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POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: ANOTHER WRECK IN RICHMOND-THE DAILY PROGRESS, JANUARY 26, 2008

Posted: Saturday January 26, 2008

Political Notebook: Another Wreck in Richmond

January 26, 2008
RICHMOND

The General Assembly session that is scheduled to conclude March 8 is hardly setting records for bipartisan cooperation.

An Associated Press story about Jan. 24 action on floor of the House of Delegates ran under the AP slug: “Partisan Meltdown.”

Reporter Bob Lewis noted: “What remained of partisan collegiality in the House of Delegates lay in shambles Thursday after a floor dispute over a rare procedural move.”

A General Assembly, accustomed to budget-deadlock train wrecks and transportation-funding train wrecks under the last two governors, when Republicans ran both chambers, is adjusting to petty-partisanship train wrecks now that each chamber is in different hands.

The slow crash of partisan interests, a gentle spiral down from modest civility to immodest finger-wagging, is coming despite Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s opening-day call for both parties to work together.

Governors have only so much influence when they have a little less than two years left in their term and the clashing legislators figure they will be around a lot longer.

Republicans who control the House set up last Thursday’s crash by gunning through a new rule on opening day.

The strange rule, which could be dubbed “the Partisan Put-Them-on-the-Board-When-They Don’t-Want-to-Vote Rule of 2008,” gives the party that runs the Rules Committee the right to take a bill and shoot it to the House floor for an up-or-down vote without having first voted to get the measure there.

The first use of the rule came on a measure sponsored by Del. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Arlington, who tried to withdraw his bill to allow collective bargaining by state and local government workers once it was assigned to the Rules Committee for this special treatment.

Everyone knew the bill had no chance of passing. GOP House leaders saw it as a bill that could drive a wedge between Democrats, who get lots of campaign cash from unions, and the unions that love the little no-chance-in-hell bill.

Virginia once had a tradition of a campaigning season followed by a governing season that was not quite as partisan.

That tradition was trashed so long ago as to be quaintly remembered, along with the sanctity of motherhood, apple pie and fresh milk, Virginia’s official drink.

Although requests by the sponsors of bills to strike the measures they no longer support are common and routinely granted, Ebbin’s request to withdraw his measure, unchanged by any committee action, fell on deaf ears.

The House’s Republican majority refused to ditch the measure before forcing Democrats to take a vote that might dampen their strong support from labor unions.

An angry hour of speeches followed as Democrats accused the GOP of bullying and tyranny and Republi-cans said Democrats didn’t have the courage to take a difficult vote.

When a roll call vote came on a motion to advance the bill, it was rejected 57-0. In protest, all but two Democrats had refused to vote on the motion.

Republicans then used an obscure parliamentary privilege to order a vote of no for 25 of the non-voting Democrats.

Parties don’t have to work together if they want to score partisan points.

They might have to lean toward more cooperation if they don’t like the labels “train wreck,” “deadlock” and “failure to communicate.”

The partisanship that had been surging just under the surface prior to the House show of its new GOP rule is now flowing in a lack of trust that may take a while to repair.

Skepticism about the ability of the two parties to work well together is rampant.

“I don’t think the Republicans gained anything other than ill will,” Ebbin said. “I put this [bill] in at the request of a local police officers’ organization, and I wanted them to be able to present it in a subcommittee.”

That prospect disappeared when the GOP leadership seized the bill as a poster measure to be held up and shot down for their assertion that Democrats are bad for business.

Despite the widespread feeling the bill never had the support to go anywhere, House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford County, signed a “Dear Virginia Business Leader” letter the day before its public flogging.

Howell’s letter urged business leaders to “weigh in on this debate,” about a bill that was never seriously addressed prior to the use of the new rule to shoot it down 82-0.

“In 2007, Democrat candidates for the General Assembly enjoyed unprecedented support from organized labor, winning additional seats in the House of Delegates and securing an outright majority in the Virginia Senate,” Howell’s letter ominously warned.

“We see now as the ideal time to measure the level of legislative consensus on this issue,” the letter stated before 57 delegates willingly voted against the bill and 25 Democrats were added to the “no” total despite their refusal to cast a ballot in protest of the way in which it was brought up.

The March 8 deadline to finish the General Assembly business is approaching fast-er than the apparent willingness of participants to cooperate and compromise enough to get there in any real spirit of bipartisanship.

Perhaps House leaders are thinking that a little Kabuki theater is in season as re-election time is less than 22 months away.

Bob Gibson (434) 978-7243 |

bgibson@dailyprogress.com

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POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: ANOTHER WRECK IN RICHMOND-THE DAILY PROGRESS, JANUARY 26, 2008

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