Though the political news of the day is most certainly McCain's ploy to "suspend" his campaign and delay the first presidential debate as well as the VP debate in order to concentrate on the economic crisis, there's other news out today about the plight of Republican candidates this year. According to the New York Times, Washington State Democrats are suing to force Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi to list his party affiliation on the......

Howard Dean's visit to Renton this weekend was really only the beginning of what is sure to be a lively seven weeks until the election. The first celebrity deathmatch pitting Obama versus McCain on national TV is still 11 days away. But if you want to wet your chops with a little political debate action this week, you're in luck. Our own homestate smackdown will be broadcast on KOMO-4 this Saturday, Sept. 20, at 9......

According to an email we got from the Washington State Democrats today, the state's Attorney General, Rob McKenna, laid out a plan for Dino Rossi to beat Christine Gregoire in November for state delegates at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota. In short, according to McKenna, McCain-Palin needs to carry Washington by 10-12 points. "If he fails to carry it by ten or twelve points, Dino doesn't win." Maybe it's scary thoughts like that which......

The PI's Big Blog floated the rumor yesterday that Washington's own "mom in tennis shoes," Patty Murray, could become Obama's running mate. We did a double take and wondered if someone had spiked our morning coffee. While Murray has been a successful legislator for Washington State, she was a fierce Hillary supporter until throwing her support behind Obama on Sunday. She doesn't add what Obama needs to the ticket anyway. By noon yesterday, Murray's......

STEP UP YOUR BRUNCH GAME: Brunch for Seattlest usually means stumbling to the closest eggs-and-bacon joint, slamming some coffee, and thanking God we didn't have to put on real clothes for the occasion. But we will make an exception and actually dress up (ish) for a fancy weekend brunch, now offered at the Saint, if only for the opportunity to taste Tecate-marinated Carne con Huevos (yum) and sip on a house mimosa. The Saint's from......

">Throughout the campaign we have been gathering the top political writers in the country, and asking them to discuss the presidential race. Today they discuss the end of the Democratic primary, Senator Clinton's future, and a brief look at the general. Seattlest: It's been a very eventful week, with Senator Obama wrapping up the nomination and Senator Clinton set to end her campaign, where do you see the race going now? Ryan (Time Magazine): Finally.......

Over the past year and a half or so of Hillary Clinton's hugely historic run for the presidency, we've been thoroughly impressed with the legacy she's left as the first of her kind. She's undoubtedly owned every single debate—except for that one where Edwards came alive for a minute and sounded like a real person who had more going for him than being the son of a mill worker. She made sure health care......

Obama in Portland, Ore. at a record-setting rally on Sunday. (Courtesy of the AP) Portland, Oregon showed it was truly Obama country during a rally on Sunday, where an estimated 75,000 people showed up to hear the candidate speak at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, on the bank of the Willamette River. The photos of Obama--an ant amidst a sea of people--must be sending chills down the Clinton campaign's collective spine. The 75,000 strong crowd doubled......

...if you're heading to the next round of caucuses this Sunday. We can't think of any local angle on this, but it's important to share this kind of information with our readers when we find it. Because, let's face it, stuff like this can sway voters, folks. (NSFW, unless you have headphones):......

Eric Alterman is the sort of liberal we like to refer to as a "Democrat," as in, capitol "D" Democratic Party stalwart. As such, this Nation columnist and Media Matters blogger was an arch-partisan prototype for those crazy kids at DailyKos, back in the days when armchair politicos were relegated to penning rants to the editor of their local newspaper. In advance of his appearance tonight at Town Hall to promote his new book, Why......

Yesterday, this Seattlest headed to the U-District library to meet with other Hillary Clinton delegates (Hillegates?) from the fightin' 43rd, and to learn about what lies between us and the national convention. Because we care, we thought we'd share the info with you. If you're not a Hillegate or Obamegate, you can just skip to reading about other things. Okay, so first things first: all alternates should really, really show up to next weekend's......

Seattlest grew up in a very small town in Central Florida. In our immediate area, we could count seven colleges. That doesn't include the University of Miami or Florida State, UWF, UNF, USF, the Art Institutes, and other colleges and universities (Obama's demographic). Florida is not, contrary to popular belief, peopled entirely by retirees (Clinton's demographic). Most of the folks around our small hometown are very blue collar, there are a lot of fern......

Dino Rossi is savvy enough to know the state’s inability to broker a Key Arena remodel is the type of far-fetched, wedge issue just ripe for exploiting come November’s election. Considering the hotly contested runoff between him and Governor Gregoire several years ago, the Sonics impending departure is the perfect issue to highlight as an example of weak-kneed Democrats not taking care of business on Gregoire’s watch. Of course, there is the fact Key......

The second-longest serving member of the Washington House of Representatives, Helen Sommers, is retiring at the end of the current session, according to Crosscut. The second-longest-serving member of the Washington Legislature has confirmed she will not run for re-election. “This is my last session. I’m not going to run again.” Asked why, she laughed and said: “Because I’m 75 years old and I’ll be 76 in a couple weeks. That’s why.” She's been in the......

Now that all votes are in, all caucuses adjourned, CNN declaring it all for Obama, here's how the day fared for our Seattlest contributors: Charles: "In my precinct we gave four delegates to Obama and two to Hillary -- and yours truly is a delegate for his district and county caucuses! I heard that a few other precincts at my site went 4-1 Obama. In Shoreline a friend said it was roughly 70-30 and......

