"Who Will Replace McDermott?"

Jeff Stevens (Eat The State!):

As yet another Congressional election approaches, many Seattle-area voters may once again be asking a question that’s likely been asked among local politicos many times in recent years: Who will eventually replace Jim McDermott in the 7th District?

Despite his ongoing popularity among the majority of his constituents, the 11-term “Congressman for life” must eventually leave office, either by retirement, death, or electoral defeat. The latter option has seemed like a virtual impossibility in recent years, since the few challengers McDermott has faced in recent elections have been either political unknowns or wacko perma-candidates (such as the local voters’ pamphlet perennial Goodspaceguy). Those candidates’ only practical function has been to serve as futile protest votes for those of us in the 7th District who have been increasingly frustrated with McDermott’s ongoing lack of a substantial legislative record. MORE...

Goldy on Rep. McDermott on Obama's SOTU: "Obama Was a Monster Tonight"

Goldy (David Goldstein):

Squeezed into a loud bar, feebly attempting to out-duel Cienna with live-Slog witticisms, it was hard to get a good feel for President Obama's State of the Union speech last night. But US Representative Jim McDermott (D-The Part of Seattle I Don't Live In), sitting (and often standing) in the House chamber, got a firsthand look at the president in battle mode, and he came away quite impressed.

"Obama was a monster tonight," McDermott told me by phone about an hour after the speech. "By far and away, this was the best speech I've ever heard him give." Really.

No doubt McDermott is as partisan as they come, and he can be prone to fits of enthusiasm, but this was about as bubbly and effusive as I've ever heard him. Throughout the interview, McDermott literally giggled with delight at the thought of taking on Mitt Romney as the nominee, let alone his old foe Newt Gingrich. "They're trying not look scared," McDermott said of his Republican colleagues, "but they're looking at an unmitigated disaster." MORE...

"Get Money Out of Politics-Two days of action in Seattle"

Howie P.S.: Dina Johnson sent this over to me. She promises an appearance by Jim McDermott today @ Westlake Center (2pm) and videos and photos later.

Politico: "Kucinich might move left -- to Wash."

UPDATE: Shaun breaks the news:

Make of it what you will…

…but my guess is that Rep. Kucinich's appearance at a fundraiser for my LD Democratic organization has very little to do with speculation about his possible interest in the 1st District Congressional seat and a lot to do with his relationship with our State Senator, Maralyn Chase, one of the most prominent local supporters of his presidential campaigns. MORE...

David Catanese(Politico):

“This is the guy you all see at the State of the Union addresses. He’s always at the same spot, waiting for the president. Dennis Kucinich has a big ego, and he likes the spotlight. He’s been in the state twice and now he’s looking for a place to run for Congress? I would say it’s tremendously unusual,” Pelz said.

This past weekend, Kucinich held a fundraiser in Tacoma, made a stop in Bainbridge Island and led an immigration rally in Seattle, fueling reports he could be testing his appeal.
(SNIP)
Washington Rep. Jim McDermott, a liberal congressman from the Seattle area, gave Kucinich his blessing to run in Washington – and noted that he is not a native Washingtonian, either.

“I came from Chicago and now represent Seattle. If Dennis decides to run in Washington, I think it’s fine,” McDermott said. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Congressman Jim, as some may recall, represented Seattle in the Washington State Senate for several terms before he ran for Congress.

Jim McDermott and Cenk Uygur discuss the Republican plan to "voucherize' Medicare (video)

MoxNewsDotCom, video (12:39).

(Updated) "Today, progressives have an opportunity not just to fight benefit cuts -- but also to go 'on offense' against the Republicans."

UPDATE: "Only McDermott opposes budget compromise" (seattlepi.com):

Seven of Washington’s nine House members voted Thursday to approve the shutdown-averting budget compromise hammered out between the White House and GOP House leaders.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., voted against it. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., has been absent from the House: The congressman’s 91-year-old mother died early this week from pancreatic cancer.

The deal passed the House of a 260-167 vote. Fifty-nine Republicans bolted and voted against the agreement negotiated by their leaders: Votes from 81 Democratic supporters were crucial to passage.

