Nerditorial: About the State Senate...

As has been well documented by now, Rodney Tom and Sidney Sheldon, who were elected as Democrats, made the galvanizing decision to caucus with the GOP this year. LINK 

I've been circumspect about this story because plenty of people were saying plenty about it, and I had nothing to add to the conversation other than a long series of F-bombs

Until now.

Sure, I'm still smarting from this act of betrayal on the part of these two duly elected ass-waffles... but then I had something akin to an epiphany.

Put your hands together for Rodney Tom.... Lord of the Ass Waffles...

What I discovered was almost a silver lining to this burrito fart spawned cloud... with extreme emphasis on the word *almost*.

People, particularly elected officials, rarely stray from their party. So, there is no reason to believe that either of these State Senators/Ass-Waffles took this action lightly.

Sidney Sheldon... the Ass Waffle behind the mustache...

There is also no reason, based on the public record, to believe that this was a decision made in a vacuum, either.

It suggests that the state GOP believes that Tim Eyman's controversial Initiative 1053, requiring a two-thirds vote for tax bills, is doomed. (and that initiative's clone vat grown doppelganger I-1185 shall suffer the same fate.)

So long as Eyman's initiative enjoys the force of law and enjoy viability, the GOP enjoys the ability to effectively gum up the works in Olympia with control of no more than one third of the seats in the Senate... and the House.

Under those conditions, there would be no urgent need for the GOP to enter into a Faustian covenant with... [shudder]... Democrats.

But, in the event that these initiatives are overruled, then... the GOP loses its ability to passive-aggresively control legislation in the state.

So, the fact that the GOP would enter into such an unusual alliance after a disappointing election year for the GOP (on so *very* many levels) and after I-1085 was set on a very perilous course after it was ruled in violation of the State Constitution in May of last year by a King County Superior Court judge [LINK] strikes me as something other than a coincidence.

With Eyman's initiative actually in danger of being deemed unconstitutional... the GOP needed actual control over at least one house of the State Legislature.

Oh, and now that the State Senate is in control of the GOP... guess what they are championing?

Among other things? Killing wolves. LINK 

Three bills (*three*... I [bleep] you not...) have been introduced in the GOP controlled State Senate that are intended to give ranchers expanded legal authority to kill wolves.

Lest any of you think the GOP was going to... you know... govern responsibly or demonstrate an appropriate set of priorities or anything.

It bears mention here that wolves are still listed as endangered species... and the recent story about the "lethal removal" (*cough*killing*cough*) of the Wedge Wolf Pack in the north eastern corner of Washington remains fresh in the minds of the community at large. LINK

My personal favorite of these three legislative synaptic misfires is SB5199, which would add wolves to the list of big game species that can be hunted for sport in this state.

Because nothing says sportsmanship like "hunting" an animal that is wearing a GPS tracking device.

There are Republicans elected to the Senate who saw the outrage over the destruction of the Wedge Pack and the election of a Democrat to the Governor's mansion as a very subtle and arcane DaVinci Code-like sign of some mandate to hand out 007-style licenses to kill wolves in the Evergreen State.

And that is what happens when Republicans govern... from the same group that brought you the decision to sue to repeal Obamacare... comes the decision to kill more endangered species, for sport... because... you know... freedom.

Oh, and if Mr Tom and Mr Sheldon actually keep their seats for another term... then we will richly deserve the government we have in Olympia.

'Nerd Out.

"Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal... mine is an evil laugh..."