T’was the night before Christmas, and…and…and…over the river…or…snow bells…or something…

Read Slowly, We Wrote It Slowly

The good and bad of operating one of these digital news ”papers,” is we get the opportunity for big picture assessment some never get when they are in the trenches with very biased clients tugging at their logic. So it is with an enjoyable sense of non-partisan observation that we offer the following pre-session “analysis.”

1. Richard, what are you thinking? Led by former minority leader from the coal-burning, carbon-belching Lewis County area, a group of House Republicans and a few brave Democrats have signed and prefiled a bill that will require the Washington State Supreme Court candidates to let us know whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians (we wish) or whatever. The logic, we think, and as it was explained by Representative DeBolt, is that the state needs to know the party affiliation of the Supremes. Really? Well first, remember “no party preference” is an option. So essentially the SC candidates would all just stay behind the curtain of no preference. “No preference” is kind of, sort of a non-partisan declaration…which is where we are right now. And second, and most important, if Debolt’s bill actually got a hearing, passed both bodies and was signed by the governor it most likely would assure that darn few Republicans would run and if they did, fewer would win in our left leaning, Democrat favoring state. We are guessing this latter nuance is the point that brought Dunshee, Riccelli, and Appleton, all “prefer D,” to take out their pens and sign the “SC go-pound-sand act of 2015″ (as the Seattle Times put it). So, counter-productive is a lacking term to describe how counter-productive a bill like this could be.

2. What should the House R’s be doing, as in the real world? They ought to be carefully scoping out their moves on key issues. If they put all of their strategic acumen in one effort they might actually figure out a way to trip up the narrow 51-vote majority of the House D’s. Do the math, one case of the flu and one vote and the R’s run the place. Duh!

3. How about that Inslee? Credit to Publicola for pulling together and posting what we are all hearing. And, that being: the greens are grumbling about the carbon tax (credits/chits on carbon ) being dedicated to mega transportation projects, which of course allow bigger right-of- ways for carbon burning vehicles. Our observation? Since over the last two months Inslee has pledged that money to education, schools, mental health and flood control (to mention a few) no one should get their bike pathways in a bunch over a little counter intuitive spending pledges by the “cause du jour” announcements of their governor. Just think though, PSE’s Colstrip carbon will help pay for Bertha (if we can find her, she’s sinking). We decided everyone has missed the brilliance of the Inslee cabal realizing that by pledging carbon money for roads he can put the roads folks on the side of the pro cap and trade folks and presto, a coalition is born.

4. BTW-Why did the WSDOT name the broken, subterranean, blind, very broad, rock chewing tunneling device after a woman? How sexist, and unfitting. We would have named it Clint, after our strangest Congressional candidate who went down in the mud and never came back…well never mind, it’s too close to Christmas.

5. And now for the 2016 ballot. (Disclosure: Our humble editorial board believes that every smart move from here on out should be analyzed in the scheme of how it plays at the polls in 2016. Our board consisted of anyone who wanted to join our table at Fish Tale Ale this week and buy more than one round.) Unless someone sprinkles some ferry dust on the House and Senate we are on final approach for a session that somehow, someway, produces a budget to the liking of none and by default sends carbon, and a major portion of school funding/McCleary issues to the ballot. This in turn will bring out the voters who will hammer the urban Senate R’s, elect a D Governor, and, yes Richard, a D Supreme Court. “Every move is a brick in the wall of the 2016 ballot…go Hillary.”

6. Prefiles: How could we allow our perceptive collective to not mention prefiled bills? Some goofy, some hopeless, yes, but instead of diving into the logic, or lack thereof, on some of the early proposed legislation we just thought we would give a shout out to the longest bill title any of us can remember. And, we should tell you we added up our collective years of existence working at the capital and we represent over 110 years! Anyway, can you beat Senator Pederson’s bill with this title? “Declaring that it is an unfair practice for any employer who provides health insurance to its employees as part of an employee’s benefit package to not include contraceptive coverage as part of the benefit package, to fail to comply with federal rules adopted under the affordable care act relating to the provision of contraceptive coverage, or to discriminate against any employee based on that employee’s use of any reproductive health care service, drug, or device.” Jamie, dude, there’s at least one conjunction in there somewhere, thus more than one subject, thus a red star for unconstitutional declaration by a non-partisan SC…so far.

7. Chicken, Fish and Shellfish: And, just before we shut down our deep thinking analytical meeting, we assigned each participant to keep track and report regarding how much fish they eat each day for the next month. An argument broke out about whether shellfish are “fish,” and at this point we just decided if it has the word “fish” in the term, then it is a fish. Like chicken McNuggets must have some chicken in them; right?

8. Finally, and we know you’re glad we’re finished, here’s to Melanie Stambaugh (she prefers Republican by the way). Melanie is twenty-four years old and will be a freshman legislator in 2015. At our editorial board table this week Jim Boldt, Washington State Wire Senior Editor, mentioned that he served his first term in the House when he was only twenty-four and “people should not judge a person by their age.” Our group told Boldt it was not his age that was his problem…anyway, have a cool Yule and all the other holidays this season.

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