Good morning, Frank... Frank Reichert wrote:
> As you know, it wasn't but only a few short weeks ago, when I > received a back-to-back slam dunk from the Spokesman-Review, and > I suggest given the rag's history in misquoting me, and producing > 'special investigative reports' involving me and north Idaho > politics, that I wasn't really all that much surprised. You are speaking, of course, of Mr. Bill Morlin, no doubt, since he is the man largely responsible for the series on the Mayor, and also well-known by you. > But I will have to admit that I was taken aback somewhat by the > severity of vitriol that the Coweles' family have applied against > Jim West. I have to wonder too why nothing of this surfaced > whatsoever during the time when Tom Grant was actively > challenging West for the Mayor's spot in the last election? That > still has me somewhat puzzled. If you'll recall, during the last election, the Cowles were *mortified* that Tom Grant might actually waltz away with the election, and thus prolong both the debate and the costs of litigation surrounding River Park Square Parking Garage. When (surprise! surprise!) the paper came out (adding new meaning to that phrase) strongly in favor of Jim West for Mayor, according to their own admissions, they already *knew* about Jim West's transgressions, but chose to ignore them as unsubstantiated. Meanwhile at the Tom Grant Campaign Headquarters, the rumors of West's possible involvement in a sex scandal were discussed several times, and each time Tom Grant stated for the record, he wanted no part of it, and was going to stick to a clean campaign, staying on the higher ground rather than smear West's name. Now, some people suggest this was simply the way the dice fell at that time, that fate gave West the Mayor's seat because neither the Cowles nor Tom Grant had the means to authenticate the rumors about West's past. Personally, I don't believe, in retrospect, the Cowles were actually holding the story for some yet-to-be-explained reason. It just doesn't make sense! > Tom Grant recently admitted that he had rumblings, not yet > substantiated, that candidate West's moral behavior might be at > least a serious campaign issue, but he chose not to pursue that > and rather tried to run a clean-cut election campaign > nevertheless, ignoring such early allegations that surfaced prior > to all of this. This, coming from such a seasoned journalist as > Tom Grant, is unusual, who might otherwise pursue such a story > and unravel it to its final conclusion as he was known to do in > such cases as the Wanatchee Sex Scandal. Having spoken to Grant recently, I believe that was very much the truth. There were several key people within the Grant-for-Mayor campaign who wanted to dig up any dirt, however incredible it might be, about Jim West. There was a strong underground current right within his own campaign headquarters that very much wanted to go public with the stories about West, all of which Grant overruled. He wanted very much to run a "clean" campaign, free of any hidden agendas, and I believe he very much did so, to his extreme credibility. > However, the long history of the Spokesman-Preview's jaded > coverage of political candidates, not in the favour of the > Cowels' family, would certainly suggest that most certainly The > Spokesman-Review had enough information at that time to at least > 'suggest' that other issues of moral integrity might have > surfaced, or might call into question West's integrity to > represent the City of Spokane as its' Chief Executive. I couldn't agree more. > Therefore, the timing of the paper's front-page revelations > (three years later) is interesting, if not purposely suspect or > timed to foment a political emergency for the purpose of > promoting the Cowels' family's best political interests at this > particular time. I also believe there is a deeply-entrenched agenda inside the Cowles paper, right now, to make the Jim West story the headlines that restores any sense of credibility to the paper. After openly admitting in print last fall to lying to the public in print about the River Park Square Garage "deal", after admitting they *deliberately* misled the public in print, I'm not so sure they aren't literally "pulling out the stops" to save their reputation at any cost. > I suspect anyway, one has to wonder where the direction of this > is really going to go in the coming days and weeks ahead. One thing is certain: now that the FBI are the lead investigative agency, not the Spokane County Sheriff's Department nor the Spokane Police Department, both of which have demonstrable ties to Jim West and his purported sordid past, I would hope we would finally get to the bottom of all the allegations in a pretty short order. However, there is one item which is considerable interest to me, at least. As of last Tuesday morning, the Cowles Lear Jet is still parked at Spokane Airport, which implies that Momma Cowles, the REAL force behind the paper, is giving this entire affair her personal attention. That suggests to me that every bit of money in the Cowles pot is sitting on the table, as they are going to use every bit of the Jim West story to try and restore their credibility as a meaningful newspaper. However, it is my opinion this story could go any direction. Dave -- Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) The Used Kharma Lot / The Phoenix Project Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 05/01/2005 Usenet News server: news.kharma.net Musicians Calendar and Database access: http://www.kharma.net/calendar.html An automatic & random thought For the Minute: Darling, my ELBOW is FLYING over FRANKFURT, Germany... _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list [email protected] List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
