Last week I interviewed Patty Weiss, former Southern Arizona newscaster, and currently a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Congressional District 8 seat being vacated by Jim Kolbe. I have to confess to a staggering feat of amateurism; my tape of the interview came up blank. Luckily, I have a good memory, took some notes, and Patty was kind enough to review my notes to ensure that they accurately reflect her positions. As a result, the responses I attribute to Patty on the issues I raised are at best paraphrasing, not quotes, though she did sign off my recollections.

My impression of Patty was that she is a very intelligent and articulate person, the sort that might overwhelm less active intellects, and garner a certain reputation from the envious or less able. She is well-spoken, as one would expect from a professional communicator, but I never got the feeling she was just stringing together talking points, though, of course, there was some that, naturally. There were also moments when she was less guarded than any professional politician would have been and that could, unfortunately, cause her some embarrassments in the future.

It is obvious that Patty is not just ‘interested in politics’ (a quote that has been used widely to cast her as a dilettante); rather Weiss is possessed of a well-considered viewpoint on the issues. Anyone who thinks that Weiss is a less than serious candidate, or one who will turn off the electorate upon greater exposure is in for a rude awakening. She looks great on TV, and has charisma. The wildcard may be how she fares in face-to-face retail politics. I suspect that she will be better than most. In my opinion, Weiss is likely to exceed expectations upon greater exposure and develop into a formidable political contender. Her wide name recognition could very well translate into wide electoral support as voters come to know her and like her in this new role.

UPDATE 2/28/06: Blue in AZ at Daily Kos attended several panels with the candidates and transcribed their position statements on the Iraq war. There have been comments on this post that Patty’s previous statements about what to do in Iraq differ from how she answered me. I’ll let you review the record and decide for yourself whether that is the case or not.

It will come as no surprise that Bush’s controversial, and illegal, domestic wiretapping program is becoming an issue in the Kyl-Pederson Senate race. Kyl is a staunch Bush supporter and chairs the anti-terrorism Senate subcommittee. He is unflinching in reeling out the Administration’s descredited justification for the program at the drop of a hat and … Read more

Ted has chosen his horse (Rum, Romanism and Rebellion: Why I Am Supporting Gabrielle Giffords) and I respect that, and think that he has made an entirely defensible choice. But I won’t be doing that. Unlike Ted, nobody I’m aware of gives a crap what I think. And, frankly, that’s probably wise, cause sometimes, upon … Read more

Welcome to the first edition of Coyote Carnival. In the near future, these carnivals should be hosted at another local Arizona blog, to drive traffic to that site. If you are interested in hosting, please contact me. To ensure wide esposure, I am going to be cross-posting this first carnival to BlogForArizona. This first edition doesn’t have a theme except that all the entries are from Arizona-based blogs. We got a few submissions that broke that rule, as well as a number that were just commercial advertising, but the great majority of the submissions were acceptable, and most were accepted by the editor (me). The complete list is on the flip…

Stewart Heady of Tsaile, Arizona wrote in the mailing list ProgressForAZ the following interesting story which I think makes an important point about the need for oversight of datamining and roving surveillance systems: "In the year after 9/11 I was living in the Seattle area.  There are a lot of immigrants in the whole region … Read more

Today there is only one blog post on the internet that has to be read, and it’s not this one, it’s Glenn Greenwald’s insightful questioning of whether Bush supporters have any ideology at all any more. Go read it. You won’t be sorry you did. You will be left with a firm conviction that those … Read more

Cheney, while hunting quail shot his hunting partner, who is also the owner of the ranch he was hunting on. By all accounts it was an accidental shooting, but I just gotta wonder. Did Cheney owe this guy money? Was he a Democrat? Did he mouth off to Dick? Say that the NSA domestic spying … Read more