Still trying to wrap my head around this one. Joe Turner of the News-Tribune has an article posted about the death of SB 5964, which had something or other to do with asbestos lawsuits. Some mean lawyers ran newspaper ads trying to stop changes to the bill, so the Senate has apparently just spiked it. Or at least that’s what it sounds like from Turner’s report. Check out this bit:
The targeted senators lay most of the blame on a former colleague, Brian Weinstein, a Mercer Island lawyer who until December had been a Democratic senator representing King County’s Eastside communities. Weinstein is now a member of Bergman Draper & Frockt, the Seattle law firm that paid for the ads and which has been lobbying for passage of the bill.
“In four years, he (Weinstein) never really learned a thing about how this place works,” Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, said Saturday. Hatfield was supporting a couple changes that Kastama and Haugen wanted to make to the original bill, changes that Weinstein’s firm did not want.
How “this place” works is this: Not only did the senators kill SB 5964, they also killed the so-called Homeowners Bill of Rights, a measure that Weinstein had championed for most of term in the Legislature and which he nearly got passed. It passed the Senate, but died in the House.
Let’s review how being a citizen works in this state, shall we?
Citizens bring up needed consumer protection legislation, and then it never ever ever ever fucking gets passed.
Geebus. Notice how the Legislature doesn’t ever pass bills, especially consumer protection bills, in retaliation for over the top political advertising (cough cough BIAW cough cough.)
Democrats: a circular firing squad of cats who won’t be herded towards a gun safety class where free tuna is being served.