Speaker of the House Mike Chenault’s departure gift. The toilet is full of golf balls. This will be Chenault’s sixth consecutive year as speaker, which is unprecedented. Word is that his colleagues might vote him in again.
It’s a Wrap: Sine Die
. Thank you for your comment. I would suggest the legislature allow someone else to now serve as Speaker.
I am leery of the legislative process in both the state and nation. I fear we have allowed the creation of a true political machine in this state and this machine, like others before in other locations, requires semi-permanent political bosses to oversee its operations. To inhibit the concentration of power others should rise to positions of responsibility periodically.
As I stated, I feel our legislative processes is being abused and I take no comfort in the fact that the current speaker is perhaps no different than previous speakers in his methods of management. We are not that far beyond “Polar Pen” which required the Federal Department of Justice – Public Integrity Section to restore civility to the process. My representative at that time was former Speaker of the House Pete Kott.
Ever so often such as in the case of the tennis court misappropriation, the LIO contracting scandal, or even the certain appearance of attempting to move an initiative to the November ballot by a sudden interest in a minimum wage law by those who would normally not support such action shows the extremely ugly side of what can happen when power is unchecked by law.
Those Legislative Rules I often mention are meant to guide the process; however, more importantly they are intended to insure access to forum of debate by me through my elected representative and senator.
I would support giving another legislator a term as speaker
As a regular reader of this blog, I enjoy reading the comments, especially Lynn Willis’ comments that are usually very well informed and thought provoking. The comments he made re Speaker Chenault iis the fiirst time I have disagreed with his commentary. Speaker Chenault’s leadership and oversight of the House and the manner in which he observes the rules is no different that that of many other recent speakers. I too agree that he has done a good job of running the House. Sorry Lynn. This is the first time we differed. Overall, I feel that you are one of the best informed and most articulate poster of comments on this blog. I look forward to reading more of your posts and expect that we’ll agree more often than not.
Mike Chenault, regardless of his politics, is the perfect individual to be speaker for a legislature that has supported state spending so out of control that we are now in deficit spending to the tune of $7 million dollars per day.
He is obviously a firm supporter of the defacto veto power assumed by committee chairs which violates his own Legislative Uniform Rules. He obviously supports exempting the legislature from the open meeting laws and he tolerates abuse of the budget system by not insisting openess in that process either. Yes, he is the perfect person for the job – right up until the money runs out. Since we still have funds in the SBR and CBR I won’t be suprised either if he is selected again.
Like or dislike Speaker Chenault’s politics is certainly anyone’s perspective or perogative. However, as someone who pays attention to the legislative process, I will commend him for his diplomacy, decorum and ability to get things done. It’s unusual for someone to get two consecutive terms and totally unprecedented for a third consecutive term. In Chenault’s case, he earned every one of them. Speaker Chenault also benefits from the advice and counsel that he receives from his chiief of staff Tom Wright who brings a tremendous amount of institutional knowledge and political acumen to the position. I would not be at all surprised if he wasn’t selected again.
This tribute to the Speaker makes as much sense to me as the legislative process he sustains. I wonder whose $20,000 “office expense” account paid for this?