A Retraction (Of Sorts) Regarding Tim Eyman
Tim Eyman: Easy to believe he's behaving like a lout.
Were there signs that I should have heeded before authoring my essay? Sure, the first one being that while printed under Crosscut's banner, it was clearly labeled a blog entry, and not an editorial. While I do not make a habit of going to Crosscut expecting to find humor in its pages (I go there for their excellent alternative news coverage and occasional opinion pieces), that four-letter word at the beginning of the essay should have been the first flag to note.
Another flag should have been raised by the preposterousness of the positions attributed to Mayor Mike McGinn and the fictional assistants to Governor Christine Gregoire and State Attorney General Rob McKenna.
Credit must be given to Mike Henderson for crafting a pretty legitimate and reasonable facsimile of an authentic news article, accurately mimicking a number of voices for his illusion. Certainly, the biography listed directly underneath the piece (former PI columnist, teaches news writing at the UW) helped to solidify my take on this as reliable.
It is the essay's tags immediately after the biography that damns me most, as the first one selected there reads 'humor.' I must simply assume that it was there all along staring me in the face, buried, as it is, beneath all of the bits that make this seem legitimate.
Those things seem clear in retrospect, but is it either stupid or idiotic (slurs aimed in this direction by none other than Tim Eyman, himself, who felt that trolling in the comments, rather than approaching the editor, was the best line of action) to believe that Eyman would stoop so low as to obstruct the success of the proposed jock tax? That he would side with overpayed star athletes simply for the principle of the thing? That he would impede progress in favor of lining the pockets of the super-wealthy?
Looking beyond the comments made last year regarding the proposed state income tax (which go a long way toward establishing his anti-progress reputation), we can go back to the beginning of Eyman's reign of obstruction for many, many remarks which seem, well, farcical. When told that the success of his I-695 would seriously handicap the state's mass transit services, the response from his campaign and its supporters were an oblique lie (that it would be supported by a tax surplus ("I-695's Toll On Trasnportation Listed Big Problems Seen, But Backers Cry Foul.." Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Via HighBeam Research; subscription needed) -- never mind that this could only come about at the legislative level where they have other fish to fry -- and an attitude that could only be summarized as "let them buy cars."
I would argue that it is all too easy to believe that Eyman would say such things as those invented in the Crosscut humor piece, and would say them with a straight face.
While I'm here, allow me to address the May 16th blog post Eyman included in the comment field of the offending Seattlest entry, in which Eyman preemptively condemns Washington legislators for proposing SB 5958, the special bill created to continue funding 4Culture among other proposed activities.
It should first be noted that SB 5958 was created because SHB 1997 and SSB 5834 --measures created to extend existing Lodging, Car Rental and Restaurant taxes in order to fund organizations like 4Culture -- failed during the regular legislative session, one of the bills died because of two absent votes that would have passed the measure had they been present and accounted for. It should also be noted that SB 5958 itself failed by one signature, which is why leaders in the Legislature then created SB 5961, which then morphed into ESSB 5834. ESSB 5834 finally passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans in Olympia.
Let me do what you did not do, and address you directly, Mr. Eyman, King of Let The Voters Decide: each of those legislative moves to get the extension of the Lodging Tax approved were motivated by one simple source: Voter Influence. Time after time, the public's efforts to get this funding source passed were felt by our representatives in the state capitol; indeed, our outcry grew stronger, louder and more voluminous with each failure. In other words, the public had their say on this issue. Or does the public only count as voters when they agree with you?
I suspect you will ignore this, for it is far easier to score political points by demonizing the politicians who were only reacting to their constituents. It is with no small degree of satisfaction that I note the movement's success.
To celebrate, I turn again to the Sonicsgate/Blue Scholars "Slick Watts" video.
