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November 17, 2005
Yes! An Ethics Package! Now, What's In It?
I have great news for you, my fellow Tennesseans. Our legislature will soon pass an ethics law that will do nothing to improve ethics on Capitol Hill.
Thus ends a great post by Matthew White (guesting for Bill Hobbs) on the fact that a crippled, sabotaged, and otherwise useless excuse for reform was approved yesterday by the Legislature's joint ethics committee. My biggest disappointment is with the proposal for an ethics committee. It's falsely labeled "independent" but there is nothing independent about how its members would be selected. Take off your partisan cap for a moment and just think about it this way: two appointees are beholden to the Governor, two to the Lieutenant Governor, and two to the Speaker of the House. Yes, the four chosen by the speakers are picked from among six (three each) nominated by the caucuses; but aren't the Speakers fairly authoritative in their caucuses, even if they aren't their titular heads? It would surprise me greatly to see a commission selected in this fashion investigate or regulate government officials whom any of these three appointers favors -- and we won't even talk about whether they would take on the governor or speakers themselves.
Matthew sees through this folly in a nicely non-partisan way, even though he initially bemoans the fact that next year's committee would consist of four Democrats and two, uh, less flavorful Republicans: "It's every bit as problematic [if] Republicans run the place." Yep. This is so frustrating, because even though I want to tell them to just start over, that would mean that even more time and resources would be wasted.
There's more in that post, so read the whole thing; then there's plenty more elsewhere. I asked for it! Blake Wylie and Bob Krumm point out that the weak open meetings provision would expire at the end of the 2006 session. Folks, this is November 2005. Read both of those posts in their entireties. Had enough? Too bad. I give you Moore. [Note - I can't get that link to open. Nor Adam's.]
Something odd's going on here. All of these guys are [more or less] Republicans. Where are the Democratic voices? I'm Independent, but I am often described as "left-leaning" or "liberal" though I get strong sympathetic vibrations from libertarian tenets as well. I'm standing here shouting "Bulls--t!" right along with my conservative fellows; and I've been checking the blogs on the Left, but there is complete silence on this story. I've never been able to peg Michael Silence, who basically lists the same people I have here (plus one I've never read), but no matter. Where's Sharon Cobb or egalia or LeftWingCracker or HamDems -- or, for crying out loud, the former Bubba?!
Neither these bloggers nor their party's leaders are in touch with the people on this very important issue. It is definitely time for the General Assembly's membership to undergo a huge overhaul. I am not saying that the current Democrats necessarily need to be replaced with Republicans, but I am saying that they need to be replaced with somebody. In at least one case, I would gladly vote for a Republican newcomer, but I don't live in his area. More to come on that story.
After all of the big talk, the citizen advisory panel's task completion, the Operation Tennessee Waltz indictments (which, I know, I know, involved activities already outlawed, but still) and all of the excellent blogging and news reporting have taken place, this is what we get from the joint committee. I've been wrong before, but I felt a strong sense of sincerity from its co-chairman, Mike Williams of Maynardville, when he was a panelist before the governor's group at the latter's Chattanooga meeting. It's too bad that there aren't more like him, but we voters can and must do something about that next August and November.
Government | By joe lance | 03:13 PM