What started as a fairly busy but manageable day turned into a somewhat frantic one. I had several school groups in today and that took a lot of time. At this time of the year, lots of schools are coming to the capitol and most of them want to see their state officials. I try to accommodate everyone and sometimes I have scheduling conflicts, it’s just the way things go. We bumped the supplemental appropriations bill today, the one that I wrote about yesterday, onto tomorrow’s calendar. We’ll see if it goes then. Also tomorrow, the four judicial confirmations are scheduled to run in the Senate after a very long game of “who-will-blink-first” (the Republican Senate leadership or the Governor). I have been of the opinion that my reading of the constitution says that the Governor makes the appointment and the Senate is in place to offer advice in the event of an ethical or legal obstacle for the nominee. I think that most of the same people that would complain bitterly about a nominee from this Governor would defend that same nominee if the Governor was a Republican. My position as a public official is to be fair and consistent. I have voted against three nominees to date that were involved in ethical or legal improprieties. This was a minority vote, one that should have seen great support from conservatives, Republicans or strict constructionists, whatever you want to call them, but it wasn’t. If I voted to confirm nominees on their philosophical beliefs or their performance, I would not have voted for many. This is an important role of the Senate and one that too many take lightly.
- John
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