The 2012 senatorial race has barely begun, but an email to supporters of State Senator Michael Baumgartner shows it's already gotten ugly. more ›

Amazingly, the world did not stop spinning when the Amanda Knox verdict was handed down. Here are some of the things you may have missed while you were singing her praise or condemning her to death. more ›

It's not 2012 yet, but that hasn't stopped pollsters and journalists from trying to read the tea leaves. Here's an overview of what the insiders are saying: more ›

Start your morning off right with a hot pile of news, including shots fired in Everett, bad news for Federal Way commuters and a message from Maria Cantwell (and her mom). more ›

We try to resist loading up on bad news first thing Monday morning, but let's just do this quickly and get it out of the way: Publicola records Sen. Maria Cantwell's fight to insert some accountability into the bailout of AIG and others (she was overruled, and now AIG is claiming it has to pay $165 million in bonuses with bailout money because it promised! Out of curiosity, who writes a bonus agreement that puts a company on the hook even with catastrophic losses?) And Schmudget tells us Washington unemployment is forecasted to top out at 10 percent next year. On the plus side, all those unemployed people won't have to negotiate the kind of new, transfer-ier bus system proposed by Seattle Transit Blog. So that's a tiny little win. more ›

We're reminded (via Monica Guzman's Twitter feed) that the Obama inauguration is gonna be well-attended. Both Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell's offices have stopped taking ticket requests; Murray got over 6,000 potential takers for about 350 potential tickets. If you're not on someone's list already, you're probably out of luck. Is it too early for bars to start advertising inauguration parties? We think not. more ›

We've had a crush on Maria Cantwell for some time. First of all, her suits are always incredible. Her hair is always impeccably in place. She's kind of a badass when it comes to the environment and other important issues. We loved her even more when she came out in full support of Hillary. Even though that didn't work out so well, we admire her gumption for voting against last week's $700 billion bailout package, saying she's not interested in "turning the keys of the U.S. Treasury over to the private sector." It was a complicated thing to vote yay or nay on, given all the implications, and she was one of only nine democrats to say no thanks. (She sits on the finance committee, so this is more her area than it is, say, that of Mr. Maverick McCain.) Sometimes the devil really is in the details, and her speech was well played. Cheers to Senator Cantwell! more ›

The most senior (and it's said most powerful) Republican in the U.S. Senate, Ted Stevens was indicted by a federal grand jury for not mentioning the $250,000 in labor and materials he received from a construction company. Veco Corp. actually lifted Stevens' house in the air while a new first floor was built, and no money changed hands. They also threw in a Viking grill. If you have had any remodeling done lately, you know that's a pretty sweet deal. Normally, you pay contractors through the nose, and to get them to finish before your kids start calling the hotel "home," you throw in the grill. more ›

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 mattered to whomever takes over the country. She got the country talking about feminism again, got men and women alike uncomfortable about whether or not it's okay to treat women a certain way. She presented an impressive economic plan, overcame pretty much every controversy surrounding her, and ignored the ones that were ridiculous or irrelevant (i.e. claims that Clinton's a racist, talk about her cleavage). more ›

As our friend who sent us the info announced this news, so shall we: more ›

One week from today, Seattlest is looking forward to heading over to Mt. Zion Baptist Church in our "Just Vote for the Bitch" t-shirt to be the lone Capitol Hill caucuser for Hillary Clinton. More on that later. more ›

Those who attended the Issaquah Village Theater’s matinee of The King and I today may have come away a little disappointed. Dino Rossi used the stage to announce his candidacy for governor. more ›

It's not exactly mind-blowingly awesome legislation, but our lady Maria Cantwell and her pals in the Senate have managed to negotiate a mileage standard for all U.S. cars and SUVs today. Currently, cars have to get at least 27.5 miles per gallon, while SUVs only have to get a measly 22 mpg. That's pretty pathetic from an environmentalist perspective, but it's also irresponsible from a business perspective. After all, just about every other country has been making cars that get far better gas mileage for years now. Who wants a gas-guzzling American car (Ford Focus gets 26 mpg!) when gas prices are hovering around $4/gallon and there's the option of getting a high-mpg car like Honda's Insight (61 mpg) or Volkswagen's Beetle (38 mpg)? more ›

"The Decider" will be yakkin at you tonight, beginning at 6pm PST, in a nationally-televised address expected to last for about 30 minutes. The topic: The Iraq War, which President Bush wants to try to win--understandably so, as his other option is to pull out and go down in history as the guy with sole responsibility for the senseless deaths of 2,997 American soldiers (as of Saturday). That's exactly the same number of people as died on 9/11. (Guess what, Osama? We can get 3,000 people killed for no reason too! SNAP!) more ›

