Republicans cry foul over Dem language

Reacting to a video put out by the state Democratic Party last week calling on Dino Rossi to repudiate his statements on Gov. Chris Gregoire's flood relief plans, the Republican Party is asking the Democrats to take it back.

The video used images to demonstrate Rossi's words to the Centralia Chronicle, to which the paper took some offense on Friday. In his defense of the video, Democratic Party spokesman Kelly Steele said there was no attempt to misrepresent the newspaper or Rossi's words. "We pointed out Dino Rossi's trashing of the governor and her bipartisan cooperation," Steele said. "It was a shameless attack by a sleazy politician."

That last bit created waves at the GOP's Tukwila headquarters, where they said their rivals had "sunk to a new low" with personal attacks. The Republicans sent a news release titled, "Gov. Gregoire & Democrat [sic] Leaders Should Publicly Reject the Attack."

"Perhaps the Washington State Democratic Party should follow the advice of the man who most likely will be at the top of their ticket and stop these personal and degrading attacks," said Washington State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser in the release.

He continued, "the Washington State Republican Party has and will continue to be very critical of Gov. Gregoire's job performance. But there is a big difference between debating the issues and launching personal attacks. Comments like those by Mr. Steele on behalf of Gov. Gregoire and the State Democratic Party are unnecessary, uncivilized and should not be tolerated by either side."