Molly Ivins May 29AUSTIN — Our text for the day is the Matter of Ms. Wohlgemuth. Texas state Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth of Burleson (Bosque, Johnson and Somervell counties) distinguished herself Monday night by single-handedly killing off 52 pieces of legislation with a lone parliamentary blow. This massive bill-kill, christened "the Memorial Day Massacre" by Rep. Dan Kubiak, represented at least several thousand hours of work down the tubes. While many of the measures massacred by Wohlgemuth's point of order were less than cosmic, among them was a pet bill of Gov. George W. Bush to encourage doctors to help the poor. The "Good Samaritan bill" would have exempted doctors who volunteer to help the poor from lawsuits, except for gross negligence. Also dead were: — A bill to allow the state comptroller to help local governments get federal money. — An expansion of the charter schools program. — A bill to force state agencies and universities to reveal settlement packages for departing administrators (some million-dollar stinkers have been hidden from public view). — Adoption of federal guidelines for health care: The state stands to lose millions of dollars in federal funds for not being in compliance and could also lose regulatory authority over health care to Washington. — Faith-based welfare services, another favorite of the governor. Wohlgemuth brought her point of order in retaliation for the bottling up of a pet bill of her own — requiring parental notification before minors can get abortions. Her bill was unbottled Tuesday and then shot down on a point of order by Rep. Debra Danberg of Houston — the records of a committee hearing on the bill failed to list the groups represented by witnesses. Wohlgemuth, of course, was in no position to complain about having her bill killed on a picayune point of order. It is safe to say any bill sponsored by Wohlgemuth will meet a similar fate for the foreseeable future. The depth of the resentment Wohlgemuth incurred can be measured by the standing ovation received by Kubiak when he made a rare personal privilege speech denouncing "the death of a part of democracy in Texas." What we have here, folks, is a demonstration of the growth of a partisan, petty, spiteful kind of politics.
Wohlgemuth and her colleagues are undoubtedly correct that the majority of Texans would favor parental notification on abortions and oppose gay marriage. That popular measures can be bottled up and/or killed off by arcane parliamentary rules and maneuvers is simply a fact of legislative life. The accepted form of retaliation is to get the getter by, say, "tagging" one of his or her bills in response. Shooting down 52 bills having nothing to do with your individual beef is an escalation of parliamentary warfare going from conventional to nuclear. It led to much overwrought rhetoric about "terrorist tactics," etc. The epithet "bomb-thrower" used to be used exclusively to describe liberals, and so I cherish a residual affection for it. Besides, I have a faint anarchist streak that takes a secret delight in the spectacle of one person throwing the entire Legislature into uproar and chaos. It's kind of fun to watch. Whole bills are now being attached to other bills as amendments, which is going to make some truly peculiar laws. One envisions future Supreme Courts solemnly trying to figure out why a law about license plates includes health care insurance for poor children. But one of the things I have learned about life and the Lege is that it is extremely difficult to pass legislation, and the art of getting it done deserves respect. Bush couldn't even get a tax CUT through this session, for Pete's sake. What Wohlgemuth has really done here is to cut off her nose to spite her face. Burleson now has negative net representation and will be punished for Wohlgemuth's stupidity as long as she is in office. Wohlgemuth added some unlovely icing to her poisonous cake by saying, "The speaker is responsible for what happens in the House. The speaker is responsible for the process." Nasty partisanship, which has reduced Congress to impotence, has not, heretofore, much troubled the Lege, where R's and D's wheel and deal happily with one another. Bringing the spirit of Holy War into the democratic process is the ugliest kind of disservice to the public. When political disagreements are made into a moralistic crusade — complete with smug self-righteousness and the stink of sanctimony — our ability to resolve them vanishes, our divisions deepen and somewhere ahead lies something that looks like Bosnia. *** Molly Ivins is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. COPYRIGHT 1997 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
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