I don’t disagree with comments made in response to my item on Prop. 77. I am, however, a paid employee of the House of Representatives and so, unfortunately, somewhat restricted in how much bashing I might feel like doing about the current state of the House Republicans. It is not so much how that I might impact myself but it might prove uncomfortable for my boss.
Having said that, I am happy to point out that my boss, Tom Feeney, is one of the good guys in today’s
House…it would be hard to lump him in with much of what has transpired in areas of spending, government expansion, etc. He was one of the 25 that voted against the prescription drug bill and Citizens Against Government Waste named him one of this year’s two "Super Heroes" for getting 100% on their scorecard (the other Jeff Flake of Arizona).
And to clarify, I don’t really have any feelings one way or another on Prop. 77 although some came away from my previous post thinking I oppose it. I’m indifferent. The point of my post is that the idea inspired Democrats in other states to follow suit and my expectation is that Prop. 77 will fail in California while the idea passes in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan.
Incidentally, I also expect that Prop. 77 will run a similar path as term limits. In our enthusiasm to rid ourselves of Willie Brown we implemented a system that gave us a short-term gain and a long-term loss (that loss being the quality of our representatives and the empowering of the third house, staff, bureacrats, etc.).