First of all, let us say that we didn't plan our Super Tuesday get-together as an Obama event. We support Obama; we've even given him $$. But we didn't ask candidate affiliation before inviting some friends, who invited some friends, and it just so happened that all 10 people who came to Seattlest HQ last night were Obama supporters (except for one girl who backs the Phoenix Suns. She was not a winner). One girl......

Complete with CES laugh track. Kind of funny, but maybe not worth the laughs it gets... Hey, if Bill were staring you in the face while you were watching this you'd laugh too. Worth noting that when Gates calls politicians (even when he calls politicians in a joke video), he calls Democrats. Imagine this: "Hey, Huckabee, it's Bill!"......

Our favorite local food site has been doing some thinking about politics and the way people in different cities eat and vote. They divided the number of steak restaurants by the number of sushi restaurants in a given city to come up with a "Steak/Sushi Index." Seattle's SSI, for example is 0.75, indicating that we eat more sushi than steak; the SSI of Dallas, TX is 3.01 indicating a preference for steak. Urbanspoon has been......

The Stranger has endorsed a No vote on the RTID Proposition 1 (along with the Seattle Times, but thankfully with more logic and, er, research). Their reasoning? "Rather than letting compromised politicians tell us what's possible, the people should tell the leaders what's needed: more light rail without massive roads expansion." So what is the proper course of action for Congress regarding the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, bill? The bill would ban employment discrimination......

In a well-paced one-hour lecture, Matthew Brzezinski provided a summary of Red Moon Rising, his new book about the Sputnik launch and its explosive political aftermath. Brzezinski admitted up front that this wasn't so much a science lecture as it was a political one. He explained the circumstances that led to the Sputnik launch--it was the side project of a few rocket scientists who had survived Siberian exile during Stalin's purges. And he described the......

The Republicans, learning from the mistakes of the Democrats in King County's Sixth, may decide to run a candidate against Governor Gregoire next fall. The PI reports, in big letters above the fold, that Dino Rossi (the guy who may already be our governor) will probably run for governor. Well, no shit. He's been holding un-official rallies, giving speeches, and raising money (WIIINNNK) for a few months now. Also, everyone in the state's GOP expects......

The 8th congressional district lost five-term Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn and candidate Rodney Tom in the last twenty-four hours. Dunn, who served from 1993-2005, died of a pulmonary embolism last night. She was 66. We'll always remember how every two years the Democrats would find some young Microsoft millionaire to run against her, claiming that the district's new tech money was shifting the votes their way. They were wrong. Her 2004 announcement that she wasn't running......

The Central Library played host last night to a host of concerned citizens and Thomas E. Ricks, author of the best-selling Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. They put Ricks in the big auditorium for good reason. Fiasco was a #1 New York Times best-seller, finalist for the Pulitzer, winner of the Gelber Prize, etc., etc. Plus it plays to the liberal instincts of Seattle's finest. The room was crammed full of business suits......

State Democrats are calling shenanigans on Dino Rossi's "Forward Washington Foundation," arguing that it's just "Rossi in 2008" by a different name. Not only do the Democrats want the population of Central America to just walk in to the country and take your job, they also want the fundraising by Rossi's nonprofit to be subject to campaign regulations since he uses the money to travel around the state making speeches. Rossi claims that this is......

This Adbusters piece about liberalism and its current state of crisis isn't exactly new--looks like it's from their May/June issue--but it should be required reading in Seattle. The author talks about how liberals are rich white guys who don't really have anything to complain about, but don't seem to do much besides complain. They need to man up and start acting like the born and bred civic rulers they are and blah blah blah. You......

Republicans in Olympia are tired of the Spend-o-crat majority rendering their very existence moot, and they've decided to do something about it—make funny noises. Representative Dan Roach, who is proving that douchebaggery is hereditary, was complaining that Democrats were railroading a bill through the House to benefit trial lawyers when he went a little off the rails himself--launching an attack on House majority leader Lynn Kessler's trial lawyer husband Keith. The Times' David Postman takes......

Kyle Sampson, the top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, has resigned, as it becomes more and more clear that US attorneys who were fired in December, including Seattle-based John McKay, were fired for political reasons. On his blog, the Seattle Times' David Postman eviscerates Gonzalez' explanation of the firings. Gonzalez himself canceled travel plans and testified to Congress today, admitting that "mistakes were made." Now, Democrats want Gonzalez to resign, and we can't help......

"I voted for Dino Rossi" is not what you say when you are dating a hard-left politics dork. Seattlest once learned this the hard way. The revelation sparked an argument. We lost. For months, we spent lonely nights reading Lewis Lapham, trying to cure our moderate streak. But, with the Democrats in gridlock over the Viaduct issue, we feel vindicated. The internecine squabbling that's led us to a point where we're having a meaningless advisory......

Monday LOCAL AUTHOR, LOCAL AUTHOR: Clear Cut Press presents two of its novelists: Matt Briggs' Shoot The Buffalo is about a boy growing up in Snoqualmie during the '70s. Stacey Levine's Frances Johnson, set in a small town in Florida, details the random choices made by the eponymous Ms. Johnson. 7pm // University Bookstore // FREE SCI-FI SALON: One of the finest authors on the "humanist" wing of American science fiction and fantasy, Paul......

There's a rising uproar over a doctored photo of candidate Randy Neatherlin for the 35th Disctrict that went out with a Democratic mailer right before the election. Obviously the Democrats contend that the photograph wasn't intentionally changed to make Randy look like a lecherous drunk, but if you look at the photographs side by side he obviously comes across better in the picture from his site (left). To our untrained eye it does look like......