Greenberg: Inauguration Observance Should Cross Party Lines
Today we considered SCR 2, which will (among other things) put the House in recess for Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration on Tuesday. The Arkansas legislature hasn’t always observed an inaugural recess: we had one for Bill Clinton, but not for George W. Bush, or Bush or Reagan prior to that. Notice a trend here?
My personal view is that every presidential inauguration should be an occasion for celebration. But as a legislative body, we don’t need to celebrate Democratic administrations while shunning Republican administrations. I expressed this view on the floor of the House today, but I did not convince many members: 69 of 100 legislators, nearly all Democrats, voted for the resolution.
The conventional order of business in the House too often is that we are handed a partisan agenda by the Democrats, and when Republicans object, we are told that we are too partisan. I hope that trend will not continue.
Several members are talking about amending the rules so that we recess for inaugurations without regard to party. I think this would be a welcome change from the trend of our treating Democratic and Republican inaugurations differently.
The Republican House members need to show up on Tue. anyway as if not in recess. Go through the motions of a normal day. Alert the media and when they ask what’s going on, point out that the legislature hasn’t been in session for a week and they are already taking off for what appears to be partisan reasons as the economy goes to pot. Sit there in empty rooms and make the point that 4 years ago, they felt compelled to meet on inauguration day.
Apparently the Democrats think that things are so much better off, after 4 years of Dubya, that this inauguration that they can pass on doing the people’s business to watch their candidate get sworn in. If not that, then things are as bad as they say they are but they are not minding the shop.
Make the point, compare and contrast. Find out how much it cost for the legislature to take the day off in the middle of the session and send a “bill” for that amount to the Democrat’s state party headquarters or to the Obama Inugural Committee.
Crap, y’all play the game!
Ha! Excellent suggestions, Rex. Will they take up the challenge?
D.
I’ve got another suggestion; can we make it where the edit button stays up for longer than one edit? I can’t catch all my dumb mistakes in one edit. Why is it impossible for me to edit myself?
Rex,
I had it set up where the edit feature would be available for five minutes after you submit the comment. I’ve expanded that to 10 minutes to give you a little more time, since you make so many bone-headed errors and everything. Let me know if that’s better.
D.
Who carried the resolutions for adjornment in ’01 and ’05 to honor President Bush’s swearing in ceremony? What were the breakdowns on those votes?
I’d be interested to know why those sessions did not adjourn. I personally think it should be a national holiday regardless of who wins.