Could be an easy thing for Senator Maria Cantwell to do. With a clear majority (55% or more in recent poll) among Americans in disapproving - now - of the nation's entry into Iraq and of its ongoing effort there, might be easy for minority senators like Maria Cantwell to "solidify the base", renounce the entry into the war and urge immiedate troop withdrawal.

She han't. Her statement Wednesday on Iraq doubtless was ment to soothe the distressed, but it gives little ground and seems unlikely to do so.

What seems undisputed in the contentious world of oil and gas is that we're running out. The exact moment of peak and decline seems yet to be the subject of some dispute, but evidently by the time we hit two decades or so hence, the United States, and the world, we will have a whole lot less oil to burn.

This leads to an obvious conclusion: Unless we want to de-evolve our society (as most of us do not), we should be getting about the business of developing new technology, so that our cars can run and houses be heated from sources other than petroleum. This is neither a stretch nor unrealistic, and any number of specialists have said that the economic pressure for it happen will occur once gas reaches a certain price point; $5 a gallon is often banied about. That, of course, suggests we have no free will or insight or initaitive to act before then, and simply develop the tech because we can see what's coming in the future of oil.

That, we'd suggest, is the logical backdrop to the rising political dispute over our spiking gas prices, those being the immediate sympton of a bigger problem. Watch for the rare politician who looks further ahead than this month's crisis: You may need to go on an expedition to find one.

That doesn't necessarily invalidate the short-range stuff; it instead puts it in its place. While to one extent or another, the rise in gas prices over the last generation was going to happen and is going to continue, the immediate details are not necessarily irrelevant.

Oil and gas spiked unexpectedly and interestingly in an Oregon Republican gubernatorial debate, and that may be worth revisiting. But nowhere in the Northwest has oil and gas become so central to politics as in the still-emerging Senate race in Washington. (more…)

Some indications that Tim Eyman, Washington's king of the initiative, may be falling short in his effort to put a measure on the ballot to reverse this year's legislative passage of a gay rights bill.

If so, that would be a remarkable failure - up there with the voter rejection of the transportation package initiative last year. But if the numbers released so far are accurate, the proposal seems headed for the reject pile rather than the ballot. A rundown of the stats can be found at the Horse's Ass blog.

Eyman, it should be noted as well, seems more focused on his I-917 measure on the state car tabs rate.

Qualifies as a political stunner, the announcement Friday by Washington state Senator Bill Finkbeiner that he will not run for re-election this year.

The implications are large, but of a piece with developments already underway.

The surprise comes in part from the way Finkbeiner, a Republican who has voted conservative enough to become his party's floor leader, seemed this year to tailor his legislative record to his district, on gay rights and other matters. His district, he seemed to suggest, was moving, was less and less conservative, and he had to respond. Usually you don't do that if you're planning to retire anyway.

Republican Representative Toby Nixon, plans to run for Finkbeiner's seat, and Finkbeiner quickly endorsed him.

But the announcement was treated as a big deal - former state Republican Chair Chris Vance called it "That's terrible, terrible news for the Republicans" - and there's something to that view. You get a hint of it in Finkbeiner's quote: "It's always better to go out at the top of your game, and that's where I am now." (more…)