I just love the State of the Mouse. It elects some of the most entertaining characters to public office. At least you have to keep telling yourself that their actions are entertaining. If you let yourself remember that they actually have power to enact laws it starts to become very scary indeed.
Take for example the recent behavior of the GOP leadership of the Florida House of Representatives.
During last week’s discussion about a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting union dues from a worker’s paycheck, state Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, used his time during floor debate to argue that Republicans are against regulations — except when it comes to the little guys, or serves their specific interests.
At one point Randolph suggested that his wife “incorporate her uterus” to stop Republicans from pushing measures that would restrict abortions. Republicans, after all, wouldn’t want to further regulate a Florida business.
Apparently the GOP leadership of the House didn’t like the one-liner.
They told Democrats that Randolph is not to discuss body parts on the House floor.
…
“It’s not like I used slang,” said Randolph, who actually got the line from his wife. He said Republicans voiced concern about young pages hearing the word uterus.
“I think it’s a sad commentary about what we think about sex education in the state,” he said.
House GOP spokeswoman Katie Betta: “The Speaker has been clear about his expectations for conduct on the House for during debate. At one point during the debate, he mentioned to the entire House that members of both parties needed to be mindful of decorum during debate.
“Additionally, the Speaker believes it is important for all Members to be mindful of and respectful to visitors and guests, particularly the young pages and messengers who are seated in the chamber during debates. In the past, if the debate is going to contain language that would be considered inappropriate for children and other guests, the Speaker will make an announcement in advance, asking children and others who may be uncomfortable with the subject matter to leave the floor and gallery.”
Of course, about a week after this incident, there was a lot of backpedaling and political posturing from the other side.
House Speaker Dean Cannon … told reporters Wednesday that the flap was “silly.” He said he never banned use of the word “uterus” — and further, he called Randolph one of the “least effective” Democrats in the House.
…“Not only have I not spoken to him, not reprimanded him, nor had any conversation with him, we haven’t banned the word ‘uterus’ from the floor.”
…
But Randolph said he was told through his party’s leadership that Cannon’s office was unhappy with the use of the word. …
It is worth noting that Pages are 12 to 14 years of age and Messengers are 15 to 18 years of age. Personally I would think very few of these fine students do not fully understand the parts of the human body and the biological function of those parts. I also believe that if they do not, then both our education system and their parents are failing to do their jobs.
Of course no one has raised any concern about those same 12 to 14 year old Pages being present in House chambers during debate and reading of House Bill 1127. The content of HB 1127 seems a much more mature subject than body parts we are all born with. The summary of HB 1227 is
Requires that ultrasound be performed on woman obtaining abortion; requires that ultrasound be reviewed with patient before woman gives informed consent for abortion procedure; requires that woman certify in writing that she declined to review ultrasound & did so of her own free will & without undue influence; provides exemption from requirement to view ultrasound for women who are victims of rape, incest, domestic violence, or human trafficking or for women who have serious medical condition necessitating abortion.
But what else would I expect from the government of my M. Mouse home state?
Is Still Here
