The Seattle Times editorial board produces a triumph of woeful self-unawareness:

Two decades of inflexible demagoguery are over.

You mean the Seattle Times editorial board is disbanding?

Politicians who signed a facile pledge to oppose new taxes are abandoning Grover Norquist. Finally.

And what about those newspaper editorial boards who facilely endorsed all those Republicans who facilely pledged to oppose new taxes?

Is Congress suddenly overrun with representatives and senators who are going to raise taxes with reckless abandon? Of course not, but the era of the rote preclusion of new revenue has passed.

Yeah, that era of rote preclusion is over in Congress. But what about Olympia? Where do you stand on that?

The national credit card was run up by two wars and generous tax cuts. Spending sprees have consequences. The country is not only facing fiscal exigencies but also the mindlessness of the pledges is apparent.

Congratulations on using the word "exigencies" in a complete sentence. Now try using it in a properly structured one.

Voters want politicians on both sides of the aisle to talk, negotiate, cajole — whatever it takes to reach agreement. Values, viewpoints, priorities and philosophies have a credible role in all the discussions, but a simple-minded “no” has lost its piquant charm.

You mean like your board's simple-minded "no" to training, certification, and background checks for home healthcare workers, no matter how many times that initiative is passed by voters? Or your board's simple-minded "yes" to a two-thirds majority for tax increases, no matter how unconstitutional it might be? Is that what you're talking about?

The current list of Norquist pledge signers for the 112th Congress has four names from Washington state: Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas; Doc Hastings, R-Pasco; Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Spokane, and Dave Reichert, R-Auburn.

All of whom Frank Blethen's newspapers have enthusiastically endorsed.

Congress must consider all the elements of the dilemma: spending, debt and revenue. Each has a role, and each can be modified in a variety of ways. Revenue cannot be set aside because of Norquist’s signature gimmick.

Will you advocate for that here in Washington State too? Because 15 currently serving Republican legislators are signatories to Norquist's pledge. Or at the state level, are we still only allowed to discuss one side of the budget balance sheet?

The election made that clear. Republicans thought they would knock off President Obama, so no need to change rhetoric dating to the Reagan years. Times do indeed change.

But the Seattle Times does not.

The Democrats ran out of ideas and opened the door for Ronald Reagan and GOP majorities in Congress. By the 2012 election, the tea-party prattle of 2010 sounded wacky in light of urgent national issues.

And yet, as wacky as the tea-party prattle sounded, the paper endorsed tea-party favorites like John Koster, and supported Rob McKenna's tea-party pandering effort to repeal Obamacare. Go figure.

Norquist’s pledge did not offer any relief for Americans woozy from five years on the economic roller coaster.

Nor did those all-cuts budgets you've been demanding for Washington State these past five years.

The election changed the rhetoric. Now the behavior has to change.

I'll believe it when I see it. From the Seattle Times.

Americans want to see both parties working and engaged. They expect results and will vote accordingly.

And local readers expect their local newspaper to at least somewhat reflect the community's values, and they will renew or cancel their subscriptions accordingly.