The Hoosier Pundit has a post up commenting on the logistics of the tax legislation moving through the General Assembly. Basically, he sees a three person struggle – Governor Daniels, Senator Kenley, and Speaker Bauer. He envisions Kenley and Daniels as having egos too big to allow them to work very well together on disagreements despite both being Republicans. Meanwhile, their real enemy looms in the form of the Democratic Speaker, Pat Bauer.
I’ve always seen Sen. Kenley as smarter than he is inflexible (in fact, I haven’t noted any real inflexibility at all — but maybe I wasn’t paying attention) and I’ve seen Gov. Daniels as more inflexible than he is smart. Bauer, having no small ego himself, is definitely more of a legislative gamesman than his Ivy League brethren.
None of these guys is dumb; they all have solid egos; and they all have varying agendas. We’ll see how the average citizen comes out when the giants get finished playing their games.
I think if I had to pick one guy to write the property tax rules, it would be Kenley. He seems the most reasonable of the trio.
I find it interesting Bauer never came out with his own property tax plan – heck, Orentlicher even came out with a plan. He’s just going to throw his amendments out there & claim success. That may be politics, but it’s not leadership. At least we know Kenley tried to make the numbers work … I doubt Bauer did any such work.
Personally, I think Daniels is going to stay out of the fray and just sign whatever comes to his desk. It’s an election year, after all.
You’d have to give me a lot of points to bet against you on that proposition.
Oh, the Governor will sign whatever comes down the pike (assuming something comes down the pike). It would take a lot of amending for him not to.
But he and Kenley don’t get along, and Mitch has always been a “my way or the highway” type when it comes to dealing with members of his own party. That alone sort of makes him likely to clash with Senator Kenley (who himself likely will not seek such a clash, but won’t shrink from it either).
This is what bothers me most of all about government today: This is a prime example of a “nation of men” rather than a “nation of laws”.
These may be smart men, but none of them is a statesman. I might not mind a “nation of men” so much if even one of them were. Alas.