The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been a consistent supporter of liberal causes and Democratic candidates, and earlier this month they endorsed both Barack Obama and our incumbent but embattled governor Christine Gregoire in what will certainly be a repeat of her 2004 razor thin race against her Republican challenger Dino Rossi.
So it comes as a great surprise this morning that our beloved P-I endorsed Dave Reichert as Washington's 8th Congressional District representative.
This endorsement is a body blow to Darcy Burner. In 2006 the P-I endorsed Burner for what has been a Republican seat for its entire 25 years of existence. She barely lost two years ago, and this year we hoped, and still hope, that Burner finally picks up that seat and moves it across the aisle.
Washington's 8th Congressional District is NOT in the safely and reliably Democratic Seattle as many might believe. It starts just east of Seattle in Mercer Island (coincidentally where Barack Obama's mother attended high school) then stretches eastward and southward through Seattle's eastside suburbs, including rapidly growing Bellevue, to the foot of the Cascade mountains which protects Western Washington from the extremely conservative Eastern Washington.
Demographically the 8th District is a mixed bag of urban, suburban, farm and rural. There are pockets that are deeply liberal and pockets that are deeply conservative. Officially it's 84% white and 8% Asian with the balance Hispanic and African-American, but lately it's become much more diverse with many Pakistanis, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Eastern Europeans, all who have come to area to work for Microsoft and other high-tech companies.
What's aggravating is the reason the P-I gave for their endorsement of Reichert, who has been a dull and ineffective congressman for the four years he's been in Washington.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/...
We would be perfectly comfortable with his opponent, Democrat Darcy Burner, who is smart, well informed and progressive. Her views are much closer to our own on domestic and foreign policy, and we supported her in 2006. But this is not an ideological choice.
Not an ideological choice? Not a choice based on the issues (and there's plenty of difference there), intelligence, competence, likeability, potential, passion, or even youthful excitement? Well, what then?
Reichert was absent without leave from good sense during the worst periods of the Iraq War. We will never agree with his anti-choice views. But he has shown a willingness and capacity to hear opposing positions, to learn from the discussions and to work across political divisions. As a Republican of moderation, he is an endangered species worth preserving.
There. They said it. Reichert is an endangered species worth preserving. As if dull, ineffective moderate Republicans need to be weaned back from the brink of extinction, nurtured back to health, and encouraged to re-populate.
Whoa. That's not exactly what we had in mind when the Endangered Species Act was passed.
Perhaps the P-I should reacquaint themselves with Darwinism. If the Republican party wants to survive, including Reichert, perhaps they should take it upon themselves to evolve.