Earlier this afternoon, Senator Patty Murray joined with local small business owners to laud the passage of the Senate's small business bill. Much of the press conference was a repeat performance of yesterday's lauding of the passage of the Senate's small business bill. But hey, when you're trying to drive the message that Democrats are champions of small business and the middle class, a little repetition can't hurt.

"Senator Murray listened, Dino Rossi didn't," said Makini Howell, owner of Plum Bistro on Capitol Hill, who hosted the event. Howell said she was looking to expand her family business at the height of the recession but couldn't get a loan from her local community bank due in large part to the liquidity crisis. Howell credits a small program within an earlier stimulus project for allowing her to receive a loan and open her restaurant in the summer of 2009.

Regarding the new, larger fund for small businesses, Howell flatly rejected Republican Dino Rossi's charge that it's another deficit-busting bailout. "It's not a bailout, not a slush fund," Howell said. "If you work for it, it will work for you."