Of course, Seattle doesn't want a representative who only comes back for parades. But is it enough that McDermott was right about Iraq and is passionate about places like Africa and India? That all depends on whether Seattle voters want someone who not only represents an ideology but also looks out for their more immediate interests—and exerts his influence.
"He's a smart politician," says Democratic consultant Jason Bennett. "In terms of delivering results, people [in Seattle] have an ethereal idea of what he's done instead of major legislation that he's passed."
Harley Soltes
Seattle’s ambassador of liberalism, with a scarf given to him by the Dalai Lama.
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Click here for Rep. McDermott's comments on the troop surge in Iraq.
Click here to see pictures of McDermott with Angelina Jolie and some other famous friends.
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Earlier this year, Congress.org—which annually assigns lawmakers power rankings based on position, influence, and legislation—put McDermott at 115 (out of 435 House members). Certainly respectable, and an improvement over his 2006 position (245). Consider, though, that Inslee—McDermott's colleague to the north, who has less seniority and is not a member of Ways and Means—comes in at 63.
Inslee's ranking, a massive jump from last year's position (354), is helped in large part by the fact that he's already passed two bills this session—one related to kidney donation, the other to give national park status to the site on Bainbridge Island where the first Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps. McDermott's legislative score is zero so far for 2007, though he has managed to get amendments into House-approved legislation that cancel tax credits for big oil companies and promote energy efficiency.
Sinderman, the local Democratic consultant, says a lot of people see Inslee as an "effective hybrid" between the big picture and the particulars. "He's someone who champions very progressive ideas, but he's also there when the rubber meets the road."
Like McDermott, Inslee often speaks passionately on the floor about the Iraq war. And he made headlines by calling for the impeachment of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (McDermott has aimed higher, calling for Vice President Dick Cheney's impeachment.)
But Inslee is also active on three House committees and four subcommittees. McDermott's on one committee and two subcommittees. Inslee has only missed 1 percent of floor votes since he's been in office, the smallest number of any Washington representative. McDermott has missed 415 over the past decade, or a modest 6 percent of votes, according to nonpartisan database GovTrack.us. And Inslee regularly comes home. Last month alone, he hosted three town hall meetings in his district. McDermott held one town hall this year and doesn't have any others planned, though he was back earlier this month to speak at the Sustainable Ballard Festival and participate in the Seattle AIDS Walk.
Many observers are tuning in and pulling for McDermott to get some weighty domestic initiatives accomplished, namely universal health care, the cause that drew him to politics in the first place.
"I've admired the things he's tried to do in Congress. I'm hopeful he can get something accomplished on health care reform," says Phil Talmadge, a former Washington State Supreme Court justice who served with McDermott in the state Senate. As he has in the past, McDermott introduced a bill this year to provide universal, single-payer health care for every American. Talmadge recalls McDermott as a skilled legislator in Olympia who helped craft, and pass, a law providing basic care to the unemployed and uninsured.
Blair Butterworth, a local consultant and a longtime friend of McDermott, also contends that McDermott knows how to operate within the system: "how to put together those votes, how to listen to his colleagues, how to trade. He plays the game."
McDermott seems enthusiastic about making something happen on health care, though there's not a lot he can do until the White House changes hands. For now, as chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, he's working to expand health care for children in foster care. He also plans to focus this fall on extending unemployment insurance to part-time workers, expanding benefits for low-income workers, and making unemployment available to those who must leave their jobs due to things like loss of child care and sexual harassment. His results here will be good barometers of how effective McDermott will be in the new Congress.
Many observers thought that if the Democrats hadn't won back the House last year—and if McDermott didn't need his position in Congress to help raise funds for his legal defense—he might have stepped down after this term. (McDermott recently asked the Supreme Court to take up his appeal of a lower court's ruling on the decade-old case involving a taped telephone conversation between Republican leaders that he leaked to the press.) But now, unless Seattle says different, its ambassador isn't going anywhere.
"Frankly, it's a heyday for him," says Democratic consultant Cathy Allen. "McDermott seems to be having the time of his life. He's got that cat-with-a-canary look."
"Someone once told me if you come up to Capitol Hill, look at the dome, and don't get excited, you shouldn't be here. I still get excited," says McDermott, over coffee at Mario's. "Sometimes it's harder. Some days you get more done than others. But I'm still energized by being here. When I don't feel like that, I'll bag it and let people know that I'm going home."
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