Frank Chopp's worst enemy

Let’s talk about state House Speaker Frank Chopp.

His growl is reminiscent of Dick Cheney. His double-edged gavel is both friend and foe to his posse of House Democrats. You do not want to be on his bad side.

He is also one of the very few Democrats, and the only Seattle Democrat, to have a somewhat cozy relationship with the BIAW. Yes, the same BIAW that sent out fake surveys to get voters signatures and had to pull misleading ads in 2004. The same BIAW that just recently put over $155,000 into new misleading ads for Dino Rossi. That BIAW.

The BIAW gave Chopp a special pat on the head for being one of 25 legislators protecting the housing industry.

Some people might call this reaching across party lines. Some people might wonder why one of the state’s top democrats insisted on forbidding you from suing a bad contractor for shoddy work on your own home. Such consumer protections are usually the bread and butter of the Democratic Party and the trial lawyers who support them.

Part of Chopp’s effectiveness as house speaker has been his willingness to reign in a democratic majority that would, if left to its own devices, spend like drunken sailors on old programs, new programs and any program that makes any constituent feel warm and fuzzy inside. Chopp is not warm and fuzzy. His business is to make sure the democratic majority is not its own worst enemy.

But is cozying up to the democratic majority’s actual worst enemy really the best way to do that?