You can see a new link at the top of this page - to the writing of Joel Connelly, a Seattle PI columnist. His column normally appears each Mon, Wed and Friday. He should be helpful to us progressives and liberals as we approach this fall's voting season. And he is a very good writer so it is always entertaining to read him.

As the November election approaches, some of us will go through angst over Senator Cantwell's record on the Iraq war. Our options are nil. Zilch. McGavick may be a good person and, in other years, may make a good Senator. But McGavick will ensure Bush a Republican majority in the Senate and the war insanity will continue. During the next three months, we all will be talking with other citizens and we need to keep our sanity. How do we discuss issues and candidates and not shoot ourselves in the foot come election day? How do we convince our neutral friends to vote for Cantwell without demonizing McGavick? Joel will be a help to us.

Joel grew up in Bellingham and wrote for the Northwest Passage 'underground' paper back about 1970. He moved on to the PI and for several years was their reporter in Washington DC. He now writes about Northwest politics. I don't always agree with him, but he is probably the most informed and reliable political columnist in the state.