Something happens to Gov. Chris Gregoire's political senses the minute she crosses the border into Seattle. She did it again yesterday, meeting with waterfront "stakeholders" and excluding the press and some other hostile stakeholders. Thus she neatly handed an issue for a news cycle or two to her opponents on the waterfront tunnel.
The meeting was held in a Port of Seattle conference room, and was apparently meant as an occasion for Gregoire to cheer up the troops who favor her plans for a deep-bore waterfront tunnel. Publicola tried to get into the meeting and was shown the door. Tunnel opponent (and erstwhile, though briefly, a supporter) Cary Moon, who was not invited, gleefully got off a zinger saying only cheerleaders can be Gregoire stakeholders.
If you are going to cheer up the troops, why not use the press occasion to cheer up the public? And who could think that the private session with such stakeholders would long stay out of the public's eye? Someday the governor will get on the Seattle wave-length.
