A clash of miniscule proportions

This headline on a David Ammons story in The Olympian sounds pretty serious--"Governor, legislative leaders preview session, clash on budget" But check out the lede:

Gov. Chris Gregoire and state legislative leaders agreed Wednesday on an ambitious and expensive wish list for the upcoming 105-day session - overhaul of public education, creation of new jobs, expansion of health care and crimefighting.

After reading further down the story, you find out that the clash seems to be a result of Democrats not setting the table with cucumber sandwiches and offering paper instead of cloth napkins:

Their pledge of bipartisanship didn't take long to unravel, with minority Republicans accusing the ever-more-powerful Democrats of planning a budget raid that will leave the state is a deep deficit in a few years.

It's those stupid "pledges of bi-partisanship" again. Notice (again) that it's the Republics who are being partisan! Geez Louise.

Here's the rule in 2008: no matter how many seats we win, never promise to be "bi-partisan" ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Ever. The public doesn't care. Democrats can find another way to be polite, like sending over scratch tickets or something with a note that says "good luck!"

Then people like David Ammons can't write about perfunctory post-election good manners as if it actually means anything, when it doesn't.