Politics Margin of Error
The excitable dissident Democrats in Seattle’s 36th District (Ballard, Queen Anne) are at it again, shopping a resolution that expresses their dissatisfaction with Sen. Maria Cantwell.
WHEREAS Sen. Maria Cantwell voted in favor of H.J. Res. 114 (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq);WHEREAS the 36th District Democrats censured Sen. Cantwell for her support of H.J. Res. 114;
WHEREAS between October 2003 and December 2005 Sen. Cantwell made no substantive public policy statement on Iraq in her own words;
WHEREAS when she finally broke her silence she said she had no regrets over her vote to authorize the war in Iraq (Seattle P-I, January 19, 2006);
WHEREAS, by the historical standards of J. David Singer and his colleagues at the University of Michigan, Iraq is in a state of civil war (Errol A. Henderson and J. David Singer, “Civil War in the Post-Colonial World, 1946-92,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, May 2000);
WHEREAS President Bush has stated his intention to keep U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq into 2009 (Washington Post, March 22, 2006);
WHEREAS the United States is spending about a billion dollars on permanent military bases in Iraq (Seattle P-I, March 22, 2006); and
WHEREAS the Seattle P-I editorial board has stated that Sen. Cantwell “should bring a legitimate voice to the debate on how to best get out of Iraq”(Seattle P-I, March 21, 2006);
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the 36th District Democrats call upon Sen. Maria Cantwell to join the public debate on how to withdraw U.S. Armed Forces from the Iraq civil war.
It’s not clear that Sen. Cantwell is as much of a burning controversy in the 36th as those pushing the resolution want to believe, though.
A poll on Cantwell posted on the 36th’s website, that’s been up for about 3 weeks now, shows 40% saying she’ll win this November in a landslide, 20% saying she’ll barely eke out a win, and 40% saying she’ll be the only Dem to lose this November.
While that hardly seems like a show of confidence—only 5 people took part in the poll.
The 36th District Democrats are a fun bunch of people. Lots of old hippies, grey-haired class warriors, militant vegitarians, professional complainers. Unfortunatley they're my LD, so to the meetings I go.