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WASHINGTON — With millions of federal workers facing possible unpaid furloughs from mandatory budget cuts slated to start Friday, Sen. Patty Murray took to the Senate floor Tuesday to point out the culprits: Republicans.

The Washington Democrat spoke out against the $85 billion in spending cuts while standing next to a chart labeled “Republican Plan for Sequestration.” A red WARN NOTICE was stamped on it.

That was a reference to a 30-day notice of furloughs that are expected to go out starting March 1 at most government agencies, from the Pentagon to the Bureau of Prisons to the Food and Drug Administration. The Federal Aviation Administration, for instance, has announced that in order to cut $483 million from its operating budget, all of its 40,000 workers will have to take 11 unpaid days off this year.

Murray contends Republicans’ refusal to accept any new taxes in order to offset the spending cuts is directly to blame for the coming furloughs. Republicans counter that they’ve already agreed to raise income taxes on families earning more than $450,000 a year and won’t agree to more.

Good Morning.

New Obama in office: Many political observers are talking about President Obama’s inaugural address and how, in the second term, he may just  let his views  hang out there. He does seem to be developing new ways to maneuver around partisan gridlock. The latest example is gun control. Instead of calling up a bunch of moderate Democratic senators and twisting their jittery arms to support his policies, he is taking his case to the public. Their public. Interesting strategy.

Sarah Palin out; her fans’ worst nightmare: Palin has run her course on FOX. She is out as a Fox news contributor.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray is the new Senate budget chairwoman. Slate has a fascinating piece about Murray’s potential impact on budget negotiations.

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver

Closer to home, Don Benton is the star of the local blogs. State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, barely won re-election. You will recall his race went into recount. But none of that is worrying the state senator these days. He’s a busy guy, introducing a lot of legislation, including a parental notification bill now gaining a lot of attention.

Avoid the crowd in the Seattle mayor’s race. How would you like to be a Seattle Port commissioner? The ad (below) has been appearing in a couple of media locales of  late. It’s an ad aimed at filling the port commission seat vacated by Gael Tarleton who has gone to the Legislature. To the uninitiated, it looks like an ad for the four port seats that will be up this fall.

But Port Commissioner Tom Albro says the ad is designed to find good people to fill Tarleton’s spot and serve an important community institution. It doesn’t hurt if it raises the profile and awareness of the work the port does.

Port of Seattle ad
for one new commissioner

Check out our new Facebook page.

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Former President  Carter crowing: Former President Jimmy Carter knows a thing or two about winning and losing national presidential contests. And, sure, there is a bit of grandfatherly smug oozing through his pores. But Carter told MSNBC he thinks the turning point in the recent election came when his grandson, James, contributed to the stunning revelation about Republican Mitt Romney and his comments about 47 percent of the American population who don’t pay taxes and see themselves as victims.

Watch and listen for yourself.

The Twitter-verse is ga ga about Hillary. Twitter lit up this week with word that New York Mayor Bloomberg asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for New York Mayor in 2013. Hillary said, no. And here are some of the tweets from all the hullabaloo.

Sen. Patty Murray is not kidding about middle class tax cuts.  Washington Sen. Patty Murray is very much the public face for Senate Democrats trying to win middle class tax cuts. She heads back to the Senate floor Wednesday to discuss what is becoming her favorite topic.

Here is an excerpt from this morning’s press release:

Today, Wednesday, December 5^th, U.S. Senator Patty Murray will return to the Senate floor to continue to put pressure on her colleagues in the House to pass the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, which the Senate passed in July. The bill would extend tax cuts for 98% of workers and 97% small business owners, and would let the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire as scheduled.  Senator Murray will also discuss Speaker Boehner’s recent proposal that would protect the rich from payer higher rates, as well as her support for Minority Leader Pelosi’s discharge petition to bring the Senate bill to the House floor for a vote.

Good Morning.

