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February 11, 2005
Hooray for the Senate
The Democrats in the Senate, especially the new leadership team of minority leader Robert Brown (Macon), Tim Golden (Valdosta) and David Adelman (Druid Hills) had their best day yet of the new session.
Early in the day, they managed to keep their caucus together (losing one vote + one absent member) for the faith based amendment. Doug Stoner (Smyrna) along with Golden have been offering an alternative amendment that largely does exactly what Governor Perdue claims he wants done -- namely to officially legalize the relationship that the state and many relgious service providers already have -- but prohibits making vouchers legal.
Now, Perdue doesn't say anything about vouchers -- yet the Republicans refusal to consider (so far) the alternative proposal offered by Stoner and Golden should tell you all you need to know about where Perdue and his party actually stand.
The Democrats in the Senate understand that despite their minority status, there is still a role for an opposition party to play, perhaps most crucially when it comes to amending the state Constitution. Today, by sticking together they were able to block a wolf in sheep's clothing from passing into our state's Constitution. And because they've offered an attractive alternative, reasonable Georgians looking for an alternative to Republican one party rule will recognize that they are offering a constructive and non-obstructionist vision for this state compatible with the values of its citizens.
Unfortunately, it seems that some individual House Democratic members haven't grasped the new reality of their situation. Despite the fact that nearly 20% of the House Republicans voted for a Republican-sponsored amendment that would have raised caps on malpractice damages to $750,000, a number of old-line Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with the majority of the anti-justice Republicans.
The House barely amended the tort deform legislation at all, save a token sop by Speaker Glenn Richardson that raised caps to $350,000 (don't worry, lawyers still don't like you, Glenn). The bill was rushed back to the Senate to agree to the House changes, and thankfully enough Republicans agreed with a united Democratic caucus that an issue as important as medical malpractice reform should be subject to some debate before it is finally passed.
After debate was shamefully limited by Preston Smith (R - Rome) in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the same thing happened on the floor of the Senate, and then in the committees in the House and for the most part on the floor of that body. Now, in conference committee and then on the floor of each body afterwards there will finally be some debate on this very important issue.
For more insight on tort reform, and a unique perspective on the legislature check out David Adelman's blog. Adelman is, as far as I know, the first Georgia legislator to venture into the world of blogging.
Posted by Chris at February 11, 2005 12:17 AM
Comments
I think it's great Senator Adelman is giving blogging a shot.
Didn't you mention recently you are/were his campaign manager/strategy guru? Do you know what encouraged him to start it?
Posted by: rusty ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.chrisishardcore.com//nav-commenters.gif)
at February 11, 2005 01:20 PM
During the campaign I managed his operational day to day stuff (including website) so that he would be free to make appearances (campaign) and be involved with the Senate caucus's campaigns.
Now that the campaign is over I work with him on a friend/advisor/"guru" level. He has been actively reading some blogs in his spare time. During the session he sends out about 4 very detailed legislative update emails to his friends and supporters.
He approached me about the possibility of setting up a blog so as to write about the goings on of the session on a more frequent basis to supplement his legislative updates. I agreed that it was a great idea and helped him set up a Movable Type blog.
I'd been meaning to post a link earlier. And yes, it is David himself writing all the entries (even the very late night ones). Thanks for spreading the word.
Posted by: chris at February 11, 2005 02:56 PM
hey, Doug Stoner has a bloggish thing at Dougstoner.com which keeps a pretty good account of legislative goings on.
Posted by: LeftTheCapitol at February 14, 2005 02:15 PM
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