Maria Cantwell

Washington's Congressional delegation spoke out in favor of today's decision by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' decision to re-open the bidding process for the Air Force KC-767 tankers. Airbus had won the initial contract, which would have cost the state's economy a significant amount of money, but the process was discovered to be flawed by the Government Accountability Office.

Representatives Brian Baird (D-03), Doc Hastings (D-04) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (D-05) have yet to speak on the matter. Links to and excerpts from the rest of the state's elected officials statements are below.

Dave Reichert wins green recognition while Dino Rossi wavers on global warming. Here are the Winners & Losers for May 30, 2008.

Sen. Maria CantwellCongressional Quarterly issued a report today listing the past and present U.S. House and Senate candidates with the ten largest campaign debts, typically as a result of personal loans. Maria Cantwell, Washington's wealthy junior senator, came in at number 8 on the list with an unpaid balance of $2,312,707 from her successful 2006 campaign against Republican Mike McGavick.

Presidents have (very) occassionaly favored Washingtonians with prominent appointments. Our senators' replies to whether they wanted to be vice president led us to look into other Washingtonians in presidential administrations.

Don't expect Washington's U.S. senators to be a presidential runningmate. In a survey of the U.S. Senate's membership not already running for president on whether they'd accept an offer to be vice president, The Hill newspaper found a variety of responses to the veepstakes question. Some were accompanied by laughs, others took the question seriously.

So, how did Democrats Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray respond?

Washington's superdelegate count stands at five for Obama, five for Clinton and seven undecided. State Republican deciders may know something the Democrats don't know, since they've been campaigning against Obama, without a single mention on Clinton in recent letters. The Republican decidee is coming to town, and you can meet him for dinner for only $33,100.

We like to complain about gas prices. We also like to drive. On Earth Day Eve, we ought to recognize both that gas prices will continue to go up, and that we will continue to drive just as much as before.

By bringing environmentalists into the reality-based community, we can help them refocus their goals to support better-engineered cars that burn cleaner fuels.  read more »

Washington's two U.S. Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, have followed the lead of their stateside Democratic colleagues by calling on the NBA to postpone a vote on whether or not the Seattle Sonics are allowed to move to Oklahoma City at Friday's NBA owner's meeting.

$268,294,892: That’s total value of the 269 pork barrel projects secured from the federal government by Washington’s Congressional delegation, according to the 2008 Pig Book.

It's a small number compared to the $17.2 billion national total that Citizens Against Government Waste found in FY 2008’s 12 appropriation bills.

With $41.48 of pork per capita, Washington ranks 25th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.