Maria Makes the National News, Again

"In the state of Washington, no one has howled louder about Stevens's bill -- and has more to gain from voter awareness -- than Senator Maria Cantwell.

The first-term senator, a Democrat from Washington, is up for reelection next fall. She has a formidable Republican challenger and has been described by some political analysts as ''beatable."

But she has won effusive praise from local editorial writers and political veterans for standing up to the powerful senior senator from Alaska.

''This is a great issue for Maria," said Representative Norman D. Dicks, a Democrat and senior member of Washington's congressional delegation. ''The only thing more holy in this state than keeping Californians from taking water from the Columbia River is protecting Puget Sound."

Cantwell has made a none-too-subtle reference to the nation's worst oil spill, which occurred in the waters of Stevens's home state after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989. ''We learned valuable lessons when nearly 11 million gallons of oil spilled in Alaska's Prince William Sound," Cantwell said. ''We don't need to relearn them in Puget Sound."

Forced by Cantwell's headline-grabbing objections, her probable Republican opponent in next year's Senate race, Mike McGavick, met with Stevens on Nov. 15 and, as he informed reporters later, told the senator that his bill is a ''nonstarter" in the state of Washington.

Cantwell, meanwhile, has had a number of testy exchanges with Stevens, who serves as chairman of the Commerce Committee.

He angrily cut her off during a recent hearing with oil industry executives, when she insisted that they be sworn in before testifying.

It has been an exasperating autumn for Stevens. Once again, his effort to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling has stalled in Congress. Stevens said earlier in the year that he had seen a doctor because he was ''depressed" by his failure to open up the refuge.

In October, Stevens threatened to quit the Senate if funding were cut for two costly bridges in his home state. Derided as ''Bridges to Nowhere," the projects have become nationally known as symbols of pork-barrel spending.

In challenging Stevens, Cantwell has repeatedly invoked the sainted name (in Washington state) of the late senator Warren G. Magnuson, who in his era was as powerful -- and shameless at dishing out pork -- as Stevens is now."-excerpted from the Washington Post story today, "The Puget Sound and the political fury" via The Boston Globe.