From Celia Cohen’s latest:
Ruth Ann Minner was still the governor when the new Delaware General Assembly began in January. The Senate was still refusing to believe that John Carney was not the next governor.
Jack Markell, the guy who was the new governor, was met by the Legislative Hall gang with the sort of smirks usually reserved for substitute teachers. Never mind that Markell and the majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives were Democrats.
How high school is this? As a writer for Delaware Liberal I am not one to criticize banality, gossip and all around juvenile content. Indeed, you will see all three on these pages on a daily basis, as we attempt to maintain a nice balance of the silly and the serious. But this is the very serious and very respected Delaware Grapevine, written by the very knowledgeable Celia Cohen, who had the whole political establishment so upset over her absence from blogging that they bankrolled her return to sycophancy.
Was the political establishment shocked at Markell’s close win over Carney last September? Sure. But does translate into the entire Senate, with all of its constituent 21 members, being so gobsmacked with disbelief that they remained in denial for five straight months? Are they all so petty as to treat a Governor who won with 62% of the vote over the very respected Bill Lee with smirks and snickers? In Celia Cohen’s world, yes. And perhaps in the real world too, there is some of the smugness that is displayed whenever an new kid at high school sits down at the lunchtable. Which brings us back to a recurring theme: high school. Cohen’s columns never left it.
The Democratic majority in the House was new and very raw. Rep. Bob Gilligan, the new speaker, was the only one who had ever served in the majority, back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Neither Gilligan nor Matt Denn, the new Democratic lieutenant governor, had any experience presiding over the floor action. Fortunately for both of them, the high-flung language that flows from their podiums is written down in a script.
So Gilligan has over thirty years of experience in the House, but he can’t handle legislative jargon unless it is written down in front of him? Matt Denn, a lawyer and former Insurance Commissioner, similarly cannot grasp Robert’s Rules of Order unless he reads from a script?
An open government measure empowered the constituency, once Sen. Karen Peterson, a Stanton Democrat, daringly forced a vote with a surprise motion to bring it before the chamber. It was as jarring to the Old Order as Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus.
Begin Seth Myer’s voice: Really? Comparing the old secretive Delaware Way to southern segregation in the 1950’s? Really? Well, maybe she has a point there. She does that once an a while.
Reading Celia’s high school take on the Delaware Way makes me wonder if she or the practitioners of the Delaware Way are still there. In high school.