Rick Larsen Picks a Fight with the Tea Party

And it’s not pretty:

This video (h/t: SoundPolitics.com) seems to signal a leftward lurch in Larsen’s re-election strategy. To be sure, it wasn’t all that long ago that Democratic incumbents like Brian Baird, Adam Smith, and Jay Inslee would go to great pains to play up their “moderate” credentials.

The above, however, is more reminiscent of a segment on MSNBC — or something scripted with the help of the increasingly notorious JournoListers.

Whatever the thinking behind the ad, something tells us Rick Larsen just put a down payment on an interesting August recess…

Muri Hits Smith on “$3 Billion Boondoggle” in New Ad

Ouch:

And it turns out Rep. Smith is deep in the pocket of a GE lobbying firm. Picking up on that lead, our very own Tom Forbes broke more news on the Adam Smith story right here at NWDIGEST.COM in mid-July.

Is Adam Smith Building a New Bridge to Nowhere?

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington’s 9th Congressional District likes to portray himself as what the Seattle Times calls a “raging moderate.” Smith supported the Iraq surge in 2007 and he voted against the House’s original health care reform bill.

But Smith is the chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Air and Land Forces. And in this role, Smith is showing that he can play the pork barrel polka with the best Big Government liberal. But unlike earmark champions Patty Murray and the late Robert Byrd, Smith’s effort do not benefit his district at all, but rather fat cat corporate donors to his campaign.

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Cheat Sheet: Adam Smith Fleecing Taxpayers?

Seattle news blog Publicola.net has the story:

Here’s the deal: Lockheed Martin manufactures the F-35 fighter plane and Pratt & Whitney makes the engine. The House Armed Services Committee sent the defense authorization bill to the floor this week—funding a second company, GE, to also manufacture an F-35 engine. (The engine contracts could be worth $100 billion over their lifetime, according to the New York Times.) The DOD says it doesn’t need two companies making the engine and will ask President Obama to veto the proposal.

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Is Jay Inslee Preparing to Run for Governor?

While most of yesterday’s hubbub centered around Gov. Gregoire being floated for an appointment to the Obama Admin., there were some equally interesting undercurrents just as strong.

Democratic State Auditor Brian Sonntag was apparently convinced that an appointment may be imminent, and was thus flushed out as a contender in the Democratic primary field. But when a reporter for The Fix today checked in with Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee about a potential bid for Governor, a spokesman would only say “neither the White House nor Gregoire’s office had contacted them.” That’s an odd response. Don’t you think?

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