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Posted on 09/02/2006 4:23:35 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
U.S. Senate candidate Mike McGavick ran a red light, reeked of alcohol, failed a roadside sobriety test and fell asleep during police processing on a 1993 drunken-driving charge, according to a Maryland police report.
The report was obtained Friday from the Montgomery County, Md., Police Department. It suggests that McGavick, a Republican running against Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell this fall, was less candid than he seemed when he disclosed the previously unknown arrest on his campaign Web site Aug. 24.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
Why didn't anybody know this before he became a candidate? It seems that the GOP does a poor job of vetting candidates for public office.
Sadly, this will be the story in Seattle until the election.
McGavick already had a uphill climb. Now the press will see to it he is recognized for one thing on Election Day: a DUI.
Honestly, we just can't catch a break this year. But then I guess this tells you the level at which the Dem's opposition research is operating and the degree to which the media refuses to report anything negative about any Democratic candidate that it seems Republican Senate and House candidates are catching so much flack.
I wonder if he were to find out that he was a distant cousin
to the Kennedy's, if it might not work in his favor....
True. However, McGavick should have expected this to come up before he decided to be a candidate. The GOP needs to improve its candidate-vetting process.
It looks to me that Diane Telebius would have been a better candidate.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
If you're not a Kennedy, You can't get away with driving drunk and not taking a breathalizer test. You also won't get a ride home from the cops that respond. Oh, and if this happened in 1993, why is it news now?
well that race is over
It is not too late for McGavick to quit and a replacement to be found?
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Gee, if it was okay for Bobbe Bridge to remain on the bench, what's the problem here?
This is lousy news, that's for sure.
Much ado about nothing. What do you expect the Seattle media to focus on??!! It's only an issue if you allow the frickin' media to make it one!
What is with you people up there in the proximity of the Puget Sound?? We are talking about events that took place in 1993. If Washington Republicans allow Mike McGavick to be shot down in flames by the Seattle Media over something like this, they they frickin' deserve Maria Cantwell, and the complaining about her up there ought to stop!
Bobbe Bridge isn't voting on public policy.
Drunk driving for Republicans - scandalous! Drunk driving for Patches Kennedy - ho hum.
Should have added a < / sarc tag.
Is a pig's ass pork?
I don't see what the big deal is. Yellow light or red light? I have run through a lot of yellow lights that turned red before I crossed the intersection. This is much ado about nothing.
"...we just can't catch a break this year...."
I'd suggest that this goes on every year, but maybe they're on 'good behavior' (double-secret probation?) in election years. It's a given that the lib-dem-controlled MSM scum will play them up, during an election year, and hide their own deviants' problems.
Hey, Torie...you oughta be out here this afternoon...Toonderboompers and lighting goin' nuts!
LOL. OC is a bit more comfortable at present. :)
Fortunately, I have that secret "wet meat" recipe, so things'll probably turn out O.K.
...Suppose I should do the Midwestern thing now, and shut the computer off!
I'm sorry, but I read the entire news article, and I see no real indication that his confession wasn't accurate.
He said he "cut a yellow light too close". That means he ran a red light. The police report says he ran a red light.
He SAID he had an alchohol level of 0.17. That is exactly what his report said. The fact that the test was 83 minutes later does mean his level was probably higher earlier, but anybody who gets a breathalizer is going to remember what the breathalizer said.
He said he was given a citation. The official record says he received a fine. He was taken into custody, but he was not jailed, which is what most people mean when they say "arrested".
He didn't SAY he fell asleep, but that's just a detail, not important -- he already confessed to a BA level of 0.17, so it's not like he was trying to pretend he wasn't really drunk. The "i had two beers" is what he said to the police officer at the time.
It's interesting that these expunged records seem to always pop up again if it's a republican -- we already know more about this arrest than we do about Kennedy's.
Kennedy meanwhile will be running for election again, and nobody on the left is saying he should resign or not run or not be re-elected.
I don't get why republicans are so quick to jump on these stories with a gloom-and-doom fatalism over 13-year-old confessed crimes.
Has Cantwell confessed to anything? So, if we find out she got a speeding ticket, would we see a front-page story about her being less than candid, or lying about it?
Not a chance, there would be stories about how it didn't matter, how we shouldn't delve into private lives, etc.
Well, Bush had a DUI.
I still voted for him.
Though it almost cost him the 2000 election because he didn't reveal it himself in time to do damage control. It was actually quite foolish, because part of his profile was that of a sinner reformed by Christ's redemption. Which I believe in his case...but given that profile why hide the DUI? It caused a lot of people to suddenly question him, and some stayed home as a result.
McGavick's taken the calculated risk to reveal it himself, get all the mud out of the way, and see what happens.
It was going to be revealed either way, and while In know he mentioned it out of political calculation, I much prefer this route then finding out a week before an election.
Does this cost him the election? No.
Could it be used as an excuse not to vote for him? Sure, but if so they didn't want to vote for him to begin with.
We'll see in the coming weeks what his genuine support here really is. And whether he really has a chance to win. If anyone was looking for an excuse not to vote Rep, they'll use this. If they are interested in change, his numbers will stabilize and rebound. If that happens cantwell should start to worry.
DU collegiate psuedo-intellectual egghead spewage follows:
The GOP candidate trimmed when describing what happened. In fact, his characterization was factually inaccurate. His errant characerization of the facts, happened not in 1993, but last week, revealing a lack of candor, or, to be generous, his Panglossian veneer with which he chose to affix over the rather uglier truth...'Panglossian veneer'???
