Before You Start Bashing Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Read This

[Playinghardball]

Rachel Maddow had a great segment on her show the night after the election. It concerned Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, who is currently being bashed in a diary on the rec list here at Daily Kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

The offending quote:

MURRAY: Well, here's where we are, our country has a tremendous debt and deficit problem. We also have a challenge in making sure that we educate our work force. We need to make sure we care for our veterans who need that care today. We need to have research. And we need to be able to compete in a global marketplace, those investments are important.

Katrina vanden Heuval then tried to create a false equivalence between this statement and the GOP's call for austerity. But that association just isn't there. Murray is just stating the obvious, and calling for higher taxes on the wealthy in order to pay for jobs and education. It's right there in the quote. Vanden Heuval is disagreeing with her and then agreeing with her at the same time.

Perhaps this partial transcript from Rachel Maddow's show can provide a little perspective:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160509/-Before-You-Start-Bashing-Sen-Patty-Murray-D-Wash-Read-This

[DURHAM D]

1. WTF? Katrina has lost it.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Apparently.

[KT2000]

2. Bashing Sen. Murray?

Katrina better get off it. Patty has done more for veterans than anyone. She did a great job getting more Dem. senators. She is what I call the stealth senator - she works really hard behind the scenes.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

4. Katrina vanden Heuval is the democratic version of Ann Romney is many ways...a sanctimonious

mouth and little more.

Patty Murray accepted what originally appeared to be the thankless task of heading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee....She had 23 seats to defend...which she did plus added to 2 seats. Right now she's a heroine in the party.

[GP6971]

5. I agree

I like the terms"stealth senator". Plus she is one of my senators

[Sekhmets Daughter]

9. She did an incredible job...

None of the men would take it on....she's amazing!

[mick063]

6. Patty Murray is the best kept secret at DU

Extremely effective legislator.

This is why Reid chose her to be the co chair of the Super Committee after the debt ceiling fiasco. She held firm on our battle to vanquish the Grover Norquist pledge.

She also had a great deal to do with the recent success in gaining Democratic Senate seats.

I'm proud to say that I voted for her.

[Dawson Leery]

7. The long term debt problem is real and will be solved.

At some point, the entire Bush tax package of 2001 will have to be repealed along with cuts to the military budget and corporate subsidies.

[Egalitarian Thug]

8. It is based on a false premise, a premise created from whole cloth by those that seek to rob us.

The debt and deficit problems are not tremendous.

If we are to heal the American economy and since we will not decrease military spending, we will have to increase deficit spending and thereby the debt. Once the Main Street economy is again functional, that is the time to decrease deficit spending.

[bluestate10]

10. Typical of the extreme Left. Murray likely failed to give Katrina one fucking tiny thing that

Katrina as a cherry on top or big banana split. So Katrina wants to throw the whole damned thing down a toilet. In summary, no sense of perspective.

[cthulu2016]

11. Leaving aside her personality and motivations—Vanden Heuval is correct.

Anybody, including the president, talking about our "tremendous debt and deficit problem" is playing unwise politics with no economic sense to them.

I don't care what Vanden Heuval said one way or another, really... she's not my cup of tea. But I am speaking for myself in saying that Murray should not be talking about the deficit. Economically and politically, that is roughly as responsible as talking about cutting entitlements.

The deficit, short-medium term needs to be higher, not lower.

[Aristus]

12. Sorry, Katrina; I'm coming down on the side of "Fighting Patty" Murray.

She is a staunch progressive, and one of the best Senators in the federal government.

I've met her. She's wonderful.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

13. Senator Murray

is one of the few who DID NOT vote for the IWR and as such, will receive my vote in every election she runs in until she quits or I die. Whichever comes first.

[MissMarple]

14. +1