A day of meddling and hypocrisy
Today was full of meddling and hypocrisy.
Will wrote earlier about the Twitter exchange over Senator Mike Crane – who happens to be running for Congress- “walking out” on the vote for the amended budget. Members of Governor Deal’s staff shamed Crane for leaving and mocked his principled outsider rhetoric. I’m not sure if Georgians will frown on the fact that staffers took to social media to criticize a legislator, but I do understand the criticism of the missed vote.
That being said, I find any missed votes when a legislator is present at the Capitol to be nothing short of despicable, but it’s difficult for me – and others – to believe that this isn’t something of a personal vendetta of Governor Deal’s staff. Why, you ask? Because none of three who tweeted about Crane have been consistent in their criticism. Where were they when the Governor’s Floor Leader Christian Coomer missed over 100 votes? Have these three legislative watchdogs monitored to make sure no current floor leaders skip votes? Where are the tweets about House leadership all stepping out the ropes on contentious votes, something that happened at least three times during the 2015 session alone. I guess it wouldn’t be so disturbing if they applied that level of criticism to every legislator under the Gold Dome, or not at all.
The other ludicrous event of the day took place in the Senate. While Senator Josh McKoon went to The Well to criticize the politicization of the Pastor’s Protection Act today, Speaker Ralston’s legal counsel took to the Senate floor to criticize Senator McKoon for his remarks – likely because the PPA was an initiative of the Speaker. McKoon quickly posted the following statement on Facebook:
“The Counsel for the Speaker of the House just used some language to describe me that I cannot post here because of its profane nature. He informed me if I wantto [criticize] House bills that I should run for the House. Evidently in addition to refusing to defend the free exercise of Georgians, if he could have it his way he would take away my right of free speech. #gapol #gasen #rfra“
Now, I don’t know what business the Speaker’s legal counsel has shaming any legislator for their remarks or beliefs, seeing as those he is neither a constituent nor a member of the Republican caucus. What’s more disturbing, though, is that this isn’t the first time this has happened. Consider this video from Day 40 of the 2015 session. After the final vote, just after 12:00 AM, (Click House Floor – Part 4 and go to the 3:05.00 minute mark) you can see Chastain get in Rep. Heath Clark’s face. He actually berated him in the middle of the House floor for how he voted. Is he acting on behalf of the Speaker when he does these things or do these outburst simply stem from his perceived state of power
Politics is dirty. But should it be this dirty?
Today was full of meddling and hypocrisy.
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Jessica Szilagyi
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I posted the following under the article by Will Kremer on this topic. I figured I’d post it here as well, since it’s on the same subject:
Not being an ‘insider’, I have heard no one proffer a reason as to why Crane skipped the vote. Any enlightenment from anyone (other than biased innuendo)?
He’s running for congress and doesn’t want to have to defend some obscure piece of the state budget that his opponents will call him out on. It’s kind of the equivalent of Obama always voting present when he was in the state senate because he knew he would be running for the U.S. Senate soon. He can just say, “well, I didn’t vote for that.” And I agree with what others have said on this. That is everything that is wrong with DC.
It’s a Republican State House of Representatives. It’s a Republican State Senate. It’s a Republican governor. He’s a Republican. The budget must be both balanced and passed. I’m not sure I’m seeing the problem of Crane casting his vote on the matter. He doesn’t have a line item veto on it.
But if that is the inconsequential reason for him not voting one way or the other, then yeah, that’s kinda chickenshift.
You are correct that republicans control everything. It is still likely that Crane may have a republican from the state house run against him in the primary. This is a way for him to possibly separate himself from his opponent. I’m not defending it because he’s going to need a tougher spine if he goes to DC.
Also, because the budget has to be balanced and has to pass every year there are always things in the budget that are not the greatest. That is just part of being an elected official. He is trying to avoid people coming after him on those little things because he voted for the entire budget.
It’s similar to people calling out members of Congress because they voted for the recent Omnibus bill because it didn’t defund Planned Parenthood. This is a flat out lie brought on by conservatives for hire because an omnibus bill is a collection of appropriations bill on the discretionary side of spending. PP gets grant money from Medicaid and Medicare. Both of which have nothing to do discretionary spending or omnibus bills. All this to say, Mike Crane is trying to avoid criticism that may come his way instead of doing the right thing and then explaining his vote.
Sure it’s hypocrisy but it’s much more a governor who politicizes everything dinging a legislator who’s got on his wrong side.
His majesty reserves the right to have his minions chastise all who do not behave appropriately when they are attending his court.