Spin Control: Kids get restless, Senate suspenseful
To provide a backdrop to his recent announcement of setting up the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Delivery of Services to Children and Families, Inslee secured the help of a dozen or so youngsters of various ages that could be conveyed by raising fingers of one tiny hand.
“I’m 3,” said one as a way of greeting a reporter waiting for the announcement to start. She was clearly not awed by the long wooden table, the high-backed leather chairs or the big blue banner on the wall of the governor’s conference room, which features the state seal with George Washington looking out at the assembly.
Such young’uns are the demographic that Inslee believes would be better served by the creation of a new Cabinet-level Department of Children’s Services. But they showed varying degrees of gratitude, or even interest, as Inslee and other adult advocates for their welfare discussed the wisdom of such a move.
A wail arose shortly after Inslee had laid out the four reasons he thought the state needed the new department. “When this department is fully in place, no children will be crying about anything,” he quipped, drawing laughs from the adults but not from the youngster who was eventually hustled from the conference room.
It wasn’t long before others took up the cry, as grown-ups waxed eloquent about the history of the state discussing but ultimately rejecting such a department, quoted from legislation that failed in 1988 and stuck with prepared remarks. At least three more were hurried out of the room by parents while adults droned for more than 15 minutes. That may not seem like a long time to a politician, but for a toddler that would be enough to have a story read, start watching a video, get up to request a snack, play a game of peekaboo, pull six toys out of a box and play with four before abandoning all to ask for a drink of water and persuade an adult into giving a horseback ride.
When it finally came time to sign his executive order, Inslee invited the kidlets to join him around the conference table, then placed one on his lap and cajoled her name out of her before putting pen to paper. Betsy complied, but occasionally gave him the look of a child who has been warned to have nothing to do with strangers. Meanwhile, to his right, two youngsters had a rather loud dispute over who had been there first.
If the Blue Ribbon Commission does come up with a plan for a department to look after all aspects of child welfare, it might want to include an office to regulate the use of youngsters in political photo ops. They might also address the use of charter school students press-ganged into telling legislative committees about their educational experiences.
No deadline drama
The Legislature moves on a unique calendar, with a series of deadlines for bills to achieve a certain status by a certain date or be relegated to the slag heap of legislation. Last Wednesday was one such cutoff day, which required any bill to pass the chamber in which it was proposed or be considered dead, or at least on life support.
The cutoff is generally described as 5 p.m., but rules actually say the chamber must start debating it by 5 p.m., so a bill introduced with minutes or seconds to go can, in theory, be debated for hours. This sometimes creates high drama with a controversial topic and denizens of the Capitol wonder: What will the 4:59 bill be?
Admittedly, this is not something that keeps normal people on the edge of their seats. But political reporters at midsession are easily distracted, and Senate Republicans kept us guessing. Would it be a GOP version of the Voting Rights Act, or maybe a ban on sex-selection abortions? The caucus sent out multiple lists of bills, but no one could be sure. It certainly wouldn’t be a tightening of the campaign finance rules proposed by Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, because a move by Democrats to make that the 4:59 bill was squelched earlier in the day. Majority Republicans insisted it was their prerogative to call the final bill that might be sent to the House.
With minutes to spare, Republicans showed their hand. They would debate SB 5915, which requires dynamic fiscal notes on legislation that affect the budget, a bill that had passed 49-0 last year.
Budget geek stuff? Possibly the worst 4:59 bill ever. No serious debate, no fireworks of any kind. It passed by the same count. Thankfully, the House was at least debating whether to call a constitutional convention to overturn the Citizens United ruling on campaign financing; the bill barely passed on a partisan 50-48 count.
Spin Control, a weekly column by political reporter Jim Camden, also appears online with daily items at www.spokesman.com/ blogs/spincontrol.