A handful of talk radio hosts from around the state organized a rally in Montgomery yesterday to urge the state Senate to pass a bill aimed at curbing illegal immigration.  Citizens from all over the state, including here in Huntsville (a three hour drive), attended the rally and Senate committee meeting afterward.  For their trouble the Alabama Senate put on a civics lesson as only they could.  The committee couldn’t even muster enough members for a quorum so that the bill could go before the full senate.

Whether the bill, Senate Bill 426 sponsored by Scott Beason (R-Gardendale), is virtuous or not is beside the point of this post.  Maybe we’ll debate it on its merits here another time.  What is truly shameful is that five senators did not even bother to attend the hearing and another two senators engaged in a bit of choreography so that neither would be in the room at the same time and cause the committee to meet the quorum requirements.

Here is a list of the committee members and their status during the meeting:

Now I distinctly remember our illustrious legislature, including many names on that list, passing themselves a 62% pay raise last year.  And for what?  So that they cannot even attend a significant, highly anticipated committee meeting.  What the hell are we paying them to do?  Is it really too much to ask that our elected officials actually do their jobs?  Seriously, they only have to meet in regular session for 30 days over the course of the entire year.

I’m not sure which is worse, the ones who didn’t have the cojones to show up and vote up or down for all to see or the pair (Mitchell and Singleton) that did show up, but orchestrated their movements so they wouldn’t have to vote.  Mitchell and Singleton will try to use their partial attendance to deflect criticism, but don’t be fooled.  They might as well have stayed home since their actions prevented a vote.

According to WVNN’s Dale Jackson, there were representatives of business interests physically present to dissuade senators from even going in to the hearing lest they succumb to the will of the people and vote to allow the full senate to consider the bill.

The one senator whose absence is explicable, though not justified, is Parker Griffith.  You know, the guy who thinks Alabamians are too independent minded.  He choose to attend a meeting with Huntsville big wigs.  The meeting was planned for some time in advance and I don’t doubt that he will use that as an excuse, but, again, don’t be fooled.  Rep. Sue Schmitz - yes, that Sue Schmitz - was an attendee at the same meeting and she left to take care of legislative duties.  Parker Griffith could have left as well.  He chose not to.  He chose to schmooze with people he has ample opportunity to talk to most of the year while he is in Huntsville instead of performing his legislative duties that he was elected and is paid to do.

What is truly depressing is that 74% of the senate is signed on as a sponsor or co-sponsor of the bill.  One might think that would insure passage, but one would be wrong.  This is just another example of our legislature, at least just the senate in this case, putting on a dog and pony show.  I wonder how many senators will point out their sponsorship of this bill to their constituents in order to placate them while actively working to subvert its passage.  They know that most voters won’t pay attention to how the bill got killed, they will just be glad their senator had his name on it.

I hope that voters in this state will remember actions like this and like the 62% pay raise next time they go to the polls.  I’m afraid I’d have better odds wishing for world peace, though.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Alabama, Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.