Dilemmas, dilemmas

...the Arizona House Judiciary Committee, or something that came out of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee...hmmm....

Tomorrow (ok, probably later today as you read this), the Arizona House of Representatives' Committee on Judiciary will be considering the latest attempt at a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, HCR2065.

Think of it as a Republican valentine to the socially ultra-conservative wing of the GOP.

The outcome of the hearing isn't in doubt - all six Republican members of the committee (Farnsworth, Driggs, Yarbrough, Konopnicki, Crandall, Adams) have signed on as sponsors or cosponsors of the bill.

In short, the final vote count won't be any closer than 6 - 4 favoring passage, assuming all committee members are in attendance.

I'm considering attending, if only to get some good quotes.

However, earlier this evening, I found out that the U.S. House is slated to consider contempt of Congress citations for White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

Think of it as a Congressional valentine to Bush. :)

Now *that* should be a fun debate; lots of good quotes, too. :))

The big difference is that there is a bit of doubt as to the outcome - some, including me, question whether certain House Democrats (think Blue Dogs) have the political spine necessary to do the right thing.

So the dilemma is: go to a suspense-free hearing to watch some local Republicans work some of their election-year mischief (mischief that may backfire on them, but more on that at a later date, like after this is officially on the fall ballot), or stay home and watch some DC Republicans (and Republicans-lite) try to defend the Bush administration's open contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law.

Note: The U.S. House's Judiciary Committee's report is here. I haven't read all of it, and I'm not going to - it's 862 pages long.

As you can tell from the phrasing in the above paragraph, I'm leaning toward watching the DC mess unfold.

The local Republicans are going to be rambunctious all year - it's an election year and they want to distract voters from the fact that they are doing as little as possible to responsibly balance the state's budget.

Note: Russell Pearce's plans to balance the budget by gutting KidsCare, AHCCCS, higher education, and K-12 school construction while blanketly gutting state revenue yet again doesn't qualify as 'responsible.'

'Ideological', but not 'responsible.'

Anyway, there's going to be plenty of opportunities for good quotes down at the state lege.


On the other hand, an actual debate and vote on contempt citations by the U.S. House could be one of the highlights of the year in DC.

After writing all of this down and looking at it, it's a pretty easy choice.

Later!