Articles from May 2008
May 18, 2008
Session Awards - 'And the winner is...'
By Randy, Paula & Simon (or not)
With such an uneventful legislative session drawing to a close it's time already to give out some session awards.
Best Legislator (Senate and House)
The nominees are Harry Coates, Chris Benge and Johnny Crutchfield
Coates has been voice of reason on the immigration issue all session long despite intense pressure from fellow Republicans to back off. Coates has been statesman like while his colleagues have been demagogues.
Speaker Benge may have had the toughest job in the capitol trying to bring order to the intrinsically unruly house after former Speaker Lance Cargill’s tax troubles, ethics troubles and rumored personal life troubles imploded his speakership. Benge has had to guide a divided caucus that is much more reactionary and less pragmatic than him.
Senator Crutchfield has had to manage an appropriation process in an election year while bringing Republican Co-chair Mike Johnson up to speed without appearing condescending. To make matters worse no new money meant he could do very little to keep his own caucus happy and appease democratic interest groups.
The winner is Speaker Chris Benge. No one could have expected things to go as well as they have given the turmoil at the start of the session. Give an assist to his successor as appropriations chair, Ken Miller, for rapidly growing into that job and being one of the few members who made Benge’s challenges a little easier.
Best Staff Person (Senate and House)
Randy Dowell, Senate Fiscal Director- Dowell has had the unenviable job of serving both Republican and Democratic Appropriations Chairs of the Senate and serving as sort of a technical go-between with the political staffs of each Caucus. He appears to have the trust and respect of both – no small feat.
Chad Warmington House Chief of Staff – Warmington, a relative newcomer to the Capitol has already survived three speakers and a very contentious caucus – he must be doing something right. He seems to move well between political and strictly administrative decisions.
I’m going to wimp out and call this one a tie.
Worst Legislator (Senate and House)
The nominees are Lance Cargill, Randy Terrill and Jim Williamson, Sally Kern. This category has candidates that are dumb, dumber, dumbest and just plain mean.
No one has ever risen faster and then crashed and burned as fast as Lance Cargill.
Randy Terrill may be getting some political traction in the short run but butting heads with the likes of Aubrey McClendon and other business leaders is not the way for a Republican to advance their political career in the long run.
Sally Kern has done more damage to the state’s cultural and business image in her short legislative tenure than Gene Stipe did in 5 decades –that’s impressive in a negative sort of way.
Jim Williamson is nominated here really as a sort of lifetime achievement award. He is mean and nasty not only to other members (he drove Senator Nancy Riley into the arms of the Ds thus creating the tie we have now in the Senate) but he has threatened professional staff with their jobs when or if the Republicans take over.
The winner is Lance Cargill for sheer velocity of stupidity. Many others have made the same mistakes – but not in such an incredibly condensed period of time.
Worst Staff Person (Senate and House)
There are probably some nominees in this area but the quality of the House and Senate Staff, particularly in the professional fiscal, bill drafting and committee staffs areas, is uniformly good.
Some of the leadership staff probably deserves to be nominated in this category but I don’t want to sully the rest of the staff with their inclusion in the list.
Best Job by a Lobbyist
Jami Longacre- While the outcome of transportation funding is uncertain Ms. Longacre managed a very modern lobbying effort on behalf of the TRUST Organization that would be worthy of Washington D.C. TRUST which stands for Transportation Revenues Used Strictly for Transportation put forth a dual platform campaign that utilized both the old style capitol cajoling, access and fundraising help along side a sophisticated media campaign on television and radio aimed at getting grassroots support for their issues. Expect to see more groups copy this method.
Wild Card Nomination – The No Helmet Law Hells Angels Guys and their Biker Chicks that come to the Capitol every year. No one can ever argue with their effectiveness at lobbying. Fear of physical harm is still a useful lobbying device at times.
Ms. Longacre should win this category but I am afraid the bikers will hunt me down and kill me; so I am calling this one a tie also.
