Thank You Dick Saslaw

The Senate forms a new subcommittee to kill "absurd" bills from the House, and the "Mark of the Beast" bill goes there first.

Comments

[anon]

Post-crossover Senate Democrats motto: Taking Out the Trash.

[Brian W. Schoeneman]

Glad to see this bill die quietly.

[Not Shocked at All]

How does this stuff get voted out of the House?

Is there anything the Republicans won't pass that the wacko portion of their base wants?

[Not Shocked at All]

The money quote from the Post story:

"But he (Del. Mark Cole) also said he shared concerns that the devices could someday be used as the "mark of the beast" described in the Book of Revelation."

Are we really going to legislate based on the Book of Revelations?

I wouls say Mark Cole is an embarrasment to Virginia but really, Bob Marshall, Dick Black, and on and on.

Cole is just another legislator living up to the high standards of the House Republicans.

[HisRoc]

Not Shocked at All,

You should be shocked. The Republicans had plenty of help with HB 53. Only nine delegates voted against it, with dozens of Democrats voting to pass it, including our own Mark Keam of the 35th District.

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?101+vot+HV0488+HB0053

I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat. Until you reach the point where you don't automatically condemn anything that the other party does while making excuses for anything your party does, you'll never begin to understand the problem we face.

[Satan]

It's nice to see Saslaw take care of this crap quickly and efficiently.

[Steve Vaughan]

So who's on the Killing Stupid Bills Subcommitee? The linked story doesn't tell us.

[change]

I suppose all is fair in love and “politics”, however it is sad to see this extreme partisanship leaking into our great commonwealth.

The house had almost 1400 bills to dispose of in some manner or the other before crossover and the senate only about 750 so I see some merit to the sub committee.
However, maybe the house should take up all the senate bills in full committee after crossover as the workload is reduced in both chambers.

This type of activity does not bode well for the budget process.

Everyone should “grow up” a bit and quit following the lead of the children in D.C.

[HisRoc]

change,

I don't think that partisanship is nearly as much of the problem as the self-inflicted workload in the House. When each delegate introduces an average of over 150 pieces of legislation that has to be dealt with in a 45-day session, then you have to wonder how many bills even get read before they are voted on, committee action notwithstanding. HB53 in of itself is more comic relief than a threat to the Commonwealth. What I worry about is what is being moved along under everyone's radar?

There must be a better way of creating some kind of discipline and priority in how the House approaches the people's business. The current approach is clearly broken. It seems that we have an example of HB53 almost every legislative session. Remember the "Droopy Pants" law that passed the House five years ago? It passed by a vote of 60-34 before being killed in the Senate C of J Committee.

[HisRoc]

Correction: "when each delegate introduces an average of over 15 pieces of legislation..."

[Impressive]

If Mark Cole believes Revelation is divine prophecy, what's the point in legislation aimed at preventing it from happening?

Did he read Revelation one morning and decide "not on my watch?"

[Not Paul Blart]

HisRoc, just remember that droopy drawers would have been voted down by a huge margin in the House if Lionell Spruill hadn't gotten up and jumped all over Algie Howell. Apparently Algie is well-liked in the House, and Lionell's tirade made them want to pass his bill, no matter how ill-guided. Also, it's worth repeating that Algie Howell and Lionell Spruill are both Democrats. You're correct that neither party has a monopoly on weird bills. Still, after hearing about Lionell's speech, even I would have voted for the bill had I been a delegate.

BTW, while we're discussing the worst bills of all time, let's not forget (former) Del. Bob Hull's bill banning lights on athletic fields. Another gem.

[HisRoc]

Not Paul Blart,

Thank you. With all due respect (and I mean that; I'm not being in the least bit sarcastic), you have confirmed my worst fears about the House of Delegates: that delegates will vote for a bad law because someone's feelings got hurt or for some other trivial reason. I would rather that they passed the bill simply because they were to busy to read it.

I wonder how Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson would view the moral courage of our current Virginia lawmakers?

[Gnarly]

I guess the members of this Subcommittee have no problem if somebody implanted a microchip into them against their will.

[Larry Sabato's Hairpiece]

Interestingly, the new subcommittee is evenly bipartisan--2D/2R

Saslaw
Norment
Watkins
Puckett

This is not a partisan thing as much as it is a chamber v. chamber thing.

[HisRoc]

Gnarly,

Don't forget to put on your tinfoil lined cap before you go to bed tonight. Remember, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you.

Sweet dreams.

[Not A Virginia State Senator]

Gnarly its called assault and battery

[not anyone in particular]

hmmm wonder what will happen to the repeal of one gun a month...hahahahahh

[TJ's Ghost]

I have to say that I personally abhor the ability for ANY subcommittee - House or Senate - to kill any bill in an unrecorded vote. That rules change was wrong when it was made in the House, and it's wrong now in the Senate.

I vividly remember the debate on the floor of the House when that rules change was proposed by Speaker Howell and the Republican majority. Democrats - perhaps most vocally Del. Ward Armstrong - railed against the change and called it an injustice to Democracy and a stain on the great history of the House of Delegates, the oldest continually active legislative body in the Western Hemisphere. Senate Democrats also vehemently protested publicly that day, and now they've changed their own rules to match the House's "injustice to Democracy". As a Democrat, I'm frankly deeply disappointed in the Senate majority's actions in setting up this Subcommittee. If a bill is that bad, let the committee process that we've relied on for over 200 years sort that out. That's what the committee process was designed to do in the first place.

The next thing you know, Senate Dems will be allowing the Senate Rules Committee to send bills to the floor of the Senate without a recommendation.

[Steve Vaughan]

TJ's Ghost,
As much as I like the idea of the Killing Stupid Bills Subcommittee, I have to agree. Respect for process had been one area where the Senate was clearly superior to the House. I don't agree with crafting to the process to reach the end you've already determined.