Senate Republicans’ HALF-ASSED plan for open government
Senate Republicans’ 5-point plan for more open
and accountable government
- Pass legislation under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) to define the General Assembly and all its standing and ad hoc committees as “public bodies”.
- Change Senate Rules to do away with the power of a Senate Committee chair to single-handedly kill legislation by preventing public debate (“desk drawer veto”).
- Change Senate Rules to create a deliberative process that guarantees legislation will get a public hearing in committee within a reasonable time frame.
- Post Senate Roll Call votes on the General Assembly website giving the public access to an accounting of individual votes by all Senators.
- Close loopholes to avoid the potential and appearance of conflict inherent in holding dual roles in government, including a prohibition on paid registered lobbyists holding office on state Authorities, Boards, Commissions and statutory Committees
Well, half-assed is probably a bit of hyperbole, I mean it is a step forward. But what happened to provisions to recordings and broadcast the poceedings? Why can Wisconsin , Colorado, and other states get this done (some of them seven years ago) and we can’t?
Senate Democrats’ plan for Open Government:
Didn’t Karen Peterson’s plan call for all of this and taped recordings? Correct me if I’m wrong…
“it is a step forward.”
Maybe you guys missed that part.
Mike I’ll have to check that. The Jason330 plan calls for recording and broadcasting.
The difference between the Jason330 Plan and the Karen Peterson Plan is that, well, she is a Senator, and well, you are not.
Mike, Jason, and hell, even Dana and Dave, lets all work together to get Karen Peterson’s plan passed. Dave, your Republicans should have no problem with Karen’s plan, since it is similar to yours with the added bonus of allowing recording, and surely you have no opposition to that.
I’ve said that all along. Thanks for confirming, DelDem. The plan was already there; the Republicans just wanted to steal Peterson’s sunshine. All they need to do is sign on to Peterson’s bill — which I believe some have already done.
The House Republicans are working right now on live streaming audio with the hopes of doing live streaming video at some point in the near future.
My bad. I must have clipped that bullet point off the bottom by mistake.
…uh…wait a minute…no I didn’t. There was no such bullet point.
Well we’re not talking about the House now are we, Dave? We’re talking about the Senate and Karen Peterson — not the GOP — has been the leader on all of this. The general statement that the Dems are blocking Democracy is true. But don’t take anything away from Peterson by deflecting to the House Republicans’ efforts.
The Senate Republicans – all of them – have called for sweeping changes that are being blocked by all but one of the Senate Democrats. That individual Senate Democrat deserves a great deal of credit, not only for wanting even stronger efforts, but for being courageous enough to stand in direct opposition to her Senate Leadership and rank-and-file Senators.
Since Karen Peterson has been unable to swap the members of her own delegation, I’m sure she’s happy the “opposition” agrees with her. That makes the Senate GOP’s proposal a good thing, not a “half-assed plan” or a reason to attack them.
Jason, the Senate GOP must do a hundred legitimate things that piss you off. Don’t denigrate for the one thing they do that you like.
So we should just sit back and wait until Karen Peterson actually gets something accomplished? She’s not the first or the only person ever to push open government, you know.
Dave McBride introduced a resolution a few years ago to change the Senate rules. Steve Amick has done the same. Maybe in your time on the blogosphere she’s gotten the most press for it, but she’s hardly the only one ever to push for open government.
When one person feels one way and the other 12 people feel another way, that can hardly be called the Senate Democrat’s plan for open government, now can it?
The Senate GOP is united. Not only that, but they mentioned Karen Peterson as an ally in their press release.
RickJ — Don’t blame Jason. He’s just ticked off because while the Dems keep electing Dixiecrat career state employees, the GOP has become the true progressive party in Delaware.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
So the DE GOP and you yourself, Dave Burris, are now pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-universal single payer health care, pro-stem cell research, anti-Iraq War, pro-equal rights for homosexuals, pro-worker’s rights, pro-alternative energy, etc., etc.?
