Dedicated to Maria Cantwell, for her siding with the Repugs

[TechBear_Seattle]

Cue the singing nuns!

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you get her values all pinned down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A Democrat? Republican? Or clown?

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her,
Many a thing she ought to understand.
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
Without a bunch of money in your hand?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
Vote her out of office, that'd be grand!

When I write her, I'm confused,
Out of focus and bemused
Cause I never know just where her vote will be.
Unpredictable as weather,
She's as flighty as a feather
So the common folk just pray and wait and see.

She out flip-flops any GOPper,
She betrayed our every hope for
A Supreme Court Justice who is not a rat.
Let us not forget John Roberts
Or Alberto R. Gonzales.
Rubberstamping Bush's picks are just old hat.

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you get her values all pinned down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A Democrat? Republican? Or clown?

Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her,
Many a thing she ought to understand.
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
Without a bunch of money in your hand?

Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
Vote her out of office, that'd be grand!

[Divernan]

1. Maria's "A Gutsy Dotcom Lady W/ a Tough Fight on Her Hands"

Techbear, you are WAAAAAY off base to advocate voting Cantwell out of office, particularly since the alternative is Republican Mike McGavick, a former insurance-company executive. He has plenty of cash, not least from the oil companies which Ms. Cantwellhas offended.
Clearly, you are campaigning for a Republican on DU.

In addition to that, you show no political savvy that Ms. Cantwell faces an even tougher election than the one she fought so hard for to get to the Senate. As you well know, being from Washington state AND evidently, a hightech type of guy, Ms Cantwell spent her own considerable fortune (millions in stock options from her time at RealNetworks, an internet firm) to allow her to outspend her Republican opponent/incumbent Slade Gorton. This time around, her wealth having disappeared in the dotcom collapse, she is very dependent upon donations - some of which might reasonably come from us DUers. She has returned $17,865 to organizations w/ties to Abramoff - probably Washington state Indian tribes.

The Economist has a column about Maria Cantwell with the above headline in the current issue.

www.economist.com/print

Since you need to be a subscriber to read this, here are some excerpts.

Discussing how just before Christmas, Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) slyly inserted permission for ANWR oil drilling to go ahead "The ruse was that Democrats would not want to appear to be soft on defence; but they rallied to remove the ANWR wording from the defence bill in a 48-45 vote.

"Mr. Stevens' most vigorous foe was a relatively unknown young senator from Washington state. MARIA CANTWELL, a former high-tech manager, BUTTONHOLED COLLEAGUES TO BLOCK DRILLING, EVEN DONNING A SIMILAR "INCREDIBLE HULK" TIE TO THE ONE MR. STEVENS WEARS WHEN HE GOES INTO BATTLE."

The article also states that the Repug. state chairman is working hard to depict Cantwell as being "obstructionist". So if her vote wouldn't have been enough to block cloture, why give the Rs more ammo to attack her?


I look forward to your explanation of how Democrats are helped by your suggestion that they dump her out of office and elect a Big Insurance Republican with lots of oil money backing him.

[Missy Vixen]

2. No he's not

>Techbear, you are WAAAAAY off base to advocate voting Cantwell out of office<

There's a progressive running against Cantwell. I'll be donating money and volunteer hours to him.

I am sick and tired of Maria Cantwell's "leadership". She has done it to us for the last time.

Julie
Seattle native and sick of Maria Cantwell

[Totally Committed]

3. He looks like an okay guy, too...

good luck in unseating her!

TC

[Divernan]

4. Are you saying you support a "progressive" Republican?

I just checked the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and as of last Thursday, the discussion of the Senate race was all about various Rs in the primary - nothing about a Dem primary, or any Dem opposition candidate. So who is is you're supporting?

[cascadiance]

5. Send $20.06 to Mark Wilson...

I did yesterday. We can add more later if we really feel that he could build up a groundswell of support later. Go here:

http://www.votemark.org/

Great on the song. Perhaps we could use it to out Mary (Maria) Landrieu in Louisiana too! Or perhaps make something like "Mary, Mary, quite contrary! I guess though the way that Louisiana votes without really a traditional primary runoff though, this might get tricky to get another candidate a majority against her and the Rethugs there.

[SeattleGirl]

17. Just sent $20.06 to Mark

And I will also send more in the future.

[Pachamama]

20. The money I was going to be sending to Cantwell is going to Wilson

I wrote that in a note today to Cantwell in a letter she sent me seeking another "contribution" to her campaign. I'm thinking of writing to Emily's list and asking them to re-designate the money I sent them where I checked off Maria Cantwell's name and instead to put it towards one of their other candidates.

Sorry, but I think Maria Cantwell did something yesterday that I will not excuse. And while I won't go saying I'm not voting democrat again, I will not donate money or support democrats who would do something like what she did yesterday. There would have been no harm in her voting no on cloture. But there was more harm in her voting yes on cloture and it was a symbolic action that to me sends a message that she no longer deserves my support. She and some of the other dems might want to start thinking about the consequences of their actions.....and I'm backing another horse in the race. I will agree with what Will Pitt and others have said...time to take our party back!

