I keep reading the P-I endorsement and I'm puzzled that they would disagree with Reichert on core issues like Iraq and choice, but support him because he has supposedly been strong on the environment and "food policy." If you ignore Reichert's voting record and take the P-I at their word, and accept that Reichert has "improved" since his first term, why would you support someone who is merely better than they were before, when the alternative is someone you fundamentally agree with on core issues and who would likely do a better job? The competence issue is something they don't explain at all.
10/23/2008 12:28 PM
I couldn't have said it better myself:I found the P-I endorsement of Dave Reichert for re-election to Congress perplexing.
Why should the citizens of the 8th Congressional District pass up the opportunity to vote for a "smart, well-informed and progressive candidate" like Darcy Burner in order to provide Reichert with another term? You say it is to provide balance in Congress because there are too few moderate Republicans there. But we in the 8th District are hungry for a representative willing to think analytically and independently about the crucial issues facing the country.
Reichert is not that representative.
As your editorial pointed out, "Reichert was absent without leave" during the worst periods of the Iraq war. Reichert has seemed more than happy to go along with "the Bush Doctrine" and not make waves, hoping to retain his seat by choosing relatively easy issues to run on that most people in the district can agree upon, such as the environment or education. He has also been a proponent of the Bush economic policies that favor corporations over the middle class. These have been disastrous.
His opponent, Darcy Burner, has done her homework and taken the initiative on the Iraq dilemma, writing with Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and other retired generals and foreign policy experts a comprehensive plan to bring the war to an end using military, economic and military options. A former group program manager for Microsoft, Burner has long advocated for fiscal responsibility and tax relief for the middle class. She is a creative thinker and proactive problem solver who would go to work for us and that, I argue, is what our district, and Congress, needs most.
Janet Kranz
Mercer Island
posted by Daniel Kirkdorffer at 7:39 AM on Oct 15, 2008
2 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formGood to see you back...
10/16/2008 4:40 PM
Yes, good to see the blog active again.
I keep reading the P-I endorsement and I'm puzzled that they would disagree with Reichert on core issues like Iraq and choice, but support him because he has supposedly been strong on the environment and "food policy." If you ignore Reichert's voting record and take the P-I at their word, and accept that Reichert has "improved" since his first term, why would you support someone who is merely better than they were before, when the alternative is someone you fundamentally agree with on core issues and who would likely do a better job? The competence issue is something they don't explain at all.
10/23/2008 12:28 PM