Nothing like being slapped in the face with your own impotent irrelevancy.
(SALEM, Ore.) - State Sen. Larry George, R-Hillsboro, has filed suit to block the 2008 session of the Oregon Legislature in Salem. He claims he is 'defending the state constitution' but in reality it is nothing but a brazen attempt at political damage control.
The Oregon Republican Party has become used to getting its way. It dominated (some might say strangulated) the House for some two decades. Now they are out.. WAY out. In the Senate where George holds a position of greatly diminished power his side is outnumbered by around 2 to 1.
But he and his few fellow Senate Republicans could always count on the House under Empress Karen Minnis to gut, stuff and bury (like she did with SB1000 in 2005) anything they could not block the Senate from approving.
The 2006 elections shattered their world.
As evidenced by the 2007 session the Republican agenda is dead on arrival and they can provide little more than speed bumps to what they politically oppose. (You know, stuff like equal rights for folks, education, workers' rights, social safety net... the usual things the Republicans tend to view with disdain if not outright hostility).
Is it any wonder that a Republican would want to do anything they could to stop another session like 2007?
The fact is, though, that the legislature can call a session in an 'emergency' but that definition has been a pretty broad one. Also the Governor can call the legislature into session too. Once called they could vote to leave but I doubt the democrat majority would do so.
Another fact is that the 2007 session was one of the shortest in recent history in part because they planned to move some issues to the 2008 session. So if the 2008 session is blocked as an emergency session the legislature could just say they are re-opening the 2007 session to deal with things they always had planned to do in 2008 just after a long break.
Of course the Republicans would scream and stamp their little feet and vote against it... and be shown how irrelevant they are by being soundly outvoted. Nothing like being slapped in the face with your own impotent irrelevancy.
The Legislature is doing the right thing even if the likes of George wish to try to derail it. In fact, his desire to derail it in a way shows how much it IS the right thing to do.
Why should the Legislature ask the People to amend the Oregon Constitution to set up annual sessions before they have shown that such would be beneficial and without showing how such would work out?
That is what scares the likes of Senator George so much... they are terrified that after two decades of messy drawn out do-nothing sessions under Republicans the People will see under Democrats two nice, tight and tidy productive sessions. Republicans can't have that! How will they get re-elected? They will be seen as the party of inefficiency, waste and uselessness.
So, is it any wonder why a Republican State Senator might be desperate to stand in the way of the 2008 session?
Seems clear as crystal to me.
Republican Attempts to Block Oregon's 2008 Legislative SessionSalem-News.com