{"id":355037,"date":"2010-02-22T20:06:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T01:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011156771_spotlightonsenators.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-22T20:06:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T01:06:30","slug":"spotlight-on-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/355037","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on senators"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cantwell reigns in corporate recklessness and greed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

Kudos to Sen. Maria Cantwell [\u201cCantwell takes on big finance,\u201d NWMonday, Feb. 22]. She is a voice sorely needed to address the reckless and greedy manipulations of the financial system that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

The timid measures now proposed will not do. In particular, it\u2019s obvious the Glass-Steagall Act that separated the activities of investment banks from commercial banks was a mistake to repeal and should be reinstituted.<\/p>\n

The Times\u2019 article quotes Peter Wallison at the American Enterprise Institute as contending that no evidence exists that links derivatives to the economic meltdown. This reminded me of the tobacco companies, who for years insisted that there was no evidence linking smoking to cancer.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dick Gillett, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Tea party calls to hang Murray<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is unfortunate that someone has gone so far as to \u201cjokingly\u201d say that we need to hang Sen. Patty Murray [\u201cMurray seeks funds for civility,\u201d Around the Northwest, Feb. 19]. However, it does show just how much she has lost touch with her constituents.<\/p>\n

I have written to her many times on matters of broad interest and have realized that she and her staff are busy people dealing with important state matters. The occasional replies were unspecific generalizations \u2014 form letters, I suppose \u2014 explaining what a great job Sen. Murray was doing. They were more like campaign statements, giving the impression that she really didn\u2019t have time to waste on the little people.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Marvin Hartshorn, Port Orchard<\/em><\/p>\n

Tea partyers quick to forget<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hear that an organizer of the local \u201ctea party\u201d \u2014 where the woman wanted to hang Sen. Patty Murray \u2014 says that some of her partyers aren\u2019t \u201cpolitically sophisticated\u201d or something. Well this Democrat thinks they\u2019re just plain stupid!<\/p>\n

These partygoers must have gotten some \u201cfunny mushrooms\u201d into their tea if they can\u2019t remember that the major problems our country is facing right now \u2014 two wars, unemployment, Wall Street and banking chicanery, housing market foreclosures and the budget deficit, to name but a few \u2014 were all caused by the disastrous policies of their guy: George W. Bush.<\/p>\n

If these tea partyers want to use movie analogies, here\u2019s one for them: I want Captain Kirk to swing by in the Enterprise and have Scotty beam the whole nitwit wing of the Republican party onto the moon.<\/p>\n

As for the bike shop owner who can\u2019t wait for the Obama administration to be done, well suck it up dude. I waited eight long, ugly years for Bush et al. to get finished with their idiocy. If you still want to enact failed Republican policies after all of the Bush crap in the 2000s, I hope you suffer a lot during the next seven years; just like I did back then.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Andrews, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Election campaigns detract from getting work done<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article by Ruth Marcus, \u201cNo Senate for bold men,\u201d [Opinion, Feb. 19] pointed out the major challenge Congress faces trying to find solutions to our nation\u2019s problems is partisan politics. She said she is optimistic that the decision by Sen. Evan Bayh to not run for re-election may be a wake-up call for the Senate. I wish I could be as optimistic.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the partisanship we see in Congress is driven more by the desire to get re-elected than any concern to solve problems and getting re-elected is directly dependent on the huge sums of money needed to wage a campaign. Until we change the way political campaigns are financed, I doubt we will ever again see Congress act in a bipartisan manner.<\/p>\n

I was optimistic a few years ago when congress passed the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act. It wasn\u2019t perfect, but it at least set some limits on campaign contributions. Unfortunately, that act was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled that money is a form of free speech. Then, this year, the Supreme Court drove the final \u2018nail in the coffin\u2019 of campaign-finance reform with its decision that corporations could spend unlimited sums of money on political campaigns.<\/p>\n

We have sold our \u201cdemocracy\u201d to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Riebau, Renton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cantwell reigns in corporate recklessness and greed Editor, The Times: Kudos to Sen. Maria Cantwell [\u201cCantwell takes on big finance,\u201d NWMonday, Feb. 22]. She is a voice sorely needed to address the reckless and greedy manipulations of the financial system that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. The timid measures now proposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}