Columnist Jamala Rogers
There’s a segment of sitcom Sanford and Son where Fred, played by veteran comic Redd Foxx, has to do jury duty for a murder case. During jury selection, the prosecuting attorney asked Fred if he believed in capital punishment. Fred’s wry and witty response was yes, he believed that everybody in the capital should be punished.
Well, maybe not everyone. But when you look at what’s currently happening on Capitol Hill and what just happened in Jefferson City, you just have to ask: Where are the people’s servants?
Many Missourians are wondering who was looking out for them in this last legislative session. The rich and powerful got more rich and powerful. The 1,336 bills introduced narrowed down to 147 being passed. Seventy of those were passed on the last day after lawmakers dallied, postured, hustled or campaigned during most of the session.
This session was the end of the Jetton era. Politicians like him make term limits look good and necessary. Speaker of the House Rod Jetton “Bushized” the Missouri Legislature and mirrored the Bush administration. The GOP’s agenda was ramrodded through the legislature for eight years with attacks on accessible abortions, same-sex marriage, Medicaid, the appellate judge selection process. Jetton, Governor Blunt and Andy Blunt, the big-time lobbyist and brother of Matt, acted like they were Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. They were the triumvirate of State power.
Under Jetton’s so-called leadership, big business flourished and poor and working class folks, black and white, got the GOP boot. The GOP was so full of themselves that they didn’t even try to hide their open lovefest for big business.
Restrictions on campaign contributions were squashed. Billionaire Rex Sinquefield is throwing too many Benjamins around for that to pass.
Aquila Inc. got $240 millions in tax credits for the illegally built power plant in Cass County.
The hot political football in the closing days of the 2008 session was the village issue. This was a bill passed last year that might as well been called the Robert Plaster Bill. It allowed this developer – who just happens to be a major donor and hunting homey of Rep. Jetton – to incorporate land as a political entity so that Plaster can circumvent local laws and ordinances. The bill was repealed in the 11th hour, but still allowed Plaster to continue while stopping other developers who were lining up to utilize the bill for their own schemes.
This village battle kept bills like the voter ID bill and further undermining of the public defender system from getting attention. Neither bill passed.
One of the most ridiculous efforts was the immigration bill. Missouri has a handful of undocumented immigrants but because it is Republican obsession, the Legislature was forced to entertain a bill to restrict the access of non-citizens to state benefits such as attending college and getting a driver’s license. The kicker is that federal law already prohibits such, so this is an example of more wasted taxpayer monies.
While our tax-paid elected officials bickered over the ice-cream cone being the official state dessert, working people suffered. Limitations on punitive damages in personal injury suits, efforts to restore health care benefits to the poor and payouts to workman compensation were some of the hits workers will have to take. Proposed legislation for local control of police departments and a moratorium on the death penalty again went down in flames.
I can understand the aggression of Republicans to push their agenda; they believe their dominance is limited with the coming Democratic wave in November. The question is: Will our lives improve with Democrats, who seem to have forgotten how to rally around a unified agenda and instead have learned to operate in an individualist manner for their own self-interests?