Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen has a job that typically dictates civic boosting, the hyping of his own city’s attractiveness as a place to live, work, and conduct trade. He’s now apparently shirking from his professional duties.

The newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher quotes Blethen as threatening to move all the paper’s operations out to Bothell, except for a small news bureau and ad-sales office. Blethen blathered about the usual gripes corporate bosses itching for government subsidies gripe about, from zoning to traffic to insufficiently submissive politicians. He even invoked the right-wing buzzwords “ultra liberal” and “pro-labor” to bash Mayor Paul Schell.

Schell is no real liberal, let alone an “ultra” one (what is an “ultra liberal,” anyway? Someone who wants to smash the state but keep the Post Office?).

But Schell refused to be interviewed by Times scab reporters during last winter’s strike. This may be the real reason for Blethen’s blast.

Without specifically endorsing the candidacy of the much-hated Mark Sidran (who loves to use the “ultra liberal” expression himself), and by speaking for himself as a businessman rather than settling for his paper’s editorial pages, Blethen may be thinking he can do his part to oust Schell and bring Seattle’s city government even further into line with the corporate-boot-licking norm of so many governments across today’s western world.

Of course, all he may really end up doing is pissing off even more local citizens than he managed to piss off with his obstinate attitude during and after the strike.