It was hard to read this article in the Sunday NYT, particularly this passage
…Democrats, who are within reach of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate, would also face high expectations, especially from the party’s more liberal quarters, that could be difficult to meet even with enhanced numbers in the Senate as well as the House. And they would be at risk of overreaching, a tendency that has deeply damaged both parties in similar situations in the past…
and not get nervous that a President “Purple America” Barack Obama might pull a Rep. Frank “One Washington” Chopp and freak out about “overreach.”
And this, dear believers, means the popular Democratic agenda that will likely have swept Obama and a super majority of Democrats into office—universal health care, ending the war in Iraq, repealing the Bush tax cuts, restoring civil liberties, cap and trade, stem cell research, massive investment in infrastructure, and mandating accurate sex ed—will be sidelined for loads of bipartisan bills.
And while I’m talking about Democratic underreach, may I suggest one piece of legislation for Rep. Chopp and our local Democrats (and if Chris Gregoire wins, she should get in on this too): Reform the state’s Public Disclosure Commission. And by reform, I mean: Clean house, appoint watch dogs, and rewrite the rules so they’re actually rules instead of murky pseudo rules.
I actually suggested this prior to last session in the wake of Dino Rossi’s Forward Washington shenanigans, but it didn’t take. So, now that Rossi has laughed off ethics rules again by apparently coordinating fundraising with the BIAW (illegal), not to mention that the BIAW’s fundraising scheme itself was illegal … and now that Rossi, GOP Attorney General Rob McKenna, and GOP Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland may have gotten illegal campaign loans (and we all know how the PDC is going to rule on that), can the Democrats please prioritize an overhaul of our state’s campaign finance laws next session so that Republicans can’t drive SUVs through them?