May 17, 2005

Partisan Sideshow Sequels Planned

State Rep. Stacey Campfield, Tennessee's only blogging legislator, reports that House Democrats, fresh from having wasted time passing a pointless (and factually deficient) resolution criticizing President Bush for the federal deficit, are preparing to waste more of their time on resolutions criticizing Bush about Social Security and gasoline prices.

Once again the point is to mire constituents and the media onlookers in a partisan sideshow, therefore shifting the spotlight away from the issues that we as legislators in the Tennessee General Assembly can actually do something about. The Democratic leadership is waving charts and gas prices in one hand so that you don't notice that they are missing-in-action on TennCare, ethics indiscretions, anti-gun votes, etc.

The Democrats must be getting nervous that their lack of any real legislative agenda is finally being exposed. I encourage constituents to pay attention to what I consider to be campaign tactics on the taxpayer dime. Maybe some people think it was cute the first time Democratic leadership was grandstanding about the federal budget, but I'm interested to see what taxpayers think about an ongoing partisan waste of taxpayer time.

I wonder if the media will find it funny, or if it will anger them that a lot of serious issues aren't getting near the legislative attention as these bills.