Of COURSE there should be no Supreme Court appointment until after the next president is sworn in. But don't hold your breath.

And I'll tell you why:  Because the last thing I want is another communist from Obama like the last two clueless idiots.

Democrats, naturally, want it done by Tuesday next week.  But who cares what those morons want?

The democrats now are sniveling about "process."  But since when has this president ever given a damn about "process" during his tenure? When have the democrats, with their nuclear option, cared about it, either?

The problem, of course, is that THIS GOP Majority has proven itself somewhat beyond "malleable."

Let's not forget the OTHER promises they've made to get elected: Get rid of Obamacare, defund planned murderhood, cut the deficit and so on and so on and so on.

How much of that have they followed through on?

So, on the surface, McConnell has absolutely done the right thing.

But in it's own way, isn't it the same thing as Sen. Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers pledging to oppose gas tax and tab fee increases to get elected?

Her language was clear and unambiguous:

And even though I wrote that for her, the fact remains: when crunch time came, what did she do?

She betrayed us all.

And when crunch time has come in the US Senate, what have THEY done?

They've betrayed us all.

I have no faith they won't do it again on this issue as well.

After all, Obama has played them like a plastic violin up to this point... why would now be any different?

So. Who has been the biggest donor to the CCRINOs?

Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be my own Senator, Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers.

Of course, the PDC-challenged Rivers (who is over-reporting her money on hand by a paltry $182,000) has zero difficulty and no problem whatsoever throwing money at another RINO group, especially when it isn't HER money, given her hatred for conservatives generally and the Brent Boger/Spike influence particularly would naturally be a big spender with this sorry-assed outfit.

It's realistic to expect that Crain's little group will, once again, priovide their deliberately misleading signs as they battle against the forces of smaller government, lower taxes and the like.

But then, given Rivers' betrayal of the people of both this county and her district, is it surprising that she'd be drawn to another RINO?

Something for democrats to think about...

Yet another proof that the state GOP are a bunch of idiots. (The Trump Effect on state politics)

Full disclosure:  During the 2000 election cycle, I was warming the chair of Executive Director of the Washington State Republican Party.

I'm not a huge fan of Danny Westneat, Seattle Times columnist.  But if nothing else, a broken clock is right twice a day, and this column, like it or hate it, goes to the heart of the matter concerning RINO politics and how it works... the very model of a circular firing squad.

The players in this drama are some relative well known GOP types, types busily setting the table for throwing their own party under the bus in the event of a Trump presidential nomination.

These morons are busy attack Donald Trump.

That, of course, is their privilege.  But in so doing, they're manufacturing ammunition for the left to use against the GOP here LOCALLY (that is, within the state)

The players are Randy Pepple, a GOP strategist and the genius behind the McKenna campaign that worked out so well for us in 2012; RINO Dave Reichert, 8th District congressman and former King County Sheriff who typically votes even further to the left than our own clueless Congresscritter Jaime Herrera; State Sen. Joe Fain of Auburn, perhaps best known for being one of the 3 fake Republicans who voted to allow men into the girls bathrooms and showers and Bill Bryant, who really wants to be governor and is really going around sticking his foot in his mouth and hanging out with CCRINO types, for example.

I'll let Westnet tell it:

The local GOP isn’t nominating a presidential choice at the Feb. 20 caucuses (that will happen at a May 24 primary). But The Donald and his potential to wreck their best-laid plans are sure to be a big topic of conversation.

Here’s the problem: Almost every major Republican official around here has already denounced Trump. Some have done it in derogatory terms that to me seem unprecedented for intraparty politics.

Examples: GOP Congressman Dave Reichert said, “Donald Trump is a joke.”  Randy Pepple, mentioned above, said  “Donald Trump is a bigot … a bully and a demagogue.”  Sen. Joe Fain, of Auburn, the state Senate’s Republican majority floor leader, straight-up called Trump a “fascist.”

The GOP candidate for governor, Bill Bryant, said at a CityClub event in December that Trump “is unfit to be president, if he believes what he says.”

These are scorched-Earth statements. They’re worse than what Democrats have to say about Trump. So how do you make a case for your party to take over the state’s political system if it turns out the guy at the top of your ticket is, by your own admission, a troglodyte?