Worst Job by a Lobbyist
Nominees are
The pro-lifers led by screwball Tony Lauinger. These zealots think they will sway people’s views by showing gross photos and videos. Sure they have made nominal progress on their issue over the years but there really isn’t a policy issue in this area to be resolved at the state level. They are despised by many of those that vote for them. Good lobbyists build respect of opponents, develop coalitions, understand that not everyone that opposes them is evil and don’t destroy political lives of well intentioned legislators over a single issue.
The Minute Men- Randy Terrill’s unemployed brown shirt army of rednecks, hate mongers and other creeps. If these guys didn’t show up at the capitol so often or on the news, more middle class people might buy into the immigration rhetoric. Seeing these guys gives pause to many people who might be inclined to the anti-immigration message.
The Kernservatives – Sally Kern’s geriatric army of gay bashers who descended on the Capitol to defend her attack on gays as more dangerous than terrorists. Sure they bused in a couple hundred of these old coots but it is unlikely that most of them will be alive for the next election.
Home Schoolers- Every year I see those news stories about how a home schooler won the national spelling or geography bee (they don’t always win but they sure promote it when they do) and start thinking maybe there is a larger role for home schooling in education reform. Then the strange looking, socially inept parents and students descend upon the capitol and I remember that’s who those people are. In a global economy successful students will need to collaborate on software projects with colleagues in Mumbai – not just spell it and find in on a map, while they wash their prairie dresses with lye soap out in the hinterlands.
The winner is – the Pro-lifers. Their full sized movie screen presentation of blood and gore in the Capitol rotunda this year brought snack bar sales to a halt.
May 16, 2008
Business as usual …stupidity reigns supreme
By More-Moderate-than-Stupid
I listen to the House on a daily basis as a concerned citizen of Oklahoma and most days I think they do okay. Then there are times when I wonder how did these yahoos get elected to serve the public? Most of the time I let it go but twice now there have been incidents which are inappropriate for public servants to broach when they should be doing the people’s work.
Let us start with the doling out of the Mouth of the House award. I can understand having fun with your fellow House members, but there is a point when it gets out of hand. I am not sure who said it but that person crossed the line when he introduced Representative Terrill (no matter your feelings for him or his immigration beliefs) as Randy “he’s never met a Mexican he liked” Terrill. I don’t care if you say it jokingly – that is racial and wholly inappropriate for anyone to say…much less an elected official. Mr. Speaker, had I been in the Chamber when that comment was made I would have booed it…
Secondly, let’s discuss Friday’s inappropriate actions and stupidity. For those who may not know, you can purchase a replica of a bull’s body part to hang from your truck hitch…which is disgusting enough in itself.
I can hear the conversation in all of those family sedans now…"Mommy, what are those hanging from the back of that truck?" How would you like to answer that question from your 4-year old?
But to buy a set to hang from another Representative's vehicle (and to jokingly refer to said Representative as the “moral compass of the House" as a practical joke and then having a citation read on the House floor about it is totally disgusting and unsuitable…especially for people whose salaries are paid with my tax dollars! What they do on their own time is their business but to announce it on the House floor, when there are elementary children in the gallery, really offends me! And the very fact that Representative Armes read the citation himself proves my point!
I, for one, think that we as citizens should write to our State Representative about the improper use of their time on the House floor. There are much more important things they should be dealing with then giving out silly, useless awards and discussing bovine genitalia. We need to tell our elected officials that we do not appreciate this kind of behavior! It us up to us as the taxpayers to remind them of their job! Shame on Speaker Benge for letting these kind of things take place!
May 6, 2008
Early Handicapping of the Fall Electoral Season
By Poll Watcher
With the 2008 legislative session all but done and most of the money parceled out it appears only a few major issues are left to address.
Will there be a major bond issue for roads and state government?
Will an Official English bill further disgrace this state and make it more uncompetitive in the global economy?
Will Tort Reform rise from the dead to make one last appearance?
