The Inn Never Changes; The Walls Talk

Who is this guy Gary Fisher?

Anyone know him? Yes? From the Inn on the Park you say?

For those who have not slopped tap beer and stayed too long at the favorite watering hole of legislators, reporters and lobbyists alike, the Inn on the Park is something akin to the office water cooler; a metaphor for where one goes to belly-ache.

The trouble with the Inn on the Park is everyone overhears the secret plans to screw with someone else.

Ya got a bill to kill? Let's amend it to death. Ya got pay-back on someone? Let's meet across the street at the Inn at 5:00pm and devise a dastardly deed.

It was easy to figure-out the assassins when it was Republicans v. Democrats. But occasionally, politics does indeed create strange bedfellows -- but we'll save those Tales from the Inn for future blog posts.

Veterans Affairs Secretary John Scocos is the Inn's latest target these days (post).

Politics is a zero-sum game, as in, I got zero, and I want some.

So, applying this political truism to the brinkmanship being played by the Veterans Affairs Board, and mixing-in the clumsy chatter at the Inn on the Park, the game against Scocos is as obvious as the beer foam at the bottom of Senator Roger Breske's glass.

*Democrat Governor Jim Doyle; He's got zero. VA Secretary Scocos is a Republican appointee hold-over;

*Democrat ex-Senator Rod Moen; He's got zero. The defeated pol/ex-Naval vet desperately wants Scocos' job;

*Republican St. Rep Terry Musser; He's got almost zero. The Veterans Committee he chairs was split into 2 committees, by Republican Speaker John Gard , diluting his clout;

*Republican VA Secretary John Scocos; He's got some. As a Gard loyalist, Scocos draws fire from those Assembly GOP caucus members who have been disciplined by their emotional leader.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Or, as Dick Morris redefined it, John Scocos is being triangulated.