“I supported this budget compromise because it takes a balanced approach towards tackling our debt and deficit problem while preserving our economic progress and critical job creation efforts,” said Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash.

The funding plan reduces federal agency budgets by $38 billion for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year. MORE...

BOLD PROGRESSIVES.ORG:

This week, President Obama gave a powerful speech -- one that MSNBC's Rachel Maddow called "unexpectedly satisfying."

He made the case for raising taxes on the rich and even cutting military spending. He also dismissed Republican plans to privatize Medicare. All of this deserves genuine praise.

However, the president did not take off the table all Medicare and Medicaid benefit cuts that would hurt grandparents, the disabled, and kids. Maddow said the strong parts of Obama's speech must be "matched by equal resoluteness in practice when the battles heat up." We agree -- and we'll keep pushing him to oppose all benefit cuts.

Today, progressives have an opportunity not just to fight benefit cuts -- but also to go "on offense" against the Republicans.

A last-minute House vote has been scheduled this morning on the "People's Budget" proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It protects Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- and eliminates the deficit by ending the wars, taxing the rich, saving money with a public health insurance option, and making corporations like GE pay their fair share.

(Are you saying "wow!" right now? Us too!)

Please call Representative Jim McDermott right now in support the "People's Budget." Click here for the number and a script.

Rep. McDermott: "GOP Cuts To Anti-Poverty Programs Are ‘Morally Wrong’ And ‘Fiscally Stupid’ " (with video)

Pat Garofalo (Think Progress) with video (01:34):

On two levels [the cuts are] wrong. One is they’re wrong morally. We need to take care of women and children and WIC program is very important for childrens’ health and healthy babies and for healthy mothers. But on a second level it’s fiscally stupid, because if you don’t feed kids, if you don’t feed mothers and get them up to speed, they deliver a low birth-weight baby that then you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars dealing with in the premie units of hospitals. MORE...

Back to Libya: "The double life of a popular UW lecturer"

Katherine Long (Seattle Times):

A month ago, when professor Ali Tarhouni told his microeconomics class at the University of Washington that he had a death sentence on his head in his native Libya, but that he had decided to return home to help advise the rebel army on economic issues, his students were stunned by the news.
(SNIP)
"As most of you know, I spent the better part of my life fighting to bring democracy to Libya and just about everything that I attempted failed," Tarhouni wrote in an email he circulated to friends and former students on Feb. 27. "Out of nowhere a volcano erupted. These young people who are marching only with stones in their hands facing grenades and live bullets are writing a new chapter for Libya similar to their brethren in Tunisia and Egypt."

He went on to write, "I am not sure who is alive and who is dead but I feel that I need to go back to help as much as I can."

U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, got a call from Tarhouni in Libya about a week ago; the professor asked McDermott to support the no-fly zone — he does — and to encourage the U.S. to recognize the rebels' provisional government. MORE...

"As president throws bones to political base, liberal anger wanes"

Shane D’Aprile and Sam Youngman (The Hill):

President Obama has appeased elements of his liberal base in recent months by repealing the Pentagon’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, reversing course on the Defense of Marriage Act and pursuing new gun-control measures.

Since enduring a near-mutiny among his political base during the debate on the extension of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts late last year, the outrage from the left expressed in the last Congress has noticeably subsided. And it’s no accident.
(SNIP)
“It’s a little unclear to me what the strategy of the White House is,” said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who was one of the leading Democratic critics of the tax-cut deal late last year. “Everything is obviously aimed at the election in 2012, and every once in a while I have some questions about that.

“One of the things I think is problematic is turnout,” he said. “We got clobbered in 2010, and look who turned out. There’s a message somewhere in there.” MORE...

"Rep. McDermott on The Rachel Maddow Show" (video)

RepJimMcDermott, video (04:24).

Howie P.S.: Rachel calls him "Dr. McDermott."

Big ED, Matt Taibbi and Jim McDermott on Boehner and the GOP (with video)

MSNBC-ED Show, video (13:20).

