Both the U.S. and Washington state constitutions guarantee the right to due process of law. That means that every citizen has the right to an attorney and the right to equal access to the courts… except, according to state Attorney General Rob McKenna, statewide elected officers, who only enjoy such fundamental rights given the blessing of the Attorney General, and solely at his whim.
Pore through the statutes and engage in all the legal hair-splitting you like, but such a broad interpretation of the powers of the Attorney General surely defies common sense, let alone legislative intent.
Kinda tells you what kind of governor he’d be, doesn’t it? In any room he’s in, his voice would be the only one heard, and allowed to speak, in typical Republican top-down style (i.e., “me speak, you listen”). Not good, not good at all.
Some people believe government would be better run if we only had the good sense to let experienced business managers run it. But whenever people from the business sector have been elected to public executive offices, or appointed as agency heads, the result often has been a dismal failure.
That’s because business managers are accustomed to controlling the input into their decision-making process and dishing out orders to subordinates who are expected to obey without question.
This type of government has been tried in several places, notably Hitler Germany, Stalinist Russia, and contemporary North Korea, with uniformly unsatisfactory results. It may work in companies, but it doesn’t work in government, not in a democracy anyway.
Running a business is easy and straightforward, compared to running a democratic government that needs to be responsive to “the people,” who are not some monolithic polity but a cacophony of competing values and interests. What government leaders in a democracy must be good at is listening, not barking orders. And most people with business backgrounds just aren’t very good at that.
It is interesting how little Dino Rossi actually said while running and losing his race to be governor.
I wonder if McKenna will lose the same way, or if he will find a different way for Republicans to lose this time.
impeach the nerd!
Time for a new horse to flog, or at the very least something new to flog him with. This is getting tired.
That’s the problem–people want news to be entertaining. How can a reality that could affect our State’s future possibly be boring? Stick with video games and reality TV if you want superficial immediate gratification. That insistence on immediacy is why politicians can get away with such treachery. This is NOT GETTING TIRED!!
SSDD
@1, Roger Rabbit spews: Kinda tells you what kind of governor he’d be, doesn’t it?
Yes, it does.
@2, the problem with running government like a business is that a government must serve all Citizens, or at least all who are entitled to a particular service. No business could afford to serve every customer who walks in the door.
Duke @ 5
I’m sure it is getting tiresome for people like you who believe Republicans are incapable of bad government. This story is important, and the rightwing MSM is just not giving it the attention it deserves. I, for one, hope Goldy keeps it up until you folks even start to understand how wrong McKenna is on this one. Of course, all of us will have passed on by then . . .
John Wanye like to play a soldier on the big screen, but when the time came for him to be a real soldier he stayed in Hollywood. Typical Republican, all talk and no action. Elect a Republican and you get someone play acting, just like John Wanye.
Keep up the good work, Goldy.
@5 It’s about time you got tired. It’s only fair. After all, we’ve all been tired of you for, well, more or less as long as you’ve been posting here.
Which reminds me, since we might have some new trolls here (hard to tell, because they keep changing their screen names, like criminals on the run), and it’s been a while since I’ve posted the HA ad hoc posting rules, I probably should. This is for all you new trolls:
1. This is a liberal blog.
2. Anyone can post here.
3. There is no censorship, except for JCH.
4. As liberals, our mission is to verbally kick the living shit out of you America-hating troll traitors.
5. No mercy for wingnuts!
6. Our terms are unconditional surrender, and there will be trials.
7. klake is a Nazi.
Any questions?
Rog
Re: # 7
klake hasn’t been here for a long time. How about saying “Cynical is a Nazi?” He is, after all, a Nazi.
@14
Cyn’s a lot of things, but I don’t think he’s a Nazi. I’m pretty sure Man Of Truth is a Nazi and that he wets his bed.
Michael
I kind of think both Cynny and manoftruth are essentially fascists. I do agree with you that the odds are high that mot wets himself.
It’s true that the Mr. likes to dress up in certain outfits. But it’s really quite harmless. He doesn’t have the testosterone needed to storm a McDonald’s.
@15, I’m pretty sure Man Of Truth is a Nazi and that he wets his bed.
That assumes the wetting was unintended, doesn’t it?
I’m not tired!
Walter Sobchak (John Goodman in the Big Lebowksi): “I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it’s an ethos.”