We’re still absorbing the irony over here in the real world: Supposed arch conservative Councilmember and Council President Tim Burgess, without warning, today offered and introduced a resolution committing the City to repeal the State preemption on rent control, a move championed by Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant. The vote? 8 to 1, with the lone vote coming from Councilmember David Okamoto, the chair of the Committee responsible for housing policy. According to accounts from people inside the process Okamoto didn’t even know this was going to happen.

What’s the effect of the resolution? Not much other than to expose the political and intellectual weakness of the Council and its leadership. Two of the members, Rasmussen and Godden, who voted yes on today’s resolution vote, spoke earlier about how this was a bad idea and about how we should be focused on things we could do now, not throwing rocks at the legislature for an intervention with bad outcome. Talk about a flip flop.

Burgess himself sat in his office and told me, face to face, that he didn’t think rent control worked and that the evidence was overwhelming against it. Councilmember Bagshaw was so angry about Councilmember Sawant’s big rent control rally at City Hall over the summer, she filed an ethics complaint against her colleague for campaigning on City property. She voted yes.

There’s a name for leadership and vision in Seattle City politics, and that name is Kshama Sawant. While her lumpenmob of supporters doesn’t sound very astute when it assaults the gates of the Council chambers, she uses them to great effect. Her colleagues, some of whom have expressed an almost visceral dislike of Sawant, gave into her anyway. She’s persistent.

But most of all she actually believes in something, a mental state that is completely alien to her colleagues who have no ideas, are largely led by Central and Executive staff, and who remain thin skinned over criticism of their often inconsistent and contradictory views.

As I’ve pointed out, many of these Councilmembers are the ones who will have to keep the City’s side of the Grand Bargain and vote for substantial upzones. As I wrote recently, some Councilmembers still seemed vague on Growth Management Act (GMA) basics like growth targets.

Councilmember Burgess holds the title of Council President, but anyone who’s been paying attention knows who runs the show. She sits on the farthest side of the Council dais and her name is Kshama Sawant. She has shown once again, that in an institution with no ideas, a bad idea wins.