Did He or Didn’t He?
Below I offered up some thoughts about the House GOP walkout that took place Thursday evening after Speaker Bauer killed SB 335, the immigration reform bill. Dealing with the same subject, a post over on Hoosiers for Secure Borders caught my attention.
Apparently, Pat Bauer’s office sent an email reply to an inquiry regarding SB 335 and the reply email seems to indicate that Bauer was going to call the bill down for a floor debate and vote. According to the post the email read like this:
From: “Dolly Starnes”
To: “…..” <……@msn.com>
Subject: RE: Please vote yes on Bill 335
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:16:38 -0500Dear Ms. …..,
Senate Bill 335 has passed out of the Public Policy Committee this morning with a 7-4 vote.
It will be heard on the floor of the House most likely this week.
Sincerely
Dolly M. Starnes, Executive Assistant
B. Patrick Bauer
Speaker of the House
200 W. Washington St. Rm 3-2
Indianapolis, IN 46204
1-800-382-9842
317-232-9628
Did that last line read “It [SB 335] will be heard on the floor of the House most likely this week”? “Will be heard” usually means “will be heard.” Now, here we have an email communication from the Speaker’s office declaring that a bill “will be heard” and then we have the Speaker turning around and killing the bill without hearing it on the floor. Either the Speaker changed his mind after this email was sent, or he went ahead and let everyone think that he would hear the bill, even going so far as to personally promise to hear the bill, never meaning to actually keep his word.
This is an action utterly unbecoming the office of the Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Um, Brian Bosma killed the bill. Pay attention. Senator Delph is very displeased with what Bosma & Co did, which is precisely what Delph wanted to avoid.
Put the blame where it belongs. Don’t be a hack. You lose a lot of credibility that way.
February 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Uh…
I don’t like SB 335 at all, so don’t let this be interpreted as a defense for it as legislation, but at least get your facts straight if you’re going to try and analyze the situation. Bauer IS trying to bring SB 335 to the floor. Just like Delph wants. The issue is with Bosma and the ultra-right trying to throw some deal-breakers into the original SB 335 in the name of whatever cause du jour has their ear.
I stood outside the chambers and watched this debacle for myself. Sure, there is some creative parliamentary maneuvering at work here, but fans of SB 335 should be happy with that, because otherwise this bill is dead as a doornail. Bosma is acting like a petulant child, and all in the name of rallying his base, I guess.
Jeesh — Where did you get this guy, Josh?
February 24th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
According to the Indianapolis Star, Bauer is the one who killed SB 335. That is where I’m getting my information from in that regard. You can check it out here: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/LOCAL190108/802220462
February 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Dude, keep up! That article is 2 days old! If you’re gonna blog you gotta have tomorrow’s news today, not 2-days-ago’s news today.
That was a creative attempt by Bosma, with Torr chiming in, to try to spin their crybaby antics designed to fire up some clueless rubes in the base- a trap I could swear you’ve fallen into here- rather than those who understand real policy issues on immigration.
This is Senator’s Delph’s bill focused on a true area of concern that is BY AND LARGE agreed upon by Rs and many Ds (Indiana D’s that is). Tweaks may be needed, and the Chamber of Commerce and other business interests are JUSTIFIABLE about the E-verify program. But the junior level politics Bosma was trying to play here is something anyone can see through.
How about you go back to the Star and read both Saturday and Sunday’s articles about this, k? Or maybe talk to Senator Delph about it. Maybe these words could be a start, from today’s paper (BHD):
When Delph’s immigration bill fizzled Thursday night, it wasn’t the Democrats, or House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, driving it into the ground.
It was the Republicans, who offered up several amendments that took Delph’s bill in an entirely new direction — away from cracking down on employers that hire illegal immigrants and toward denying certain social benefits to illegal immigrants.
Delph was not a happy camper on Friday. He said he has bent over backward to build a political coalition and to keep the bill focused on employers, not on withholding benefits. The GOP amendments were sure-fire bill killers.