"A pioneer grunge rocker moving onto the political stage told senators Wednesday that Washington should elect legislators by 'super districts,' a system common in Europe but far different from anything seen in the United States. ... [Krist] Novoselic and others told the committee what lawmakers should do if the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties succeed in killing the beloved but constitutionally shaky blanket primary. Novoselic presented the most novel idea: Proportional representation in which even losing parties can gain seats. ... A Democrat, Novoselic is considering running for lieutenant governor in 2004, challenging Democrat incumbent Brad Owen." (12/04/03)

I wonder if anyone has pointed out to this muppet that thanks to PR [proportional representation], fringe-extremist parties get seats as well. PR also leads to ineffective but expensive goverment, frequent elections, and unstable governance. It's not too surprising that the strongest and most powerful (even according to the German public) country in the EU is the UK. The UK has first- past-the-post for their national elections. The only major party that is pro-PR is, those perenial losers, the Liberal Democrats. You see, they can't get into government the proper way so they want to re-do the system to help themselves.

PR is, and always has been, a wretched way to elect a government, no matter which of the various forms is chosen.