Am I missing something?
Longhurst’s point seems to be that it is easier to get things done without certain people around.
Longhurst said she accomplished more without Heisler at the table than when he had attended…
Okay.
But couldn’t that rule be applied to anyone at anytime? Isn’t being on the bad guys side of this part of what it means to be liberal? Sort of like protecting the rights of the KKK to march down main street.
I have to agree with John Flaherty and the landlords on this one.
This seems like a BS argument on the part of Longhurst.
That said, I am trying to imagine getting something done with Mike W at the table…
From the comments at Delawarewatch it looks like the glorified trailerpark residents have had it up to their chins with this guy’s gamesmanship and political hijinks.
glorified trailerpark residents
Itching for a fight, eh?
If he wasn’t willing to negotiate in the crafting of the bill, he can always lobby other reps when the time comes to vote. That being said, Longhurst probably could have handled the situation differently.
The buttons are too easy to push. I can’t not push them.
The Rules of the Assembly:
There are rules that allow Longhurst to bar Heisler from the meeting. I’d guess that they’re rules that were written more to keep public activists out of the room or from making comment for the record [See: Alan Muller’s GreenDel archives] but it works both ways.
Change the rules to benefit us all.
Who wouldn’t appreciate it if we had access to some digital recording of these meetings to date.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Neither side has any “right” to be involved in negotiations. Longhurst could write a bill without involvement from either side, or just one side, and be well within her rights and duties.
There’s something screwed up about a state that thinks oppressors “deserve” a seat at a “negotiating” table. These aren’t negotiations under legal rules — they’re sessions designed to produce a bill. How that bill gets produced can be criticized, but she owes nobody access to any “negotiations.”
Actually, the oppressors were represented, just not by their chosen representative.
Shorter Geezer: Yes, Jason, you are missing something.
La Narcolepsia wakes up to say she likes Rep. Longhurst’s spunk. Geezer correctly points out that one of the more perverted tenets of the Delaware Way is this notion that all “stakeholders” have to be at the table when negotiating legislation, no matter how obstructionist and/or unreasonable they are. The result is always watered-down, mealy-mouth, do-nothing legislation — which gets shot down anyway, because the right configuration of special-interest lobbyists did not attend all the meetings, or were taking a pee when the “stakeholders” voted, or were playing golf that morning, or did not get 100 percent of everything they wanted and so did not really sign off on the meaningless consensus bill.