Inside Opinion » Democrats

Politics doesn’t get much more personal than this

TNT Editorial Board — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 02:00:33 +0000

This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

Tomorrow’s a big day for state Republicans. They’ll gather in schools, community centers, lodge halls and church meeting rooms to conduct a highly personal brand of politics: the party caucus.

They will make and listen to impassioned speeches for the four presidential candidates – Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul – and select delegates to the county convention. A non-binding straw vote will be taken, with the winner getting bragging rights three days before the big Super Tuesday contests in 10 states.

The outcome of the straw poll is …

Supercommittee’s failure bodes ill for nation

TNT Editorial Board — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:40:47 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Supercommittee? More like Sad Sack committee.

Today was the deadline for the 12 members of Congress charged with charting a path toward national solvency. By Thanksgiving, they were supposed to have produced a package of measures to reduce the U.S. government’s debt – which just exceeded $15 trillion – by $1.2 trillion.

The total reduction they came up with: $0.

All their fumblings and failures played out against a truly alarming background: the crumbling of Europe’s economy under the weight of unsupportable debt and many years of unsustainable spending by southern European …

Belated damage control on a faltering budget

Patrick O'Callahan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 03:52:06 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

The silence you’ve been hearing for months is the response of the Legislature’s Democrats to Washington’s fiscal emergency.

Now, on Gov. Chris Gregoire’s orders, they are finally about to act. After putting the job off since August, Democrats will join Republicans on Saturday in a special session to squeeze state programs by roughly $1 billion before the current biennium ends on June 30.

The urgency of convening the Legislature for damage control is a matter of simple arithmetic. Revenue shortfalls and the voters’ repeal of new taxes demolished the spending plan …

A brutal winter ahead for Olympia’s Democrats

Patrick O'Callahan — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 23:21:01 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Washington voters could hardly have been crueler to the Legislature’s Democrats.
On Tuesday, the electorate left the Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives and Senate – although with shrunken majorities.

At the same time, the citizens repealed new taxes on soda, bottled water and candy that had barely – and only temporarily – balanced the budget.

After those taxes were enacted, increasingly pessimistic economic forecasts had thrown the budget into a $500 million-plus shortfall through June. The shortfall for the 2011-2013 biennium had been estimated at $4.5 billion. …

A hanging jury for Republicans?

Patrick O'Callahan — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:30:06 +0000

You can’t fault the King County Municipal League for lack of transparency. Below is a memo we got yesterday from state Sen. Pam Roach, a Republican running for re-election in the 31st District.

From the looks of it, this conservative Republican will be facing a panel of two conservatives, one centrist, three liberals, two “very liberal” liberals and two who describe themselves as “left of center.” Seven identify themselves as Democrats, none as Republicans.

I was contacted by the Muni League to set an interview date. In the past I have gone in with all the extraordinary things that

…

Why Republican men are happier

Patrick O'Callahan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:41:54 +0000

This, from one of our readers, is unfair, rude, savagely partisan, callow, sexist, superficial, a cheap shot, contrary to the spirit of democracy, probably immoral. But, I’m sorry, very funny.

(Hit “more” for the punchline.)

A brutal lesson for Democratic leaders

Patrick O'Callahan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:45:04 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

To paraphrase George W. Bush, the Democrats took a thumpin’ Tuesday in Massachusetts.
It hard to imagine how a single state election could have served up more grief for President Obama and the Democratic leaders in Congress.

Massachusetts was, and probably still is, the bluest state in the Union. It had not sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1972.

The election pitted Scott Brown, a flea on an underdog’s belly, against Martha Coakley, who’d won statewide election as attorney general. At stake was the Senate seat occupied by …

A good night for the GOP

Michael Allen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:50:28 +0000

If you watch MSNBC or listen to “progressive” talk radio, you’re going to be hearing a lot about “New York 23″ for the next month. New York District 23 has elected a Republican Congressman for nearly 100 years in a row, but now it’s Blue. In last night’s off-year elections, Democrats took advantage of GOP chaos (the GOP candidate withdrew) to add one more vote to their ample congressional majority. Winning New York 23 is truly a feather in the Democrats’ cap.

But then there were the Virginia and New Jersey elections.

Virginia is a state we have been told is …