Shawn Vestal: Roach should be careful pointing ‘whack job’ finger

Pam Roach has every right to talk about “whack jobs” from Idaho. It would be more help if she weren’t such an embarrassment to Washington.

Roach is Washington’s longest-serving and worst-behaved senator. She is now, inexplicably, the Senate president pro-tem – put there in a payback maneuver by Senate Democrats against Tim Sheldon, the former president pro-tem who defected for the Republican caucus. That means Roach will sometimes preside over the Senate, for which the Dems owe the entire state an apology.

Not long ago, Roach described a “whack job” who came up her driveway as someone looking like he was from North Idaho. That minor insult barely registers on the Roach meter, however. She is the Muhammad Ali of ill-tempered communication. Her own party, the GOP, barred her from its caucus in 2010, citing her abusive and demeaning behavior toward a caucus attorney. She threw a famous tantrum over her suspicion that someone had moved some flowers on her desk.

Wonder how she’ll run the Senate when the lieutenant governor is away?

We’ve been getting hints. Roach chairs the Senate Government Operations and Security Committee. At a hearing Feb. 5, Roach was super-Roachy – interrupting testimony, snidely minimizing the people who came to speak, flying off on bizarre tangents, and turning policy discussions bitterly personal. But she also did something extraordinary: She admitted, in a roundabout way, that she was retaliating against legislation because its supporters hadn’t given her campaign money.

“You know what?” she asked. “I won.”

It’s worth putting that boast into a longer context. Four representatives of the grocery store industry came to testify in favor of legislation tightening the rules on paid signature gathering for initiatives. I watched a recording of the hearing on TVW.

First up was Melinda Merrill of Fred Meyer, who began talking about problems with signature gatherers being aggressive or disrespectful. Roach interrupted to demand specifics.

Merrill started to say she had reports from stores, and Roach interrupted again. Roach then interrupted her twice more. When Merrill tried to get a word in, Roach said, “Let me finish. I have people interrupting me all the time in the middle of my thought.”

Roach went on to say she needed more than “unproved anecdotal evidence.”

Then she launched her first epic ramble: “Everyone that is here … plays in politics. Every one of them. And they’re usually writing out checks for $1,900 for legislators who do support this type of legislation.

“And for legislators who will not support this type of legislation, they will not support you in an election. It is a punishment. They don’t like the thought that someone would try to preserve what we’ve had in this state for a very long time, which is easy access for the public to get an initiative or referendum on the ballot. So every group here is giving money. This bill was not heard in this committee last year. I was not requested to do so. Had I been requested we would have heard it. I didn’t particularly care for the bill – something just about like this. And in my last election cycle, nobody supported me. Why? I was told because I wouldn’t give this bill a hearing when I hadn’t been asked to give a hearing to it. … So if you’re going to say that people are yelling and screaming and all this stuff, I want to know who, I want to see the police report, I’d like to see the log that each individual store is keeping, and I’d like to have that signature gatherer’s name also, so we can get their side of it.”

Merrill said, “With all due respect, my employees are telling the truth,” to which Roach replied, “You’re not here to argue with me.”

Next up was James Estes, safety director for The Markets, a Bellingham-based chain. Before he could say much, Roach and her fellow committee members veered into a dense discussion of Girl Scouts selling cookies.

“I’ve never had a customer complaint from a Girl Scout selling cookies,” Estes said.

Roach told him to continue, promising: “This time, no interruptions.”

Estes began relating an incident in which two aggressive signature gatherers intruded on a fundraising barbecue for an 8-year-old girl who needed a kidney transplant.

“It got very intense,” Estes said. “The (signature gatherers) got very loud and colorful …”

Roach interrupted: “We need to not take so long on this.”

Estes continued, “The sheriff’s department did come and they did …”

“OK then,” Roach said. “So. First of all I’ll make a comment because I’ve got something to interject here. Politics is something different. It’s different than selling cookies, it’s different than having puppies. Politics is very different. It’s something that, in this country, we revere.”

She went on to ramble about yard signs. It turns out that Roach has had some of her yard signs damaged over the years. “It’s brutal out there,” she said.

Next up was Michael Latham, director of security for Town and Country Markets. He began by saying how much his company supports the initiative process.

Roach interjected, “Let me ask you this, because you really appreciate it and so forth. … Do you play in politics? Do your stores give money to political races?”

Latham said his company was a member of the Washington Food Industry Association. The WFIA gave $1,150 to Roach’s opponent in the last election.

“Were you aware that legislators can be punished, after 24 years, (when) they don’t support a bill that you want even though they have a perfect record with business?” she asked. “Isn’t this kind of heavy-handed, maybe? I think it’s terrible, myself. Anyway. You need to know where your money’s going because you know what? I won.”

What was that term again? Whack job?