Sheepishly, the lame ducks returned to the pond this week.
Wait a second. Didn't state lawmakers tells us last week that they
were done for the year and they were home for the holidays?
By golly they said exactly that.
So?
Well can you say inept?
After they proudly announced they were out of here, someone
discovered that 13 bills that had been passed by both houses were left
dangling in the air because the senate did not attach what they call
"immediate effect" to the bills. Minus that "I.E." the laws would die
on the vine.
So some genius decided, we better call everyone back into town to
do what should have been done before they sashayed out of here.
Lt. Governor John Cherry reflected that this was a little
embarrassing and indicative of what happens when inexperienced hands
are on the wheel.
Of course all of this fits right into the continuing debate about
having a Lame Duck post-election session to begin with.
Senator Mike Bishop (R-Oakland County) was most vocal about
wanting to keep things a brief as possible before all the "shenanigans"
began. He feared that in the last minute with the rush to get out of
Dodge, somebody might offer something that was bad legislation and it
might pass.
Well put.
But this is a full time legislature which is already noted for
taking an enormous amount of time off to supposedly "work back in the
district" as they like to say.
The Congress in Washington is doing its own Lame Duck as the
taxpayers are getting their monies worth out of it but the salons back
here wanted another three weeks off with pay.
Yes L.D. can be dicey but if somebody is paying attention lousy
legislation can be killed before it multiplies..that is if somebody is
paying attention which last week they were not.