The above is 11Alive Atlanta’s coverage of the Georgia House of Representatives Republican Caucus meeting Friday, the one that was meant to be beyond reproach and a “clearing of the air”.
As this news was breaking, honestly I was prepared to defend the Caucus’ decision for the meeting to be private – I had thought it would be private anyway, with no media present. My thinking there was that it would allow the Members to be much more open and honest with each other – and honestly, I knew word would get out of what happened anyway. As Benjamin Franklin once said, the only way to keep a secret between two people is if one of them is dead.
But the media was allowed in – at first. Bobby Franklin made the motion to keep them in, and Jill Chambers asked that the vote to kick media out be a standing vote so that the People could know exactly who didn’t want them to know what was happening. Both requests were denied by the Caucus, with only 22 secret ballots being cast in favor of keeping the media in the meeting. In fact, when 11Alive was talking to Bobby Franklin at one point, it was Donna Sheldon, Vice Chair of Transportation and Chair of the Majority Caucus, who kicked them out.
Governor Perdue, whose personal lawyer, Larry O’Neal, is considered by many to be a top candidate for Speaker of the House, compared the event to a “family meeting” and said that media shouldn’t have been there.
I don’t defend Bobby Franklin too much here. While he has some good ideas, which I hope to discuss later this week, he also has some batshit crazy ideas – up to and including openly calling for war against the US Government. That said, on this particular issue, I’m with him. For this particular meeting, the Republican Caucus was in a no-win situation to begin with, and the best possible option would have been to allow the most sunshine possible into the room. As Franklin said “Perception is reality, and right now the perception of our Republican Caucus is that things aren’t open and above board. I thought the best thing to do to help the Caucus move forward was for the meeting to be open so that there would be a demonstration that we were willing to lead in a new era.”
Right now, the House Republican Caucus – and Republicans in general – needs heroes that will step up and do the right thing, no matter the cost. When Bobby Franklin, as crazy as he is, appears to be the best candidate for such a stand the Republicans have, you know the Party is in trouble. This IS a new era in politics, with blogs such as this one, GeorgiaLegislativeWatch, PeachPundit, and several others teaming with “traditional” media to be watchdogs over our elected officials. No longer can politicians hide in the smoke filled back rooms making their deals and expect to remain in power, because we will work to prevent that – both the smoke filled back room and the remaining in power if such underhanded deals remain the way things get done.
The citizens expect transparency and openness from our government. Without it, we cannot know what our own government is doing – which is a very dangerous position to be in. We might not always agree with what is happening, but we can’t know whether we like it or not if we don’t at least know what is happening – and as citizens, we have the right to know what our government is doing.
If Republicans expect to remain in power, they’d better start making sure we get it.
Having open elections for every position of leadership is a solid first step, and I urge the Caucus members who haven’t yet signed Rep John Lunsford’s petition to make this happen to do so.
After all, what have you to fear from sunshine?
Any member of the current republican caucus that voted for Richardson in the last election of Speaker should not be in any leadership position. That also includes removing any and all committee chairs that voted for Richardson.
If the republicans in the General Assembly don’t use this as a wake up call, they are to far gone and deserve the ramifications.
Debra,
What you’ve got to realize is the sheer number of leadership positions you’re talking about. There are 38 committees, and only 22 people that voted against Richardson last time. Furthermore, there are also at least 3 Caucus leadership positions, at least one of which (the Caucus Chair) cannot be a Chair of another committee. That makes 39 Chairs needed. Then you have Speaker, Speaker Pro-Tem, Majority Leader, and Majority Whip, which are House positions of the majority party and also cannot be committee chairpersons. Thus, we’re talking 42 distinct people needed, and we still haven’t discussed Vice-Chairs and Secretaries, which are also committee leadership positions. Vice Chairs and Secretaries can also be among the leadership of one other committee, and even Chairs can also be Vice Chair or Secretary on another committee, so there is a bit of room for overlap, but we’re still talking needing on the order of 60 or so Representatives just to fill all various leadership roles – and again, only 22 voted against Richardson last time.
Where do you propose to find the remaining 38 or so needed to fill out the leadership roles?