The theocratic wing of Indiana’s Senate Republicans intends to either fill the Senate Presidency with one of their own or demand obedience of the person who fills the post left vacant by Sen. Garton’s ouster. Mary Beth Schneider and Michele McNeil have an article in the Indianapolis Star about the political maneuverings to fill the slot.
“The next president pro tempore will be a strong conservative,” vowed Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, who said he may seek the job if no other conservative candidate emerges.
At a minimum, said Sen. Jeff Drozda, R-Westfield, conservatives will have a strong voice in who becomes president pro tempore.
“The next leader will either be part of the new conservative wing, or it will be someone who can demonstrate that they can abide by our philosophies,” Drozda said.The top job isn’t the only thing at stake. So are all the committee chairmanships, which are named by the president pro tempore; the topics of the committees; and control of the legislative agenda in the Senate.
Drozda predicted that, regardless of who becomes the new Senate leader, conservatives will control “a large portion of leadership.”
Judging from Drozda and Delph’s legislative history, they mean “conservative” in the biblical sense. Though, to be fair, unlike Senate candidate Walker, I don’t know their stances on public flogging.
Senator Meeks, that old curmudgeon, thinks the conservative whippersnappers are getting ahead of themselves. Traditionally, seniority has ruled in the Senate. Ironically, I suspect the conservative newcomers don’t give a hoot for traditions that don’t give them power.
“We’ll get more of them, too,” Meeks said [of the new theocrats]. “When you get a guy (Walker) who believes in public flogging, and he beats the Senate president pro tem, what does that tell you?”
It tells me that the inmates are running the asylum. I just hope the floggers don’t get the benefit of the doubt from voters just because they’re running under the brand-name made popular with Hoosiers by level-headed Republicans like Meeks, Garton, and Kenley. “Republican” today means something entirely different than it did a generation ago.
The article cites as potential candidates to fill the post: David Long, Jim Merritt, Luke Kenley, Mike Young, Jeff Drozda, and Mike Delph.
Bob Meeks is a good guy – a bit too conservative for my taste but I’ll take 100 of him over one Pat Miller (the Pat Miller from Indianapolis) any day.
actually, the word I believe they’d have you use is “obesience.”
Mike Young would be a nightmare of epic proportions, but not as much of a nightmare as Walker, I guess. Personally, Long or Kenley (although Kenley’s not got THAT much seniority, I guess) would be acceptable. Kenley would actually be a good President Pro Tempore, as he is bright, knows the laws, and rational – which is why the theocratic wing would hate him.
Just a pipe dream I guess, but if the theocratic wing got too uppity, would it be possible under the rules of the Senate for a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans to choose a President pro tem?
Is it just me or does one get the sense that Mary Beth Schneider and Michele McNeil have a lot more they would liked to have said about Greg Walker but their editors have had them pull their punches? Obviously Walker’s “public flogging” statements are so outrageous that they had to be recognized. They serve as a code that Walker’s viewpoints are way outside the mainstream of the majority of Hoosiers. Yet lots of Hoosier are unfortunately not sophisticated enough to pick up on it or read between the lines. So there is subliminal message that Walker must likewise hold a host of odious fundamentalist views concerning the role of women in society, public education and individual privacy.
Once again here is the Indianapolis Star attempting what passes today for “Fair and Balance” journalism and giving the vast majority of its readers in Southern Marion, Johnson and Bartholomew no indication of Walker’s extreme social and religious dominionism. Because there is most likely nothing conservative about Walker, it was very misleading to use the adjective extreme to qualify his conservatism. The Indianapolis Star should have been brave enough to warn its readers that Walker is completely out of step with the majority of its non-fundamentalist church goers’ viewpoints.
Lacking the proper information, Hoosier Republicans had only the largely trumped up issue of Garton’s continued support for Healthcare coverage for State Senators. If a state senators serves what can be described as a fulltime for over 20 years why should he/she not have claim to health insurance from their employer in this case the state? I thought traditional Republicans love to praise our increasingly unworkable and expensive system of employer based private healthcare insurance as superior to a single payer national healthcare system that the vast majority of developed democracies enjoy. To me Garton’s so called hypocrisy on healthcare is an issue for liberal Democrats not Republicans.
Labeling seems like so much of the battle here. As you may have noticed, I’m taking “theocrat” out for a walk lately. I’ve mainly given up on trying to promote usage of the term “Christianesque.” Mainly, I’m tired of these guys profiting from the good will that much saner people have generated for labels like “Christian,” “Republican,” and “conservative.”
When people hear “Christian” they think “Jesus” and “Mother Teresa.” Instead they get nutjobs like Dobson and Falwell. They hear Republican and they think “Eisenhower,” “Garton,” “Kenley,” and “Lugar.” Instead they’re getting guys like Drozda, Delph, and Walker. They think “conservative” and they think “limited government” and “balanced budget.” Instead they’re getting religion over science and a la carte interpretations of the Bible trumping Constitutional law.
Another point, why did not the Indianapolis Star not question the fitness of an inexperienced Greg Walker who home schools his four kids on his qualifications to vote on school funding, school prayer, and abstinence education issues.
Because they decided to be incensed about the health perk for Senators — which is o.k. as far as it goes, but is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
We’ll see if the Star rakes the Daniels administration over the coals month after month after month for the recently exposed Rhoad corruption.
Doug,
I would describe Walkers political philosophy as Dominionism instead of Theocrasy, because Theocrasy they there is rule by clerics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominionism
the Star, fair and balanced? aha ha ha aha ha ha! It is not and has never been balanced. Prior to the sale to Gannett, it was owned by Dan Quayle’s grandfather and family.
“Walker’s viewpoints are way outside the mainstream of the majority of Hoosiers”
I wouldn’t date to say “way” outside. Get a true tally of Hoosiers (not just voters) and I think you’ll find many would support it for things like child molestation. The idea of such an act gets people fired up enough to agree with corporal punishment.
I’m not saying ‘I’ agree with it, but I think the number that do would be less like 2% and more like 40%.
So are some people in favor of child molestation and others are against it? Im going to assume that the politics of it is that ONLY conservatives are against it!We’ve have almost 10 years of this nonsense.