It's no surprise that the right wing would try to trash Patty Murray at every opportunity, because she is intelligent, well-informed, outspoken, and, in general, an "uppity woman." When the vote was taken in the Senate on whether or not to give Bush a free hand to attack Iraq, she delivered one helluva speech about why she was voting against it.

When Trent Lott crammed his foot down his own throat a short time back, I was sure the right would be casting about looking for a Democrat they could dump on to try to balance things. When Murray made her comments about "maybe they wouldn't hate us so much if America were a better neighbor," (which is pretty obviously true, by the way) they pounced on her with wild, squealing glee. Totally predictable.

Don Firth