Howie P.S.: Matt Taibbi piles on:

Others in Washington see Boehner not so much as a bloodless partisan but as a clueless yutz, one who rose to power through a combination of accidents and bureaucratic inertia. "He's just sort of like, 'Oh, how did I get here?'" says one Democratic aide. "I think of him sort of as a big Saint Bernard to [new Republican Majority Leader] Eric Cantor's yapping Chihuahua." Boehner is the butt of a lot of jokes around the Hill, with his wino eyes, perennial Crayola-orange tan and phallic surname providing even members of his own party with endless comic material. (George Bush, famous for giving colleagues nicknames, called Boehner "Boner.") His pseudo-acceptance speech on the night in November when Republicans retook the House was brilliant clown theater, a Wayne's World version of a right-wing political rally. At the very moment when millions of GOP voters were celebrating their ouster of the great socialist enemy Obama in the name of patriotism and liberty, Boehner was tearing up over what an awesome job he had finally scored for himself. MORE...

Jim McDermott: "Saving the Senate From Itself"

Jim McDermott:

Senate rules can be changed, and several senators presently are working hard to modify them to overcome the vice-grip of the filibuster. On the first day of the new 112th Congress, January 5th, 2011, a senator may propose to change the filibuster rule. The vice president of the United States, the presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, may determine that Senate rules may be changed by a simple majority vote of the Senate. Appeal of any ruling by the presiding officer may be subject to a simple majority vote.

If the Senate filibuster rules are not changed so that elections again matter and the majority can govern, then our country will be paralyzed by the unrelenting parliamentary manipulation of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his compliant colleagues. Enough is enough. It is time to change the rules to allow the Senate to function as the great deliberative, and decisive, body it can be. MORE...

Howie P.S.: In spite of the truth of these words, I wonder what audience Jim had in mind for this? I can't imagine it was the Members of the Senate.

"Obama tax deal: 'Irresponsible,' 'unfair,' say Inslee, McDermott"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

Two veteran Seattle-area Congressmen, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott, D-Wash., have signed a letter that denounces President Obama's tax cut deal with Republicans as "fiscally irresponsible" and "grossly unfair."

The letter is being circulated by Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, as an indication that House Democrats will not go along with the deal. It gives advice and a warning to the Democratic president: "He should not back down. Nor should we."

Inslee, seen as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2012, singled out a provision that would extend Bush-era tax cuts to those making more than $250,000 a year. He described Republicans as "hostage takers" holding up Congress' business on behalf of high-income earners.

"Tax cut bonuses for millionaires and billionaires will greatly expand the deficit, undermines the values of working and middle class families, and continues the failed Bush economic policy," said the 1st District congressman.

McDermott, who represents most of Seattle in Congress, described the tax cut deal as Obama's "Gettysburg." MORE...

Jim McDermott on The ED Show: "The Republicans don't care about the unemployed" (video)

MSNBC-ED Show, video (08:16).

Jim McDermott on The ED Show on today's Unemployment Insurance Vote (video)

MSNBC-ED Show, video (12:02).

Howie P.S.: Jim McDermott visits with ED and talks about the vote to block jobless benefits today in the House. But first, ED goes on a rant.

"Unemployment Extension Defeated In House"

Arthur Delaney (HuffPo):

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted down a measure that would have reauthorized extended unemployment insurance for another three months, leaving no clear path forward to prevent the benefits from lapsing on schedule on Nov. 30.

Without a reauthorization, the Labor Department estimates that two million long-term unemployed will prematurely stop receiving benefits before the end of the year.

"I think it's a sad moment," said Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) after the vote. "It appalls me that the Republicans keep pitching and pitching and pitching the tax cuts for the rich and won't join in a bill to help people keep their homes and not have to live in their cars."

The bill was brought to the floor under a "suspension of the rules," meaning it required approval from two-thirds of the House. It failed 258 to 154. MORE...

Howie P.S.: According to Ed Schultz, the 99ers were not addressed in this legislation. Schultz says Jim McDermott will be on The ED Show tonight on MSNBC to discuss this.

(UPDATED with video) WA Primary Election: "In the 34th District, a lively race divides the party"

UPDATE: "U.S. Rep. McDermott says "Most important election" of his lifetime," video (03:31).

West Seattle Blog video of Congressmember Jim McDermott visiting the 34th District Democrats and telling them this year's election may be the most important one in his lifetime.

