Senate hopefuls debate

Maria Cantwell and Mike McGavick disagreed Thursday on everything from Iraq and North Korea to trade with Cuba and gays in the military as they went head-to-head twice in Spokane.

In front of a packed audience at the Downtown Spokane Rotary Club debate, then later with The Spokesman-Review editorial board, Washington’s freshman U.S. senator and her Republican challenger offered more than their 30-second sound-bite commercials as they touched on immigration, education, and Medicare.

Here’s a streamlined view of what they had to say:

Iraq

Cantwell said the United States needs to begin pulling its troops out, and convincing other countries, particularly Pakistan, Egypt and the Arab League, to move theirs in. The nation may be more secure in some respects since the war started – border and port security is better, she said – but the administration that is ready to accept “the long hard slog of deployment” should be also willing to accept “the long hard slog of diplomacy.”

“We’re not winning the war of ideas,” she said. The administration needs a real plan, not just “stay there as long as you want.”

Countered McGavick: “It’s completely unrealistic to think the Arab nations are going to join in on the ground in Iraq.” While both candidates might have voted against invading Iraq in 2003 if they knew the true level of Saddam Hussein’s weapons, he argued that the United States can’t pull out of Iraq and let it become a harbor for terrorists. There hasn’t been a successful terrorist attack on America since Sept. 11, 2001, and fighting in Iraq “gets our troops facing (terrorists) instead of our civilians” facing them.

“Iraq was a disaster before we got there,” he said. “To say it’s better or worse, it’s too soon to tell.”

On troop levels, Cantwell said she would not support an increase in U.S. forces in Iraq.

McGavick said the military needs to continue to adapt its strategy to the situation. “I will stand second to none in wanting the troops home, but I want them home in victory.”

North Korea

Cantwell said the Bush administration should continue negotiating with other nations to try to convince North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program, and get the rest of the world involved in a discussion of sanctions. But it should also try direct talks, just between the United States and North Korea.

“We do have to apply what economic pressures we can,” she said. One pressure is to “accentuate the challenge of loose nuclear weapons to the world community.”

But McGavick said Bush is right not to try direct talks with the North Koreans. That country’s nuclear tests are finally driving a wedge between North Korea and its longtime ally, China.

“We should be driving that (wedge) in further,” he said.

Gays in the military

“I support the existing policy. I believe it works,” McGavick said.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy needs to be re-examined, Cantwell said, and troops should not be dismissed simply because they are homosexual.

Immigration

McGavick said he supports a recent law that calls for a fence across long stretches of the border with Mexico, both for security and to stop the influx of illegal labor. “There’s no incentive to participate in a guest worker program if you don’t have a secure border.”

He repeated a charge from his recent commercials that Cantwell supported a current policy of allowing Social Security payments to illegal immigrants.

Cantwell said satellite and other “smart” technology would be better for securing the border than the giant fence, which she voted against. She said his characterization of the vote on Social Security payments was wrong.

At issue was Cantwell’s vote to continue the nation’s current practice of allowing foreign workers who have been in the country illegally to receive credit for the money they paid into Social Security if they later become legal residents. A proposal to end that practice failed by one vote during the Senate debate.

Foreign trade

Cantwell said she supported the Central American Free Trade Agreement and was particularly proud of traveling to Cuba in 2001 and helping to negotiate sales of Eastern Washington crops like peas, lentils and apples.

McGavick said he thinks the embargo on Cuba should remain in place at least until Fidel Castro dies: “I favor free trade … not just with tiny countries like Cuba but across the board.”

Points of agreement

They had a few points of agreement: Neither supports a return to a military draft, both said Veterans Affairs needs more funding and both opposed President Bush’s veto of federal funds for stem cell research.

Both decried partisanship in Congress, although McGavick said the way to end it was to send someone like him who was willing to work on solutions. Cantwell votes with Democrats more than 90 percent of the time, and if he had that record after his first term, people should vote him out.

Cantwell said she’s worked with Republicans on everything from dam relicensing to the deduction for state sales tax. “We argue on the policy and keep politics out of it.”

The Rotary debate was taped by KXLY-TV and broadcast Thursday evening, and will be rebroadcast on TVW before the Nov. 7 election. The editorial board interview was broadcast live on the newspaper’s Web site and can be watched or listened to on a computer from www.spokesmanreview.com/webcast.