Wrong.
Read it again.
Cantwell voted against Hayden.

Damn.
If you can change your post, why can't I?

because you're not an editor/writer.

and, in the end, a vote for anyone other than the Dem candidate in November is a vote for Bush to get his way ..

Yay!

As in, Yay for Cantwell for confounding our expectations for once.

And boo for Murray. WTF?

Where is Murray?

Between Murkowski and Nelson. With a big fat YEA next to her name.

Cantwell along with Kennedy and Obama also voted against the wall along the Mexican border. Is Maria becoming a true liberal? She is making a come back, now if she would only change her position on the war. But, a couple of more solid liberal votes like that and is all good.

But man, that piece in the Weekly was cold blooded. Warm and fuzzy she is not. She reminds me of Rebeca De Mornay's character in the Hand that rocks the cradle.

I have heard stories from friends who worked for her, but man that Weekly piece makes her sound like a nightmare boss to work for.

Will,
I agree that we have to vote for the Democrats in November because we simply have to get the Republicans out of power.

But despite being a lifelong Democrat, I'm really asking myself whether enough is finally enough. They really are a terrible, disfunctional, disorganized party who stand for almost nothing. The individual democrats like Murtha or Feingold who manage to stand a stand on one issue or another are few and far between, and are typically immediately marginalized by the rest of the party.

I cut the Democrats some slack because I have great respect for the big tent of Roosevelt, and for the civil rights era efforts of Dems like Johnson and Thurgood Marshall. But I can't stand the current crop of whiners and conservatives. John Kerry is washed up. Hillary Clinton is useless. The new crop of Democratic 'saviors' like Bob Casey Jr. and Brian Schweitzer are pro-life pro-gun rednecks. How long can we continue voting for people like this? I don't like or trust Cantwell! I acknowledge that the alternative is worse, but that's a shitty way to cast a vote!

Exclamation points!!! (for the uninformed, anyway)

As I noted elsewhere, earlier:

Cantwell is one of the leading civil libertarians and privacy advocates in the Senate (as she was in the House back in the days of the Clipper Chip fight).

She was a tiger on Judiciary (until she swapped out to give John Edwards the J seat, setting up her current lead role on E&C), and led a number of successful efforts to block Bush federal court nominees.

Patty Murray aka IDIOT

I have much more respect now for Cantwell since she gives a damn about the constitution in spite of her wishy washy stand on the Iraq War.

I agree Gurldoggie that we've got too many spineless democrats, but they're a hell of a lot better than the fascist enabling republican majorities we've got now. As a matter of fact, some of those spineless democrats may develop a spine if they were part of a majority if we elected them and would stand up for civil rights and liberties.

Voting twice for the Patriot Act does not make someone a leading civil libertarian.

Peace,
Chad

I gave up on the "mom in tennis shoes" way back when she voted for the DOMA.

gurl ... Rove thanks you for your vote.

oh, and lots of supposedly liberal electeds voted for the DOMA. let's get real, the objective of the neocons right now is to fracture us with issues like DOMA/gay marriage and such like. they can't win on their platform or their track record, and they know it.

Heck, yeah, I totally revise my opinions of every elected official from scratch with every vote. I'm Short Attention Span Voter.

Not to be confused with Immaculate Purity Voter, who actively campaigns against every candidate who has ever deviated from any position of mine not matter how great or trivial.

"Voting twice for the Patriot Act does not make someone a leading civil libertarian." Actually, Chad, yes, it does.

Leading: attracting and influencing followers to encourage a desired result.

Feingold's symbolic act of disapproval did not influence the end result.

Cantwell's good-faith negotiation on language and amendments -- and her votes to defeat cloture on the unimproved draft -- produced desired improvements in the Act.

Feingold: hero.

Cantwell: leader.

actually, though, Feingold IS the better speaker. I remember trying to get Maria out of her shell when she started running for Senate, and he's got a much more natural connection to the crowd.

RonK,
This is what Cantwell said just prior to her second vote for the Patriot Act:

"I believe that many provisions of the bill, particularly those sections dealing with electronic
eavesdropping and computer trespass, remain seriously flawed and may infringe on civil
liberties. And that is why I will continue our work to improve these protections even as we
implement them.

At a time when we are making permanent broad powers for our law enforcement and intelligence
communities without the full traditional safeguards of judicial review and congressional
oversight my concerns have been exacerbated, truthfully, by the administration’s explicit
attempts to go around both the courts and the Congress with their wiretapping and secret
listening posts."

Basically she says I see the train coming but I have faith that George Bush will put on the brakes before he hits you.

Sorry, I do not share her faith in George Bush and his injustice department lead by Dr. Torture.

Peace,
Chad

Cantwell is one of the leading civil libertarians and privacy advocates in the Senate (as she was in the House back in the days of the Clipper Chip fight).

Sorry Ron, that's ridiculous. If voting for the Patriot Act wasn't bad enough, she actually made a statement endorsing its use for fighting meth. You cannot possibly be serious in saying she's one of the leading civil libertarians in the Senate. Her record since 9/11 has been abysmal. I'm still voting for her, but she needs to wise up to what's happening or it won't matter that we have a Dem in that Senate seat.

As for Hayden's nomination, this is much more complicated than many people (both left and right) are aware of. Go read Steve Clemons here. Hayden's nomination is seen by many inside Washington as a way to prevent Rumsfeld from having too much sway over the CIA. Negroponte, believe it or not, is the moderating influence here. And yes, that should be terrifying by itself. But it was the lesser of two evils.

Chad apparently believes Cantwell should NOT have put her vote in play consequentially (in which case an even less satisfactory PATRIOT Act would have become law).

thehim apparently believes Cantwell should NOT have put her vote to symbolic effect (in protest of NSA domestic surveillance) where no consequential opportunity arose.

Representative democracy "is much more complicated than many people (both left and right) are aware of" ... but you'd think people who spend so much time and energy on it would try to get the hang of the basics.

RonK,
The only desired effect I want to see in the Patriot Act is its repeal. Maria Cantwell felt that, despite the risk to our civil liberties (see NSA warrentless wiretapping and data mining) it was "good enough". We disagree but she has the vote. I feel she did not cast it in my best interest therefore I oppose her re-election in the primary. So much for the basics.

Peace,

Chad

{links} - nice site!