Et tu, Steve?

During Saturday's debate in the House on the latest round of budget cuts, things got a little heated, with Democrats and Republicans criticizing each for various things. Mostly the Republicans were trying pin the blame for the state's finances on the Democrats, the group that has been totally shut out of almost all discussions at the lege this year, while the Democrats were having none of it.

Most of it was stuff that we have heard before, with just a little more rancor than usual (apparently, the idea of having to work on the Saturday before Christmas on matters that should have been dealt with by the end of June put the legislators in a less than "seasonally cheery" mood. What a shock. :) )

Time permitting, I'll cover some of those gems in a later post after the lege has posted the video of today's session.

However, one utterance caught my ear and then my eye when Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services included it in his piece on Saturday's happenings at the lege.

From the article, courtesy VerdeNews.com -

Rep. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said the Democrats voted against every spending reduction that came to the floor, not just this session but earlier this year.

"It may politically expedient to say, 'I voted against the cuts,' ' Yarbrough said. "But that is political gamesmanship, not statesmanship.'

This from one of the people most responsible for the state's mess, what with his devotion to his STO and protecting its ability to siphon revenue from the state into his pockets and his signing on to Grover Norquist's "no taxes" pledge.

Yarbrough, along with almost all of his Republican colleagues, haven't just voted against all attempts to address revenue (and not just taxes), including the "passing of the buck," a referral of a sale tax increase to the ballot, they've simply refused to even consider them.

How about we change his statement to -

"It may be politically expedient to say 'I voted against the taxes.' But that is political gamesmanship, not statesmanship."

Change a couple of words, and Yarbrough's statement is true, but truth was never a part of the special session agenda for Yarbrough and his friends. Gamesmanship was.

On the other hand, gamesmanship and ideological rigidity may be what passes for "statesmanship" in today's GOP.

Yarbrough is one of the leaders of the gang that has sacrificed fiscal sanity and legislative professionalism on the altar of "political gamesmanship."

If he wants to assess blame for the toxic atmosphere and culture of ineffectiveness at the Capitol, that is his prerogative.

He just needs to be looking in a mirror when he's pointing fingers.

When you outlaw laws, only outlaws will have laws

Tedski at Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion has covered this already, but it's worthy of more coverage.

Especially in light of the apparent fizzling out of next week's likely-to-remain-a-rumor special session of the lege to address the ongoing budget deficit...

Russell Pearce likes to tout himself as a "rule of law" type, but it seems that his enthusiasm for obedience to the laws of the state and country doesn't exactly apply to Pearce himself obeying the law.

From the Arizona Capitol Times -

Sen. Russell Pearce told our reporter yesterday he is advocating lawmakers "simply ignore" the maintenance of effort requirements for K-12, universities and healthcare funding that the state agreed to when it accepted the federal stimulus aid earlier this year.

{snip}

"Our economy is worse than theirs. We simply cannot do it," he said. "It’s time to tell the federal government, 'Sorry, we can’t do it.' I intend to balance the budget without tax increases."

Of course, federal law regarding budget matters is the least of the budget-related laws that Pearce ignores at will.

Consider the highest law in the state, the Arizona Constitution.

From Article 9, Section 3 (emphasis mine) -

The legislature shall provide by law for an annual tax sufficient, with other sources of revenue, to defray the necessary ordinary expenses of the state for each fiscal year. And for the purpose of paying the state debt, if there be any, the legislature shall provide for levying an annual tax sufficient to pay the annual interest and the principal of such debt within twenty-five years from the final passage of the law creating the debt.

No tax shall be levied except in pursuance of law, and every law imposing a tax shall state distinctly the object of the tax, to which object only it shall be applied.

All taxes levied and collected for state purposes shall be paid into the state treasury in money only.

From Article 9, Section 4 -

The fiscal year shall commence on the first day of July in each year. An accurate statement of the receipts and expenditures of the public money shall be published annually, in such manner as shall be provided by law. Whenever the expenses of any fiscal year shall exceed the income, the legislature may provide for levying a tax for the ensuing fiscal year sufficient, with other sources of income, to pay the deficiency, as well as the estimated expenses of the ensuing fiscal year.

Arizona - the place where the loudest lawmakers are also the loudest lawbreakers.


Note on the special session talk: if it does happen next week (and according to sources, it's not completely dead quite yet, though it's thisclose to being kaput), it may just be a one day session where the members show up, vote without reading what they are voting on, collect their per diem, and head back to the hills.

The original "plan" (such as it was) was for a three-day session from Monday to Wednesday.

Except that the Speaker of the House, Kirk Adams, will be out of town on Monday, and there are all sorts of events on Tuesday that will keep members away from the Capitol on Tuesday until mid to late afternoon, when they have another meeting scheduled.

And then other members will be heading out of town in preparation for the holidays later in the week.

