Minority Report

Antics by the minority in legislative bodies seem to be at an all-time high. There is, of course, the filibustering ways of the US Senate’s Democratic minority who are blocking two Appeals Court nominees, the actions of Republicans and pro-Governor Riley Democrats in the Alabama State Senate, who are stopping floor business in the Senate because of objections to power-sharing arrangements over committee assignments and such, and now Democrats members of the Texas State House are hiding so as to make it impossible to have a quorum, and hence blocking business in the State House:

More than 50 Democrats - enough to break the quorum needed to do Texas House business - did not show up Monday morning when the House convened, prompting Republican Speaker Tom Craddick to order state police officers to find them.

The walkout, which coincides with the scheduled debate for a divisive congressional redistricting bill, halted House business.

Partisan tension has been building all legislative session. Republicans and Democrats have clashed over a no-new-taxes budget, sweeping lawsuit limitation legislation and most recently, a push by the GOP leadership to redraw congressional voting lines to favor Republicans.

This leads to the somewhat amusing spectacle of state police being charged with seeking out and arresting wayward legislators, and forcing them to the floor:

The latest group of quorum-busters planned to leave the state to avoid having state police detain them and forcibly return them to the House floor, if necessary.

Now, in all these cases I will accept the argument that when tools exist (filibusters, breaking quorum, etc.) they can be used at times, but by the same token there is something profoundly dishonorable in employing them in except the most extreme of circumstances. When your side has lost the political battle at the ballot box, which in turn constitutes the makeup of a legislative body, then you have to take your lumps, so to speak, if you lose the argument in that legislative body.

Now, it is worth noting that these things have happened in the past, but rarely. I would hope that in all these cases (and any I may be missing) that the voters take note and act accordingly.