Friday, May 13, 2011

Kudos…

…to Rep. Adam Smith (WA-9), who says in a statement...
"I have decided not to go to Langley to view the bin Laden photographs myself at CIA Headquarters. I support the President’s decision not to release the photographs. These images are not necessary to confirm that the mission to eliminate bin Laden was a success.”
The right decision for the right reasons. Applause from here, Congressman!
This is reposted from Thursday, Blogger's hiccup seeming to have lost it and Michael Moore post. Since then, I've heard of people seeing the photos and saying they should be released and people seeing the photos and saying they shouldn't. I haven't heard anyone else taking Smith's principled stand - refusing the invitation to see them, endorsing the decision to withhold them and denying the conspiratorial claims that seeing them is somehow necessary.

The ovation continues, standing now...

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Slow but...

...still somewhat uncertain. Blogger blew yesterday and though they've promised to restore the posts they took offline for repairs, I'm only getting one of the three I put up before they disappeared. I've got 'em in a personal buffer, so I can and will restore them if they're not back before I'm home from work tonight.

In breif, the missing posts congratulate Rep. Adam Smith for taking the right position on the bin Laden photos - he declined the viewing opportunity afforded him and supports the decision not to publish - and encourage Michael Moore's encouragement to "End the wars, bring the troops home, make the rich pay for this mess, and restore our privacy and due process rights that used to distinguish us from any other country" now that the subject of those photographs is dead.

Stay tuned for all that and more...

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

As a native son…

…of Scoop and Maggie's Washington, I have a genetic appreciation for the parochial benefits of clout. Ours expands...
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Adam Smith won the top Democratic post on the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday night…

****

The Democratic Caucus on Thursday also backed a bid by Rep. Norm Dicks of Bremerton to remain the top Democrat on the defense appropriations subcommittee. Dicks overcame a resolution offered by Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina to bar him from serving as the subcommittee's ranking member while also holding the same position on the full appropriations committee.
Good for them!

Good for us, too.

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Thursday, November 04, 2010

Inch by inch…

…ballot by ballot, we're starting to get a pretty clear picture of the election outcome in the upper left. Patty Murray has extended her lead, holding nearly 51% and expected to increase that lead a couple points as King County ballots continue to be counted. My own personal Congressman will continue to be my own personal Congressman, with over 80% against his "prefers independent" opponent.

I'm not happy to see Denny Heck go down in the third. I'm not sure whether he would have ended up being Jay Inslee or Adam Smith once in office, but my bet is on the Inslee side of the progressive divide. Either would have been an improvement over the relatively renegade Democrat Brian Baird. Republican Jaime Herrera is, of course, the worst alternative of all. Third District Democrats need to get to work on preventing Herrera get entrenched in '12.

Inlsee, Smith and Norm Dicks will be returning to D.C. with Jim McDermott, but there's still a question mark in the 2nd District, where Democrat Rick Larsen has taken a 507 vote lead after trailing in election night returns. This one could take a while.

Locally, Democrats swept the legislative seats in the 32nd District, averaging about 60% of the vote. I've always said that if everybody does what they're supposed to do, this is a 60% D district, so apparently everbody did. Congratulations, then, to everybody, and in particular to Senator Maralyn Chase and Representatives Cindy Ryu and Ruth Kagi.

Not every legislative district produced such a definitive result, but despite some too-close-to-call races and our snails pace ballot counts, it looks like Democrats will continue to hold both legislative bodies. Given the challenges bound to be produced by some of the ballot measure outcomes, that's a mixed blessing. They seem fated to spend the next session apportioning misery. Still, though I'm glad there will be Democrats in charge of the painful process.

More on those ballot measures later...

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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

My own personal Congressman…

…top ten with a bullet! Via Howie...
Here are the ten most progressive members of the House of Representatives (as measured by lifetime Progressive Punch scores on crucial votes):
1. Grijalva, Raul D AZ-7
2. Schakowsky, Jan D IL-9
3. Baldwin, Tammy D WI-2
4. Edwards, Donna D MD-4
5. Sánchez, Linda D CA-39
6. Olver, John D MA-1
7. Conyers, John D MI-14
8. Lee, Barbara D CA-9
9. Payne, Donald D NJ-10
10. McDermott, Jim D WA-7
Jim makes the cut with a lifetime score of 94.14, but his current mark is 98.18, second only to Speaker Pelosi in the current Congress.

Other Democrats from the upper left range from Jay Inslee, ranked 115 with a score of 81.95, to Adam Smith, trailing the delegation at 166 with a 72.31 score.

Find your own personal congressmember here.

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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Clout.

PolitickerWA has the latest Congress.org power rainkings. Overall the Washington delegation ranks 20th among the 50 states. A better than middling ranking for a state our size, I suppose. Senators Murray and Cantwell rank 21 and 48 in the Senate, both in top half, though I’d think Patty's position in the Democratic leadership would have given her more of a boost. Both rankings suffer, I suspect, from a lack of tenure.

In the House, our ranking is boosted by two top-ten percenters, Democrats Norm Dicks (22 out of 435) and my own personal Congressman, Jim McDermott (39). Jay Inslee's an up and comer at 72, while the remaining Democrats, Brian Baird (212), Rick Larsen (236) and Adam Smith (252) fall nearer the center.

The Republicans, naturally, are a drag on the delegation. The senior Republican from our fair state, Doc Hastings, checks in at 301 while Cathy McMorris Rodgers trails at 356.

Sherrif Dave? Almost off the chart at 401.

You can start making things better from the bottom up by doing your bit for Darcy.

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Speaking of endorsements…

…this caught my eye over at the Seattle For Obama blog
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Rep. Adam Smith has been named chairman of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Washington state, Obama's campaign announced Thursday.
Interesting in a couple of respects. I remember when the Kerry campaign in the upper left consisted of Rep. Smith and whatever staff resources he could spare from his campaign office. Adam's typically a Democrat of moderate persuasion and I always thought his enthusiasm for that Kerry fella, a far more progressive figure, was significantly inspired by fear of Howard Dean and particularly of the Deaniacs, who were rampant in Seattle and generally far more progressive than their candidate.

Few Dean supporters were more visible and effective than Howard "Howie in Seattle for Dean" Martin, who's now running the Seattle for Obama blog, and who posted the news of Smith's campaign appointment.

Meanwhile, I've gone from a candidate represented locally by Adam Smith to one for whom the head Deaniac in charge, Joe Trippi, plays a prominent role.

As I mentioned regarding the loss of Karen Marchioro, over the years, Karen and I were both allies and adversaries on various campaigns and questions, but always friendly nonetheless. The wheel turns, and in the heat of a campaign it's often worth remembering that in a short time, often just weeks or months, we'll be making common cause with folks who momentarily seem like our mortal adversaries.

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