News
Rossi Combative in Second Debate
During tonight's hour-long debate at KOMO-TV in Seattle, the two candidates for US Senate from Washington State played their familiar roles. GOP challenger Dino Rossi cast himself as a champion of laissez-faire capitalism and accused Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of being a spendy, "government-centric" liberal. Murray cast herself as a champion of jobs for Washington State (she kept coming back to the recent $34 million South Park Bridge score, the Howard Hanson Dam investments, and the Mercer mess fix, naming the Merlino Construction company as winners) and accused Rossi of parroting Bush-era policies that caused the recession in the first place.
We've heard it all before:
1) Rossi said the health care bill will cost taxpayers $500 billion (a number he's explained to PubliCola before, citing a Washington Times editorial, but which he didn't explain tonight, even though the KOMO moderator asked him to do so) and Murray said the health care bill will guarantee coverage for everyone, even people with pre-existing conditions;
2) Rossi pointed to the state's 17 percent functional unemployment rate (which combines the number of people actively looking for work with those who have stopped looking), labeling Murray's earmark and stimulus spending "a failure." Murray responded that Rossi's war on earmarks (he pledged to ban them) will translate into "pink slips" in Washington State;
3) Rossi said we shouldn't end the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich because he doesn't want to punish people for succeeding at "the American Dream" and Murray saying tax cuts for the wealthy would cost the country $1 trillion, which would spike the deficit.
(Oh, and of course, Rossi repeated his line about the U.S. being in debt to Chinese Communists, which, amazingly, he forgot to mention in the first debate.)
What was different tonight, though, was this: Rossi, who was criticized for being blasé in the first debate on Thursday night in Spokane, was extremely aggressive, attacking Murray at every turn—"we don't need her bailouts, her stimulus, her health care." His attacks, moreover, were loaded with stats (the stimulus breaks down to spending $323,000 to create one job, he said) and zingers ("Sen. Murray used to say she was the senator from Boeing: Is she from South Carolina, is she from Chicago?"—the implication being that her policies had failed Washington State as a Boeing benefactor.)
I don't know if his assault earned him the win at tonight's debate; it's risky (especially when you're a dude) to go on the attack against an iconic female senator like the mom in tennis shoes. (And Murray, smiling, even managed at least one eye-roll during Rossi's angry barrage.)
However, it was clearly his game plan. Here are some of the most combative moments.
1) Accused by Murray (correctly) of not answering her question (she asked him how he would pay for the $1 trillion tax cut to the richest two percent of Americans), Rossi quipped back, "I did answer the question. It just wasn't the answer you wanted to hear." He went on to say that he's in business and he knows how business works and "it's not that hard to understand"—recapping his equation that government spending saps the economy.
2) He actually got the last word on the question of gays in the military, a topic that should play to Murray's advantage because, frankly, Rossi's position seems bigoted. But after their back-and-forth (Rossi said he won't take a position until he sees the Department of Defense report and Murray spoke eloquently about making sure gays weren't "second-class citizens"), Rossi accused Murray of "voting to take away the freedoms that you've [military men and women] fought for." (Whoa. That's a pretty serious charge. It was presumably a reference to the health care mandate.)
3) Rossi also detailed a Seattle Times report which showed that Sen. Murray had secured $20 million in earmarks for 17 former staffers-turned-lobbyists who'd contributed $80,000 to her campaign. He concluded this rapid-fire assault by saying, "That's precisely what's wrong with Washington, D.C. That's what has to change."
4) He also read through a list of ominous-sounding sections of the health care bill—limiting the medical expense deductions, increasing taxes, and having IRS agents manage it —daring Murray to identify which part she wrote. (At Thursday night's debate, she boasted about co-writing the health care bill.)
Murray explained that she wrote a section on medical workforce training.
5) After their back-and-forth on the Bush tax cuts—which Sen. Murray said everyone wants to extend for the middle class (just not the rich)—Rossi got off his best line of the night: "You voted against them" in 2001 and 2003. Ouch.
Murray had to use her closing statement to explain to the audience that, yes, she voted against the Bush tax cuts because they included a break for people making over $200,000 a year.
Murray had her combative moments too (repeatedly pointing out that Rossi failed to answer questions—"Well, I didn't hear a balanced budget in that answer," "What is interesting is that I answered your question, but you didn't answer mine,"—and said Rossi's pledge to repeal financial reform will put people's savings "back in the hands of Wall Street and hedge fund managers."
I don't know if Rossi's aggro approach paid off or not. (Murray did trip over her words a few times, and literally said "everything's on the table" after the KOMO moderator specifically told the candidates not to use that phrase when asked to get specific about budget cuts.) A succession of recent polls shows Sen. Murray in the lead, which is probably what forced Rossi to come out swinging. We'll have to see what the next succession of polls—done in the wake of tonight's debate—shows, to see if his strategy worked.
