Republicans and conservative (read anti-Speaker McCoy) editorial boards have attacked Speaker Billy McCoy for choosing only Democrats to be committee chairmen in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Their anger is somewhat irrational.
At the beginning of his last term he appointed Republicans as committee heads and opened up leadership to Democrats who were clearly not his allies. An example was that he appointed Representative Jeff Smith as chairman of the Judiciary B Committee even though they did not always agree. That same Jeff Smith then ran against Speaker McCoy and now has been stripped of that Chairmanship.
Republicans and a few cowards who call themselves Democrats because they want to hold onto their offices, but find far more in common with the Republicans, are the ones who brought the dreaded "partisanship" to the House.
When they complain about not getting positions it is important to remember that Republicans announced that they would vote as a block to remove all power from Speaker Billy McCoy. When they failed did they really expect everything to go back to how it was before? That's ridiculous.
They pout and point out that Lt. Governor Phil Bryant appointed a couple Democratic committee heads. That's true, but Democrats, unlike Republicans in the House, make up the majority in the Senate and could have in theory stripped him of all power. Playing nice made sense and he still stacked the committees so that Republicans still control them. Sometimes all that is needed in politics is the appearance of bipartisanship.
When Republicans complain loudly that they're are being oppressed and that their views aren't being heard, please point out their lunacy. They control 7 of 8 statewide offices. They control the Senate Committees. They control the vast majority of the propaganda press. Plus Governor Haley Barbour can (and certainly will) veto anything Democrats pass that he does not like.
Speaker Billy McCoy did place some Republicans in leadership positions. Those Republicans like Hank Zuber of Ocean Springs have been reasonable and haven't gone around boasting about how they'd vanquish the Speaker. They haven't betrayed their values and still Speaker McCoy gave them leadership positions.
Civility is important and so is loyalty. Speaker Billy McCoy has rewarded both.
Exactly so.
ReplyDeleteFor Publicans, bipartisanship is a defensive tactic applied in times of weakness and tossed aside when power makes it inconvenient - just like "rule of law" is only a rule for Democratic presidents.
It may be true, as Nash writes in C/L today, that McCoy puts the success or failure of the House solely on his own shoulders and thereby raises the stakes but I can't see how that lessens his chances if his goals are to do what is best for the people and to oppose the red tide of Barbourism in the state.
Call it a hunch, but I get a feeling that the Republicans who were passed over probably didn't vote for McCoy in the first place.
ReplyDeleteolemiss,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. No Republican voted for him, but he still gave several positions of leadership. I'd call that pretty darn civil.
From what I hear there was some dirty pool played by the guv in the speaker race anyway.
ReplyDelete