The rippling shockwaves of the grassroots liberal earthquake now roiling the Democratic Party--manifested in the surge of Howard Dean in the presidential-nomination race--has so discombobulated the party hierarchy that now even the Democratic establishment is running against the Democratic establishment. Oh yeah, and they really hate the Republican agenda as well.

That dual-themed message underlay the August 6 speeches by Senators Patty Murray and Hillary Clinton at Murray's annual "Golden Tennis Shoes" breakfast fundraiser, held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle. Judging from the enthusiastic reactions of the 1,500 attendees, this tactic--downplaying your own party ties and voting record while slamming the Bush administration--is a winner, and will likely emerge as a major strategy of the 2004 campaign for inside-the-Beltway Democrats. Senator Murray is up for reelection next year.

Murray, a leading light of the Mom-ist wing of the party and a sanctum-sanctorum party player who until recently chaired the Senate Democrats' fundraising arm, portrayed herself as uncompromising and independent-minded in her remarks. "I have never shied away from a big fight," she said. "I don't care who I have to take on." Apparently that meant other Democrats. She stressed her purported free-agent status, at one point notably jabbing at Democratic demigod Bill Clinton. "I even took on my own party," she said. "I took on Bill Clinton--sorry, Hillary--when his Justice Department took on Microsoft." Murray's new tough maverick-chick self-presentation seems out of step with her record. She is generally considered a solid supporter of the Senate Democratic leadership agenda.

Senator Clinton followed, delivering a rousing, fiercely partisan speech in which she repeatedly excoriated the "radical reactionary administration" of President Bush. Clinton, who until recently had been assiduously fleeing her liberal roots in an effort to position herself as a centrist, has seemingly abruptly decided to reverse course. She described Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education-reform bill as a "cruel hoax," but failed to mention that she voted for the bill. She also studiously avoided mention of the Iraq war, which she voted to authorize.

sandeep@thestranger.com