Had breakfast with Sen. Joel Lourie this morning, and he spoke of his frustration that the S.C. Senate has completely wasted the first month of the legislative session, wasting all of its time so far on two ridiculous issues: the new Nullification Act and the Voter ID bill.
Both, of course, were about nothing but partisan political posturing, having no bearing on the actual problems of our state. Meanwhile, the Senate can’t find time, for instance, to increase the cigarette tax the way 70 percent of the voting public wants them to do. Or figure out how to fund the essential functions of government in these hard times. Or address any of the major unfinished business of our state that I cited in my last column at The State. Or even to do something so simple and open-and-shut as censuring the governor for his shameful behavior, something that took the House all of 20 minutes.
Joel and I commiserated because we have both reached a point at which we no longer have any patience for the idiotic things that hold us back in this state, from the attitudes exemplified in Andre Bauer’s recent remarks to … well, in a way, most of the things holding us back are related to those attitudes.
And as an UnPartisan, I may be even more disgusted than Joel with the Senate’s foolishness this past month. To Joel as a Democrat, the Voter ID thing was at least worth fighting against. For my part, I think the Republicans’ assertion that this legislation is needed and the Democrats’ assertion that it will lead to dire consequences are both misplaced. Here’s a column I wrote on the subject awhile back. The best thing, of course, would be if our lawmakers didn’t waste a single second on this issue that ultimately is about the fact that Republicans don’t want certain people who are likely to vote Democratic to vote, and Democrats want them to for the equal and opposite reason.
But Joel and I are perfectly attuned in that we have lost patience with the fact that our state’s political engines simply will not take any positive action, but are all about erecting barriers.
I wrote about my diminishing patience in a column last year, in which I used the cigarette tax as an example. (A subtext to that column was the fact that I felt like I wouldn’t be at the paper much longer — I thought I would be leaving of my own volition rather than being laid off, but I just didn’t see myself doing it much longer — and so I had a sense of time running out for some of these common-sense policy changes to become reality.) At the time, you’ll recall, Jim Rex called me to say HE was fed up, too. That call was sort of a precursor to his deciding to run for governor.
And as it happens, Mr. Rex has just put forward a new proposal on the cigarette tax, which deserves consideration (and probably won’t get it, if patterns hold true).
Of course, Joel thinks Vincent Sheheen is more likely to be able to deliver the kinds of change South Carolina needs, although he likes and respects Mr. Rex. But one thing the three of us agree on is that we’re not as patient as we once were…
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Just to underline Joel’s point, John O’Connor just reported this on Twitter: “S.C. Senate just adopted amendment to ‘Flounder bill,’ corrects scientific name of the flounder and defines “gigging.”
We’re not making this stuff up, folks. This is your SC Senate at work…
John also notes that “Gov. Sanford attended Nat’l Prayer Breakfast in D.C. this morning. Not on schedule. Took state plane…”
But that’s a whole other subject…
And who is in charge of the Senate? Who’s the main culprit for the inaction?
As for Rex’s “plan” for using a cigarette tax to pay for teachers, it’s a joke. There’s plenty of waste in non-classroom teaching areas that could be cut. Richland County alone has had bond referendums totalling HALF A BILLION dollars in the past decade that has gone only to buildings. Stop building new schools and stop building $30 million dollar football stadiums. Then we can talk about cutting teachers.
No, Doug, it’s not a joke. It might not be the best plan for the tax (although I like that he would go ahead and raise it past the national average, instead of these half measures), but it is, as I said, deserving of consideration.
And it’s INFINITELY more worthy of discussion than lawmakers’ idiotic posturing on meaningless partisan flash points. Yeah, we get it boys — y’all don’t like Obama, or anyone who would vote for him. But you know what? That doesn’t have a damned thing to do with the job of a South Carolina legislator…
Can’t Sanford pray here? Heck, I’ll even buy him breakfast.
Taking the state plane…nice touch–and why the devil not? No one seems to have done anything about Sanford Air so far.
I think the legislature is just following a long-established maxim of political positioning: If you can’t do something positive, do something that gets noticed.
I think it may take a generation or so yet before any helpful changes take place in the way our state government operates. I hope I’m proved wrong in the next few years, but I don’t see the voters changing the status quo.
Totally off topic, Brad, but did you happen to see Sally Jenkins’ editorial in the Post on the Tebow Superbowl ad thing? I thought it was a great, and refreshingly fair piece from a pro-choice writer.
Steve–I think they think they *did* something positive. It’s the rest of us, who didn’t drink the Kool Aid, who are shaking our heads….
You know what — maybe we should all just DRINK the blasted Kool-Aid. Maybe we’d all be happier. I just don’t want to end up the way they did in Jonestown, though…
It’s interesting that Mrs. Tebow claims that Filipino doctors advised her to terminate her pregnancy. Abortion is illegal in the Philippines and doctors who perform abortions there, for whatever reason, get stiff jail terms.
http://open.salon.com/blog/scott_christian/2010/02/03/republicans_dont_just_happen_theyre_born_that_way
Not the best written piece, but I fear I am immune congenitally to the Kool Aid’s effects.
A wasted month in the SC Senate
Finally some good news. At least they didn’t pass some horrendous legislation.
Nullification was pretty horrendous, except that it was tilting at a windmill.
Lourie is top shelf in my book. Has he shared aspirations for running for state wide office? He’d do a great deal to change the image and the fortunes of the Palmetto State.
Senator Shelby is holing up ALL nominations by Obama to get what he wants. Now that’s waste.
Herb, The point is, she had a choice.
Like it or not, right or wrong, the same complaints about holding up nominees came from Republicans about Dems holding up Bush nominees. It is a never ending battle between the parties and as long as we have the rules in place we have now, it will continue.
Brad, I posted something positive about Joel Lourie and referenced Shelby’s abuse in the senate confirmation process (more waste). My post is absent. This is the second one of mine that is AWOL. I don’t think either was even close to being out of bounds (the other was a friendly jab at Ross who is even a friend of mine on FB). What gives?