Vashon Maury Island Beachcomber:

At issue is the fact that the 34th District Democrats — a politically influential organization in what is largely considered a single-party stronghold — changed its rules recently in order to ensure it could make sole endorsements.

In the past, several Democratic candidates would sometimes win the coveted local party endorsement. But at a time when a new primary system is said to have weakened political parties, the 34th District — by a vote of its membership — recently decided to issue only sole endorsements.

And earlier this year, it threw its collective voice behind Stone, a 57-year-old community organizer who has been a stalwart in the local Democratic party and who has made a name for herself in campaign finance reform circles.

“She’s been a volunteer and leader in the party for many years,” said Tim Nuse, who chairs the 34th District Democrats. Noting her upbringing in White Center and her years of political activism in West Seattle, he added, “She has a breadth of knowledge and experience throughout the district.”

But Ivan Weiss, an Islander and the former chair of the 34th District Democrats, supports Fitzgibbon, a 23-year-old former aide to Sharon Nelson and a young man he calls a “legislative prodigy.” He’s also harshly and openly critical of the local party’s decision to endorse Stone.
(SNIP)
Heavey, 30, whose father, by the same name, is a well-known judge and former state senator, sounds a slightly more conservative note. Heavey, an aide to King Councilwoman Jan Drago, calls for “performance-based government” and zero-base budgeting — a system of governance that requires every line item to be reviewed rather than built on existing budgets.

More taxes, he said, are not the answer, in large part because voters won’t tolerate them. “The message from the voters (during this election) will be clear — that we need to do more with less,” said Heavey, who was endorsed last week by The Seattle Times. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Publicola covers the money side of this race here and here. The West Seattle Blog has interviews with Marcee Stone, Joe Fitzgibbon, Mike Heavey and Mac McElroy. It should be noted that McElroy is not a member of any "party"---but he's in the picture anyway.

"Rep. McDermott Statement on Voting Against Supplemental Appropriations Bill"

Jim McDermott:

Today, Rep. Jim McDermott issued the following statement outlining his reasons for voting against the supplemental appropriations bill:

“It doesn’t matter if we commit 30,000 or 300,000 additional troops, I do not believe the U.S. military alone can bring about the change necessary to stabilize Afghanistan. American troops have now been in Afghanistan for nearly a decade and have been doing a magnificent job of what’s being asked of them. But U.S. and NATO forces are not equipped to solve the kinds of problems facing the nation. I believe that if we really want to help the Afghan people form a functioning government that serves its people and respects human rights, we must do it with additional aid and support—not with more troops.

“After spending nearly $350 billion on this war, I have not seen nearly enough progress and will not support simply intensifying an approach that has produced few results. The responsibility for building a stable Afghanistan ultimately lies with the Afghan people, and we must pursue a much broader and more comprehensive strategy to support them. While this appropriations bill contained funding for several programs that I steadfastly support, I cannot in good conscience vote to send soldier after soldier into a battle I do not believe we can ever win.”

Jim McDermott Ranked 10th "most progressive" Member of The House

Booman:

Here are the ten most progressive members of the House of Representatives (as measured by lifetime Progressive Punch scores on crucial votes):

1. Grijalva, Raul D AZ-7
2. Schakowsky, Jan D IL-9
3. Baldwin, Tammy D WI-2
4. Edwards, Donna D MD-4
5. Sánchez, Linda D CA-39
6. Olver, John D MA-1
7. Conyers, John D MI-14
8. Lee, Barbara D CA-9
9. Payne, Donald D NJ-10
10. McDermott, Jim D WA-7

MORE...

Jim McDermott: Unemployment Standoff 'A Class Warfare Issue'

Arthur Dekaney (HuffPo)

It's a class warfare issue," said McDermott in an interview with HuffPost after the House vote. McDermott, chairman of the Ways and Means Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee, lamented the fact that congressional deficit hawks squawked little during two wars and when Congress authorized a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry.

"Wall Street is saying to them, 'These deficits, they're making problems, we need to get this deficit down,'" McDermott said. "So the very people who took the money and were stabilized because we created deficits are now turning around and biting the hand that feeds them, that is, the taxpayers. It's unconscionable." MORE...