WhackyNation

Over the past week this observer has been getting telephone calls and emails from current and past Republican legislators — many of who I’ve known for 15 or 20 years — telling me I’ve been too harsh on Republican Minority Leader Richard DeBoldt.

They’ve told me stories that behind the scenes DeBoldt has been a lot more supportive of Mainstream caucus members both during the legislative sessions and during elections than what’s observed in public and what is disclosed by public records.  These are persons I trust, so I must mitigate my harsh criticism of DeBoldt even more than I did in my most recent post about the subject.  Pretty soon he’s going to be my best friend.

I — as many Republicans — have been frustrated by the harsh beat-down we suffered in the 2006 election cycle especially at the state and local levels.  None of us — myself included — reacted to the sudden backlash to the Iraqi war in the months before the election.  We all continued to play the standard plan focussing on transportation, education and healthcare — the chestnut issues.  In hindsight, we should have addressed the war head on.

The past is the past.  The question is are we prepared for this November at the state and local levels?  I think we are at the statewide level.  Dino Rossi, Rob McKenna, Sam Reed, Doug Sutherland and Allan Martin are all strong candidates with strong campaigns.  John McCain will be a strong candidate at the top of the ticket.

For the state house good candidates are appearing around Puget Sound including Steve Litzow in my own 41st District, Jan Angel in the 26th, Mike Hope in the 44th, Toby Nixon in the 45th, Bruce Dammeier in the 25th, and Randy Neatherlin in the 35th.  There are many more candidates statewide including Tony Benegas in the 8th starting campaigns.

Bottom line, we have a good group of solid candidates, but we still need to capture the independent voters’ attention and convince them that electing Republicans is a good thing.  Our brand needs a little polishing.  Maybe we could steal Newt’s idea by bringing all our good candidates to Olympia for a group picture on the Capitol steps after they sign a “Contract with Washington” pledging fiscal responsibility and integrity.

… about State Representative Shirley Hankins, as did some in the Tri-Cities media.  Mea Culpa!

Hankins kept mum on why she invited Democrat Speaker Frank Chopp and not local Republicans to a dinner event and that fueled speculation that she was switching parties.  I fell for the speculation, too, only to learn that Hankins craftedly used the rumor mill to generate publicity about her announcement.  She’s fronting for an educational foundation purportedly to help kids with a 3.0 gpa to college.

So, I’m delighted that Hankins is staying with the Republican caucus.

But what about my criticism about House Minority Leader Richard DeBoldt and HROC?  I stand by most of it, except I need to soften my assertion that DeBoldt intimindated State representatives Fred Jarrett and Rodney Thom to switch parties.  Jarrett emailed me to say that was not the reason he switched parties.

I still say the box scores of recent elections as well as PDC reports showing campaign resources going to long-shot candidates and not incuments proves HROC — and its leadership — as ineffective.  I also stand by my assertion that both the House and Senate caucuses do not have a savvy about the politics of the surburban crescent because the caucus members are too focussed on rural Washington.  I’d like to believe that DeBoldt has truly learned from these mistakes, but I am unconvinced.  I’d be the first to help him if he convinced me.

As for the Hankin’s story, well, I guess, it impacts what I eat for dinner tonight.  Here’s the recipe:

As the former Chairman and current board member of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, I find it very disturbing indeed that another longtime moderate Republican stalwart is rumored to be defecting to the Democrats.

Speculation is abounding in the Tri-Cities tonight that Representaive Shirley Hankins will announce Friday that she is flipping to the “D” side.  Chris Mulick got the scoop, which, so far, hasn’t been picked up by the Puget Sound Press blogosphere yet.

If so, Shirley would be the third Mainstream Republican to defect in two years following Fred Jarrett and Rodney Thom, both suburban crescent legislators and former Mainstream board members as is Shirley.

I’ve know Shirley since 1993.  She’s always been independent and feisty … and, too often, in my opinion, voting with the D’s on the budget.  But, nevertheless, she’s always stood her ground with more conservative members of the caucus especially during the crazy Christian-Right days of the 1990’s.

What’s going on here?  I can tell you in one simple answer: Richard DeBoldt. He as Republican Minority Leader has singlehanded run out of his caucus these three Mainstreamers and in the 2006 election caused the defeat of another half dozen by not funding their re-election campaigns.  Rather than building a majority for his caucus, DeBoldt is bull headed in cutting his party’s influence by insisting on conservative purity and absolute loyalty to him.

The problem with both the House and Senate Republican Caucuses, their leadership and support staff is that they are so reduced to representing rural Washington that they are out of touch with both the urban and suburban pulses.  Many in the caucuses are very fine and sincere public servants, but they lack a savvy to secure a majority for the Republican Party.

