Party-hopping a no-no in Bizarro World

Washington Republicans are in an understandable snit because one of their own, Rep. Rodney Tom, has announced he’s decided to sell his soul to the devil and become a Democrat. He’s also planning to run against the incumbent Republican, Luke Esser, for the state Senate seat in the 48th District.

“His calculating change of mind as to what party he belongs to demonstrates a lack of credibility and sincerity,” GOP State Chairwoman Diane Tebelius said.

But being in a snit is no excuse for being hypocritical, which the party is by demanding that Tom resign his House seat.

The last time a legislator in Washington switched parties, Republicans didn’t call for him to resign. They made him a Senate committee chairman.

That was Peter Von Reichbauer, who in 1981 stopped being a Democrat – which he’d been for a term in the House and the better part of two terms in the Senate – and started being a Republican. Whether he had to learn the secret handshake or memorize Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment is lost in the mists of time, but PVR as he was then known, walked out of the D caucus and into the R caucus at a time when the Senate was divided 25-24.

That gave the GOP the one vote majority. Democrats screamed. They cursed. They threatened him with censure (pretty useless since they were in the minority). Some Ds in his district mounted a recall effort, which PVR beat. He was re-elected in 1982, and 1986, and 1990.

But he never stayed away from the Legislature for a single day of the 1981 session. And Republicans never questioned his credibility or sincerity.

Seems odd, now, to be demanding that Tom step down, when the session is over.

Unless, of course, one realizes that by stepping down, Tom would create a vacancy to which the local GOP could nominate a replacement – one who could run as an incumbent in next fall’s election in what is becoming a swing district.

Local guy makes good

Spokane may have its best connection in the White House in years with the promotion of Ken Lisaius to special assistant to the president and deputy press secretary. He’ll be one of two chief deputies of Scott McClellan, who does the daily jousting with the White House press corps.

Lisaius is a Mead High and Washington State University grad who got his political start on the 1994 George Nethercutt campaign, worked on the first Bush-Cheney campaign and has been in the White House media office for several years.

A shameless if somewhat long-suffering Cougar fan, it will be interesting to see if he can work a few bars of the fight song into the background of a daily briefing.

The spin on: Censure

The left and right live in different worlds. These are not parallel universes. Instead, they feature the kind of reverse logic one used to see in Bizarro World in the old Superman comics.

Take the proposal by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to censure President Bush for actions Feingold thinks run afoul of federal wiretap laws.

Some people might think it’s a good idea, if they could figure out just what exactly censure is. Others might think it’s stupid, or unnecessary, or unconstitutional, or just a waste of time. Beyond that, it’s got to rate pretty low on the list of things to raise blood pressure, compared to say the way the Zags usually play in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

Strong partisans, however, view it from Bizzaro World.

Spin from the right: Washington state Republican Chairwoman Diane Tebelius is demanding to know exactly where Sen. Maria Cantwell is on censure. And the fact that Tebelius wanted to know on Monday, and Cantwell hadn’t got back to her by Tuesday, meant the senator was “eerily quiet,” Tebelius said. By Wednesday she was on “Censure Watch, Day 3.”

Spin from the left: ProgressNowAction was criticizing people who criticized Feingold. It demanded that Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., apologize for questioning Feingold’s patriotism, which the Denver-based group says is a way of questioning the patriotism of any person who thinks the president should be censured.

Clearly, the left and right think this will whip up the troops in the base. But aren’t they already in a fairly good froth?

A censure quiz

Who was the last president censured?

Gold star if you said Andrew Jackson, who was also the first president censured. He and Congress got into a long, dragged-out fight over the federal banking system, and Jackson refused to deposit federal funds where Congress said he had to under the Constitution.

Not as juicy as Monicagate, but this was serious stuff back in 1834. Opponents of Jackson formed their own party, the Whigs, spent more than a year rejecting his nominees and eventually voted to censure him.

In the long run, Jackson got the better of the deal. The censure was expunged in 1837. Jackson’s face is on the $20 bill. When was the last time you voted for a Whig?