Saturday, April 23, 2005

Microsoft Kills Civil Rights Bill? Oh, I don't think so. Tim Grieve, bless his little muckraker heart, is making much ado about Microsoft backing off a civil rights bill for gays and lesbians in Washington state.  He has picked up on a story from the fishwrap Stranger that is fascinating, and certainly disturbing, but still manages to reach the wrong conclusion.  Microsoft has been a forward-thinking company on equal rights, allowing domestic partnership benefits and other generally gay-friendly stuff.  But they apparently got pressured by evangelicals in their backyard and threatened with a boycott, and they changed their tune.  So Microsoft was responsible for the historic bill failing in the Senate, 25-24. Right? Well, no.  Democrats have a majority in the Senate, and we are a fairly progressive state.  (Comparatively speaking.)  So this should have been an easy win if the Democrats could hold their caucus together.  The problem is that just like the Senate in D.C., our state has some DINO's - Democrats in name only.  Two of these DINOs, Tim Sheldon and Jim Hargrove, voted against 1515 when it came to the floor for a vote for the first time in thirty years.  Jim Hargrove said this on the Senate floor:  "I believe adultery is wrong, I believe sex outside marriage is wrong, I believe homosexuality is wrong. Therefore, I cannot give government protection to this behavior."  You wanna tell me how Microsoft's lobbyists were going to change that opinion? Tim Sheldon, who represents rural Mason County, is notorious in our state for being the shakiest and weaseliest of Democrats.  He has sided with the Republicans on many many things, even joining their caucus in order to support some of their legislation.  There is no lobbyist on earth capable of changing his position, and many have tried.  So I don't think Microsoft was going to swing him either.  So who, then, was Microsoft going to turn around?  Republicans stood together on this bill.  The Stranger doesn't name one single Republican who they thought Microsoft held any power over.  Eastside Republicans like Luke Esser and Stephen Johnson might have a lot of Microsofties in their districts, but this doesn't mean they follow Microsoft lockstep.  (Probably a good thing, too.)  So I don't buy it.   It's a compelling story, and it gives us a very easy bad guy to hate.  And the story's certainly getting a lot of play out in the MSM.   But I don't buy the argument.  I agree with Sandeep and Tim that Microsoft's behavior is disturbing and deserves scrutiny.  I would totally boycott them if I didn't already own a Mac.  But this might be as far as the Democrats can get with this bill, with the current makeup of the Senate.  They moved it to the floor for a vote using some crafty legislative maneuvering.  But they didn't have enough votes to pass it.  The real answer might be having another Democrat run for Tim Sheldon's seat.  Taking that weathervane out would make a whole lot of things easier in Olympia.  10:14:58 AM     Speak up!  []