Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2005 | ||
Bad Links? | GOP turning into PBOP (Public Butt Out Party)?By CAL BEVERLY Yo, public, get out! Your elected betters will let you know what they want you to know, and theyll do it when they get good and ready and not before. That seems to be the evolving message of the political entity once fondly called the Grand Old Party, the GOP. First, the Republican-controlled state House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for HB218, an odious law that would shield all development activity by private business with government entities from public scrutiny. Thats stalled in the Senate, some members of which seem to actually care what the general public thinks of their elected officials. With their latest stampede to keep the aggravating public out of government business, the newly-empowered Republican House members have again told the voters and taxpayers to stuff it. Now they want to make secret all contributors to the state university system, even the very names of the monied ones. The result is that you would never have the access to records that might suggest an improper relationship between companies and individuals who do business with the university system and also donate money to it. How would like it if those same legislators took it just one logical step farther and made secret all the donors to their political campaigns? Its very much the same idea. If the Republicans keep up this assault on open records and open meetings, instead of the GOP, they will become known as the PBOP, the Public Butt Out Party. Hello, Republicans in office in other than the clueless House: Does anybody in power realize how you are presenting yourselves to the voters of this state? The PBOP members of the clueless House are jeopardizing Republican gains in other legislative areas by spreading this anti-public-access disease. I hope a cure for the PBOP disease doesnt involve a very public and non-secret whipping at the polls two years hence to shine some needed light on the error of their ways. So far, those House hiders have just ticked off every newspaper in the state and have caused a number of voters to reassess the wisdom of voting Republican. Unless its about life, death or a deeply-held moral position, such flipping off of the media and the public is just gratuitous, not to mention monumentally stupid. Can somebody please talk to these guys before they do more damage to the larger Republican cause? The GOP Senate is doing some good work, including Sen. Mitch Seabaughs bill to make divorce less hasty (see his letter on this page). Its a shame the PBOP House is tainting this session with its secrecy agenda. |
|
Copyright 2004-Fayette Publishing, Inc. |