Also, in all of the tentative budget patches/fixes that are being floated around unofficially (in other words, nothing available online yet), more massive cuts to K-12 education and DES are featured but nothing to address revenue has been included, including the Governor's proposed referendum on a sales tax hike. That was supposed to be considered, MAYBE, in a December special session that would have set up a March election on the matter.

While something *could* still happen next week, at this point I'd bet on nothing happening until January at the earliest.

Later...

Ray Barnes - not really learning the lesson

...and believe it or not, this one isn't about his misogynistic stereotyping and spouting at an air quality meeting (ably covered by Tedski at R-Cubed).

Nope, this one is about the AZGOP's "do as we say, not as we do" school of political finger-pointing.

A couple of months ago, the AZGOP started calling for an investigation of a couple of Democratic officeholders (specifically AZAG Terry Goddard and LD15 State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema) for expressing interest in a higher office while still holding their current offices, hence violating the state's "resign-to-run" law.

All the while, the AZGOP blithely ignored two of their own, State Sen. John Huppenthal and State Rep. Ray Barnes, who were doing a *lot* more than simply expressing interest.

Huppenthal is collecting nominating signatures under the guise of "exploring" a run at State Superintendant of Public Instruction while Barnes didn't even bother with the "exploring" sham when he formed a committee for his run at the LD7 State Senate seat (he's termed out in the House).

People far and wide, and not just Democrats, pointed out the shameless hypocrisy of the GOP.

However, today there is some evidence that Barnes may have understood their point.

Or not.

His Senate committee (for LD7), filer ID 201000055, was formed on February 11, 2009, with one George Garbell listed as committee chair and one Walter Dudley listed as treasurer.

However, on Tuesday, October 20, he formed an exploratory committee for the LD7 senate seat (filer ID 201000276) with one Howard Sprague as chair and Dudley again serving as treasurer.

Sounds good, at least in a "window dressing" sort of way, doesn't it?

It does, except for one thing -

The regular committee is still active, meaning that he is now pursuing the same office twice while he still holds another office.


On the other hand, he is a Republican in an Arizona that has a Republican Secretary of State - he could have already turned in sigs and qualified for the ballot and the SOS would opine that he still hadn't started "actively" campaigning for the office.

File it under "IOKIYAR."

Why is it that when elected Republicans fail, they blame everyone but themselves?

This is what happens when you elect people to oversee government who have nothing but contempt for the professionals who work in public services...

Whether it is GOP Mayor Jim Lane of Scottsdale blaming his own City Manager, John Little, for all that ails Scottsdale or nativist Republican Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio crying about the unfairness of it all when the professionals at ICE decline to continue official Federal sanction to the anti-Mexican railroad he's been engineering at MCSO, GOP elected officials invariably blame everyone but themselve for their own shortcomings as public officials.

While the likes of Arpaio and even Lane are fairly high-profile examples of this phenomenon, there are incidents of it even at the lower-levels of government.

From AZCentral.com -

An out-of-state team investigating the Maricopa County Community College District governing board released a 55-page report this week validating complaints about the board overstepping its authority and engaging in "rogue" behavior.

"The evidence is compelling that there are many elements of board behavior that urgently need to be addressed," the report released to the governing board states.

{snip}

Among the report's findings:

• Board members treat one another and college officials with a lack of respect and civility, creating "a climate of fear and intimidation" and "a culture of mistrust throughout the organization."

The board members have made 156 information requests of staff, impinged on their responsibilities, called employees at home on weekends and threatened to have employees fired.

• Four of five board members are acting "without any discernible understanding or appreciation of either the complexity of the (college) district or of the role/responsibility of the board as a governing body."

Further, several board members have "no desire to learn to act appropriately or to understand that their role and authority is primarily as a group that governs."

• The board has on various occasions usurped the authority of Chancellor Glasper and the Chancellor's Executive Council, choosing in one case to draft the 2010-11 operating budget without input from staff.

• Input from leadership, faculty and staff is discouraged and ignored by the board.

• Board members engage in bad behaviors, including making religious comments at board meetings; uttering inappropriate and offensive comments about race, ethnicity, religion and gender; and harassing students and employees.

• Some board members have tried to control content in college courses and influence admission into preferred college programs.

Of course, the Board couldn't let these criticisms of their acts go unchallenged.

From Board member Jerry Walker, published in the East Valley Tribune -

The recent “review” of the governing board for the Maricopa County Community College District by a team from the Higher Learning Commission is yet another example of how too few individuals fully understand the state-defined role of the five-member, publicly elected board. Simply put, the buck stops with us, the board members, and we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for stewardship of the public monies entrusted to us.

{snip}

Accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission is important for academic programs, but this voluntary review and approval of curriculum will not impose itself on the role and responsibilities voters have entrusted me and other board members to perform.

