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February 24, 2008

The O's priorities don't appear to be those of Oregonians

The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes echoes today's front page "winners and losers" list which quixotically pegs Speaker Merkley as a loser in the special session just concluded.

Merkley scored points for getting a mortgage reform bill out of the House but burned bridges trying to ram it through the Senate. He got grief from Republicans for shutting down minority reports and taking campaign contributions during the session. And Merkley, who is running for U.S. Senate, could have used the time to prepare for the May primary and a possible fall faceoff against Republican Sen. Gordon Smith.

For starters this summation downplays Merkley's achievement getting that mortgage reform bill out of the House at all. Other newspapers in the state were much less stingy. The Statesman Journal's Peter Wong said that "House Speaker Jeff Merkley... went down fighting for a top priority." What more could Oregonians want from their legislative representatives than the willingness to go down fighting?

Wong went on to say that "the plan died in the Senate after mortgage-industry lobbyists mounted opposition that went beyond the Capitol hallways."

So The O counts Merkley a loser because he was outmaneuvered by fucking lobbyists? In a chamber (the Senate) which he has zero authority in? Against the backdrop of 12,000 Oregonians who will go into foreclosure in the next 2 1/2 years?

The Eastern Oregonian carried an AP piece which described it like this:

Merkley pushed the bill through his own chamber, gaining support from three Republicans to replace three Democrats who voted against the plan. But the proposal was dead on arrival in the Senate, under a torrent of industry opposition and a lukewarm reception from consumer advocates, who said it didn't go far enough.

Even Ryan Frank's Real Estate blog on The O gave Merkley credit.

Mortgage reforms cleared the House today but their future in the Senate is not clear. Late this afternoon, House Speaker Jeff Merkley circled the Capitol searching for Senate Democrats to make his case. Democrats have an 18-11 advantage but Merkley wasn't sure yet he had the votes.

"I'm tracking down any senator I can find in the building," Merkley said. His search was complicated by Capitol remodel. Legislators don't have their normal offices.

It seems everyone but whomever wrote The O's winners and losers list recognises both that the bill was killed by lobbyists and that while Merkley bucked stiff odds to get it through his own chamber, it died in the Senate which enjoys a significantly larger Dem majority than Merkley's chamber does. Even so, Merkley went above and beyond the call of duty to personally lobby Senators.

Interestingly enough The O counts Senate President Peter Courtney a winner in part because he got his pet anti-dog fighting bill through both chambers. Let's put this into context...

The night before the 2008 Legislature ended, a Democratic leader told Rep. Sara Gelser that the bill she'd worked on for months was officially dead.

The bill would have required the state to make public the names of caregivers who abuse people with disabilities.

Gelser was furious as she left the Capitol: "I find it a great irony that tomorrow we will make attending a dogfight a felony . . . when we're talking about thousands of vulnerable people still in danger." - Michelle Cole an Oregonian staff writer

And...

The dog-fighting bill, sponsored by Courtney, D-Salem, passed the House unanimously Friday -- but not without some grumbling.

Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, who watched his proposed constitutional amendment declaring health care a fundamental right stall in the Senate, said it wasn't fair that Courtney's bill did not undergo a strict fiscal analysis.

"I love dogs. I hate dog fighting," he said. "It just strikes me as very odd that this bill gets a free pass, and I'm not sure what that free pass is about." - MICHELLE COLE, JANIE HAR and DAVE HOGAN Oregonian staff writers

Even retiring Senator Avel Gordly got shafted.

Sen. Avel Gordly, an independent from Portland who has served in the House from 1991 to 1996 and in the Senate since 1996, is not running for re-election.

On Thursday, she failed to persuade a majority of her colleagues to bring her one allowed bill to the floor. The bill would have established a task force to develop a system offering mental health and addiction treatment services for seniors, people with disabilities and others in underserved racial and ethnic communities.

So let's sum up here...

*A task force to help seniors, the disabled and others - shot down.

*Health Care as a constitutional right - put off.

*Requiring the state to make public the names of caregivers who abuse people with disabilities - shot down.

*Mortgage Finance reform - killed in committee. Two different versions. In the Senate.

But Senate President Courtney is lauded for making it a felony to watch a dogfight? I'm not saying that's not important. But MORE important than some of the other stuff that was killed in his chamber? Really? And Speaker Merkley is the loser??? Because he might have "burned bridges" with the crazy notion that Oregonians deserve to have someone fighting on our behalf against the fucking lobbyists?

Where the fuck are The Oregonian's priorities?

And that doesn't even get into the absurd suggestion by The O that Merkley was a loser because he could have used the time to work his campaign. I mean what the fuck? Are Oregonians without health care better served? Seniors? The Disabled? Victims of abusive caregivers? All less worthy of Speaker Merkley's attention than running his campaign? And who the fuck says that he can't do both? Wouldn't THAT benefit Oregonians?

The sheer cynicism of The O is appalling. Real lives of real Oregonians are affected by what happens in our legislature. Dogs are important, but not more important than 12,000 citizens who face foreclosure. Not more important than exposing abusive caregivers or helping seniors and the disabled. Or whether Health Care is a right or not.

Posted by Kevin at February 24, 2008 08:12 PM