1. Remember how the environmentalist pushing the transit oriented development bill—the bill that calls for more housing around transit stations—caught hell from housing advocate John Fox because he said the bill didn’t preserve enough low-income housing? Well, now the environmentalists pushing the transit oriented development bill are catching hell from the Mayor’s office because the guidelines for preserving and creating low-income housing—one-for-one replacement of any affordable housing that’s lost plus rules to make 25 percent of the housing affordable—are too strong. With two days to go before cut off, the bill still hasn’t passed, and the city and the enviros are at an impasse.
UPDATE: It looks like the bill is queued up for a floor vote this evening.
2. Remember yesterday when I criticized the Seattle Times for running an editorial by state Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) that advocated undoing voter-approved I-937 (the renewable energy initiative)? And I wondered if they would ever run a competing editorial from U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-1, WA), a stern supporter of I-937. Sources say the Seattle Times has an editorial from Inslee in hand—had it before they had Sen. Brown’s—and thus far, they’ve chosen not to publish it. (The Seattle Times came out against I-937 in 2006.)
3. Remember the Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-44, Marysville, Lake Stevens) bill we reported on last month?The bill requires the state’s economic development department, which oversees about $4 billion for local capital projects, to make sure the projects are in synch with the state’s green standards to reduce carbon emissions and lower vehicle miles travelled. It passed the House yesterday largely along party lines (Democrats ‘Yea’, Republicans ‘Nay’) 59-38.
But not until after Republican Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-42, Ferndale, Bellingham) got gaveled down for another one of his wild outbursts. This time he was reprimanded for calling Dunshee’s bill “Socialist!”
4. Remember Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, West Seattle) payday lending bill? It passed the House last night, 84-10.
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This is a small point. What appeared under Lisa Brown’s by line in the Times was an opinion piece – an op-ed, in the vernacular – not an editorial. Editorials are written by staff and represent the newspaper’s official position.
Why do we care what congressman inslee has to say on this bill? He may be doing more harm by sticking his nose in the Olympia sausage making process from DC.
John @2.
Great question.
Here’s why I’m interested in Rep. Inslee’s opinion; two reasons why, actually.
1) He was the most prominent elected official to stump for I-937 in 2006. He, in fact, championed it.
2) And this is the real reason: Inlsee and Brown are headed for a showdown. Both Inslee and Brown are rumored to be lining up to run for governor in 2012. This issue divides them, and may play out in their intra-party fight for the nomination.
http://tvw.org/media/mediaplayer.cfm?evid=2009030077B&TYPE=V&CFID=2818839&CFTOKEN=89160594&bhcp=1 at about 13:15 is the recording of Rep Ericksen’s remarks. “One Socialist Washington” got him gavelled the first time and then he was stopped again for being off topic.
@4,
Thanks for the link!
Does anyone who uses the term even know what ‘socialism’ is any more? All of this present-day, context-free antisocialism out of the republican party, in synergy with the MSM’s ham-fisted handling of the issue, have gone a long way to turning ‘socialism’ into little more than a brand name attributable to anything they don’t like. As a one-time govt/history double major, this bothers me more than I suppose it should. Thanks for giving me a place to rant.
@6,
I hear you David. But I don’t think it matters. The Republicans have taken control of the word now.
However, given that Obama (“Socialist” #1) is so popular, it’s not clear if the name-calling tactic is all that effective.
The GOP was calling Obama a “Socialist” in the run up to the election. And that didn’t seem to work so well.