(Texas) Senate's prized civility under fire | Austin American-Statesman

[Ediacara]

Senate's prized civility under fire
Bruises from redistricting battle will heal, some say; others see lasting damage

By Ken Herman
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, August 17, 2003

Eventually, one must assume, the Texas Senate will meet again.

Unknown, however, is exactly what it will look and feel like when the 11 boycotting Democrats now based in Albuquerque, N.M., return to the floor after what has been three weeks of interstate unpleasantness.

For generations, the 31-member chamber has prided itself on collegiality and, far more often than not, a brand of cordial bipartisanship foreign to the halls of the U.S. Congress.

A Senate session is always a lot of "I'll yield to my good friend from (fill in the blank)" and has a generally congenial tone no matter how hot the debate gets.

More at the Austin American-Statesman

[Dover]

1. Civility? They eat bugs on t.v. to prove their courage. It makes

Jerry Springer look like a warm up act.

Read the latest from Nancy Waterman on this topic:

Trickle Down Thuggery

The great legacy of the George W. Bush presidency will be the political culture of sociopathy it has engendered. We are witnessing a shredding of the very fabric of acceptable norms of respectable behavior and custom that have greased the machinery of government and diplomacy since our country’s founding. In their place, rapidly metastasizing like a malignant presence, and perniciously destroying all that has made our country great since its founding, is the political application of bullying, mass deception, and a relentless and completely unharnessed pursuit of power.

Catapulted into being with the blatant hijacking of the 2000 election, this administration from its inception has manifested disdain for the principles of democracy and the rule of law. A true counting of the presidential vote in Florida was steamrollered on many fronts, replaced by the rapacious lust for victory at all cost. Thousands of registered Florida voters were denied their vote due to a fraudulent list of felons created through the chicanery of Governor Jeb Bush and his accomplice and party chairman, Secretary of State (now Representative) Katherine Harris. In addition, the Republican Florida legislature at the time simply refused to accept any change that might result from a recount, with the intention of sending Republican electors to Washington no matter what. The sham interference of the usually state’s rights Supreme Court completed the coup of democracy when it refused to allow the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court to proceed.

Since Mr. Bush’s Inauguration, a clear pattern has emerged of bullying, manipulation, and the refusal to operate within any restriction, both domestically and in foreign policy. The Patriot Act, which tramples the Constitution on so many fronts, exemplifies the bludgeoning of the rule of law so pervasive in this administration. On the international front, Bush’s dismantling of an international nuclear treaty, his refusal to participate in the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court, his current plans to create nuclear weaponry for battlefield use – contrary to decades-old international norms and agreements – and his coalition of the “billing”, bribed into acquiescence when the United Nations refused to support his plan to invade Iraq, all point to a refusal to bend to any laws created for the greater good that might impede the selfish pursuits of the few. The preemptive strike doctrine, cynically cloaked in unsubstantiated threats to national security, and fueled by a desire for unrestricted global hegemony, is the ultimate manifestation of this pattern.

The frightening development at present is that this power-hungry trampling of the accepted norms of behavior has now metastasized into a contamination of political discourse across a wide spectrum...


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