Here's the Seattle Times report and the PI's report on tonight's debate.
We've heard it all before:
1) Rossi said the health care bill will cost taxpayers $500 billion (a number he's explained to PubliCola before, citing a Washington Times editorial, but which he didn't explain tonight, even though the KOMO moderator asked him to do so) and Murray said the health care bill will guarantee coverage for everyone, even people with pre-existing conditions;
2) Rossi pointed to the state's 17 percent functional unemployment rate (which combines the number of people actively looking for work with those who have stopped looking), labeling Murray's earmark and stimulus spending "a failure." Murray responded that Rossi's war on earmarks (he pledged to ban them) will translate into "pink slips" in Washington State;
3) Rossi said we shouldn't end the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich because he doesn't want to punish people for succeeding at "the American Dream" and Murray saying tax cuts for the wealthy would cost the country $1 trillion, which would spike the deficit.
(Oh, and of course, Rossi repeated his line about the U.S. being in debt to Chinese Communists, which, amazingly, he forgot to mention in the first debate.)
What was different tonight, though, was this: Rossi, who was criticized for being blasé in the first debate on Thursday night in Spokane, was extremely aggressive, attacking Murray at every turn—"we don't need her bailouts, her stimulus, her health care." His attacks, moreover, were loaded with stats (the stimulus breaks down to spending $323,000 to create one job, he said) and zingers ("Sen. Murray used to say she was the senator from Boeing: Is she from South Carolina, is she from Chicago?"—the implication being that her policies had failed Washington State as a Boeing benefactor.)
I don't know if his assault earned him the win at tonight's debate; it's risky (especially when you're a dude) to go on the attack against an iconic female senator like the mom in tennis shoes. (And Murray, smiling, even managed at least one eye-roll during Rossi's angry barrage.)
However, it was clearly his game plan. Here are some of the most combative moments.
1) Accused by Murray (correctly) of not answering her question (she asked him how he would pay for the $1 trillion tax cut to the richest two percent of Americans), Rossi quipped back, "I did answer the question. It just wasn't the answer you wanted to hear." He went on to say that he's in business and he knows how business works and "it's not that hard to understand"—recapping his equation that government spending saps the economy.
2) He actually got the last word on the question of gays in the military, a topic that should play to Murray's advantage because, frankly, Rossi's position seems bigoted. But after their back-and-forth (Rossi said he won't take a position until he sees the Department of Defense report and Murray spoke eloquently about making sure gays weren't "second-class citizens"), Rossi accused Murray of "voting to take away the freedoms that you've [military men and women] fought for." (Whoa. That's a pretty serious charge. It was presumably a reference to the health care mandate.)
3) Rossi also detailed a Seattle Times report which showed that Sen. Murray had secured $20 million in earmarks for 17 former staffers-turned-lobbyists who'd contributed $80,000 to her campaign. He concluded this rapid-fire assault by saying, "That's precisely what's wrong with Washington, D.C. That's what has to change."
4) He also read through a list of ominous-sounding sections of the health care bill—limiting the medical expense deductions, increasing taxes, and having IRS agents manage it —daring Murray to identify which part she wrote. (At Thursday night's debate, she boasted about co-writing the health care bill.)
Murray explained that she wrote a section on medical workforce training.
5) After their back-and-forth on the Bush tax cuts—which Sen. Murray said everyone wants to extend for the middle class (just not the rich)—Rossi got off his best line of the night: "You voted against them" in 2001 and 2003. Ouch.
Murray had to use her closing statement to explain to the audience that, yes, she voted against the Bush tax cuts because they included a break for people making over $200,000 a year.
Murray had her combative moments too (repeatedly pointing out that Rossi failed to answer questions—"Well, I didn't hear a balanced budget in that answer," "What is interesting is that I answered your question, but you didn't answer mine,"—and said Rossi's pledge to repeal financial reform will put people's savings "back in the hands of Wall Street and hedge fund managers."
I don't know if Rossi's aggro approach paid off or not. (Murray did trip over her words a few times, and literally said "everything's on the table" after the KOMO moderator specifically told the candidates not to use that phrase when asked to get specific about budget cuts.) A succession of recent polls shows Sen. Murray in the lead, which is probably what forced Rossi to come out swinging. We'll have to see what the next succession of polls—done in the wake of tonight's debate—shows, to see if his strategy worked.
Here's the Seattle Times report and the PI's report on tonight's debate.
Filed under
Share
Show Comments