They day you and all your candidates adopt the above progressive platform is the day you can claim to be a progressive. Supporting Open Government is but one step, Dave. Do Open Government and adopt all of the above policy positions, then you can call yourself a progressive. Otherwise all you are doing is pursuing a Bush-Rovian tactic not unlike the Health Forest Initiative (where you cut down all the trees) and the Clear Sky Initiative (where you pollute the air more). Indeed, I can wait to see what devils are in the details of the Republican plan.
And if you were truly progressive, and truly wanted Open Government, you would, right this second, call Karen Peterson up and cosponsor her legislation.
Do it. Dave. If you Republicans are truly the progressives you now claim you are, you have to cosponsor her legislation. If you do not, you are just the poser we all know you to be.
“pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-universal single payer health care, pro-stem cell research, anti-Iraq War, pro-equal rights for homosexuals, pro-worker’s rights, pro-alternative energy, etc., etc.?”
Those are LIBERAL positions, not PROGRESSIVE. Just because you guys want to take possession of the word doesn’t mean it’ll be so. Progressive equates with progress. The GOP in Dover is pushing progress, while the Dems are doing everything in their power to maintain the status quo.
“And if you were truly progressive, and truly wanted Open Government, you would, right this second, call Karen Peterson up and cosponsor her legislation.”
5 of the 8 GOP Senators already have co-signed her bill. Since I’m not in the Senate, I can’t do that.
You’re not all that bright, are you DD?
I don’t see republicans wanting change or reform, as it pertains to the true meaning of the word ‘Progressive’, in a political/social context.
And no, wishing that you could fit the country into a time machine and take us back to 1950 does not qualify as ‘Change’.
Kudos to any DE GOPer who breaks the
gooselockstep, self-imposed retardation, for which the National GOP is so famous, but I’ll stick it in the “believe it when I see it” file.“And no, wishing that you could fit the country into a time machine and take us back to 1950 does not qualify as ‘Change’.”
Actually, they had the desk-drawer veto back in 1950, too.
I was referring to GOP social & economic ‘values’, more or less.
But hey, I’m for what those bullet-points above are saying….if not even more transparency….
“Well, half-assed is probably a bit of hyperbole……”
You are taking your cues from the mainstream media; headline says one thing, but the devil is in the details.
“Why can Wisconsin , Colorado, and other states get this done (some of them seven years ago) and we can’t?”
I looked at Wisconsin, and the provision for recording of sessions was a standalone effort, not part of a total system overhaul. I imagine the same is true for most other states.
This post is typical of those who chose to incite rather than to unite…..to childlishly instigate enmity rather than work seriously for progress, and to count the number of their comments rather than the value of their ideas.
Delaware will not be fixed with a magic wand. What stops you from supporting these good efforts without, as you correctly characterize and epitomize, the ever-present hyperbole?
I fully expect to be severely beaten.
Dave….
Google the word Progressive. Check up on the history of the Progressive movement. Read about what the policies and positions progressives advocate today and in the past. And then check who has always opposed that progress.
It was the conservatives.
It speaks volumes about the death of the conservative movement nationally and here in Delaware that you are trying to appropriate the term “progressive.” If I was in your shoes, I guess I would too.
But again, Open Government is just one issue on which you apparently know agree with the progressives on. We are glad. We are glad that 5 of the 8 GOP Senators have signed on. Thanks for the support.
My fellow Dems just don’t get it. The Republicans are handing us our ass on what should be our issue.
What is the typical Dem response? Some form of attenuated denial. One person argues that Karen Peterson has a plan for open government and tries to pass that off as the Senate Dems plan. There is NO Senate Dems plan for open government and Karen Peterson is a black sheep in her caucus precisely because the Senate Dems except for her have none.
Now contrast that w/ the Repub Dems plan for open government and what do you see: EVERY MEMBER of the Repub caucus have signed onto it.
