Cantwell and the non-filibuster

I still want to know Senator Maria Cantwell's reason for not supporting a filibuster of Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court... I think she owes her constituents a clear statement about the reasoning behind her decision.

Whatever her explanation is, I probably won't agree with it. But will I vote for her in November? You betcha!

There are good reasons to re-elect Cantwell. I hear people say she's not progressive enough, but her voting record doesn't look so bad. I went to "ProgressivePunch.org" and looked at the ratings. It's true that Maria Cantwell isn't as progressive as Patty Murray, but not by much.

Patty Murray's progressive score is 90.30% making her #17

Maria Cantwell's progressive score is 88.57% making her #20!

Consider that John Kerry is #24 with a progressive score of 86.23%

Referring to the progressive-punch scores again, the most moderate Republicans in the Senate are:

Chafee, Lincoln (R- RI) 42.67%

Specter, Arlen (R-PA) 35.27%

Snowe, Olympia J. (R-ME) 32.28%

Collins, Susan M. (R-ME) 30.73%

Then comes Shelby, Richard C. (R-AL) at 16.06%

So with that in mind, I wouldn't want to risk losing Maria and ending up with a Republican Senator... or even a Green/Libertarian/...Democrat.

So - here's this mornings pointer to the words of our beloved Senator Cantwell:

Cantwell Reacts to Bush‚’s State of the Union

No Fixes for Troubled Medicare Rx Plan; Record Oil Company Profits with No Plan to Cut Skyrocketing Fuel Costs