Thursday, May 8th, 2008...1:15 pm
They Need a Break ‘Cause They Work So Hard
I was corrected by a legislator today when I ribbed him today about the day off he and his colleagues had been given today. I said that they were a bunch of bums. He corrected me and said that they were, in fact, slackers.
They aren’t all taking the day off. Republican leaders are stuck up there in what Latin American soccer players would call a concentración. They are trying to hammer out a budget that they can send to the full legislative membership, hopefully by Monday.
I know, we whiny Democrats are saying, “But why aren’t any Democratic members involved, are they excluding us?” This time, the problem is not that they are looking to exclude Democrats, it’s that they don’t yet have a consensus in their own caucus. In other words: it’s not that they are trying to cut anyone out, it’s that they don’t yet have their act together.
Here’s the situation: there are two factions among the Republicans on the budget. One is led by folks like Ron “Sesh” Gould and Jack Harper, the other are moderates like Tom O’Halleran and Carolyn Allen. The leadership would like to have agreement among all of these folks before they present their plans to the public.
This could be a hard job, especially in the house where Russell Pearce holds sway on budget matters. Talk is that conservatives like Pearce are looking at around a billion dollars in cuts to the budget. It is hard to see how O’Halleran or other moderates like Pete Hershberger would be the least bit interested in voting for such a budget.
Added to this whole spectacle is Tim Bee’s congressional race. Bee has been selling his leadership abilities and willingness to forge compromises as a reason he should be in congress. His congressional campaign has forced him to step back from some legislative duties and he has allowed Thayer Verschoor to take a leadership role in the budget. Verschoor is in a primary battle with Eddie Farnsworth and has had to prove his conservative cred. This doesn’t exactly lead to deals cut with moderates in his own caucus much less the Democrats. Now Bee seems to have taken more of a direct role in the talks (hard to talk about leadership when you are AWOL), will this mean that he facilitates a compromise or that he gets bogged down in the fight?
I’ll hold off judgement on whether these guys are willing to let Democrats in on the discussion until they get their own house in order. Word of advice: if y’all don’t want the budget vetoed again, give it at least the veneer of bipartisanship.
4 Comments
May 8th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Isn’t it time to change the dance steps?
Every damn year we go though this pointless exercise. The Republicans argue among themselves and finally cow-tow to their far-right crazies by passing a budget that cuts funding for education, health care and programs that actually help people - but give special-interest tax breaks to their cronies.
Then it gets vetoed by Napolitano who has this, you know, crazy idea that the state needs new schools and stuff.
Then the Rs argue among themselves some more, hurl the dreaded “L” word at the Guv, and then they cave and agree to meet her half-way.
Can’t we eliminate all the blustering and appeasing of Ron Gould and Russell Pearce and actually pass a reasonable budget the first time?
Remember how they were gonna solve the 2008 budget by mid-January, and then wrap work on next year’s budget by March or so?
Yeah. How did that work out?
We need new leadership in the Legislature. We need someone who listens to people, has a demonstrated ability to bring together wildly differing views, and forge a consensus.
We need Speaker Phil Lopes.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Well said Sonoran…
Maybe no one cares up there, but this is an election year, the Pres is facing Giffords, and they are presiding over the biggest budget mess in our history (maybe I am wrong but that would shocking if it isn’t). Dont they know that some are sick of this, are watching, and are ready to say enuff? Strangling the budget even more will not win many points this year. State employees, although essentially muzzled in their politics, I bet will be voting for a change.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Oh..and are any insiders in the Dem party (im not one obviously) ready to hammer these GOPers over and over and over for essentially destroying our state for generations to come?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Kral: I’m no fan of the state party, but Emily Bittner & Co. are beating the drum of GOP ineptitude.
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