Straightening out the Mess in the House
Three Republican legislators have a remedy to the scandals in the State House. Representative Nelson Dollar, Paul Stam and Russell Capps say each party’s Caucus should appoint its members of House Committees. That the Democratic Caucus should appoint the Democrat members, and Republicans the Republicans. Instead of every Committee Member being picked by House Speaker Jim Black as is done now.
This may sound mundane, but it’s important.
Today, the State House and State Senate operate as political fiefdoms belonging to Jim Black and Marc Basnight. As House Speaker and Senate Leader, Basnight and Black, rule with powers not unlike medieval dukes. They decide every appointment to every committee – alone. That way they can control every committee and kill any bill. The rest of the legislators are, by comparison, merely cogs in the machine dependent upon Black and Basnight’s favors.
What Representatives Dollar, Stam and Capps want to do is make legislators more independent. They want to take the power that now rests in two men’s hands and spread it among the other Senators and Representatives equally.
This is how the Congress of the United States operates. Neither the Speaker of the U.S. House and the Majority Leader of the Senate have the kind of ducal powers of Marc Basnight or Jim Black.
Straightening out the Mess in the House
Three Republican legislators have a remedy to the scandals in the State House. Representative Nelson Dollar, Paul Stam and Russell Capps say each party’s Caucus should appoint its members of House Committees. That the Democratic Caucus should appoint the Democrat members, and Republicans the Republicans. Instead of every Committee Member being picked by House Speaker Jim Black as is done now.
This may sound mundane, but it’s important.
Today, the State House and State Senate operate as political fiefdoms belonging to Jim Black and Marc Basnight. As House Speaker and Senate Leader, Basnight and Black, rule with powers not unlike medieval dukes. They decide every appointment to every committee – alone. That way they can control every committee and kill any bill. The rest of the legislators are, by comparison, merely cogs in the machine dependent upon Black and Basnight’s favors.
What Representatives Dollar, Stam and Capps want to do is make legislators more independent. They want to take the power that now rests in two men’s hands and spread it among the other Senators and Representatives equally.
This is how the Congress of the United States operates. Neither the Speaker of the U.S. House and the Majority Leader of the Senate have the kind of ducal powers of Marc Basnight or Jim Black.