1. Conservative state senate Democrats Rodney Tom (D-48) and Tim Sheldon (D-35), who joined with the senate Republicans to form a right-leaning "Majority Coalition Caucus" yesterday—effectively snatching power away from the Democrats, who make up a nominal majority of the senate—have insisted that the move was about policy, not politics.

"By portraying their own politics as policy, though, they can label as partisans people who think differently. That sounds a lot like politics." 

The News Tribune's Peter Callaghan isn't buying it. "The coalition," he writes, "is designed to replace those politics with the coalition’s stance against any increases in state revenue and for more reform of state government and education.

"By portraying their own politics as policy, though, they can label as partisans people who think differently. That sounds a lot like politics."

Callaghan also points out that had the state Democrats held onto the $25,000 they poured into Tom's campaign in 2010 and spent it this year on 17th District Democrat Tim Probst, they might have preserved their majority in the senate; Probst lost to Republican Don Benton by just 74 votes in a race that set the stage for the Republican coup.