entirely out of the mix) and stressing his own bipartisan ideals. Too bad he doesn't have any.

The BIAW is a lot more honest about Rossi's "bipartisanship":

"Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election," say 61 billboards plastered across Eastern Washington by the BIAW at a cost of $160,000.

The reference is to Gov. Chris Gregoire's 133-vote margin in the 2004 gubernatorial election. Of course, the election was finally decided in a Wenatchee courtroom by a Chelan County Superior Court judge.

Looking at voter turnout figures after the election, Republicans privately cussed themselves while publicly going after Gregoire. Conservative, pro-Dino Rossi counties fell far short of the voter turnout percentages of Seattle and King County.

The BIAW obviously is trying to rouse inland Washington. In so doing, it is spreading resentment and dividing the state.

Rossi has attempted to "distance" himself from those billboards, but he hasn't demanded that the BIAW take them down. So much for making nice. It also seems he hasn't had much to say about this nice smear of Obama from fellow Republicans in Snohomish County.

The head of the Snohomish County Republican Party apologized Tuesday after the organization’s booth at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe sold "$3 bills" depicting Barack Obama wearing Arab headgear and featuring a camel. [...] Obama’s face, in the traditional Arab headgear, is pictured above the words "Da man."

The Arab headgear and the camel on the bill are clearly references to the false rumor spread by some Obama critics that he is a Muslim.

For all these efforts on the part of all these Republicans to pretend like they're for change, too, you'd think they'd start with their own parties at home. But this isn't really about change, it's just about saving their own hides. As northwest political observer Randy Stapilus says,

This doesn’t just signify being in a tough political spot; this signifies seeing a massive storm coming, and frantically trying to build some shelter against it.