Rossi endorses McGavick for Senate

There was a lot of news yesterday, and there was one important item that I wanted to get to today because I blogged so much yesterday. The AP has the story:

Republican Senate hopeful Mike McGavick on Wednesday picked up the endorsement of 2004 gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi as well as the state's three Republican congressmen and many top GOP activists.

McGavick, 47, who ran Slade Gorton's successful U.S. Senate comeback bid years ago, soon will retire as chief executive officer of Safeco Insurance to campaign full time.

He has been endorsed by Gorton, former Gov. Dan Evans, former Rep. Jennifer Dunn and other party elders. But Rossi was a big addition to the roster Wednesday, since he's the titular head of the party and probably the best known and most popular GOP figure in the state.

This all but ends all speculation about who Cantwell's challenger will be. McGavick had a virtual lock on the nomination - it's doubtful he'll even have any primary opposition. Nobody else is currently in the race, and after Rossi's endorsement, it's hard to see why any other Republican would want to challenge McGavick.

Leave it to Rossi, of course, to make some idiotic comment that has no truth to it whatsoever:

Rossi, who appeared with McGavick at a joint news conference in Seattle, called it "a great opportunity for change."

In an interview, he said:

"I think he will be a terrific United States senator. Over time, he will have the stature of a Magnuson or a Jackson. He has the ability and the leadership."

The stature of legendary Democrats Warren Magnuson and Scoop Jackson? How dare Dino Rossi attempt to make such a comparison!

Fortunately, someone was outraged on our behalf:

The comment prompted an angry reaction from state Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt, who was in Phoenix for a meeting of the Democratic National Committee. McGavick doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Democratic lions Magnuson and Jackson, he said.

"This really makes my blood boil," he said in an interview. "McGavick would be in the rotten tradition of Slade Gorton. Scoop and Maggie came from modest beginnings and believed in taking care of the poor. Mike McGavick is a corporate insurance executive who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth."

Darn right. McGavick's going to try and sell himself as something he's not. He'll be slickly presented as a moderate just as Rossi was. But McGavick is no moderate. The Democratic Party had better do a good job tearing down the curtains around McGavick and exposing his record and history. They couldn't make Rossi's past stick with him during the 2004 gubernatorial campaign. They need to improve significantly for 2006 - we can't afford to make that kind of mistake again.