Several house Republicans, in an effort to push what Sen. Ed Murray (D-43) calls a “far-right agenda,” introduced House Bill 2216 earlier today in Olympia. The bill, in short, would strip the Washington State Bar Association of its licensing, regulatory and disciplinary functions and transfer these responsibilities to the Washington State Supreme Court.
The bill is clearly retaliation for the WSBA’s endorsement of House Bill 1727 and Senate Bill 5688—bills that would expand the rights and responsibilities of state registered domestic partners—during last weeks public testimony in both the house and senate.
House Bill 2216, whose primary sponsor is Rep. Matt Shea (R-4), argues that the WSBA has begun to “officially endorse and lobby for highly controversial and divisive social and political causes.” As a consequence, the bill states, the responsibility of regulating lawyers in Washington State should be shifted from a mandatory association, such as the WSBA, and toward a volunteer-based system of bar associations that each would cater to their membership’s social and political views.
The bill is sponsored by 17 Republicans and no Democrats, which is further evidence of the GOP in Washington withering away into some sort of political black hole of irrelevance. The bill was produced so near the deadline for introducing new bills that any chance of it being considered seriously is very small. Sen. Murray calls the bill “petty” and “obviously dead.” He says that Rep. Shea “should be more concerned about his constituents who are losing their jobs than [worrying about] gay and lesbian families.”
Calls to house republicans sponsoring the bill, including Rep. Shea’s office, were not returned.
UPDATE:
A companion bill, Senate Bill 6025, was also introduced today. The prime sponsor of the bill is a senator hailing from the same eastern Washington district as Rep. Shea, Sen. McCaslin (R-4).
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Douse them in what!?
“Calls to douse republicans sponsoring the bill, including Rep. Shea’s office, were not returned.”
What are we going to douse those Republicans in? And how much longer do we have to wait till we can start the dousing?
@1,
Man, you just had to beat me to the punch while I was editing my comment to put than underlining in, didn’t you, Aislinn?
I can think of a few things I’d like to douse them in. But I think he means “dowse”, as in, use a stick to magically find out if there’s water in them, or wether they are the dried-up old remnant of a former political party they appear to be.
I repeat: The entire Retardican Party has filed for a mental Chapter 11.
Ooops! The “douse” was an editing error on my part (even if enjoyable for y’all). Fixed.
Shea’s even nuttier than Jim West used to be. Hmmm….
Is it any wonder the Republican party is slipping into the back ground in America? They preach hate and division. Support the marginalization of people they don’t like, and preach smaller government while at the same time trying open the doors of everyone’s bedroom through the use of government agencies. If they want to be the party of America one would think they would act like the party of America.