<***WARNING***~~~***DANGER***~~~***WARNING***~~~***DANGER***
You may now return to normal thought processes.
So you do something, you pay the price and 15 years later people still won't forgive you??? My God.
LOL. Learning new words is a pleasure, at least to me. You should feel fortunate.
The GUY himself admitted it on his website. HE SAID HE HAD A DUI...because he didn't give all the sordid details, that disqualifies him??? I don't get it.
Judging from your usage, it appears you're still on your training wheels.
If you read his published statement on the voter guide you can see what he has written about border security:
Unsecured borders threaten our communities but the Senate doesn't act. We must secure our border while providing for an adequate workforce.
Translation: Open the borders and let millions of Mexicans in and give them all amnesty.
But at the moment, he's the only candidate who has a possibility of beating Cantwell, which is why they are going after him.
When I read his original story, I thought he described a pretty bad DUI, since I knew that a 0.17 test meant he had been drinking way too much. I guess I glossed over the 2-3 beers, because I didn't remember that, just that the guy must have been stone drunk and was lucky not to kill someone.
That was before I read this article, so to me the article didn't reveal anything new. I guess those who didn't understand what a 0.17 was could have been misled by his statements about the yellow light.
Every court case I've seen about running a red light has the driver saying "the light was yellow, but I guess I cut it too close", after the police officer says "the light was a solid red when the car went through the intersection".
Solid red means that it didn't turn red while the car was in the intersection. In some states, if you enter while yellow, you are not running the red light. I don't know what Maryland's rules are. But the driver will almost always have seen a yellow light before the light turns red, because they are driving up to the light, so to them it's all a matter of timing. Most drivers aren't actually sure where their car was at exactly the time the light changes to red, especially if they are watching to see if any cars coming the other way are timing the light to fly through on green.
I suppose he should have said he got a ticket for the red light, but he didn't say he didn't, and he did say he cut the yellow "too close". If he hadn't gotten a ticket for the red light, then he wouldn't have been "too close" on his yellow light.
But yes, I'm a bit of a spin-meister here. The newspaper article though was equally spinning, the other way.
The point about him being possibly a 0.19 when the incident happened is really not at all germaine to his confession, he provided the number he was given from the police. Nobody would have done any different than that, and I bet if there is a newspaper article from the time it says 0.17 as well, not this "must have been higher at the time of the occurance" stuff. So I don't see ANY attempt at hiding anything from him saying 0.17. If he had said "it was over the 0.1 limit", I might agree with you, as that could be an attempt to hide how much more it was.
The point is that the criminal justice system found fit to reduce his crime to a citation offense, given his participation in and completion of a DUI remediation course.
I have to agree with others on this thread who say he's done.
He's trailed in every poll conducted this year (and if the two SurveyUSA polls released this week are any indication then the margin is getting wider, not smaller). Time to shift resources out of WA and MN and into MD and NJ, in my opinion.
Voltaire is just pushing it.
= )
"Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses."
But then Bill Buckley said he would rather be ruled by the Boston phone book, than the Harvard faculty.
Mix and match.
At least he doesnt gamble.
UNITED STATES SENATOR, VOTE FOR ONE:
"Michael Goodspace Guy Nelson, Mike The Mover, Mohammad H. Said, Hong Tran. MARIA CANTWELL, Write in (space)."
No wonder Cantwell continues with the popular Democratic Party vote!
McGavick knew this was a potential issue. So he brought it up now, right before the labor day weekend, on his timetable to minimize the political fallout.
I bet he has something good on Cantwell. And after she fails to bring it up herself, like he did, he will spring it about 10 days before the election--when not only the dirt itself will hurt, but the contrast between their behaviors.
McGavick is weak on some issues. He is certainly not my ideal candidate, ideologically. But he will be a hell of a lot better to have in the Senate than Cantwell is.
Some of the weak-kneed wusses on here really make me want to puke my guts out.
All I'm saying is remember what happened to Dennis Miller on Monday Night Football.
I agree. Put the $$$ where it will make a difference.
God created a dictionary accessible online for a reason. I know, that some that read my posts have accessed, it. One chap did a google on me when I used the term "aeo instante" and found only my screen name came up. I probably misspelled it. I don't know the correct spelling. But I know the term is used. I know that because a professor of mine in my law school used it. I savored it, and it became part of my "vocabulary." And so it goes. Buckley got me flummoxed when he used esoteric theological Catholic terms, such as eristic, and sciolistic. I have popped them into some of my legal letters to opposing counsel, just to defray the ennui of it all.
By the way, Buckley is not dead, just nearly dead. Getting old sucks. I am against THAT.
I was widowed by a .10 in 1994. The destruction to a family by a drunk driver never goes away after the loss of an innocent life. Tamara was only 26.
Drunk drivers kill more than any other group domestically, the Islamofascists, gangs, and other trash get a pass on this topic.
And the truth is that some republicans will NOT vote for someone with a DUI. That's what nearly sunk Bush in 2000, the moral conservatives who didn't like that he was a drunkard, didn't like being reminded, and didn't like that he lied about it by not coming clean about it.
The democrats will USE it as a weapon against republicans, but they have no principles, so they will happily trash a republican for drunk driving 15 years ago which DIDN'T involve a crash, while voting for a democrat who just ran his car into a barricade THIS YEAR.
Sometimes it sucks being a party with principles.
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