Normally interest groups plan their annual trips to the Legislature pretty well. After all, it’s only once a year, like Christmas, that they are guaranteed attention.
That’s why it was so surprising to see the annual Latino Legislative Day pass on Monday without a protest – guaranteed to receive media attention – outside the office of the one person holding up passage of its top priority, the REAL HOPE/DREAM Act which has passed both the House and the Senate.
That protest would have been outside the office of House Speaker Frank Chopp.
Yet, there was no such gathering, because it turns out that Speaker Chopp is a Democrat, and well, it just wouldn’t have seemed right to protest a Democrat holding up such an important piece of civil rights legislation. After all, the thinking must be that he had a very important reason why the House hadn’t taken up the REAL HOPE Act after the Senate passed it last week – even though it found time on the first day of session to initially pass its bill on the subject.
To answer that question, the Tacoma News Tribune laid out that reason that Frank Chopp and his Democrats are holding up the REAL HOPE Act: they won’t get enough credit if they pass the Senate bill.
Gotta hand it to Frank Chopp and his Democrat colleagues, they are holding fast to principle on this one. There shall be no bill passed that they do not get enough credit for that it would help them in their next campaign.
Wonder if any of the folks attending the Monday festivities will remember that principle come November?
