Where's Bob Going With That Ax?
Bob Bernick maintains that Democrats cannot be effective legislators. Yet, his report card on legislative effectiveness always has some Democrats at the top of the list. So, which is it?
An aside here: in my favorite pig story, the newspaper holds wormy leftovers and the web changes the world.
An aside here: in my favorite pig story, the newspaper holds wormy leftovers and the web changes the world.
posted by steve u. at 12/11/2006
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6 Comments:
So the question is raised - what is an "effective legislator"? If it is defined as the number of bills introduced, anyone could fill the bill. If it is defined as the number of bills introduced compared to the number of bills passed, that is obviously more difficult to achieve. If it is the percentage of bills introduced (as opposed to the volume) and subsequently passed, then one bill introduced and one passed would make someone a fantastic legislator (in this scenario, 100%). So what is truely the definition?
I contend that a truly "effective legistlator" is one that introduces few bills, and only those bills that will really help PRESERVE our freedoms/liberty as defined in the US Constitution and upheld by the State Constitution. Anything less than preservation of those liberties is actually making that person/legislature LESS effective, using my definition.
Whether the bills introduced by a legistalor pass or not is not the question. The real question should be - did the legislator do everything he or she could to preserve the freedoms we have, or return to us those freedoms that have been removed? That includes voting against bills that would take away those liberties. Are those votes taken into account? I highly doubt it.
I apologize for the extensive post, and I hope, Rep Urquhart, that you do not feel that I am attacking anyone in particular but that I am attempting to wax eloquent (pathetic attempt, I know).
Clever pig story comparison.
Miner,
I'm using "effective" in the sense of a legislator being able to get things done that he/she wants to get done, not whether those things are right/wrong, good/bad, smart/dumb.
I agree that using the number or percentage of bills passed is not a very accurate way to measure of effectiveness. (Maybe a legislator only runs meaningless stuff or maybe the legislator spends valuable time working to kill bad bills). The budget items are contained in a handful of bills; I tend to measure effectiveness in terms of what legislators manage to include or exclude in those bills. And some Democrats manage to do quite well in that arena.
Steve,
Great post. You are right about the Charlottes web analogy. But even Templeton, the rat who digs through the garbage to find words and articles, would have stayed away from Bernick's slanted articles.
Carl
cool
[off topic - please delete] Steve, your site feed is broken. It only has old stuff in it.
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