In a hardy “fuck you” to turncoat Tim Sheldon, all 23 Democrats joined with two crazy Republicans to elect shooting-spree-waiting-to-happen Pam Roach the new President Pro Tempore of the Washington State Senate. Back in 2010, Roach was famously “physically separated” from her Republican caucus after an internal investigation found that she had repeatedly mistreated Republican staffers. In 2008 she was sanctioned by her caucus for creating an “intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.” And now she’s their president. Hooray for Democracy!
And so in honor of President Roach’s unique brand of statesmanship, I proudly repost her famous “Roses” speech:
Looks like this is shaping up to be quite a productive legislative session.
I think you meant this link on the nwprogressive.org blog site:
http://www.nwprogressive.org/w.....o-tem.html
Although it is nice to see the dissection of who sent those damnable mailers this summer about Matt Isenhower.
She’s been there so long that if you reference her as Pam, everyone knows who you are talking about.
@1 Thanks. Fixed the link.
The jokes will write themselves……wait for it.
Compared to Kshama Sawant, the left’s great orator?
The Great Exterminator.
Was it Kshama Sawant or Pam Roach who was arrested for drunk driving?
@8 Wasn’t that Jane Hague?
wow Dems, really astute on key messenging here….”we do payback, but are inept at it, so reward Roach.” Not looking very LBJ.
here’s a better woulda coulda. Chopp puts up min wage for vote, it does not pass the leg. Dems run it as initiative. This allows Dem to beat sheldon and Dems add seats. By ahem, working for the middle class, working class, and the bottom half of the income structure. Electing Pam Roach in no way shape or form advances any democratic message.
@10 But it’s fun politics. Will she be painting the roses red?
headless@8,
The headline was oration, not driving skillz! Sheeeeeesh whatatard!
Is the State Senate controlled by Democrats? Why would they elect a Republican as President Pro Tempore
Your Pam Roach audio clip always makes me laugh! I even downloaded it the first time around, a few years back.
That being said, I agree with #10. What do Democrats stand for, anyway? And why should I support them?
@14 — Is “Bluesky” a Polish name?
@15 Well, it is east Baltic.
@14. Always a good question. Do you mean individuals , or the state democrats, or national dems?
@17 Yes
I can’t speak for others but I enjoy doing a “What I Believe” every so often.
In no particular order and an incomplete list is:
I believe we should have a steeply progressive income tax and estate tax. We need to employ Americans not send the jobs overseas. If a business cannot afford to pay a living wage, their business model is flawed and they should go out of business. We have to figure out how farms can stay profitable and still pay Americans to do the work. We should not be support trade deals that outsource jobs. We should jail those who knowingly hire illegals. If a child is born here, they are American but the parents don’t get free pass to stay. I believe we should give couples all the tools and knowledge and medical procedures they need to practice family planning so every child is a wanted child. If you don’t like gay marriage or an abortion, don’t have one.
I don’t believe we should waste our money and lives on pointless wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.
We need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine where issues had to be presented to be honest, equitable and balanced and if that means MSNBC became less liberal to make Fox news stop their endless lying, I’m good with that. I believe we break up media monopolies like Clear Channel to get back to a diversity of messages. I believe in Net Neutrality.
I believe we need to get money out of politics and corporations are not people.
I believe in freedom of religion, but that doesn’t give them unfettered right to impose their religious beliefs on others
This is America, we are rich enough to support strong social safety nets. if we turn away from glorifying greed. We need to come to grips with income inequality since I believe that automation will get rid of about 50% of jobs over the next 20 years and our society needs to grow and change to address that. To keep society from descending to something out of a sci fi Somalia dystopia, we will need to implement some form of general socialism, where those with paying jobs and wealth support those without. Hungry people will turn to pitchforks and there may not be walls high enough to keep them out.
I believe we should be tolerant of everyone except the intolerant and the murderously radical. I believe that there are few black and white answers, there are always shades of grey and nuance and exception.
What do you believe in?
@14 “What do Democrats stand for, anyway?”
The idea that we’re all part of a community.
“And why should I support them?”
They’re not Republicans.
@19 — the problem with democrats includes having these long lists of policy positions. take a tip from the gop, which is more successful (example A: inslee pledged to not raise taxes, adopting gop view). they keep it short and sweet: they are for smaller government and lower taxes to promote liberty and opportunity.
then they explain economics with an analogy to the family budget, you can’t spend what you don’t have, etc.
democrats need to have a similar moral story short message, not long policiy lists. democrats are for opportunity and liberty for all, built on government giving all the tools to succeed, caring for the commons, and punishing the rule breakers. We need a bigger stronger government to reduce inequality and ensure all our productive capacities and individual goals and dreams are reached. Maybe they just need to say “afor a bigger economy that works for all of us, you need a bigger government — one bigger than wall street and the 1%.”
something shorter. something like that. it’s not a political science class. it’s about reaching voters who are somewhat messagized by the gop for decades. voters who do not respond to policy lists. voters who respond to moral stories. the 1% took our future and took yours, is a pretty good one, if ONLY THEY WOULD SAY IT oh about 100 thousand times.
voting in pam roach does not say it. talking about e cars on ferries does not say it. pledging I will never raise taxes does not say it. droning on about complicated carbon control plans does not say it. talking about tax regressivity does not say it. democrats simply do not know how to message, with notable exceptions being elizabeth warren, FDR and fucking LBJ to some extent. Certainly Clinton could talk better, too. Bill I mean. most of them get lost in policy lists, water it down to appease wall street or due to gopophobia — really, I pledge to not raise taxes is near treason to the demo party but we all voted for him anyway. you can’t list policy positions as your message. you tell a moral explanative story that points out the solution. the solution is “we will all be the hero of this rip off by enacting xyz caging, stopping, and taming the monster.”
You want the bumper sticker version?