:kick:

[Missy Vixen]

8. For someone who doesn't live in Washington state

you seem to have no problem telling us how we can or cannot vote.

http://votemark.org is the progressive candidate running against Maria Cantwell.

Julie

[Divernan]

14. I have family in Seattle and visit them regularly.

nt

[Missy Vixen]

25. Both DH and I are natives of Washington state

We live with Maria Cantwell's appeaser political decisions daily. You don't.

Julie

[uppityperson]

23. Progressive democrat, Mark Wilson as of now.

So what if PI was about republican vs cantwell, do you seriously think in a state like our that is our only choice?

[DELUSIONAL]

6. She will NOT get my vote

I will NOT vote for a DINO ever again.

I will support Mark Wilson who is running in the Democratic Primary.
http://www.votemark.org/

IF she wins the primary I will simply NOT vote -- because I won't vote for a GOPig either.

She is a self centered bitch and has been completely unresponsive to her voting base.

[SeattleVet]

7. I'm glad that someone pointed me to his site yesterday.

I'll be supporting him, and have already passed his info on to several others last night who are absolutely disgusted with Cantwell's actions yesterday. Well, actually, most were pretty turned off on her before because of some of her other votes, but yesterday was the straw that broke the camel's back. She's burned us one too many times.

I sent her an email last night telling her who I would be supprting in the primary, and why.

[TechBear_Seattle]

21. When the major parties (including the Dems) got the blanket primary tossed

... I vowed that I would never vote in any partisan primary. I am willing to break that vow and vote for Mark Wilson in September to help unseat Cantwell. I will be encouraging other sworn independents to do the same.

[liberalhistorian]

9. LOL!

Rodgers and Hammerstein would be proud, good job! And so true, too.

[TechBear_Seattle]

12. Thank you :-b

I found myself humming the song on the way home from work. The lyrics wrote themselves over dinner.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Another "not as bad as the Republicans" senator. She won't get my vote.

I voted for her 2000 under the delusion that she was a progressive. She shattered that delusion with her vote for the war. I vowed not to vote for her sorry ass again and her vote for Alito cements that decision. Another rich capitalist who has become a politician because she wanted a new hobby.

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. Point of information

She voted for cloture yesterday, ending debate and preventing a filibuster. Her vote today on actual confirmation was no, not that it mattered.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. aka - An empty gesture to cover her ass.

[SeattleGirl]

15. Nice job on the song -- and the words are so true!

She lost me after her vote for the war, so I will also be supporting Mark Wilson. I met him on the Bainbridge ferry, and got to chat with him for awhile, one on one. I like his ideas, I like the stand he takes on things, and I would love to see him unseat Cantwell!

[Wordie]

16. Absolutely brilliant. K&R! eom

[samhsarah]

18. Nice.

[Generic Other]

19. I was asked to share my opinion of Cantwell with PDA. Here's my response

I don't speak for any groups of voters, but I do speak for myself and many of my friends. We have been very disappointed in Cantwell's performance as a senator. The worst moment was her Iraq vote. That vote cost her a whole lot of support from individuals who oppose the war. And it may have cost her the election in a state where she had not a single vote to spare.

Cantwell barely squeaked by Slade Gorton in her first election. That win came about because Democrats in our state pulled out all the stops to defeat Gorton. It was not a race Cantwell won. Rather, it was a race Gorton lost.

Unfortunately, Cantwell has timidly steered a centrist course hoping to appear attractive to voters on both sides. In the process, she has lost voters who previously supported her. I have heard many criticize her lack of courage on important Democratic issues. And now, her choice not to fight Judge Alito's nomination in what could be the most controversial Supreme Court nomination in the last 50 years by voting against a filibuster is a betrayal of the women in her state. No way to soften that fact.

It is unfortunate for Cantwell that she faces running in a state where a few hundred votes may determine the outcome of the election as it did in her last election and in the recent governor's race. Even more unfortunate that she has so alienated the very people whose votes she most needs. I don't relish the idea of seeing Cantwell defeated by the GOP, but I also believe that the candidates I vote for should show more character than what I have seen from the senator. I think her choices have limited her chances of winning this election. The damage has already been done. I don't think she can fix it.

[upi402]

22. me too, pda said they think she miscalculated her base.

Wilson gets my $ and vote. ---etc

[Avalon Sparks]

24. That was great! Thanks!!!

Very funny!

[cascadiance]

26. We should tell Police and firefighters to pull their support of Cantwell!

http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060120/NEWS06/60120013

Here's some more good info on Wilson from this blog...

http://theleftshue.blogspot.com/2006/01/more-from-mark-wilson.html

Relevant quote:

"I oppose the confirmation of Samuel Alito. I believe that his confirmation to the bench poses a grave threat to liberty and privacy. If in the senate now I would not only vote against confirmation but would charge the well to filibuster this nomination."

A lot of other good stances he states there too.