Indiana

28 Days Later

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

When the Indiana Democrats walked off the floor on February 21, no one imagined they would still be gone nearly 30 days later.  By being out for so long it’s been estimated that this is the longest walkout of any legislative body in the history of the United States.  And apparently that was enough for the Republicans to tell the absentee Democrats to do the political equivalent get bent, the negotiations were over.

The Speaker of the House and Pro Tem of the Senate have agreed to shift legislation over to the Senate of things and move forward.  Senator David Long says budget hearings will begin on Monday and committee chairmen of both chambers will begin looking for homes for a number of House bills in Senate legislation.

And while lawmakers plan to follow the germane rule, which means only legislation that’s relevant can be attached to bills, that rule does not apply to the budget and anything can be attached there.

And facing that scenario, I still can’t figure out the logic of the absentee Democrats, many of them are really sharp individuals.  I can understand staying away for a few days, but a month?  Out of state?  Really.  And not a whole lot has changed.  There’s been some movement on the school voucher bill and project labor agreements on public works projects, but there’s only so much that the GOP will give in on.   I frankly don’t know what more the Democrats want,  and to be honest, I don’t think they do either.

What I do know is that as of Thursday afternoon, the political train is leaving the station.  And once it’s gone, you never what it’s going to pick up along the way.  And if you don’t like the current passengers, just wait.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on March 18, 2011 (boomark / email).