"Hopes for Bipartisanship"? Or Schemes for Something Else?

So The Sun had a sit down with Pat Hickey yesterday to talk about his great achievement in becoming Assembly Minority Leader. And of course, Pat Hickey mentioned all his grandiose "ideas" for "coming together" and fostering "bipartisanship".

The Republicans are willing to take a look at the antiquated tax structure and there may be some compromise, Hickey said. But he said he hoped the Democrats might compromise on such issues as construction defects and the public employees' collective bargaining law.

"The people are sick of partisanship," he said after the Friday caucus meeting.

Hickey, who was unopposed in the election, was one of the leaders in the campaign to elect more Republicans to the lower house but that came up short.

OK. So people are "sick of partisanship"... And they're so sick of partisanship that they're demanding Pat Hickey rise up and demand that Democrats join him and his fellow Republicans in attacking workers' rights? And they're so sick of "partisanship" that they want Pat Hickey to bring everyone together in support of gutting consumers' right to seek proper compensation when they're caught in faulty houses? Does Pat Hickey really believe the words coming out of his own mouth?

Well, this is Pat Hickey who we're talking about. This is the same guy who lectured everyone else about "ethics" and "campaign finance reform" after he couldn't live up to his own standard. And what made Hickey's move even more appalling was that he opposed much of the very measures in 2011 that he suddenly claimed as his own "ideas" in 2012!

This is actually a big reason why I'm skeptical of Hickey when he claims he's open to tax reform. After all, both Governor Brian Sandoval and State Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson have all but openly admitted that their flip-flop "newfound affinity" for the 2009/2011 "sunset tax" deal was done as a way of shutting down talk of real tax reform. So now, all of a sudden, we're supposed to believe that Pat Hickey will somehow clear the way for some kind of progressive tax reform if Democrats can just be "bipartisan" and throw workers & consumers under the bus?

Sorry, but I smell something fishy here.