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Monday, January 28, 2013

??!! / Olympia State Republicans: "We're Too Stupid and Lazy to Read Our Own Bills Before Filing Them"

Posted by Goldy on Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 2:07 PM

As Cienna has already reported, state Senate Republicans will be resubmitting a parental notification bill after learning that it inadvertently outlaws abortion:

"The bill does indeed contain a serious mistake, the result of a drafting error at the code reviser’s office," wrote Republican caucus spokesman, Eric Campbell...

"Legislators trust the code reviser’s office to get all the language and legal citations right; however, mistakes can happen..."

Really? That's your excuse? It's all the code reviser's fault? You mean none of the bill's 18 co-sponsors bothered to actually read the bill before signing onto it? Because had they read SB 5156, they would have clearly seen the words "repealing RCW 9.02.100 and 9.02.110" right there in its title. And those are in fact the statutes guaranteeing the right to have and provide abortions.

Once you get past all the procedural bullshit, writing a bill isn't rocket science. Hell, even I once wrote a bill, and as far as I can remember, the code reviser's office didn't change a word. But had it, I'm pretty sure we would have noticed if it had inadvertently repealed an entire act or two.

So no, I'm not really buying it. I have a hard time believing that all 18 co-sponsors and their aides were either too lazy to read the bill before signing on, and/or too stupid to figure out what the bill actually does.

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Most of what passes for evil in our daily lives is actually just selfishness, impatience, or laziness. Of course impatience is just being selfish about time and laziness is just being selfish about effort.

There is little doubt that they did not read the bill. They were just told what it was about and pledged their support. They are not following a thoughtful process.

Posted by Charlie Mas on January 29, 2013 at 7:39 AM

I'm torn. If they were lying, they were stupid about it. Which I guess means the stupidity came first. I'm glad we talked about this.

Posted by nullbull on January 28, 2013 at 10:30 PM

I recall the sage words of Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR),

"You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate."

He was referring to the US Senate, but I think most will agree the axiom holds true at the state level.

Posted by Knat on January 28, 2013 at 5:46 PM

@9: You could file a public records request to get a copy of the original. Except that the Legislature exempted themselves from the Public Records Act.

Posted by kk in seattle on January 28, 2013 at 4:24 PM

I think if the Democrats put a bill through that "accidentally" banned all handguns, the GOP wouldn't buy that excuse.

Posted by tiktok on January 28, 2013 at 3:59 PM

According to the Pukes, all public employees are always lazy, stupid AND lying, right? Surely they don't except themselves.

But in rare agreement with Sir Vic, I'm betting on: too lazy to read what some kook wrote for them.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on January 28, 2013 at 3:58 PM

@1 ftw.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on January 28, 2013 at 3:48 PM

I doubt this has to do with party affiliation. No elected official really reads the text of the bills they submit.

Posted by fetish on January 28, 2013 at 3:32 PM

Most of those legislators are affiliated with ALEC; Benton, Carrell, Roach, Holmquist, Hewitt, Bailey, Delvin, maybe others, I did not check them all. They probably used the boilerplate wording handed to them. I thought Rodney Tom said the coalition would not devolve into promoting ultra-conservative social issues. I guess he really cannot control his coalition and the budget will be on the back burner, after they try to control women's reproductive rights and enrich the 1%.

Posted by Susan Goding

on January 28, 2013 at 3:28 PM

With that many co-sponsors on a bill dealing with abortion, this was most likely written by a pro-life group and handed to the GOP Senate Caucus wrapped in a bow. Perhaps they were counting on the general disarray going on there to sneak one through?

Posted by Sir Vic on January 28, 2013 at 3:11 PM

Any bill making abortion more difficult should include an increase of taxes to pay for unwanted children. Those taxes should be levied against those fucking churches. As we've seen with the Catholic Church, the minute it starts to cost those motherfuckers real money, a fetus stops being so fucking important!

Posted by Pope Peabrain on January 28, 2013 at 3:09 PM

I just called up the Office of the Code Reviser and talked to Kyle Thiessen (our friendly state code reviser).

His take? It's an error that should not have been overlooked. (What's interesting is that they repealed the two RCWs authorizing abortion but DID leave in the one for criminal penalties.) He also could not say WHO wrote it in as that is "confidential." Meaning, it could have been the sponsors of the bill OR his office.

Read your damn bills.

Posted by westello on January 28, 2013 at 2:54 PM

@5 - as I said in the other thread, Republicans forfeited the benefit of the doubt for "mistakes" like these decades ago... that said, yes, they're lying, but they're stupid and lazy, too.

Posted by Geocrackr on January 28, 2013 at 2:42 PM

NY just did something similar. In their haste to pass a gun control law, they accidentally left no exemption on magazine bans for police officers. Now police officers will be legally limited to 7 round magazines until they can fix the law.

It seems as though standard practice has become reading summaries and voteing based on if they're ideologically for or against the principle, regardless of what the law actually says.

Posted by doceb on January 28, 2013 at 2:40 PM

well, the thing is, they are stupid, lazy liars, so....

Posted by Adrian Ryan on January 28, 2013 at 2:39 PM

Useful is Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

But, yeah. I voted for lying.

Posted by mizmojo on January 28, 2013 at 2:30 PM

I thought that, per Mrs. Pelosi, you had to pass a bill before you could know what's in it... ?

Did something change?

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me on January 28, 2013 at 2:26 PM

Isnt the real issue here in Washington the deadbeat property owners who won't pay their taxes same as people in other states that either have no income tax or want premium services? Here's the thread at STB:

http://seattletransitblog.com/2013/01/28…

Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe

on January 28, 2013 at 2:22 PM

We need to start calling out this type of lie every time we see it. Our litigious society has made it commonplace to use wiggle words and half truths to a degree where an open lie like this can take place on such a serious level of discourse. It will continue until we call it out and mark it as it is, petty, dishonest, and distasteful.

Posted by Kansas boy on January 28, 2013 at 2:20 PM

You really need an "all of the above" option here. The choices are hardly mutually exclusive.

Posted by gnossos on January 28, 2013 at 2:20 PM