Is there any doubt why in recent years the business community and their election dollars have defected to Frank Chopp and his caucus?

The Republicans need new leadership in the Capitol caucuses.  Luke Esser at the State Party has done a remarkable job at bringing conservatives and moderates together in that sphere, but the caucus leadership in Olympia, especially in the House, is splintering the coalition.

This was evident to me last month when a group of us Mainstream leaders met with both the House and Senate Republican Leadership.  In the Senate, I felt there was a chance of electoral success, but not in the House.  The difference?  Senate Leadership gave us Mainstreamers nearly three or four times as much time to meet them AND they asked us for our input AND they listened.  That was not the case with Richard DeBoldt who was rushed out of our meeting and never asked for our input or suggestions.  He’s a top-down guy.  The problem is he’s not very “top” to begin with.

DeBoldt is a master at using fear among his caucus members to support him as leader.  He uses his appointment power to house committees as a bribery tool to win votes as Minority Leader.  Anyone who stands up to him is smacked down.  Nearly all of the Mainstream Republican Legislators have lost office or defected to the Democrats.  Only a few are left like Gary Alexander and Skip Priest.  During the 1990’s, most legislation that past the legislatue had the fingerprints of Mainstream Republican legislators who could effectively work across the aisle.  Now these legislators have been purged, and the Republicans can’t get much legislation passed.

It’s a sad day in Washington State.  Sad because due to the ineptness of Republican Caucus leadership, the Democrats have increased spending by over a third in three short years because the Republicans don’t have the votes to stop the fiscal irrepsonsibility.  Republicans don’t have the votes because of the ineptness of one Richard DeBoldt and the smarts of one Frank Chopp.

Demonstrating his continuing ineptness, Washington State Republican House Minority Leader Richard DeBoldt has over reacted in his discipline of Republican State Representative Jim Dunn.

Apparently, Dunn made an ass out of himself last month when he made an inappropriate remark to a woman at a legislative function.  The remark was along the lines of, “I bought you a drink because I want to take you home.”  Dunn has acknowledged the remark was inappropriate and has apologized.

But DeBoldt now has asked Speaker Frank Chopp to strip Dunn of all committee assignments and recommend to the Chief Clerk to quit reimbursing Dunn for travel and per diem expenses.

DeBoldt is exploiting Dunn’s gaffe by grandstanding a “zero-tolerance” policy for inappropriate comments by caucus members.  Who does DeBoldt think he is, Mr. Perfect?  Does he really think he is qualified to cast the first stone?

DeBoldt’s over reaction makes me embarassed to be a Republican.  Not since the Craswell days have I felt that.

I can’t and won’t defend Dunn’s comment, but stripping a legislator of his ability to effectively serve his constituents and the people of Washington for a human foible is nothing less than exploitive.  It reminds me of the despicable Don Imus affair where the political correctness of Al Sharpton and his followers over reacted to an assinine comment on the air.  DeBoldt has proven himself no better than Sharpton here.

Republican leaders, who have had to deal with sexual scandals these past few years, are showing ineptness by their own reactions.  Rather than acknowledge the human condition and its frailties, GOP leaders are pretending that man needs to behave in some image of God and live up to some strict moral code.  Man is not perfect, and the religious values which Republican leaders profess call for compassion and forgiveness.  Instead we have one hypocritical posturing after another and it makes the Republican Party look foolish.

By comparison, Democrats who do acknowledge man’s imperfection, allow their members to flaunt inpropriety.  Look at Bill Clinton who not only dicked an intern in the Oval Office, but raped and assaulted women throughout his career.  Ted Kennedy even scandously killed a young woman 30 some years ago and since has drunkenly buffooned his way through life.  Barney Frank’s apartment was used for a male prostitution ring.

What’s needed is some common sense.  In Dunn’s case, he broke no law but social inappropriateness and political incorrectness.  The punishment should be comensurate with the crime, except no crime was committed. 

Why does the House Republican caucus keep voting DeBoldt their leader?  He has proven himself inept in the way he oversees the House Republican Organizing Committee (HROC) and the two-year elections.  The Republican caucus has done nothing but shrink every election cycle under his command.  He also demonstrates almost no flair for articulating Republican policy that rings true with the state electorate.   I am starting to lose respect with Mainstream Republican Legislators who support DeBoldt because they fear losing their ranking member status on legislative committees.

The Dunn affair and DeBoldt’s over reaction makes the Minority Leader a clown on the stage of state politics.  Let’s boo him off the stage before we become a one-party state.