Are you getting it yet, Dems? The Republican senate caucus really does have a plan but the Senate Dems have NONE, zero, nada. To cite Karen Peterson as evidence of a Senate Dem plan is to comically attempt to sell the exception as the rule.
Jason gives (notice)a negatively cast token nod to the Repubs (“Well, half-assed is probably a bit of hyperbole, I mean it is a step forward”), only then pick something he thinks should be in the plan but is missing: audio broadcasts and recordings. Forget that the Repub controlled house has precisely what is missing that Jason wants to see in Senate. Forget that Thurman Adams crushed the idea for the Senate when a NJ reported asked about it. Forget that its the Dems (except Peterson) who vote for Adams as Pro Tem. None of that is relevant. The only thing relevant is its not on the Repub list and that one omission makes their proposals almost half-assed. What a joke!
But notice all the things the Repubs have have UNANIMOUSLY supported: FOIA for the Senate, no desk drawer vetos, all bills get a PUBLIC committee hearing,post on the net how all Senators vote on legislation, take significant steps to reduce the conflict of interest of lobbyists. All this Jason says is merely one step forward. What transparent denial and sophistry!
The proper response for Dems isn’t attenuated denial and lessening the significance of the Repubs on these matters. The proper response for Dems who recognize that there is a difference between really loving your party and giving the appearance of winning an argument is sorrow over the fact that our party is lagging way behind on these issues and to feel SHAME about that and OUTRAGE.
To do otherwise is to invite defeat if not in 2008 but in 2010. When the George Bush negative coat tails become history after next year, the Dems will have little to recommend them in the state legislative races unless something dramatically changes.
The “But George Bush….” excuse (and that’s what it is for local races) only has one year of life and it probably won’t be as robust as it was in 2006. After all, one thing we already hear is “But the Dem federal congress….”
Oh, and there is also already “Tell me again when the Congressional Dems will be getting us out of Iraq?”
Knee jerk intonations of the name “George Bush” won’t hunt like it used to. If that’s all or most of what the state Dem candidates have going for them, in 3 years will be hurting and the state Repubs will be reaping the rewards of long-term thinking.
Dana’s right…the proper response from the Dems would be to kick Adams out of leadership in ’08 and one-up the GOP. Fat chance.
“But again, Open Government is just one issue on which you apparently know agree with the progressives on. We are glad. We are glad that 5 of the 8 GOP Senators have signed on. Thanks for the support.”
Don’t even try it, DD. Dana laid it out easy enough for even you to understand.
You caught me and you’ve made some really great points. I’m not only called out on the dangers of knee-jerk partisanship, but also on the shallowness of my knowledge of whats going on with “open government.”
This must be the “self-editing, self regulating” part of the internet they talk about.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I learned something.
Dave –
Dana scored on this issue. Don;t go around saying you are progressive – that is BS.
Well, how about this? Find me one Senator progressive enough to join Peterson and Sokola on the GOP’s legislation to end the desk-drawer veto.
Start with Bruce Ennis. He vowed repeatedly in his campaign that he would support ending the DDV.
It’s showtime for Mr. Ennis.
I did not read all of the above comments. So ignore me if I am just repeating what someone else has already said.
The senate does record floor sessions. I got a CD copy of the Senate session of SB5. I stuck that CD in my computor, and I had all the wild claims right there. To get a CD, I think you have to go to Adams office with a request in writing. And I think you have to pay a small fee for the CD.
The CDs are really a treasure chest of idiotic statements by Senators that have no idea what they are talking about. If I was going to run against an incumbant, that is the first place I’d go.
As for the 5 point plan, I think it is a great step in the right direction. If we could get those 5 points, I would be pleased.
The DDV. I like it. Please mark the day and time of the coinage.
Jordan – Thanks for the tip.
On at least two of the issues noted above, the gay equal rights bill and alternative energy — Delaware’s elected Republicans are indeed more progressive than its Democrats. We’re not talking about nationally, we’re talking about Delaware.