It's in the P-I

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has endorsed Democrat Senator Patty Murray for re-election.

Who knew that the P-I favors Democrats? "I shall alert the media."

What is noteworthy here is that the P-I is making a general election endorsement before the primary. The straw that broke the camel's back?

[Rep. George] Nethercutt declined the Editorial Board's invitation to sit with his Republican opponent Reed Davis in a TVW-televised interview and, even more significant, has refused to debate his opponent.

Patty Murray has primary challengers too, but she hasn't debated them either. In other words, the P-I won't bother to listen to the post-primary debate between the Democrat and Republican nominees (almost certainly Murray and Nethercutt respectively), specifically because the Republican front-runner declined to debate his (inconsequential) primary opponent, even though the Democrat front-runner also declined to debate her (inconsequential) primary opponent. If this makes sense to you, then go ahead and cast your vote based on the P-I's recommendations.

Also in today's P-I

The editors determined that this op-ed would be useful to the public: "Bush weds religion, politics to form world view"

The ultimate irony is that in combating the Islamic extremists responsible for Sept. 11, the administration has crafted, pursued and engendered its own brand of political fundamentalism -- one that, while clearly tailored to a modern democracy, nonetheless functions ideologically in a manner similar to the version offered by the terrorists.

The op-ed argues (I paraphrase) that because Bush called the people who flew airplanes into crowded skyscrapers "evil", he is ideologically similar to the terrorists.

This op-ed was indeed useful in a roundabout sort of way. It was written by a University of Washington professor, David Domke. Bear in mind that I-884, the statewide initiative to raise the state sales tax by 15% would provide an extra $400 million a year for "higher education" spending. If you're convinced that the people of the state of Washington need to spend another $400 million a year so we can put more lunatic moral equivalists on the public payroll, then by all means vote for I-884. And thank Prof. Domke and the P-I editors for helping you make that decision.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 22, 2004 10:35 AM | Email This