STONER MISTAKE

How Dino Rossi's Attack on a WSU Cannabis Researcher Backfired

When you're running a campaign for U.S. Senate in which you spend a
lot of time attacking "out of touch" D.C. politicians, it's a
no-brainer not to mimic one yourself. Yet that's exactly what
Republican Dino Rossi ended up doing on August 12 when he
carbon-copied an ill-founded attack on "wasteful" federal stimulus
dollars that D.C. Republicans have been using for months. Rossi's
target: a psychology professor at Washington State University who
received $148,438 in stimulus money to do research related to
cannabinoids-that is, the psychoactive compounds found in marijuana.

That WSU professor, Michael Morgan, had heard it all
before.

Back in December 2009-eight months ago-he'd gamely agreed to go on a
Fox News segment titled "Seriously?" and spent several minutes
explaining to skeptical interrogators that yes, he'd received $148,438
in federal stimulus funds for what you might call "marijuana
research," but no, there is not actually any marijuana involved in the
research (it's all synthetic cannabinoids that approximate the drug's
effect); no, humans are not smoking away Uncle Sam's money in the name
of science (the subjects in this study are all rats); yes, this
stimulus expenditure is creating jobs (for three researchers,
including Morgan, who are all working on the project); and yes, there
is an important objective (figuring out better ways to treat chronic
pain, which costs the U.S. some $80 billion a year in sick days and
lost productivity).

That December 2009 Fox interview grew directly out of a long-running
media campaign that D.C. Republicans have been orchestrating in an
attempt to paint the Obama stimulus plan as a taxpayer-funded
"boondoggle." After the interview aired, Morgan said, "I had people
from all over the country calling me and saying: 'Please, don't stop
this work.'"

In other words, not the greatest Republican attack
ever.

For some reason, though, Rossi thought it would be a brilliant idea to
dust off this failed talking point and give it another try. "It's 5:00
Somewhere, But It's 4:20 At Washington State University," read the
subject line of the e-mail his campaign sent out on August 12 alerting
local reporters.

"This is one of those boondoggle projects that forces you to set aside
the serious economic consequences of this so-called stimulus for a
moment and just laugh at how out of touch Washington, D.C., really
is," Rossi continued. "Washington State taxpayers are tired of their
money going up in smoke. This bill isn't going to stimulate anything
other than sales of Cheetos."

And with that, he set himself up for several days of getting schooled by the
Washington State media and Professor Morgan, who, in a typical statement,
told The Stranger: "The bottom line is that Rossi is wrong about everything
in his press release... Rossi should praise us for bringing funding and jobs
to the state, but you'd have to get the facts first and I realize that is
not Rossi's goal."

The ironies were hard to miss. In addition to acting just like the
cut-and-paste D.C. types he criticizes, Rossi had fallen on his face
while criticizing a well-meaning WSU professor's research because,
quite simply, Rossi had failed to do his own basic research.

"The thing that is frustrating is the misinformation," Morgan said.
"They make no effort to get the facts. They didn't contact me and they
didn't try to find out more about my research... How can he represent
the state if he can't even get any facts?"

Moreover, Rossi's flawed attack was seeking to undermine an effort
that has nothing to do with Cheetos and everything to do with
alleviating pain and suffering. (You'd think someone in his campaign
could figure out that the number of voters who want to alleviate pain
and suffering is, uh, rather large.)

In other words, a total political disaster.

Compounding the problem, Rossi isn't backing down. On August 16, at a
press event at a nameplate-making company in Seattle, Rossi was asked
about his attack on the WSU researcher (one dumb press release is now
a four-day-long story). Instead of apologizing, he got defensive.

"The point of that was that it wasn't going to create jobs," Rossi
said of his attack on the WSU research. "That was really the point."

Except, as outlined above, the federally funded research at WSU did
create jobs while also seeking to help stem the $80 billion a year
drain on the economy that is chronic pain.

What happened next should be no surprise: Rossi ducked follow-up
questions, ended the press conference, and quickly left the building.