January 16, 2026
Ararity - an advertising campaign that's fun to explore, from Pemco Insurance. The ad campaign is "We're a lot like you. A little different." And adds, "Because around here the skies are sometimes gray but the people are colorful."
Worth a look. Hat tip to the Tacoma News Tribune's editorial page blog.
On Wednesday, Idaho Senator Larry Craig's disorderly conduct case will return to a Minnesota courtroom; there, he is attempting to withdraw his plea of guilty, and service of his sentence, on the charge. Within a few days after that, the Northwest's senior senator (and its second most senior member of Congress) may - or may not - resign from the Senate. This the first of four essays considering the case, its causes and its effects.
Larry Craig |
It would be an early, and easy, response on the part of many Idahoans that it's just an oddity, a fluke, that the now-infamous Larry Craig came from Idaho. His arrest happened a thousand miles away. He could have come from anywhere, right? Idaho itself had nothing to do with it, you dig - it was just the state that happened to get caught up in something that happened far away . . .
Or not. Maybe it's no coincidence that al this happened of and to a guy from Idaho - maybe there's reason it happened the way it did, and that Idaho may have something to do with it. Maybe politics, Idaho politics, had something to do with it. Maybe there's something here beyond the scandal as such that a Northwest blog like this really ought to address.
Our recollections of Larry Craig go back to the Idaho State Senate in the 70s, a time when the two major political parties were a lot more similar than they are today, when the philosophical lines blurred, when Democrats on the right and Republicans on the left often crossed over in their voting, when a number of senators around the chamber were considered unpredictable votes, near-free agents, willing to come up with their own ideas and operate accordingly. Caucus loyalty was there, but less enforced than today. It was a different time.
Craig was one of the mavericks. The reporters and lobbyists knew him as an interesting thinker, no routine spouter of caucus rhetoric but someone who worked out his own positions. (We've heard a story, unconfirmed but from an excellent source, about a day back in the 70s when Idaho's top labor organizer visited Craig to deliver a substantial campaign contribution - which Craig, aware the political realities involved, declined to accept.) He also articulated them well - one of the youngest senators, he was one of the best speakers in the chamber, his voice sounding eerily at times like that of the similarly-skilled Democratic Senator Frank Church. Craig's Republican credentials were in order, but his independent streak surely played into his two losses for leadership position, for majority leader, both times to a senator elected the same year (1974) he was, and was much more a strict conservative caucus loyalist: Jim Risch (who may become the next senator from Idaho). There were Statehouse rumors back then that Craig might be gay, most people around the building heard the talk, but nothing concrete was developed and nothing much was ever made of it.
Then Craig changed.
Jane Hague |
This is trouble, of the sort that has done damage to others before: The claiming of an adornment to one's record that doesn't actually exist. If you're running for office in Washington, and you formally claim it, it can be worse.
When Jane Hague (who nearly ran for the U.S. House a couple of years back, and was reckoned to be a strong contender) ran for the King County Council in 1993 - she was elected - she B.S., Business and Economics, W. MI Univ. (Western Michigan University). In fact, though she attended there from 1964 to 1968, she never graduated.
The Seattle Times reported all this on its front page today. And said, "Hague was asked multiple times this week, by phone, e-mail and in person, to explain the discrepancy. She declined to do so. Several publications, including The Seattle Times, Marquis Who's Who, the Municipal League and the National Association of Counties, published profiles between 1991 and 2000 that stated Hague had earned a bachelor's degree."
She is up for election this year, and until recently she's been highly likely to win. She's had a strong enough record on the council to be considered a realistic possibility for higher office, Congress and otherwise. Her Democratic opponent this year is Bellevue lawyer Richard Pope, a flukish situation - a perenniel (10 times) candidate who has run more often as a Republican than as a Democrat and has gotten little support from his party.
But then came June 2, when not only was she arrested for driving under the influence, but took after police with what she acknowledged was "rude and abusive behavior."
Now the bio reports (see also the reporting on Horse's Ass) are complicating her situation considerably. Whether enough to cause to lose to Pope is so far uncertain. But you can sense the tone in the quote from former Republican legislator Toby Nixon, who started by loyally saying, "I completely expect Jane to get re-elected," then adding pragmatically, "Maybe it won't be as huge a margin as it otherwise would have been."