PORT ANGELES — Ahoy! Aha!
A-hee-hee-hee!
The Port Angeles Yacht Club became the butt of Republican jokesters Thursday after a radio ad for Gov. Chris Gregoire called her opponent, Dino Rossi, “Yacht Club Dino” for holding a fundraiser there last summer.
The pun-laden 60-second spot — “Dino’s way to sail through these tough economic times . . . dropped anchor on another cold-hearted idea” — pilloried the GOP gubernatorial nominee for choosing to “announce” his proposal to cut unemployment benefits in the yacht club building last July 24.
Rossi spokeswoman Jill Strait said Rossi didn’t unveil his economic proposal at the yacht club. He had announced the idea earlier in the campaign, she said.
He only “gave his typical stump speech” to about 50 people hosted by the North Peninsula Building Association, which rented the building for the fundraiser.
“It’s a ridiculous ad,” Strait said, chuckling.
The spot, aired on stations in the Puget Sound area as well as on Port Angeles station KONP, was paid for by the “People for Chris Gregoire, Democrat, governor.”
Louder laughs came in e-mail reactions to the ad, posted on the Web site of the Dori Monson Show on KIRO-FM, one of the stations running the spot in Seattle.
“Maybe Obama can use this [building] for his inaugural party?” wrote Muscalero
.
“Wow! That’s it! I’m moving my boat off Lake Union and moving it to THIS fine facility!” wrote Dark Jedi.
“Try the yacht club in Machias,” e-mailed Mark in Everett
, referring to the Machias Yacht Club, actually Doc’s Tavern in the Cascade foothills, where the “yachts” are inner tubes for floating down the Pilchuck River.
Ammodoga
wrote: “I’ve been to the PA Yaht [sic] Club. The picture outside gives it too much credit.
“We had our 1985 class reunion there. . . . The tables and chairs look like the ones at the Eagles club.
“Don’t get me wrong, Just dont [sic
] think that it is a place with butlers and martinis.”
Goober, make that a double
Added PictureChick
: “Pish posh. That’s pretty swanky — for Port Angeles, lol [laughing out loud].”
“Most people’s houses are bigger than this!” wrote JR Still
. “I wonder if this club has a dress code.”
“Now that’s a quality!!” wrote Robin C
. “Makes me think that Uncle Goober is running the bar!”
“All the Mercedes and Bentleys must have been parked in the garage by the valet,” wrote Paul-in-Tacoma.
A little kinder was Aviken
, who wrote: “I’ve been to Port Angeles a few times, and I didn’t think it was a stuffy place.”
And the kindest cut came from JoeVera
, who wrote: ‘Actually have been there before and totally laughed when I heard the ad. I would be more comfortable here than the Seattle Yacht Club. Good fun, real people.”
Repeated calls to the yacht club Thursday night went unanswered.
________
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
