Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed is displaying less than a sound touch with reality when he states that he doesn't think the gubernatorial election in the state has been "botched." The election, as Republican Dino Rossi said yesterday, has been "a total mess."

Reed said he doesn't think anybody ought to be conceding at this point, to his credit, but even that undermines his statement above. If the election has not been botched then the person he certified - Christine Gregoire - should be governor-elect and her opponent should concede. He is less than consistent with his statements.

Dino Rossi won the governorship of Washington state. His victory was confirmed by a machine recount. The ever Democratic - and always approaching socialistic - King County found (as everyone knew they would) just enough votes to put Gregoire in the lead.

The ultra liberal media in the Seattle area will now, with an unparalled unity, lay heavy pressure on Dino Rossi to concede. Every story in the Seattle Times, Seattle Post Intelligencer, and those broadcast on television stations in the metropolitan King County area will now be slanted to create a negative impression of Dino Rossi. The stories will be slanted because Gregoire was the media's candidate, and now that she has stolen the election they are not about to let Rossi keep any chance alive - however slim it might be - of reversing the theft.

The deck is most certainly stacked against Mr. Rossi. At some point he will have to decide whether his realistic chances of reversing Gregoire's theft are worth an extended fight, or whether he should now invest his energy and harness public anger at Democrats in the state toward beginning a run to unseat Maria Cantwell in 2006.