Is there anything else the legislature could give to millionaire basketball players and billionaire NBA owners we so covet?
We'll have to keep an eye on all that but in the meantime it is more interesting to turn our attention to the fall elections.
Since the television talking heads have sliced and diced the presidential election into every form of political analysis known to man or alien we will leave that one alone for now. Suffice it to say that Oklahoma’s record of not voting for a Dem for President since LBJ will stay in tact. If will be interesting to see if the general lack of enthusiasm for McCain will suppress GOP turnout however.
The following is a link to the state election board’s list of offices to be filled:
eCapitol’s iVote will also be a good source after the filing deadline on June 2 also.
U.S. Senate: Expect Jim Inhofe to crush Andrew Rice in the U.S. Senate Race. After winning Bernest Cain’s old State Senate Seat Rice has his eyes set on the U.S. Senate. He will find that Inhofe is not only one of the dirtiest campaigners in state history but also one of the most effective. Rice is ill-prepared for a state wide race having run only in one of the most liberal State Senate districts in Oklahoma. He will find that his latte sipping ways will not resonate with suburban cultural conservatives, rural ag types or even yellow dog democrats in southeastern Oklahoma. Many Democrats are hopeful he does not challenge Inhofe too strongly thus engaging more of the Republican base in a year when Democrats further down ticket may benefit from lower conservative turnout.
U.S. House: Expect no changes unless someone dies, gets indicted or just gets a higher paid job lobbying or running a special interest group. Watch Boren, Fallin and Cole in 2010 for Governor however.
Corporation Commission: Jim Roth versus one of two lesser known Republicans should be interesting. Roth, the former Democratic County Commissioner from Oklahoma County has positioned himself well. He is smart and hardworking and has garnered the financial backing of big shot energy Republicans such as Chesapeake’s Aubrey McClendon with his denial of a coal fired electricity plant. Will those moneyed Republicans leave Roth high and dry for a more traditional candidate such as Rep. Rob Johnson when the going gets tough on cultural issues?
The other seat should be an easy win for Republican Jeff Cloud if he chooses to run. There are rumblings he may take a more lucrative private sector position.
Oklahoma State Senate- The Senate will go Republican but just by a hair- 25-23 with Mike Morgan’s termed out seat going to former OSU President James Halligan. Halligan is being supported by new President Burns Hargis, Marilyn Strathe, former acting president and other old guard OSU administrative types and Athletic Director Mike Holder (AKA Boone’s Bitch). The Word is that Halligan is not in good health and is slowing in body and mind. Halligan who could not be considered a “movement conservative” would support OSU at the capitol but it is uncertain where his other interests might lie. The erstwhile conservative might not even be able to fill out his term according to some who are watching the situation carefully. That seat could easily switch back to the dems in the next election or even before.
Oklahoma House of Representatives – House Ds will gain one or two seats because of low Republican turnout and the arrogance of the former house leadership under Lance Cargill. Even though some Ds were caught not paying or paying their taxes late the brunt of the public’s ire will fall on the Republican tax hypocrites. Lance Cargill will become their albatross just as Gene Stipe has been the Dems problem for years. Even a three to one fund raising advantage will not help the Rs gain seats this year. Still they will retain power and hopefully be a bit chastened for the experience.
Early Speculation on the Governor’s Race in 2010 - Attorney General. Drew Edmonson, who has bumper stickers out already that say “Edmonson 2010” with no identifying office, appears to be the early leader. Many guess that Lt. Governor Jari Askins, Treasurer Scott Meacham or Congressman Dan Boren won’t run if Edmonson declares. One scenario that could throw a wrench into those plans would be if Obama wins the White House and puts supporter Governor Brad Henry into a Cabinet position or Judgeship before his term ends. Askins would then become the likely Democratic candidate as an incumbent occupying that position.
On the Republican side look for U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, Congressman Tom Cole, Congresswoman Mary Fallin and State Representative Randy Terrill to all give the Governor’s Mansion a look.
