Edmonds in denial

Today's Seattle Times ran an article overviewing the dual-incumbent Democratic primary in the first district of the King County Council. It does a fine job highlighting some of the more notable moments that Bob Ferguson broke with his partisan councilmates based on personal principle, while the others bitched that he wasn't being a fellow rubber stamp. At the same time, it shows partisan hack Carolyn Edmonds desperately attacking his independent-mindedness in order to hang on to her position she's appeared to have already lost, judging from recent events. This despite having nearly the entire local, county, and state Democratic establishment behind her (she still couldn't win the county party endorsement because, you know, it's voted on by real people and not politicians), and leading Ferguson in fundraising. My favourite desperation-induced attack on him is that he "isn't a team player." Yeah, everybody wants all Democrats to be partisan liberals and Republicans to be partisan conservatives, despite that most of the population lies between them. This echoes exactly what is wrong with this country, where in partisan primaries the mainstream candidate gets piled on for not being liberal/conservative enough and voters are stuck having to choose between two poor choices. Whether it be Bush/Kerry, Murray/Nethercutt, or any race like it, the ones who ultimately lose these battles are the people.