Rossi on the radio talks transpo, social issues

Dino Rossi took questions on KUOW's "The Conversation" radio show this afternoon in Seattle. The main focus of his time was spent talking about his transportation plan, where he reiterated his message that his plan would provide more choices for commuters while his opponent Governor Chris Gregoire, refused to take a stand. Rossi also defended his plan's numbers and maintained that providing for alternate methods of transportation were not under the jurisdiction of the governor.

Still he left open the option for a future light rail, specifically for one lane in each direction on the S.R. 520 bridge across Lake Washington. Currently Rossi proposes building an 8-lane bridge with no transit.

"If you can move more people through there with those methods then it should be open for that option and I think that would make sense," said Rossi. "It seems like a rational decision. The whole goal is throughput, right? The whole goal is to get as many people through as you can get through."

Pressed multiple times by host Guy Nelson to say which programs he would cut to pay for his $15B transportation plan, Rossi repeatedly refused to answer, saying that he would not write Gregoire's budget for her. Instead, he suggested he was capable of finding efficiencies.

"I am not going to sit here on your radio show and write the budget for her, that is her job," Rossi said.

Also of note was the Republican's acknowledgment of the effects of global warming. "We're beyond that debate as to whether the earth is warming or not," he said at the start of the show.

This differs from statements he made earlier in the spring in a Kitsap County speech, which the Times' David Postman chronicles in detail here.

He was also asked by callers about his position on abortion rights and whether or not he would renounce the support of the Building Industry Association of Washington in response to their repeatedly controversial positions and comments.

Rossi positioned himself as socially nonintrusive, saying that he had never sponsored a bill or an amendment dealing with social issues as a state senator, while implying that as a Catholic he believed that life begins at conception and that "every soul has a value." That same position, he suggested, guided him to be a champion for the mentally ill and elderly while in the state legislature.

On the BIAW Rossi dismissed the suggestion saying that, while third party claims are often frivolous like those made against him by the WEA and against Gen. David Petraeus by MoveOn.org, he would be focusing on the issues at hand.

Listen to the full program here.