So it looks like Jay Inslee is going to have a Republican challenger in the form of James Watkins, who says his campaign will center on a “less-government and more-jobs” platform.

When George W. Bush became president, he pretty much turned the country over to the corporations. In many cases, corporate lobbyists were actually writing government policy, and we all know where that got us.

There’s your “less government” for you. Is that what we want to return to? Are our memories truly that short?

Most economists have said that more government regulation of the banks and financial markets, not less, would have saved millions of jobs, would have prevented the real estate meltdown and would have kept our economy from going into the toilet.

As President Obama has said, it took years to get us into this mess and it will take years to get us out of it.

Fueled by hate-talk radio, Republicans scream and complain about Democratic policies – which are actually working to better the lives of ordinary Americans – yet they don’t have any fresh ideas of their own.

I wonder what Watkins’ plan is to create more jobs. Let me take a wild guess: Tax cuts. Yeah, that worked so well before.

I think the motto of the Republican Party should be: Government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

Dave Richards

Bainbridge Island