Four less-than-productive ways Inslee spends his time

To say Jay Inslee has been in the news this week would be an understatement. What with the implosion of his cabinet with the departure of some chosen department directors, to his temper tantrum press conference, to stories questioning his ability to lead, it has just not been a good week for our green governor.

So, it was left to Inslee mouthpiece Jaime Smith to attempt to defend his choice to cancel all future meetings with Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler. Smith said, “It’s difficult to see how continuing these meetings is a productive use of anyone’s time.”

“Productive” is an interesting choice of words from Inslee’s head flak, especially considering what we know about our green governor’s schedule. Here are five ways Inslee has spent his time recently—which, apparently, by his definition are “productive” uses of time.

1. Attending the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris for four days… even though he was not really invited to attend. Inslee was left out of all the important negotiations on climate change, but decided to go anyway. Apparently, fulfilling the critical role of an irrelevant bystander is a good use of time and money, but meeting with the leader of one the state’s legislative’s bodies during session is not.
2. Not attending the “five-corners” meetings called by Inslee for the purpose of finding a solution for fully funding K-12 education, as per the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. Inslee missed four out of the five meetings that he scheduled. Instead, according to his calendar, he chose to sleep and fundraise… but now he can’t find time to meet with the GOP Senate leader.
3. Having dinner with Service Employee International Union (SEIU) boss David Rolf and liberal billionaire and Democrat financier Nick Hanauer. Inslee appears to have plenty of time to have dinner with people who will pump money into his re-election bid. But, meeting with legislative leaders during a legislative session is another story entirely.
4. Desperately fundraising 36.5 hours per week. During one week in December, Inslee spent just 13-and-a-half hours (out of 50 hours worth of scheduled activities) on anything resembling gubernatorial business. He spent the rest of the time fundraising. Apparently, for our green governor and his staff, fundraising is a “productive” use of time but meeting with Senate Majority Leader Schoesler is not.