Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Please Janet - Do as we say, not as we do

From AZCentral.com -

Incoming Republican legislative leaders are asking Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano not to sign any further executive orders, including one she's considering that would empower union representatives of state employees.

Senate President-elect Bob Burns, R-Peoria, and House Speaker-elect Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on Napolitano to hold off on that executive order and any other she may be contemplating before leaving office.

{snip}

"It would be unprecedented for an outgoing governor to issue last-minute executive orders that tie the hands of the incoming administration," Adams said in a statement.

Ummm, Senator Burns? Representative Adams? Your opinion of Governor Napolitano's actions during what are expected to be her final days as Arizona's governor is clear, and of course, you are entitled to have and express it.

But where are your criticisms of President Bush's actions during the final days of his administration? Of the rules changes favoring uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, weakening the Endangered Species Act, weakening worker rights, and more?

Oh wait, what's that you say? It's just another example of "It's OK if you're a Republican"??

Ahhh. I understand now.

Never mind.

BTW - Jane Hull issued her share of executive orders on her way out the door in 2003. As did the Fifester and Ev Mecham before her.

Caveat - due to the rather "unplanned" nature of their departures from office, Mecham and Symington didn't have many executive orders overall, much less last-minute ones.

2 comments:

katie said...

Maybe the key word here is unprecedented. I'm not defending what Bush is doing, but it's not like everyone else doesn't do the same thing when they're leaving the White House. I don't know if you could say that about leaving the Governor's Office in AZ.

Craig said...

You have a point, however, I was just pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans Adama and Burns criticizing Democrat Napolitano for doing an AZ version of what the Republican Bush is doing at the federal level.

On the other hand, I have no illusions - the Brewer team is already drafting recissions of Napolitano's orders, and the Obama team is making the same preparations for overturning some of Bush's final executive orders.

And that is not unprecedented at the state level - Ev Mecham's first exec order was one overturning the previous governor's order creating the MLK holiday.

We know how that one turned out. :))