How, indeed?

Again, I'm reminded of version 1.0 of my own ubiquitous Senator, Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers, who famously USE to pledge that she would not "tear anyone else's house down to make hers look bigger."

Version 2.0, the Gas Tax modified version, takes a someone different view; but politics can have that impact on people.

That said, it takes a genuinely special kind of stupid for RINOs to babble thus:  Local RINO Commander Brent Boger has been babbling for years that we MUST support RINOs at all costs.

Yet, when it comes time for the RINOs to live by their own rules?

Not so much.

You see, this kind of thing strengthens my determination to call the RINOs out wherever and whenever I can.

I wouldn't vote for any of these people as candidates.  Why bother voting for fake democrats when you can actually vote for the real thing?

Because these people... in these political positions... have the common sense of a board fence held up by a box of rocks and a sack of hammers.

Meanwhile, I have no individual favorite.

I was leaning towards Scott Walker at first, until I found out he wanted to give $400 million in state dollars to the Milwaukee Bucks to build them a new basketball palace... without a vote.  Then, I was leaning towards Dr. Ben Carson until that nebulous crap about West Point.

And Ted Cruz is stinkin' up the joint with his old school knee-breaker variety of politics.

So, I don't really have a clue who it's going to be.

But I could easily vote for Trump, if for no other reason than these idiots hate him.

And look what they've all done for us!

A "friendly reminder" to the Legislature: McCleary is meaningless.

It's that time of year again when state and local leftists snivel about their obviously mistaken claim that the Legislature has to do anything about McCleary.

They don't.

The Court knows it.  The Legislature knows it.  Sen Ann "Gas Tax" Rivers and her babble about "deadlines" knows it.

The question over what the nebulous term "paramount duty" means is one thing.  That phrase is in the State Constitution.  The Legislature can, in fact, chose to apply a definition to this term if they were so inclined, instead of leaving it to these clowns to develop one and ram it down their throats.

What is NOT in the State Constitution is ANY power over the Legislature to force them to do anything legislatively.

The Court can no more order the Legislature to legislate than the Legislature may order the Court to rule.

And let's take it a step further: as an academic exercise, what would the Court do if the Governor (Whoever that might be) vetoed such a measure?  Order him to sign it?  Threaten him?

Of course not.  Why?

Because they have no power to force the Governor to sign anything.

That the Legislature has, in any way, responded to this Court is a voluntarily assumed diminishment of their legislative power.

The reason that this entire situation is fallacious is simple: The Court has interpreted this part of the State Constitution in this way.

Bully for them.

From that interpretation is no appeal.

Swell.

What's to keep the Court from interpreting the Constitution in a variety of other ways to forward a leftist agenda?

They made this up out of legal whole cloth.

So, they get together over drinks (or whatever) one day and decide they've had it with a sales-tax only taxation system in this state and have determined that the Legislature will now HAVE to develop and implement a state income tax in addition to the state sales tax and it has to be, say, 3% with increases for inflation.

People reading this might think, "Nah... it'll never happen."

What's to stop them?

Seriously.  Because the Legislature has set this precedent that they'll even LISTEN to the Court, let alone jump through Court-imposed hoops... where does it end?

Should the Legislature kowtow to the Court on this matter... where, precisely, would it end?

The Court's abuse of power is obvious.  That the Legislature is ALLOWING them to abuse this power?

Even more so.

Do not be deceived.

If the Court could have acted, they would have acted.  This bizarre nonsense about "fining the Legislature" is a crock: the Treasurer has no such authority to pay any such fine; the Legislature has no such line item in their budget and, in fact, it doesn't seem that the fine HAS been paid or WILL be paid.

Nor should it be, since the Court has no power to force the Legislature to pay it... any more than the Legislature has the ability to pay it.

Further, this purely political ploy by a group of Puget Sound leftists builds just such a slippery slope because neither House has the guts to stand up and publicly oppose this idiocy.

McCleary is a mess.  But it's only a mess because the Legislature is even acknowledging it, let alone responding to it.

Just sayin'.