Sen. Ted Stevens: Cantwell's campaign MVP
Yesterday morning, in reaction to seeing Sen. Ted Stevens' threats to his Senate colleagues, I wrote the following:
(By the way, we do not allow swearing in our comment threads. David Goldstein lets trolls run wild on HorsesAss, but that kind of language is not tolerated here. There is no need for it. We have temporarily turned comment moderation on to ensure that wingnut profanity can be deleted.)
Seriously, Senator Stevens' attacks on our state are actually quite beneficial - and what's funny is that good old Ted doesn't seem to realize it.
Angered by Maria Cantwell's attempt to hold Big Oil accountable (with her price gouging legislation, and request to have oil executives sworn in when testifying before the Senate Energy Committee) and angered by her leadership in stopping his Arctic drilling scheme, Stevens recently introduced legislation (in November) that would overturn the Magnuson Amendment.
The amendment, which the venerable Democratic senator designed in 1977, limits the number of oil tankers entering Puget Sound. The limits were intended to protect the Sound and its marine-mammal life from oil spills.
Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly pointed out in one his columns last month that Stevens was shooting himself in the foot and setting up Cantwell with a nice title: "Defender of the Sound". Indeed, hardly has an individual been more helpful to Cantwell's reelection campaign than good old Ted.
Conservatives, did you take a glance at the layout of newspaper front pages across Washington State yesterday? Guess how many of them had Cantwell's picture? The Seattle Times and the Seattle P-I even carried the same AP photograph of her.
Stevens wants to come here and trash Senator Cantwell? He wants to come here and make his case for why we need more corporate giveaways and handouts for oil companies? Well, we're not going to stand his way - we can't stop him from coming here anyway.
But as we said, he won't find a receptive audience. Washingtonians are keenly aware of how fragile the environment is, and how important it is that we safeguard our remaining wildernesses.
Stevens will, however, succeed in continuing to boost Maria Cantwell's reelection efforts. Every time he reintroduces his Arctic drilling scheme in the Senate - and fails to get it passed - he hands Cantwell another victory.
Stevens wants to come here? We certainly won't be complaining. So,as much as we don't like him, we certainly have to admit - he's great for the campaign effort.
Listen up, Ted. We here in the Evergreen State are sick of your attacks on our senator and our state. We're tired of your sellout to the oil companies and your handouts for corporations. We don't want you here. You're not welcome.I was amused to find that just about everyone took this post rather seriously. But it was pretentious outrage. I wrote the post as a joke, then had second thoughts about posting it because I was pretty sure no one would get it. But another NPI member urged me to post it, because we'd get a great reaction. Sure enough - we did. A sampling of the responses from the comment thread:
Don't even bother showing up, because most Washingtonians don't agree with you. Take your vitirol somewhere else, because we're not interested in listening to it. You're a whiner and a shill for big oil companies.
You expect to come here and get a receptive audience after you introduced an attempt to repeal the Magnuson Amendment? Sorry. We don't listen to people who try to shaft our state and our region.
We're tired of your political games. Bluster on all you want. We'll keep fighting to make sure that the Arctic Wildlife Refuge is never opened to drilling. And should you decide to come to the Evergreen State, we'll do our best to make sure your stay is unpleasant.
Doesn't Seattle sit along a fault line????? One can only hope!The second to last comment was made by "Kaz", who apparently doesn't know that polling indicates a sizable majority are against drilling in the Refuge. The last commenter was just plain stupid. "Burned that bridge", indeed. As if Cantwell even had a bridge to begin with.
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I say welcome to Ted Stevens!! Maybe then this state will wake up and lose the losers, Cantwell and Murray. While your at it may as well blast away at "Baghdad" Jim McDermott.
One last thing. "Save the Rain Forest, Burn a Liberal!!.
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Hey ****HEAD!! YOU DON'T SPEAK FORE ME, I KNOW YOU THINK YOU DO, AND BESIDES CANTWELL IS A ****ING ****!
MERRY ****ING CHRISTMAS!!
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Hey Hey, Hee Hee, A RED STATE we soon will be!
Long live Washington.
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Who has the stupidest team of Senators? The clueless duo from California or the pathetic dumbasses from Washington? Both have strong cases for the title. Also let's not leave out of consideration those Dumb and Dumber freaks from Massachusetts.
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I suspect Maria doesn't care about any of this at all ... her goal is to get her name back in the minds of Washington voters BEFORE Mike McGavick gets out there and shows his strengths in comparison to her 5+ years of treading water in DC.
Ted, bring it on! And please, join Mike early and often in his campaign against our second current and useless senator from this formerly great state of Washington.
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Seems like the majority who wrote in here think it's a good idea to drill in ANWAR, and so do I. You guys blamed Bush for the high price of gas, you should blame the left!!!
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Maria, you just burned that bridge. How can you be effective with an enemy like Stevens? Say good bye Maria... Maybe something at Realnetworks for you? Your coffers are rather shallow now.
(By the way, we do not allow swearing in our comment threads. David Goldstein lets trolls run wild on HorsesAss, but that kind of language is not tolerated here. There is no need for it. We have temporarily turned comment moderation on to ensure that wingnut profanity can be deleted.)
Seriously, Senator Stevens' attacks on our state are actually quite beneficial - and what's funny is that good old Ted doesn't seem to realize it.
Angered by Maria Cantwell's attempt to hold Big Oil accountable (with her price gouging legislation, and request to have oil executives sworn in when testifying before the Senate Energy Committee) and angered by her leadership in stopping his Arctic drilling scheme, Stevens recently introduced legislation (in November) that would overturn the Magnuson Amendment.
The amendment, which the venerable Democratic senator designed in 1977, limits the number of oil tankers entering Puget Sound. The limits were intended to protect the Sound and its marine-mammal life from oil spills.
Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly pointed out in one his columns last month that Stevens was shooting himself in the foot and setting up Cantwell with a nice title: "Defender of the Sound". Indeed, hardly has an individual been more helpful to Cantwell's reelection campaign than good old Ted.
Conservatives, did you take a glance at the layout of newspaper front pages across Washington State yesterday? Guess how many of them had Cantwell's picture? The Seattle Times and the Seattle P-I even carried the same AP photograph of her.
Stevens wants to come here and trash Senator Cantwell? He wants to come here and make his case for why we need more corporate giveaways and handouts for oil companies? Well, we're not going to stand his way - we can't stop him from coming here anyway.
But as we said, he won't find a receptive audience. Washingtonians are keenly aware of how fragile the environment is, and how important it is that we safeguard our remaining wildernesses.
Stevens will, however, succeed in continuing to boost Maria Cantwell's reelection efforts. Every time he reintroduces his Arctic drilling scheme in the Senate - and fails to get it passed - he hands Cantwell another victory.
Stevens wants to come here? We certainly won't be complaining. So,as much as we don't like him, we certainly have to admit - he's great for the campaign effort.