My style may be direct, but voters in my district and throughout Maricopa County can rest assured that I will continue to work lawfully with integrity, loyalty, fairness and consistency despite bureaucratic efforts at the district and the colleges to blame the board for their ills. They resist accountability and change that will ultimately benefit the students and taxpayers alike.

So, the majority of the Governing Board members have messed up (actually, "messed up" may not be the right term here since most of their bad acts appear to have been deliberate) and have endangered the accreditation and future viability of the very organization they were elected to oversee and nurture, and it isn't their fault.

Nope, it's the fault of those "durned" bureaucrats. Government and public service would just be so much better without actual public service professionals getting in the way of pure-hearted folks from the GOP. {For the snark-deficient, that what is called "sarcasm."}

BTW - Walker may be the wrong Board member to serve as pointman of the Board members' defense of their actions, attitudes, and statements, If anything, he may be the worst offender. More info here, though be warned, the source very definitely has a viewpoint. The comments, particularly the one regarding the custom license plate that Walker has on his truck, lend some insight into Walker's mentality and the root of his disdain for the District's Chancellor.

Quote of the week - IOKIYAR edition

Republican Senator Jon Kyl, AZ's own Big Insurance lobbyist, provides a gem this week.

From the Arizona Republic -

...Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said Obama deserves some of the blame for the polarization, saying the president went out of his way to be "unnecessarily politically pugnacious" during his speech to the joint session of Congress.

Obama took several shots at his health-reform critics, at one point vowing, "If you misrepresent what's in this plan, we will call you out."

So, after a summer during which Republicans all over the country referred to President Obama as a "Nazi" and/or "socialist"; where health insurance industry lies are regarded as Gospel truth by Rep members of Congress; where teabaggers shouted down supporters of health care reform at public forums; where other teabaggers hung an effigy of a Congressman because of his support of health care reform; members of Congress continued to spread the lie that President Obama isn't a citizen; a dozen armed protesters, including one with an assault rifle, greeted President Obama when he visited Phoenix in August; an Obama speech to students that advised them to stay in school, listen to their teachers, and do their homework was criticized at "too political" by Republicans; where...you know.

That's all OK with Kyl. Apparently, he doesn't consider those actions and words to be "inappropriately pugnacious."

Telling Reps that they will be held accountable for their part in coarsening public discourse, now *that* is too "pugnacious."

Next up in Breaking News: Water is wet

On Thursday, Pro Tem Justice of the Peace Daniel Washburn acquitted State Sen. John Huppenthal (R-Anger Management Issues) on misdemeanor theft and political sign tampering charges.

Washburn is a Republican activist and candidate in Pinal County. Huppenthal is a state senator and likely candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction next year.

This was not a really shocking verdict (the sign tampering statute's language refers to the signs for a candidate, and the sign in question was not "for" a candidate) but the fact that Washburn took so long to find something to hang an acquittal on the theft charge was a little surprising.

While the ruling cannot be appealed by the prosecution, the grounds for the acquittal on the theft charge seems weak.

The Judge found that the state hadn't proven that the sign in question belonged to the Arizona Democratic Party, and that was enough to acquit.

My understanding of the law (which isn't great; if a real lawyer wants to chime in with some insights, that would be fine) is that theft occurs when someone takes property that doesn't belong to him, not when that someone takes property that belongs to a specific owner.

Another weakness of the verdict is that it was based in part on the property manager giving Huppenthal permission to take the sign down.

Well, while Huppenthal testified that he was given permission, the property manager testified that she said "I don't care."

Only in Arizona could "I don't care" be synonymous with "I give you permission."

I guess we can file all of this under "IOKIYAR" - It's OK If You're A Republican.

IOKIYAR

It seems that Republican bigotry is getting worldwide notice.

From The Times (UK) -

An e-mail sent by a Republican aide, entitled Historical Keepsake Photo, features portraits of the first 43 American presidents in a variety of dignified and statesmanlike poses. The succession of white faces, however, comes to an abrupt halt in the final and 44th panel which displays just a pair of cartoon eyeballs set against an entirely dark background.

Little more than six months since the US elected its first black president and Barack Obama declared “change has come to America”, hopes that the country is finally overcoming a racist past are being tempered by evidence that parts of it — sections of the Republican Party in particular — remain aghast at the notion of a black First Family.

The specific situation that the article refers to is that of Sherri Goforth, a legislative aide to Republican State Senator Diane Black of Tennessee. She sent the offensive email from a legislative email account. Ms. Goforth wasn't fired for her deed, she was reprimanded.

Apparently, her defense of "I sent it to the wrong email list" was heart-rendingly compelling enough that her immediate supervisor (Sen. Black) found that leniency was appropriate in this situation.

I mean, it's not as if she told a joke about the 18-year old daughter of a former candidate for Vice-President that was in poor taste and worse, just wasn't funny.

Then the Republicans would be out for blood.