Not surprisingly, the Seattle Times editorial board just called on House Democrats to cave on nearly every major budget dispute, because apparently the Republicans' one-vote 25-24 Senate majority somehow trumps the Democrats 56-42 margin in the House. Or something.

That was the majority's budget — a majority of 22 Republicans and three Democrats. That Chopp dislikes the Senate's new majority is not something anyone cares about.

Uh-huh.

I considered doing a line-by-line fisking, but that would require more work than this smug, reflexive fit of SRC talking points deserves. I mean, honestly... who the fuck would take budgetary advice from a newspaper reduced to selling off real estate to pay down debt and prop up its horribly mismanaged pensions? In a February 21 email to employees explaining his decision to explore the sale of the company's last remaining South Lake Union properties, Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen writes:

Going into the Great Recession, The Times had one significant liability – our onerous bank debt. Thanks to each of you, our senior management team, and the Blethen family’s willingness to sell the Troy block and the 1000 Denny building, we paid off most of this debt and refinanced a small portion of it on much more favorable terms.

One consideration in our exploration of a sale is the status of our pension plans. Unfortunately, the 2008 financial collapse turned our fully and well-funded pension plans into significant unfunded liabilities overnight. This is not unique to The Times and is negatively affecting almost every defined pension plan in the country in both the private and the public sectors. The annual payments we must make on these liabilities are a challenging drag on the company’s financials.

Really, Mr. Blethen? You're eating your seed corn in a down real estate market to cover "significant" pension liabilities at a time the S&P has hit its highest mark in four years, and both the Dow and the Nasdaq have closed above 13,000 and 3,000 respectively for the first time ever? My IRA has never looked better. What the fuck sort of loser investments do you have your pension funds in? Newspapers?

And yet Blethen—who can't help but piss away his own employees' retirement funds, even in the midst of a bull market—has the stunning gall to instruct his editorial writers to lecture lawmakers on how to manage pensions of state workers!

Unfuckingbelievable. Why does anybody take their shit seriously?