Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has an article on what the House Democrats are up to in Illinois. I’ve mentioned before that I think it’s wrong to characterize the House Democrats as “not working” because they are in Illinois. That frame implies that they are wage slaves whose job is to warm seats in the committee rooms and House chambers and to push a button when the time comes.
At the end of the day, a legislators primary function is about communication. They receive information from constituents. The receive information about proposed legislation. They analyze proposed legislation, propose some of their own, and communicate what they perceive the strength and weaknesses to be. And, they try to enact good legislation into law and prevent bad legislation from becoming law. Very little of this requires much in the way of physical presence in a particular place.
The real frustration, of course, is that their physical absence prevents the Republicans from doing what they perceive as being their job. It’s not as popular, however, for the Republicans to say that “the Democrats are preventing us from doing our job,” because that makes them look weak; and there is a tendency toward tough-guy bravado in political rhetoric.
The article also mentions the Wednesday meeting between Reps. Bauer and Bosma. This really all boils down to those two guys. If they don’t agree, nothing is going to happen. If they do agree, their respective caucuses will fall in line — though it seems that Bauer has tighter control over his caucus than Bosma. I might well be wrong, but Bauer seems able to tell his caucus what to do. At times, Bosma looks like he watches where his caucus is going, then runs to the front of the line so it looks like he’s leading. Given that I don’t always like where either of them is going, I can’t say which leadership style is superior.
Bauer is a dictator, always has been, always will be. Ask Chet Dobis what happens when you cross him, in Dobis case to vote for the Illiana Tollway, which he thought was good for his district and the unionized trades that support him. But that made him an ally of Mitch, and Bauer doesn’t allow that.
I’m sure that you disagree, but my experience is that Republicans are harder to herd than Democrats, especially on issues that the public employee unions care about. They fund the Democrat party, and you cross them at your peril. Isn’t it interesting that Chet Dobis is at home, not with the Democrats in Illinois and not in Indy with his buddy Ed Soliday. He knows that if he does what his Republican buddies want him to do, he’ll get killed by the unions.
Mixing reality and wishes: wish the lock step front for both parties did not exist. It would seem as if people I did not have an opportunity to consider when voting are choosing what my representative/senator can say and how they can vote. That is not quite the definition of “representative government”. While not a big supporter of limited terms just have to wonder about the merits from time to time. Also, makes having a viable third (or more) parties involved with enough members to force compromises would be interesting.