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April 20, 2006

"Show up, shut up and push your green button"

The Oregon legislature posted the shortest special session on record today - 6 hours. And top politicians congratulated themselves on their accomplishment. But, what exactly happened?

According to the 6:00 KGW coverage, one lobbyist summed up today's special session as, "show up, shut up and push your green button." The 5:00 coverage showed footage of one lawmaker complaining that they were being asked to vote on bills that they hadn't even read.

This is frought with ironies because the lawmaker complaining is a Republican and they've never shown any qualms about Republicans in Congress ramming thru bills that nobody has had a chance to read yet. But, this wasn't a case of Oregon GOP politicos ramming bills down the throats of Dems. This was both Democrat and Republican leaders of the Oregon legislature deliberately ramming these bills thru before the lawmakers expected to pass judgement had even read them.

How did these Dem and GOP politicos accomplish this? Leadership appointed themselves to the only committee to hear the bills... approving all five in 15 minutes. Only after they'd rubberstamped the bills that they had hammered out, and thus were intimately familiar with, did they bring them before the joint session and forced them thru there.

What I want to know is why Democrats who have complained bitterly about Congressional Republicans ramming bills thru can turn a blind eye to members of their own party doing the same back here in Oregon?

Why should we citizens, regardless of party affiliation, be okay with our elected representatives being forced to represent us by voting for legislation that they haven't even read?

Posted by Kevin at April 20, 2006 06:02 PM

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