Editor's Note: Sorry the Fizz was late today. Josh is still gallivanting around New York, and Erica's holding down the fort. Fizz will return to its regularly scheduled early-morning appearances shortly.

1. The Daily Beast just named US Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) one of its ten "rising political stars of 2010 ," citing her efforts to restore Glass-Steagall, the 1933 law that separated investment and retail banking. (Glass-Steagall was largely repealed in 1999). "With populist anger over the financial sector still running high," the Beast writes, "look for Cantwell’s cause to receive a lot of favorable attention next year."

2. Former state Republican Party chair Chris Vance has a piece in Crosscut today arguing that the Republicans are poised to make a comeback in Washington State next year. Citing Obama's faltering poll numbers, Vance points to three possible Congressional challengers: Susan Hutchison (rumored to be considering a run against Patty Murray, D-WA), state Sen. Jaime Herrera (R-18, running for the seat Brian Baird, D-3, is vacating), and Snohomish County Commissioner John Koster ("reportedly strongly considering running" against Rick Larsen, D-2, according to Vance.)

Vance calls Hutchison "a credible, interesting candidate with name identification and the ability to raise money."



Some stats: Murray defeated her last Republican challenger, George Nethercutt,55 to 43 percent. Hutchison lost her race for King County Executive to Dow Constantine, 41 to 59 percent. Herrera won her first election, in 2008, 59 to 41 percent. And Koster, a three-term incumbent, won his last election 56 to 43 percent.

State Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz acknowledges that Republicans are "going to go after Democrats with a vengeance," as the party out of power tends to do during midterm elections. And while he says both Hererra and Koster are "legitimate candidates"—calling Koster, in particular, "the strongest candidate Larsen's faced in a decade"—he notes that Hererra, 32, has only served two years in office, and that Democrats have held the Third Congressional District for all but four years out of the past 40. And Pelz points out that Koster has challenged Larsen before—in 2000, when he lost with 46 percent to Larsen's 50 percent.

As for Hutchison, Pelz says, "we'd be delighted to run against" her. "If Susan Hutchison is the Republican candidate against Murray, it is an indication of how shallow the Republican Party farm team is. In Washington State, she's a fourth-tier candidate—the fifth tier being your mother."

3. The state House Republicans, meanwhile, have finally launched their revamped web site, which they've been hyping breathlessly on Twitter. It's... very maroon?

4. The Washington State Budget and Policy Center has released an analysis of what impact the state budget cuts proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire would have on key state services. Overall, the group found that the $1.6 billion in proposed cuts would reduce state spending on education, health care, and economic security nearly 14 percent. That's on top of the $3.5 billion in cuts made last year.

Some highlights:

More than 65,000 people would lose access to affordable health insurance;

16,000 children would lose health insurance coverage;

More than 20,000 people who can't work due to disability would lose financial and medical assistance;

and  10,000 working families a month would lose child care assistance.

Gregoire has asked legislators to come up with new sources of tax revenue to replace her all-cuts budget this session, which she has said "I do not support."