The Depths of Olympia

People and careers that should not exist must include Washington State's Tim Eyman. As abused as ballot initiatives are in this country, it seems no one makes more money off the process and cares less about the effects on the public than he.

A Net search will depict him as initiative profiteer, evader of responsibility, and worse. Leaping onto the lastest opportunity, he intends to hijack the Dark Side effort to overturn the just passed gay-rights law. He said he'd file a ballot initiative today to do so. If he takes ownership, he can make the large fees.

We guess it's the American way. This is what he does for a living. Also, even with his sordid past and present, his association with the effort can hardly taint it more than the arch-conservative, anti-gay legislators who promised such an effort.

The article in The Olympian cites the legislature's leading nasty:

One of the top opponents to the bill was Sen. Dan Swecker, a Rochester Republican. Swecker said he had advance word that Eyman would try to attack the rights bill. Although Swecker said he had not seen the specifics of what Eyman was drafting — including language to bar the use of quotas or affirmative action — he said conservative Christian groups definitely will get behind Eyman’s effort.

On the other side are many, including Rep. Sam Hunt, who "expressed outrage over the proposal. 'Tim Eyman, have you no shame?' Hunt said. 'Eyman is stooping to a new low just to line his pockets and get a mailing list of bigots.'

"Hunt described himself as 'pissed but sober,' then added, referring to Eyman having dressed up as a prisoner during a legislative hearing last week: 'If Tim Eyman is fond of wearing costumes, I suggest his next one be a white sheet and a pointy white hat. I just think it is a sad day for Washington what he is doing.'"

You would think that that even those not comfortable with the idea of homosexuality must see through Swecker for his spiteful inequity and Eyman for his opportunism. Next we'll see whether such unAmerican forces can get the signatures to put yet another abusive pretext to voter choice on the ballot.

This is yet more strong evidence that the ballot-initiative process needs an overhaul.