The Senate campaign between Patty Murray and Dino Rossi appears Wednesday to be a contest over who can paint the other as cozying up to the worst villain in the universe.

That would be BP.

Rossi described the latest energy bill, which includes a cap-and-trade proposal, as a "BP-Backed national energy tax" and demanded that Murray denounce it. That's in line with the Senate Republican communications release this week that refered to BP's support of cap-and-trade when it was drafted a few months ago.

State Democrats dissed Rossi for not jumping on board a Murray plan to force BP to put $20 billion into an escrow account to cleanup the Deepwater Horizon spill. Rossi reportedly told the Vancouver Columbian he thought a few questions should be answered first, such as who should administer the fund and whether BP would pay the money in voluntarily or be forced into it.

Next up: A contest between who's more wishy washy, the candidate who wants BP executives sent to the guillotine and who wants them drawn and quartered.

Republican Senate Clint Didier, meanwhile, continues to tweet from Washington, D.C., about all the fun he's having meeting Republican bigwigs and raising money for the race.

A quiet day in Olympia, but it seems like a busy one in Washington, D.C. Murray plans to question Defense Secretary Robert Gates about letting Airbus bid on the new tanker in light of their smackdown by the World Trade Organization. (Interesting typo in the Murray press release refers to the plane as the "serial refueling tanker", which could actually work for missions that involve refueling squadrons of fighters.)

Also in D.C., Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has a busy day releasing reports. First she has a GAO report on federal funding that goes to groups that provide abortions, then a study on the impacts of multiple deployments on military families.

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