A history of Initiative 747...

In his Sunday Seattle Times column, Ron Judd has a short and pithy take on this week's special session and the events leading up to it:

Somewhere in a dark room in Olympia, a state printing office employee is setting new type for late-2007 revisions to the educational pamphlet "How a Bill Becomes a Law in Washington State." We got an early look:

1) Unemployed Mukilteo watch salesman turned professional initiative huckster consults Magic-8 Ball, dreams up ill-conceived, penny-wise, pound-foolish tax initiative.

2) (Poorly) paid signature gatherers hired and deployed.

3) Public, endlessly harassed outside Wal-Mart, signs initiative to get annoying signature gatherers to go away. Measure qualifies for ballot.

4) Initiative passes with 60 percent approval, drawing highest "yes" percentage in counties whose logos incorporate lentils.

5) Measure ruled unconstitutional by state Supreme Court.

6) Demagogue talk-radio gasbags throw orchestrated hissy-fit.

7) State legislators stampede like frightened herd of wildebeests to Olympia to make the original measure into law — calling the huckster a coward on their way out the doors.

Yep, that about sums up the story of Tim Eyman's Initiative 747 and last week's unncessary reinstatement of it.