House Speaker Frank Chopp blasts Senate Republicans for “abuse of power”

Wash­ing­ton State House Speak­er Frank Chopp, who rep­re­sents Seat­tl’s 43rd Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict along with Jamie Ped­er­sen, has just issued a state­ment blast­ing Sen­ate Repub­li­cans and their three col­lab­o­ra­tors (who call them­selves Democ­rats) for hijack­ing the Leg­is­la­ture’s upper cham­ber and advanc­ing their own back­room bud­get to the floor for imme­di­ate adop­tion. Here is what he has to say:

The Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have exer­cised the worst abuse of pow­er I have ever wit­nessed in the Leg­is­la­ture. It says some­thing about them that the minute they gained pow­er, they abused it.

They imme­di­ate­ly moved to run over the minor­i­ty on the floor by deny­ing them the right to even see the bud­get bill before ask­ing them to vote on it.

They imme­di­ate­ly turned their backs on the rights of the peo­ple by dis­miss­ing all calls for pub­lic tes­ti­mo­ny. Yes, the par­ty that reg­u­lar­ly decries the lack of trans­paren­cy in the leg­is­la­ture cut the pub­lic out of the process completely.

As for their bud­get pro­pos­al, from what lit­tle we’ve heard, it shreds the safe­ty net, elim­i­nates state food assis­tance, hous­ing and med­ical care for the dis­abled, and con­tin­ues the Repub­li­can war on women by elim­i­nat­ing fam­i­ly plan­ning grants.

Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire has not issued a for­mal state­ment on the coup on the Sen­ate, but in con­ver­sa­tions with reporters she made it clear she, too, was dis­gust­ed. “I am cha­grined that they’re over there right now work­ing on some­thing I’ve nev­er seen, the mem­bers have nev­er seen — mem­bers on both par­ties have nev­er seen, and they’re going to take a vote tonight?” she told the press out­side of Speak­er Chop­p’s office. “This is not how we do busi­ness in Wash­ing­ton State.”

In a few hours, assum­ing that Sen­a­tors Jim Kas­ta­ma, Rod­ney Tom, and Tim Shel­don con­tin­ue to vote along­side their fel­low con­ser­v­a­tive Repub­li­cans, the Sen­ate will be on the verge of pass­ing a destruc­tive bud­get that destroys vital pub­lic ser­vices under the Orwellian cloak of sustainability.

But House Democ­rats, capa­bly led by Speak­er Chopp, are mak­ing it clear they con­sid­er the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ pro­pos­al a nonstarter.

If that be the case, then there will be no agree­ment on any bud­get any time soon, let alone before the reg­u­lar ses­sion is due to end next Thursday.