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The Twitterverse is alive with commentary about President Obama's rather lame speech tonight about BP/energy/shiny objects (readers can select which of these think is applicable).
But the real meaning of the speech tonight can, I think, be found when considering these excerpts:
So I am happy to look at other ideas and approaches from either party - as long they seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels. Some have suggested raising efficiency standards in our buildings...

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Just how bad are Democratic fortunes looking this year? So bad that, it turns out, the DCCC's "Red to Blue" list-- you know, its list of seats it supposedly wants to change from Republican-held to Democrat-held-- in fact contains seven seats currently held by Democrats.
One of those is retiring WA-03 Rep. Brian Baird who, to be fair, might have been confused by toe-the-liners at the DCCC for a Republican because he flipped to supporting ongoing engagement in Iraq, and originally voted...

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So, Don Benton took to the air tonight on KING5 for a big announcement. Speculation on the Twitters was that he'd be dropping out of the Washington Senate race. Said speculation was reinforced by Benton's own Twitter feed.
Forgive me for yawning. I've heard that a certain "politically savvy" Benton fan whose name rhymes with "Belly" trashed me a couple months ago using four and five letter words typically applied to women that aren't very nice for suggesting that Benton would do just...

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Huffington Post has a story up today about Rep. Dave Reichert's supposed flip-flopping on health care reform and the issue of reform-of-reform versus repeal. Here's an excerpt, read it carefully:
When he's in Washington, D.C., Dave Reichert wants to repeal health care reform. Back in Washington state, the Republican Congressman says that calls for repeal are mere political posturing.
"The more radical approach is let's repeal this bill but I'm just gonna say that that's more of a...

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I have an op-ed running today at the Daily Caller about Republican candidates' need to "keep it local." Here's a excerpt:
Last week, Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul crossed the nation’s political radar as a result of comments made by him and heavily publicized in the national media regarding his views on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Immediately following Paul’s primary win on Tuesday, national-level scrutiny of remarks he made to the Louisville Courier-Journal on the...

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This doesn't look good:
If Dino Rossi jumps into the senate race against Patty Murray, it is sure to be a bloody battle. One poll has Rossi ten points ahead.
Another has Murray with a comfortable lead.
But regardless of the polls, the race is sure to be ugly. I got an e-mail Wednesday from listener Mark. He was in an office building that is home to "People for Patty Murray" - Senator Murray's re-election headquarters. Mark wrote:
Dori,
I was in a building on...

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Readers will know I was back in Seattle just over a week ago and met with various local Republican leaders, consultants, activists, etc., while there.
One of the things I kept hearing in the course of some of those meetings, incidentally, was that if Rossi got in, yes, Clint Didier would almost certainly step out, though he might not say so, per se.
Now, it appears that that's not the situation-- or, if you want to read this in the most cynical possible light, at least that Didier...

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The P-I has a post up this morning about Suzan DelBene attacking Rep. Dave Reichert over his leadership on economic policy and sounding remarkably pro-business for a Democrat. In fact, a lot of what DelBene has to say is completely unobjectionable from my perspective, and indeed constitutes good policy. Here are some examples:
Among DelBene's goals:
- Making the Research and Development tax credit permanent, something she said would help local tech companies.
- Expand tax...

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It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote about the Washington Senate race and the presumed forthcoming matchup between Sen. Patty Murray and Dino Rossi. But suffice to say, that doesn't mean that there's been no action out there in the political world designed to impact the race. Quite the opposite, in fact: As the AP notes, last week, Democrats put out a major hit on Rossi. However, what the AP fails to note is the true essence of the hit in question: A major league own-goal, by...

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Readers will hopefully forgive me indulging in a little reminiscing... I was reminded today to do a little post about how Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP representing Islington South (my constituency) is running against Bridget Fox, her Lib Dem opponent from 2005, once again this year.
This causes me to chuckle a little. Neither lady will of course get my vote, but Bridget Fox reprising the role of the Lib Dem candidate in Islington South is of particular interest to me because,...

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