WTF is up with your state senate?

[0rganism]

I hear there are 2 quislings who are turning the budget, health, and education committees over to the republicans. Is there any way to stop these freaks from enacting their faux moderation? If not, is a line forming to primary their asses at the next opportunity?

[midnight]

1. k&R For more info...

[Suich]

2. Here's some info:

http://www.chronline.com/article_99960fca-43bf-11e2-9539-001a4bcf887a.html

Thanks goodness we elected a Democratic governor, Jay Inslee!

[0rganism]

3. at least the WSD chair seems to be on top of it

From the article:

"Meanwhile, the chairman of the Washington State Democrats disowned the two defecting senators.

Dwight Pelz said he’s long viewed Sheldon as a Republican, but the party had invested money to re-elect Tom this year. Pelz says that won’t happen again, and the party will draft a candidate to oust him next time.

'This is a decision by Rodney Tom to switch parties back again,' Pelz said. 'Rodney Tom is a Republican now.'

Tom was initially elected as a Republican but switched parties in 2006. Pelz said he believes the latest move was simply a way for Tom to fulfill his personal ambitions."

We really have to watch out for this kind of shiznit, even in states where we have nominal majorities in the legislature. Tom is from Bellevue if I read that article right, so it shouldn't be impossible to kick his ass out at the next opportunity.

[pscot]

4. Can he be prevented from running as a Democrat?

[eridani]

5. Brendan Williams: The Inevitable Republican Coup and Its Inevitable Silver Lining

http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/publicola/articles/the-scorpion-and-the-frog

Now we are supposed to be aghast that Tom and longtime dissident Senator Tim Sheldon (D-35, Potlatch) formed a “bipartisan” coalition with 23 Senate Republicans in which Tom and Sheldon enjoy magnificent titles and their “fellow” Democrats are reduced to begging for scraps. Yet manufactured outrage supposes we fail to understand the nature of scorpions.
.
“Bipartisan” triumphalism made this day inevitable. It began with during the last term I served in the house, 2009-10, in which Tom’s fan club appeased the vanquished homebuilders’ lobby and tried to incarcerate a labor lobbyist, and continued through outrages such as right-to-work language passing a then-Democratic Senate 36-11. This conditioned us. Additionally, Democrats warned of dire consequences if Eyman initiatives passed, and then celebrated all-cuts budgets with the frenetic energy of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” video.

We were told an all-cuts bipartisan budget was equivalent to the moon landing! We heard the safety net was saved and the budget “spectacular”! We read education and higher education were, by not being cut further in a supplemental budget, saved!

Meanwhile, in truth, the safety net was gutted; the state workforce was cut to a degree greater than any other state; and education funding plummeted while tuition rates soared.

In 2003, when the all-cuts budget that was Dino Rossi’s claim to fame passed, 20 senate Democrats and 24 house Democrats voted no (Sen. Sheldon and then-Republican Rep. Tom voted for it). Since the December 2010 special session, not even a handful of Democrats have opposed an all-cuts approach.

[eridani]

6. Ed Murray fighting back. Good for him!

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol/2012/dec/17/murray-gop-you-dont-control-senate/

Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray of Seattle said Republicans will need more than a press conference and a logo on their stationary to be in control of the chamber.

In a letter today to Sen. Rodney Tom of Bellevue, who last week was named majority leader by a coalition of the chamber's 23 Republicans, himself and fellow defecting Democrat Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, Murray says that's not how the system works: “Under the current and past Senate rules, and longstanding past interpretations of those rules, the majority caucus is defined as the party containing the most elected members, which currently remains the Democratic Caucus.”