October 3, 2016
Is Tennessee In Need Of New Legislative Leadership?
The purpose of the Tennessee Legislature in a constitutional republic is to set public policy through debate and deliberation by those individuals from all across the state who have been elected by their constituents as their representative voice in government. Policy should not be set by a mere handful of minions or elite members of leadership because that would be an oligarchy. Public policy should be set by the entire body of the House and the Senate considering and debating issues of significance such as the recognition and protection of rights that are expressly recognized in our state and federal constitutions, taxation, education, the push back against federalism, refugee resettlement, open borders and other major topics.
The lack of an effective voice in government affairs by the people is fundamentally one of the things that brought about the American Revolution. It is alive today when public policy is ultimately manipulated by an small oligarchy of "leadership".
Governance without representation is the core concept behind "taxation without representation". It cannot be genuinely debated that the management of a committee system which effectively keeps significant constitutional or public interest proposed legislation bottled up in subcommittees or committees and away from floor debates is anything but abusive and antithetical to a constitutional republic.
When we have "governance without representation", as has happened repeatedly the last 6 years on Second Amendment legislation (and numerous other core conservative issues), it becomes clear that the public policy of the state, as stated in its statutes, is not being crafted by a fully representative government. To the contrary, only those handful of issues which legislative leadership "allows" to survive leadership's committee system maze are ever considered by the entire body. All of the other issues that are derailed, "black holed", or otherwise buried in the committee system are examples of where the vast majority of Tennesseans are effectively disenfranchised because their elected officials never debate or vote on these issues at all.
This problem of disenfranchisement or "governance without representation" lies directly with the leadership composition of the Senate and the House.
Ron Ramsey has retired as the leader of the Senate and a new leader will
be selected by its members after the November elections establish the
composition of the Senate starting in 2017. There will be a new Lt. Governor in the Tennessee Senate. A burden that the next Lt. Governor will have is to ensure that the Senate's committee system is operated to craft the best public policy and not to strangle the development of public policy to suit the desires of a small oligarchy.
In the House, Beth Harwell has held the office of Speaker for the last 6
years. Under the House Rules, the Speaker "shall preserve order and
decorumand may speak to points of order in preference to
other members." The Speaker holds the power to create and
appointment members to House committees and subcommittees. Perhaps of
greater importantance, the Speaker solely designates the chairmen of the
House committees.
Certainly, not every bill that is filed should be debated on the floor. Some bills are filed just for posturing or so an incumbent can claimed to have sponsored an issue even though there was no intent to every move it to the floor. Some bills are filed that are redundant, that are already law, or that are just so poorly worded that they need time to be reworked. However, there are bills each year that are filed, that are serious bills worthy of full debate but which are left on the trash heap of the committee system because one or two votes in a committee of perhaps 4 or 5 responded to the "call" of the oligarchy. Too many times it has been reported by a sponsor that they were admonished before or after the committee vote that "that bill was never supposed to be voted upon."
While a committee system could function efficiently to improve the system, there is a great risk to the rights of the public if the system is used instead as a tool by leadership to limit the boundaries of the floor debates to only those topics previously approved for choreographic presentation.
The "pink elephant" in the room is whether Harwell's prior actions as Speaker evidence that it is time for a new Speaker in the House. This is not a popularity contest, it is a question of whether the systems and actions of the House over the last 6 years should be continued in 2017. What are some of the characteristics of Harwell's tenure which suggest that its time for a new leader? The non-exhaustive list includes perhaps some of these recurrent themes and embarassments:
- The weaponization of the House ethics and sexual harassment standards for political purposes - otherwise known as the "Durham Debacle". Of course this occurred with an apparently questionable engagement of the "Attorney General" before a committee was set up to seek the attorney general's assistance in investigating a matter that could have been investigated under the existing House sexual harassment policy. Of course, this investigative tactic was not used when reports of somewhat similar "frat house" abuses arose involving at least two of the Speaker's chairman or one of her senior staffers.... https://rockytoppolitics.com/2016/08/05/harwell-on-a-very-hot-seat-part-2/
- The recent reports of at least one staffer who has complained to deaf ears about the conduct of Harwell's chief clerk - Joe McCord and Harwell's decision to attack the retiring legislator (Billy Spivey) who made the issue public rather than to perhaps call the Attorney General for yet another KGB style investigation. https://rockytoppolitics.com/2016/09/28/chickens-coming-home-to-roost/
- The regular use of secret "pre-meetings" that allowed committee leadership to decide outside of public observation which bills might and might not be allowed to proceed. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/mar/18/secret-meetings-stir-debate/293834/
- "Ghost voting" where legislators voted on the floor of the House under Harwell's watch on bills for other legislators who were not present to vote for their own constituents. http://www.newschannel5.com/story/17796991/nc5-investigates-state-lawmakers-ghost-voting
- "Amendment Gate" - the story a few years ago where the state budget was somehow magically reworked allegedly to reinsert financial support for Planned Parenthood. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2011/may/31/planned-parenthood-defunding-attempt-blocked-state/50884/
- The "coup" on the floor just a few years ago where leadership's efforts to protect and fully implement common core were upset. https://www.votervoice.net/EAGLE/newsletters/15086
- The "coup" on the floor just this year where efforts by Harwell's well heeled minions were trying to protect the Hall tax by preserving most of the Hall tax (particularly the percentage payable to local governments) were upset by a last minute amendment that sunsets the tax in 6 more years (protecting roughly $1.2 billion of additional taxation on Tennseesans for no good reason). http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/04/25/feisty-conservatives-tennessee-state-legislature-phase-hall-tax-unearned-income/
- The termination of Rep. Andy Holt's staffer by the Speaker's office for allegedly helping to re-elect incumbent Republicans who were not "favored" in the eyes of the "oligarchy". https://rockytoppolitics.com/2016/08/20/harwell-hands-matlock-a-huge-gift/
- At least one report that Harwell refers to her operative in charge of Legislative Administration as the "ice bitch". https://rockytoppolitics.com/2016/08/19/ice-bitch/
What has become clear over the last 6 years is that the leadership in the Tennessee House Speaker's office has not been focused on maintaining the decorum of that branch of state government or even insuring that the committee system works as it should (rather than as merely a maze for the oligarchy of leadership to derail legislation that the oligarchy wants to stop).
What has been painfully clear to conservatives is that the oligarchy of Tennessee's House leadership (which apparently includes the governor) is more concerned with political power and future office possibilities rather than making sure that public policy issues of significance are put on the House floor for a full and fair discussions. The oligargchy of House leadership seems perfectly willing and adept at manipulating the committee system to yield "governance without representation" so long as the sausage coming out of the grinder is flavored to their tastes.
Tennesseans should not be required to accept "governance without representation". Tennesseans should be contacting their elected officials immediately after the November elections and demanding that the leadership of the House and Senate be constituted so that "decorum" is restored and that the risks of disenfranchisement through a misused committee system are minimized or eliminated.
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