Free Republic

I do not look at myself as a spoiler," Aaron Dixon insisted Thursday as the one-time Seattle Black Panther leader announced his anti-war Green Party candidacy opposing Democratic U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell. At a news conference at an assisted-living center in the Central Area, the black community activist made clear that his campaign is built around the Iraq war and the one-term senator's votes supporting it as well as her votes for the Patriot Act and a few other Republican military and security initiatives. If she was against the war, then I would be a spoiler, stealing her anti-war votes,"...

Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a fundraising boost to Sen. Maria Cantwell's re-election Friday, headlining a Seattle luncheon that attracted more than 1,200 people, according to the Cantwell campaign. The crowd paid $150 to $1,200 a plate to hear the first-term New York senator, considered in political circles as a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and either the best or worst decision the party could make in its effort to recapture the White House. The lunch, inside Qwest Field, was closed to the media. The Cantwell campaign declined to say how much money was raised. >snip A...

When Rudyard Kipling said it was a great virtue "if you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you," he was not thinking of Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington. This week, as gasoline prices remained above $3 a gallon, she proposed giving the president the power to tell retailers what they can charge at the pump. A lot of people grew anxious seeing long lines forming last week, as motorists rushed to fill their tanks in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But Cantwell apparently enjoyed the sight well enough that...