If you agree that legislators should be allowed to legislate, then you will appreciate the statement made by Hoquiam Democratic State Senator Jim Hargrove concerning his vote to suspend Tim Eyman's Initiative 960:

I-960 requires that two-thirds of the Legislature approve any tax increase, a significant hurdle compared to the simple majority approval needed for other bills. The Senate endorsed suspension of that rule until July 2011, when the next two-year budget cycle begins. It's a move majority Democrats said they needed to make as they deal with patching a $2.6 billion budget deficit.

Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said that he doesn't take tax increases lightly, but "this is a crisis."

"This is a very, very difficult session," he said. "We need a little flexibility to get it done."

If you don't know Hargrove, you should know that he is generally considered to be a conservative Democrat. It's a nice surprise to see that, in this case at least, conservatism doesn't have to be an obstacle to a reasonable approach to our budget situation. You can criticize Democrats for being timid on pushing for a more progressive tax system, but you can be certain that any kind of meaningful reform will only come from the Democrats.

Consider the Republicans in Olympia, who subjugate themselves to Tim Eyman and defend his shoddily crafted initiatives against their better judgment. The GOP amendments defending I-960 were self-conscious and silly. One of them would have "[required] e-mail notifications to be sent to the public on tax measures." I don't know what's worse: that the GOP thinks voters don't know Democrats are going to raise taxes, or that the public knows this and votes for the Democrats anyway.