Rep. Matt Manweller, R-Ellensburg, got lots of comments and raised a few eyebrows with a Facebook posting last Wednesday regarding the Senate debate on 1351. He described the Democrats’ maneuver as “disgraceful” and said some of their members were inebriated on the floor.

That prompted one of his friends to ask why she hadn’t heard about it in the media. “It didn’t make the media because all the reporters went home at 1 o’clock in the morning thinking that the deals had been reached. The blowup happened at 3 AM,” he replied.

That brought some pushback from reporters, many of whom knew the deal was blowing up Tuesday afternoon, and did not go home until the sun came up. In fact, when Manweller and his colleagues were debating the gas tax increase at 2:30 a.m., at least three reporters were sitting at the House press table in front of the chamber. Manweller is a college professor, so by definition he’s a smart guy. But he probably forgot the old adage that one should not argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton. In the 21st Century that extends to folks who use social media as part of their jobs.

There was a quick reaction from some bleary-eyed reporters suggesting he check their tweets. Manweller later said he was mistaken and apologized to the press corps.

As for Democratic senators being inebriated, we didn’t see anyone staggering around the Senate wings and the video of the debate, which we’re posting on the blog, shows people tired but not drunk. 

Here's the video. Debate on the changes to 1351 starts at about 4:15:00

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