Cantwell's "cool intelligence"

P-I columnist Joel Connelly examines Maria Cantwell's recent re-election, her new spot on an important Senate committee and her trip to China.

Still, in this era of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, we ought to celebrate high-profile women who display cool intelligence.

They're not yet comparable to the "gold dust twins," as Maggie and seatmate Sen. Henry Jackson became known in the 1970s. But Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., have done a skillful job in balancing their interests -- and the state's -- in the "other" Washington.

Cantwell is the first Washington senator in more than 70 years to sit on Finance, the committee that writes federal tax laws. Murray is a subcommittee chairwoman on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings of the federal budget.

It's a fun column worth a full read. Connelly is kind of mean to intellectual lightweights, but it's not as if Hilton or Spears likely read the P-I.

As the new Democratic Congress gets set to convene, it's nice to contemplate how well we will be represented in the Senate. Like it or not, a state benefits greatly from Senators who hold key positions, and we're in pretty good shape.