Chalk me up as the only one in the office to feel a twinge of sympathy for Seattle City Council president Sally Clark. As our city's first openly gay council president, you can be damn sure that her heart is breaking over the state-sanctioned repression of the LGBTQ community in Russia. And while I haven't talked to her on the subject, I've no doubt that she is aching to support a joint resolution condemning Russia's hate-based policies.

But to be fair, she can't. Because in his typically divisive manner, Mayor Mike McGinn destroyed all comity in City Hall by proposing the joint resolution first:

Asked why the mayor spoke only for himself, not on behalf of the city, McGinn's office said the Seattle City Council refused to take a position against the anti-gay laws. "We inquired with the Council President [Sally Clark] to see if the Council would support a joint resolution expressing the City of Seattle’s official position regarding anti-LGBT laws in Russia," says mayoral spokesman Robert Cruickshank. "She declined."

Had the initiative come from the council, you can be confident that Clark would have joined her colleagues in unanimously passing this symbolic, but important resolution. But alas, it was that divisive Mayor McGinn who took the lead on the issue. So what else was Clark to do?

Damn you, Mike McGinn!

Yet another reason why we need to elect Ed Murray, so that the next time Seattle's mayor makes a very reasonable proposal, the council doesn't take up opposition simply out of spite.