The road to Smith's retirement is paved with the corpses of his former colleagues

So after finding out this week that he's not bringing sexy back, Oregon GOP Senator Gordon Smith has decided to go all partisan on our asses. He's attempting to cut down a bipartisan budget to repair and fix up the dilapidated offices at the Oregon State Capitol--cuz the slope he's skidding down in desperation to make crap up about Jeff Merkley is well--just not moving fast enough. So what the hell, right?

By way of background, I've been in those offices at the Capitol a number of times. It's like Laugh-In puked all over a Wickes clearance room. Cheap and ugly furniture that was falling apart--a total waste when it was purchased back when Hendrix roamed the earth. And the carpet looked like something my dog might accidentally pee on, mistaking it for the lawn. Not to mention the cheap wiring and plumbing--and creaky fixtures. The place was a disgrace.

In fact it was so bad, so rip-snorting awful, that even the faux budget pinchers popped up about it:

"I lived for 11 years in the building with that godawful 1970s cloth furniture," says Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, who served on the legislative oversight committee.

"If you sat down (on the couches), you couldn't get out of them."

Should you be under the impression that's only Senate Republicans in a snit about the state of the building and it's furnishings, allow me to disabuse you:

"There's a perception that we're trying to make a palace, and that isn't what we're trying to do," says state Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach, who adds that his office furniture is so old that he couldn't give it away at a garage sale.

The Capitol is "the people's building," says Krieger, who is helping map out the renovation. "All I'm looking at is bringing it up to an acceptable standard and a decent workplace."

For those of you scoring at home, "R" means "Republican". That'd be the same party Smith takes money from while trying not to stand too close to their stink--lest it rub off.

Meanwhile, the way I hear it, when Gordon Smith was President of the Oregon Senate back in the mid-ninteties-his offices sucked so bad that he forced the Senate Secretary out for the duration so he could plant his butt someplace a little shinier. More on that in a few days, hopefully.

And let's not forget that the Republicans had control of the Oregon House for sixteen years--allowing this mess to go on. The Democrats are the ones that finally stepped up to invest in making Oregon's government a professional place to work and govern. The Republicans were too busy screwing over public education, working families and the environment to pay attention to the walls falling down around them.

Not to mention that Smith and his GOP cronies aren't exactly the pinnacle of budget restraint--all nine trillion dollars of nonrestraint.