According to the Seattle Times, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is likely to receive the $44 million it needs to make emergency repairs to the Howard Hanson Dam. Why…?
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray convinced her colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee to put the money into a supplemental spending bill the Senate is expected to vote on later this month.
And this is why I’ve already made the bold prediction that the Times will break with character this November and endorse the Democratic incumbent, even if her opponent is Dino Rossi. Because Sen. Murray delivers in a way that a Sen. Rossi simply couldn’t.
See, unlike Sen. Murray, Rossi wouldn’t have any colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and even if he did, he’d be the juniorest of junior members, most likely in the minority party, and with almost zero influence. The result: billions of dollars of federal money going to states that weren’t stupid enough to toss out one of the Senate’s most powerful appropriators… dollars that could’ve been coming to us.
Does that analysis sound craven? Does it reek of pork barrel politics? Well tell that to the thousands of homeowners and businesses in the Green River flood plain who risk having their lives and livelihoods washed away should the Army Corp not get the funding it needs to continue emergency repairs.
This is the way politics works. Patty Murray is simply too valuable to our state economy to toss out on mere ideological grounds. And business establishment types like Frank Blethen know it.
I agree that Washington needs someone to look after our “pork”. We can all hold hands, sing, and rejoice at our own moral standards while the east coast gets all the funding… or accept it as a political norm.
I think the rule is, in presidential campaigns pork is bad (everyone thinks the government is out to get them, and will fund other areas). In Congressional campaigns pork is good (our region needs more pie!).
We’re all a nation of selfish bastards in the end. Nearly every bill passed has winners and losers, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to win from time to time.
What a weird post. He went way out of his way to work the Times into the post when he could have just made the case for Murray over Rossi without mentioning them.
What a strange, troubled man. He’s still hold a grudge they didn’t hire him. Sad.
@1
Yup!
It’s the bullfighter strategy. Wave the red cape in front of the dumb beast until he lunges the proper direction. Then sink the blade, finally putting the animal out of its pathetic misery.
Trolls .
And your point is????
a) The Times is a great asset to Seattle
b) Rossi is not likely to run anyway.
c) Goldy is obsessed with the Times
d) Murry is not a as good for WA state as Rossi would be:
e) The Republican Party has no one better than Rossi to run.
please choose all the correct answeres and submit them to Goldy.
Considering that the Seattle Times endorsed both Murray and Kerry in 2004 although the paper endorsed McGavick over Cantwell in 2006, I don’t think it is a real stretch to stay they would endorse Murray again.
Is the power to bring home the bacon the reason the Times will stick with the Senator? I’m sure that is a part of it but it isn’t the whole story.
The King County Republican establishment wants Rossi to challenge Murray not so much because they think he has a great chance to take the seat. They are much more intrested in clearing the field for McKenna in the 2012 governor’s race.
Blethen isn’t necessarily all that interested in making that race easier for McKenna.
2 – What a weird Troll. So obsessed and haunted and laser focused on Goldy.
And strangely angry at people whose skin is darker than his.
$44m is chump change. get back to us when she scores big money. like say $75m i.e. the liability cap for the worst environmental tort in world history:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....76744.html
disaster capitalism doesn’t happen without the laws made by congress. fuck them.
Isn’t this the same argument that was made for endorsing Slade Gorton over Maria Cantwell?
@9: Google “Senator Slade Gorton & bringing in the pork”, and tell me how many hits you get.
And couldn’t Maria just whip out her own checkbook?
No sense in wasting any more time on whether or not Patty Murray will win her seat this fall.
It’s clearly a done deal: Patty Murray wins against any challenger in 2010.
My $1,000 wager still stands if anyone believes Patty Murray will not be re-elected.
Any takers?
The only way Murray doesn’t win:
(1) Death. (But even then, Murray has a pretty good chance against potential challengers).
(2) A tsunami takes out all the metropolitan areas surrounding the Puget Sound just before the voting.
Yes Washington DC is so fiscally sound right now that they are running 1.7 Trillion Dollar record breaking deficits. Bring home the Bacon before the house comes tumbling down. Can you say Greece 2.
@13: Bringing home the bacon?
No – this is more like getting it done because this is the right thing for government to do.
If you were worried about the deficit – where were you when Bush decided to waste over 1 trillion on an unnecessary war in Iraq?
Did you object then? If not – shut your face.
@14…in case you had not noticed, some people have been “objecting” to the debt since the 1980’s.
Its people like you who either dont care or are not smart enough to figure out that the debt will bring the country down and who vote for the same old spend spend spend politicians who “bring home the bacon” that are responsible.
and your only intelligent response is “its the other party’s fault”…..ya, that worked well over the last 25 years hasnt it? we have had D presidents and congress’, and R presidents and congress’ – nothing changes.
get ready for economic hell – because in 10 years or so, it will be here….and it will make 2008 look like a blip in the road.
With some minor exceptions, Murray has been ineffective under Bush and is still ineffective under Obama. Plus, she has the IQ of a carrot.
That said- HA boosters have no trouble supporting a dumb carrot.