U.S. Rep Cathy McMorris Rodgers joins the soul-searching: McMorris Rodgers of Spokane, rising star  of the U.S. House, told CNN Sunday  that the Republican Party, now licking its considerable wounds from last week’s election, should become more “modern” not more “moderate,” as it figures out what went wrong and right in the 2012 campaign. She also called last week’s election a “status quo”   event.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and the fiscal cliff: Washington Sen. Patty Murray spent some time this weekend on the national talk shows. She took a very hard line on the looming fiscal cliff, telling ABC’s This Week that Congress should simply let the tax cuts expire if Republicans won’t bargain on taxing the wealthiest Americans.  

Washington and Colorado’s pot law cracks up TV anchors.  I know, I know. Jon Stewart fans saw this clip last week. But just in case you missed it. He has a pretty funny take on how silly the TV news anchors became describing the passage of the new laws.

Some clear-eyed lessons from Election 2012. Polls,  speaking, debates.

Good Morning.

Democrats are falling all over themselves with unbounded enthusiasm. Republican Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri and his off-the-wall crack about rape and pregnancy — he said women’s bodies somehow reject pregnancy in cases of  “legitimate rape” — are an irresistible gift for the D’s.  And they accept.  It took U.S. Sen. Patty Murray about 10 minutes — OK, it was 48 hours — to send out a fund-raising letter on behalf of Akin’s Missouri Senate opponent, Democrat Claire McCaskill.

Here is an excerpt from her -hurry-up–and-send money letter:

“You’ve probably heard about Todd Akin’s offensive comments by now. So let’s stop and think about what it really means, and what we can do about it.

It’s one of the most revolting comments I have heard in a while. On Sunday, Todd Akin — the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri — said pregnancy from rape is “really rare” because, “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Todd Akin does not belong in the U.S. Senate.”

McCaskill is/was considered one of the most endangered Dems in the Senate. She was trailing Akin before his inflammatory comments and is still trailing him in Democratic polling.

Washington’s other senator, Maria Cantwell,  up for re-election against an anti-abortion candidate, Michael Baumgartner, also did not waste time trying to raise money off the Akin blunder. She, too, sent out a fund-raising letter on behalf of herself and her Senate colleague Monday. It read in part:

  “Akin’s response is so unbelievable, so callous, so insensitive, and just so outrageous, I barely even know where to start.

But here’s one thing we can do right now: stand up and support Claire McCaskill and make sure Todd Akin isn’t elected to the Senate.

These comments were not poorly chosen words from a long-shot candidate, and this isn’t his first time getting involved in this issue. Todd Akin is a Congressman from Missouri, and he recently partnered with GOP Vice Presidential nominee Paul Ryan to sponsor legislation that would redefine rape to only include “forcible” instances.

And this isn’t the isolated position of some zealot in Missouri. Maria’s opponent right here in Washington state also opposes the right to choose, and in the case of rape would force the victim to have her attacker’s child.”

In fairness, folks, the Politics Northwest blog ran similar comments of outrage from fellow Republicans two days ago. Attorney general Rob McKenna and others came out in unison telling Akin to hit the showers.

 What is going on in Spokane? State Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane and  running for election, has posted a picture on his Facebook page that has Republicans and Democrats alike telling him to remove it. The photo, as you can see below, is a tad personal. It features Shea campaigning in front of the house of his opponent, Amy Biviano. I checked the page Tuesday and the posting was still there, even though Spokane County Republicans urged him to take it down.

For future reference, Secretary of State Sam Reed is an optimist. Remember, his forecast of 46 percent participation in the earlier-than-imaginable Aug. 7 primary? The final number, says spokesman David Ammons, was 38.5 percent.

Two business-oriented groups are supporting Initiative 1240, the charter school measure.

A lot of time and money has been spent trying to figure out younger voters, those roughly ages 18 to 29. They had something to do with Barack Obama’s 2008 victory. But why are they so glib? Detached? Will they or won’t they turn out in 2012?  An opinion piece in the New York Times offers some insight.

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