Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Coalition government
Interesting development in Wash state govt. A large group of legislators from both "parties" have formed a non-partisan coalition to GET SHIT DONE.
Democratic Senators Rodney Tom of Bellevue and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch stood with five Senate Republican leaders at a press conference Monday to explain how the new caucus will govern. Tom would serve as the new Senate majority leader, and Sheldon would be president pro tempore. The caucus has proposed splitting power by allowing Democrats and Republicans to each chair six committees, and co-chair three committees. The powerful budget-writing Ways and Means committee would be chaired by Republican Sen. Andy Hill of Redmond under the proposal. The K-12 education committee would be led by Republican Sen. Steve Litzow of Mercer Island. “The public is not looking for one-party domination,” Tom said. “They are looking for us to get away from politics and start governing.”Remains to be seen how this will work, but it's promising! = = = = = Followup 12/12: On national news, some Stalinist bulldykes in the DC senate are saying that we need more wyyyyyymmmmyyyyyyns in politics, because weeemoooons are more coalition-minded. According to the Stalinist bulldykes, we wouldn't have fiscal cliffs or gridlock with woepersonindividuals in charge. Well, let's check that theory. The Wash state senate has 48 members, of which 19 are female. That's 40% F. This new coalition has 25 members, of which 5 are female. That's 20% F. Thus the bipartisan types are half as likely to be female as the overall Senate. Most of the Fs in the state Senate are happy with team-based gridlock. Or from another angle, 1/4 of all female Senators joined the coalition, while 2/3 of all male Senators joined the coalition. I love these 30-second disproofs! ¶ 6:41 AM
