When Washington voters go to the polls in November, they’ll have a pretty clear choice in the U.S. Senate race, regardless of who captures the second slot in our top-two primary. On the one hand we’ll have a Republican like Dino Rossi, who is campaigning against earmarks, against regulation and for lower taxes. On the other hand we’ll have Sen. Patty Murray, who, you know, actually wants to do stuff for our state.
On Tuesday, Sen. Patty Murray joined a short roundtable session with Eastside leaders, transportation officials and developers to discuss future plans for the Bel-Red Corridor, and what the federal government might do to speed things along.
[…] Murray has been talking up the Bel-Red Corridor back in D.C., and on Tuesday she seemed pleased to hear that developers, city planners and transportation agencies are collaborating on the project. The city is hoping for federal money from a sustainability grant to help pay for planning, and also has been trying to get federal money to build or extend some of the roadways that will be needed to connect the Bel-Red Corridor to the rest of the city. That includes an extension of 120th Street, and an extension of Northeast 4th Street to connect to 120th Street, said Bellevue Councilman Grant Degginger. The city will also have to build a new arterial, Northeast 15th/16th Street, to run east and west through the Bel-Red Corridor.
Not only would Rossi lack the seniority, status and influence to help our region compete for federal money, he’s pretty much promising not even to try. On a matter of principle or something. Because, you know, it’s better to see our tax dollars go to Texas or Alabama, than dirty ourselves with something called an “earmark.”
Somehow, I think Washington voters will prove more pragmatic than that.
I’m sure Rossi’s de-regulation platform is going to work “real well” with voters in the midst of the B.P. disaster in the Gulf. Even Reichart has enough sense to know how important it is to not incur the wrath of the environmental lobby, and even gain a few points with them now and then, even if he is personally opposed to their viewpoints.
Dave Ross had a good comment last week about Rossi. Rossi was on Dori’s show talking about how the government should not have to pick up the tab because of a private company’s mistake. But then a few minutes later he was railing against government regulation. As Dave Ross pointed out, without regulation, how are you going to force the oil companies to clean up their mess?
What kind of moron (Goldy) thinks that spending more tax dollars is “fixing” the problem? If dumber-than-a-carrot Murray was up to the job she’d agitate for her Obamacrat master to declare a “National Emergency” in the Gulf and convene specialists from all over (enviros, academics, state and federal regulators and scientists)to allocate the tax dollars necessary to fix the oil leak. But no- she wants to play deficit spender politics! BTW: Goldy-Play the blame game AFTER the problem is fixed!
@3
I suspect it is you rather than the good Senator who is “dumber-than-a-carrot”.
After all she is a powerful member of the US Senate and you are some asshole trolling on a liberal blog.
# 3 demonstrates a complete lack of any knowledge of the oil industry, environmental regulations, or remediation/cleanup science.
There are only a few companies and individuals in the world with any environmental expertise in dealing with deep-ocean drilling technology. Unfortunately, you have to defer to the experts to some degree, even though they area almost all working for some oil company, either directly or indirectly. The fact that BP doesn’t know how to cap this well doesn’t mean that anyone else knows how to do it, either. What we are seeing now is experimentation which will be used to re-write the manuals for future generations, but the process isn’t pretty.
Of course, what the trolls would dearly love is for Obama to take the bait and kick BP out of the process, turning it over “to the government”. They don’t specify which government agency could handle this better. Then BP can claim that it’s released from any further liability because it had no control over the cleanup methods. And the trolls can blame Obama for each day the oil keeps gushing into the gulf. While they are at it they will blame Obama for “socializing” the oil industry, and within a year or so argue that Obama was in charge of BP when the well was drilled in the first place (actual facts and time-line don’t seem to matter to the trolls in these discussions).
The real lesson to be learned is that (a) just because you can drill that deep, doesn’t mean that you should be allowed to do so if you don’t have the technology to fix a leak; (b) there needs to be more redundant safety systems, even if it means ignoring the oil company’s complaints of extra cost and excessive government interference; (c) environmental waivers should be granted only in extremely rare cases, and (d) the government oversight of ocean drilling to ensure compliance with environmental regulations needs to be increased considerably.
All, of which, Rossi seems to oppose.
What a preposterous waste of time money and federal focus. A US senator worrying about a mile of road in a suburb? HUH. Its not even worthy of a city planner’s time, let alone Sen. Carrot.
and by the way, all these gov’t types that want to redevelop, are actually anti little guy…..all they do is bring in condos and latte stands, meanwhile all the crappy little busineses that we rely upon have to move to Kent or Lynnwood.
If Patty “Senator carrot” or any of you really cared about global warming; you wouldnt try to force productive businesses to move out of their areas (thus causing more driving once the area turns yuppie).
grrr…this is insane.
@6
Who the hell do you think paid for all of your thru roads on the Eastside in the first place? Hint: it wasn’t you.
7; i don’t know what you mean by “thru roads”. Even if you meant Interstates, that has nothing to do w/ a local middle of town street. 100 years from now will senators also be picking trim colors on our houses? will they help sell vacation homes.
the city (0nly) should set some basic zoning and retreat to fighting fires and arresting criminals. And a US senator should worry about supreme court votes and foreign treaties.
Patty (Dumb-as-a-Carrot) Murray has sponsored 189 bills since Jan 21, 1993 of which 148 have never made it out of committee and only 11 were successfully enacted.
Chief among the most recent ones was: S.Res. 288: A resolution designating September 26, 2009, as “National Mesothelioma Awareness Day”.
@9
That is just sad.
Patty; 17 years to pass 11 bills. oh boy, what’s that…about 15 months to get 1 bill passed.
But hey, she can figure out small roads in Bellevue….she must be a major force