Right out of the gate we're going to D up on Jordan, pressure him a bit and maybe force a few turnovers. MARIA CANTWELL for U.S. Senate. And since we finally figured out how to beat the Bulls' fullcourt press we're going to get a lot of transition baskets from Payton driving to the hole and Sam Perkins from the arc. A pull-up jumper over Longley for JAY INSLEE for U.S. State Rep. A long two from the baseline for JIM MCDERMOTT for U.S. State Rep. We'll go into halftime knowing that the ballot's going pretty well and the Key Arena crowd is going nuts, but we've got to keep the pressure on. Down three games to zip in the best-of-seven series means nothing tonight. Out of the locker room coach Karl has us staying strong on defense while managing to pick up a few buckets. INITIATIVE 930 - NO, INITIATIVE 933 - NO, INITIATIVE 931 - YES. Die, initiatives, die. When Jordan tries to start a run we'll squash it with an Ervin Johnson block and a Hersey Hawkins three on the other end to the rapture of the crowd. JAMIE PEDERSON for State Rep. ED MURRAY for Senator! We're almost there, but a comeback at this point in the game would be difficult -not impossible- for this magic Bulls team. Kukoc is stripped at midcourt, a pass to Payton for the lay in. DARCY BURNER for U.S. Rep. Ball's loose at the Bulls end, McMillan scoops it to Payton who spins around Jordan and fires to Kemp flashing down the lane! The ballot is completed! We're going strong to the ballot box! Kemp absolutely explodes over Pippen and Rodman and the basket counts! We're hanging from the ballot box in ecstasy as time expires. On the way off the floor/out of the church basement we'll exchange high fives and flying chest bumps with the election officials and then head home to face the inevitable games 5 and 6. more ›

The latest Survey USA Election Poll has Maria Cantwell at 54% and Mike!!!!!! at 42%. The poll was taken the weekend after the kick-ass debate on KING-5, and during the release of McGavick’s Seattle Times endorsement. more ›

An MSNBC poll released today showed Maria Cantwell up 52%-37% on Mike McGavick. She's increased her lead from 10% about three weeks ago. more ›

A Washington State political race got some national ink on Friday at Slate under the unflattering headline "Unusually Stupid Campaign Ads," but unfortunately for us the headline alone doesn't really indicate which campaign Michael Kinsley's talking about in this article. It's Monday and a semi-holiday, so we'll spare you the effort of dredging up all the current campaigns. He's talking about McGavick/Cantwell. more ›

Safeco announced today it's laying off or "reassigning" 240 employees. more ›

Those sad, wet, cold people holding signs and waving to you this morning means that it is Election Day. more ›

Joe Lieberman may have a very bad day. more ›

Kids looking for a summer job might want to consider running against Maria Cantwell. more ›

-Let's not have a repeat of last year's fiasco. Make sure to read this guide to photographing fireworks. more ›

Washington's Democratic Convention went down this weekend in Yakima and depending on your perspective the caucus either contained a diversity of ideas and opinions on the war in Iraq or was torn in two over the war in Iraq. Maria Cantwell, of course, seems to be the focal point of a lot of contention, regardless of how seriously you view that contention. Dueling chanters did battle when she took the stage arguing, "No more six!" and "War more years!" until she was finally allowed to speak. An exhasutive scouring of the internets has failed to turn up the text of that speech but according to the Seattle Times: more ›

There's a cool piece in the Seattle Weekly today about what a cold-hearted efficient and effective politician Maria Cantwell is that you should definitely check out. Look for the article in your paper where Mossback usually is or online here. more ›

-Some anti-war types are camped out in Maria Cantwell's conference room armed with power bars and water and are demanding that she clarify her position on Iraq. The Stranger's reporting that they'll be ejected this afternoon. more ›

There are many things that Seattle liberals hate: the increasing price of fleece vests, driving over 25mph on arterials, and when one of their senators votes for war in the Middle East. more ›

A couple of national heavies just blew through town to promote either side of our coming senate race and the most interesting things to come out of both visits was the dissent. Maria Cantwell got called out for the Iraq war votes that she's sticking to while she was sharing the stage with Barak Obama. John McCain's finest Seattle moment happened on the radio after his McGavick event. A caller asked about the shady background of a recently hired McCain senior aide to which McCain had no response. Rather, his response was that the guy in question worked for Bush in 2004. Oh yeah, that's clear evidence of a sterling character around Seattle. more ›

There is nothing more important to a campaign than money. Votes are nice, but it just takes forever to get them cast (come on, November!?!). The amount that you have in the bank determines if you'll spend the summer in the heat of a campaign talking to PCOs in some school lunch room about parking garages, or out of the race on a nice boat gliding across Puget Sound. more ›

It has been prophesied. After a decade of suffering the Democratic party will rise from chaos behind a new leader. This leader will appeal to religious folk. He'll appeal to thinking folk (not that religious folk and thinking folk are mutually exclusive, the scrolls are quick to point out). He'll appeal to people who are starving for a politician who can turn a damn phrase already. He'll be young and energetic and blah blah blah. more ›