Senate

It has become a tradition – an unfortunate tradition – at the annual Associated Press legislative forum for the leaders to come up with a theme song. The origins are thankfully lost to history.

Dylan was mentioned twice. And the Ohio Players once.

Who said our legislators are stuck in the past?

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, a self-proclaimed audiophile, choose Dylan's "Everything in Broken." She was attracted by the closing stanza:

"Broken hands on broken plows
Broken treaties broken vows
Broken pipes broken tools
People bending broken rules
Hound dog howling bullfrog croaking
Everything is broken."

Senate Ways and Means Committee vice chairwoman Karen Fraser suggested Dylan's "The Times They Are a'Changing.

Earlier today, the Northwest's newest Democratic U.S. Senator, Jeff Merkley, was sworn into office. His first act? Well, just by being installed as the junior Senator from Oregon we're sure Merkley is improving the quality of life in his home state, since Gordon Smith now has time to ensure that his frozen food company doesn't continue to dump waste in local waterways.

In all seriousness, adding Jeff Merkley to a group of Senators that includes Ron Wyden, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, gives the Northwest a formidable lineup (though we've got to get to work on Idaho). Like his colleagues, Jeff Merkley is someone we can count on to stand up for our values.

A week ago, as Israel began pounding Gaza in retribution for rocket attacks, I observed that Democratic leaders had been just as complicit as Republicans in giving Israel their blessing to drop as many bombs and lob as many shells as they want:

Democratic leaders in the United States are busy releasing statements of sympathy and support for Israel. No condemnation of Israel's blockade of Gaza. No acknowledgment that there simply isn't a military solution to the hostilities in the Holy Land. We keep hearing, over and over again, "Israel has a right to defend itself." How many times have U.S. politicians uttered those words?

Now, in addition to offering one sided statements that don't encourage an end to hostilities, elected leaders are offering the usual assortment of bad analogies in an attempt to justify or explain their position.

After two months of counting and recounting in Minnesota, we finally have a final tally that puts Al Franken 225 votes ahead of Norm Coleman.

Franken's victory doesn't mean that Coleman has given up. To the contrary:

The state Canvassing Board certified final results this afternoon in Minnesota's marathon U.S. Senate race, but that won't end the battle between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman, whose Senate term ended on Saturday.

Moments after the board certified that Franken had eked out 225 more votes than Coleman, attorneys for Coleman said they would file a lawsuit within 24 hours.

[...]

Coleman forces said they were mindful of the consequences of a prolonged election contest, but said that the results were "invalid and unreliable.

The Walla Walla newspaper reported the death on its Web site. You can read that story below.

Bill Grant, as caucus chairman for majority Democrats, also was the 3rd ranking member of the House. He was diagnosed with lung cancer only a month ago and was hospitalized with pneumonia last week.

He was first elected in 1986.

Here's the story in the Walla Walla Union Bulletin.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, notified members in an e-mail this morning.

Dear Friends,
I have very, very sad news. Yesterday, we lost Bill Grant. His illness abruptly turned to the worse.
Please pray for his family. We will miss him so much.
As soon as we know the details, we will convey the announcement of his memorial service.
Frank

Below is the story I wrote for today's print edition. It's one of many, many looks at Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget that we'll be taking between now and March. In March, Senate Democrats are likely to come out with their budget proposal.

BY Joseph Turner
joe.turner@thenewstribune.com
There are pretty much three ways to cut the cost of operating Washington’s prisons: send some criminals to prison for shorter periods, let others out sooner than they deserve and stop watching many others once they get out. You also can save money by not sending them back to prison when they violate terms of their release.
Gov. Chris Gregoire proposes to use a bit of all four approaches to help close a $5.

Being a full-service blog, I'm posting the draft calendar for the upcoming 2009 legislative session.

For those you who work on "the hill," you'll know what the calender cutoff dates mean. You live by them. We all do. For others, it will give you an idea of how the Legislature is progressing.

Feb. 18 is a key date: Last day to consider bills in house of origin. That's Day 66. What that means is, if the full House doesn't pass a bill that was introduced in the House and was assigned to a commmitee by then, it's dead. Likewise for the Senate.

(Of course, there are exception too numerous to list here, but you'd have to have a little bit of muscle to get one of those exceptions, such as "Friends of Frank," or "Friends of Lisa" or "Friends of Chris.")

Any bets on whether we go beyond the 105-day session?

Apologies to Paul Simon for the title of this post, but will someone please tell Congressman Bobby Rush that the race wars of the 1960's are over? This is a new time. That's not to say that as a nation we don't struggle with the ugliness of racism, bigotry and inequality. But now is not the time to lob molotov cocktails to reignite those race wars.

For those who don't know, Congressman Rush was a founder of the Illinois Black Panther Party, a group well known for its militant and confrontational tactics which gave it a reputation of being a black nationalist group.

Maybe Rod Blagojevich is gambling that Harry Reid and Senate Democrats won't be able to defy his brazen appointment of a new U.S. Senator.

After all, the Senate Democratic Caucus hasn't been able to effectively stand up to George W. Bush for the last two years:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected today to name former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

The action comes despite warnings by Democratic Senate leaders that they would not seat anyone appointed by the disgraced governor who faces criminal charges of trying to sell the post, sources familiar with the decision said.

In less than a month, President-elect Barack Obama will be taking office as the Forty Fourth President of the United States. Joining him in the executive branch will be a team of tough and experienced Americans ready to clean up the mess that the Bush administration is leaving behind.

One of those team members - our new President's choice for Secretary of Veterans' Affairs - is Retired General Eric Shinseki, whose distinguished career in the United States Army gives him a rock solid background for the job.

Shinseki is the first four-star general of Asian American ancestry in U.S. history and also the first Asian-American to lead one of the five U.