Because the governor might die, or otherwise have to leave. And also because Owen often does annoying things. Mostly deciding the unconstitutional 2/3 requirement was rad. Also, on the plus side of the ledger, he doesn’t fuck around when Gregoire is out of the state, and he could. But while I want the Democrats’ budget to pass, I don’t know that this is the best thing (if he’d actually do it).
It’s a 24-24 tie in the senate because Republican minority leader Sen. Mike Hewitt (R-16, Walla Walla) one of the 25 votes that gave the GOP (and a couple of conservative Democrats) the majority for the GOP version of things, is out recovering from surgery.
Conservative Democrat Owen, who’s made momentous decisions before (ruling against the Democrats by deciding that repealing tax loopholes is tantamount to raising taxes and requires a two-thirds vote), could step in a give the Democrats the budget vote they need.
I mean I’d prefer we win the day because someone realizes that the GOP position is horse shit not because someone needs surgery. I mean the people of Walla Walla deserve representation in this budget mess. That said, I wouldn’t shed a tear if it happened. The Democrats have a better budget than the Republicans and the people voted for Democrats in the majority of both houses.
Does the GOP budget repeal the Republican Times’ tax freebee? Nope, didn’t think so.
“…Also, on the plus side of the ledger, he doesn’t fuck around when Gregoire is out of the state, and he could….”
Gee, I hope that’s not the best thing we can say about him. If so, he barely manages to be a bit better than Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler.
For those of you not up to date on Gen. Butler:
Butler received his Major General of Volunteer’s commission at the start of the war due to his political power, he was third in rank (behind Dix and Nathaniel Banks). He captured what was to become Ft. Butler on the James Penninsula, and refused to return escaped slaves within his lines as “contraband” (an artifice used until the Emancipation Proclamation two years later). He suffered a humiliating defeat at Big Bethel.
Sent to administer New Orleans and push for Union offensives from there, he only managed to install a corrupt system whereby his brother avoided the embargo against trade with the Confederates by buying cotton and exporting it at inflated wartime prices, all using his enfluence as a relative of Butler. At one point the women of New Orleans earned his ire by giving Union officers the cold shoulder, and there was at least one instance of chamber-pots being thrown on them from upstairs windows. Butler earned the kudos from the radical Republican press and some politicians when he issued a decree threatening to treat the women of New Orleans like common prostitutes until they reformed their ways. Some Union flag-waivers thought all Southern women should be treated that way, to discipline them and teach their husbands, fathers, and siblings a lessons in the risk of treason against the Union.
Shipped back East, he was put in charge of the Union expedition which included an amphibious landing at a curve in the James River called the Bermuda Hundred. The expectation was that he would move swiftly to cut the railroads and lines of communications between Richmond & Petersburg and the rest of the South. But he dwaddled, and Confederate forces under Beauregard were able to push him back, entrench, and effectively confine him and his troops to the Bermuda Hundred. Some have called it an example of a self-sustaining Union POW camp, it’s forces bottled up so effectively that the minimal Confederate forces required to contain them hardly made a dent in the available Confederate forces.
Only when Grant crossed the James and placed Petersburg under seige were the Union forces under Butler at the Bermuda Hundred evacuated. Butler out-ranked every general in the Union forces outside Petersburg and Richmond by date of rank, including Burnside, Meade, Hooker, Sheridan, etc. Grant only surpassed him in rank by promotion to Lt. General, a newly-created rank.
But here is where there is a connection between Butler and those who might try to take action while the governor is out of town. Butler was not above ordering an attack the moment Grant was away from headquarters, on the pretext of a “spoiling attack” which turns into a general engagement. Given his reliance on publicity for his political career, he was actually more likely to attempt such a strategy as not. Since Grant and the other generals had absolutely no faith in Butler’s ability to manage combat, Grant was actually afraid to leave headquarters for more than a quick overnight trip to Washington D.C. – and even then, he preferred to have Lincoln come visit him.
Only after the November 1864 elections were over did Grant and Lincoln feel free to dispose of Butler, by assigning him to the land forces assigned to attack Ft. Fisher.
This attack failed when Butler failed to follow-up and continue the attack, as insisted by Grant. Butler had to defend himself to his fellow Representatives on the floor in proceedings brought by the Committee on the Conduct of the War. Just while Butler was insisting that no such attack could succeed, news came of a follow-on attack and that Terry had successfully taken the fort.
While many of Butler’s acts remain controversial, one thing could never be denied, even by his most ardent supporters: he was undoubtedly the ugliest general of the war.
Benjamin Butler