Saturday, January 26, 2008
Editorial: Politicking instead of governing
Republicans' craven attempt to embarrass Democrats reveals a broken House.
From the RoundTable blog
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Virginia House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and his GOP colleagues have elevated churlish behavior to a troubling level this year. When they are not killing bills secretly in subcommittee meetings, they are overturning tradition on the House floor.
Republicans tweaked the rules to facilitate partisan attacks. Lawmaking has taken a back seat to payback after recent Democratic electoral victories that included unseating a Republican U.S. senator, taking control of the Virginia Senate and winning some seats in the House.
Griffith exploited those new rules on Thursday. He rushed a bill sponsored by a Democratic delegate past the usual legislative process. He bypassed the committees, skipped the public hearings and brought it straight to a floor vote.
A lawmaker in the minority might be thrilled to have one of his bills make it to the floor, but not in this case. Del. Adam Ebbin, D-Arlington, tried to withdraw his bill before a vote. Griffith refused, rejecting tradition.
Then, to add insult, after Democrats abstained from the vote, Griffith executed an obscure parliamentary procedure to record "no" votes for all of them.
Democrats are not without blame in this fiasco. Lawmakers of all political stripes often introduce bills for constituents that patrons do not actually want to go anywhere. It is one of the reasons the General Assembly faces a glut of bills every year. If Ebbin had not truly supported his bill, which would have allowed state and local employees to form unions, he should not have introduced it.
But Ebbin's hypocrisy in no way justified Griffith's thuggish behavior. He wasted precious time in a challenging legislative session to needle Democrats.
A true leader would focus on the looming state financial difficulties, holes in mental health laws and other important issues that will affect Virginians.
There is a spark in politics. It shines brightly wherever lawmakers put the common good ahead of politics. On Thursday, Virginia's House Republicans all but extinguished that spark, and that bodes ill for the commonwealth in a year in which a number of pressing concerns should occupy lawmakers' attention.
Partisan chicanery is nothing new. It crosses party lines; the majority party invariably pokes at the minority. Democrats did it when they controlled the General Assembly. Republicans have been at it since they took over. Both have sullied Thomas Jefferson's dream of deliberative democracy.
