The Passion of Tim Eyman

This is absolutely hilarious:


(By cartoonist RR Anderson, released under a Creative Commons license)

He gives... and gives... and gives...

I especially like the the guy underneath with the initials "BIAW" (Building Industry Association of Washington) on his pants. (The BIAW, though not Tim Eyman's biggest donor - that honor belongs to Michael Dunmire - has contributed money to Eyman, including this year for Initiative 985).

Tim, if you haven't heard, delivered a "victory" speech last night even though we crushed him at the ballot box. (Voters are trashing his Initiative 985. It's losing in every county except Pierce).

Here's a snippet of what he e-mailed to the press:

Regardless of the vote total tonight, let me close by saying that Jack and Mike Fagan, Mike Dunmire, and I formally declare victory with Initiative 985 right now. It's provided a huge benefit to the taxpayers of Washington. Thank you.

So it's a success, even though it's a huge failure. Nice spin.

Just like Dino Rossi is our new... oh, wait. The people of Washington State decided the governor's office wasn't for sale to the BIAW. Darn.

(What a sad day for Tom McCabe and Erin Shannon).

Anyhow, after Election Night was over, Tim shook his electronic tin cup by sending out an email asking his supporters to reward him for failure:

November 5, 2008

To: Our thousands of supporters throughout the state (cc'd to the media, house & senate members, and Governor)

[...]

As for our compensation fund, we would be extremely grateful for any financial assistance you can offer. Thanks.

Best Regards, Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, & Mike Fagan, Fighting for Taxpayers for Ten Years, co-sponsors of the Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative of 2008 [...] (go to our website to do a secure donation by VISA/Mastercard/PayPal or print out the form below, fill it out, and return it with a check or money order or credit card information)

Eyman has hinted that he may recycle his failed property tax cut proposal from 2004 as his moneymaking vehicle for next year. Initiative 864, which failed to qualify for the ballot back then, would have slashed funding for local public services like police, fire, and libraries by a whopping 25%.

If you haven't noticed by now, Eyman has a tendency to recycle the same tired, bad ideas every few years. Twice he has run initiatives to steal money from our treasury for highway building. Three times, he's run initiatives to simply cut local and state transportation funding. Three times, he's run initiatives to gut property taxes, which pay for public services like police, fire, and libraries. And twice, he's run initiatives to paralyze the state Legislature's ability to raise revenue.

And by the way, none of these ideas are original. The inspiration for Eyman's schemes is provided by conservative think tanks and conservative politicians - many out of state, although some of the people Eyman has taken ideas from are well known local Republicans.

Initiative 985, for instance, was based in part on a rough draft of a bill that Dino Rossi sponsored while he was a state senator. And Initiative 747, Eyman's unconstitutional measure designed to cut property taxes, was written by Attorney General Rob McKenna, who appears to be on his way to a second term (sadly).

Eyman may be clever at media manipulation, but he's no guru. He's an overhyped, arrogant Grover Norquist clone who has managed to inflict some serious damage to our government... but nevertheless fails far more often than he succeeds.