An opinion that concludes the legislature is broken, but it’s our fault, and maybe they aren’t so bad after all.
An excerpt.
Stuart Leavenworth: Yep, it's broken - and no wonder
By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee ColumnistPublished 12:01 am PDT Sunday, September 3, 2006
The word "dysfunctional" is one of the more well-worn clichés used to describe the California Legislature. Checking our archive, I found The Bee, all by itself, has published at least 126 articles in three years that use the word "dysfunctional" in association with our august body of legislators.
Is it time for us pundits to retire this word? Probably not this year.
A few weeks ago, prospects looked good that lawmakers would pass bills to reform how they draw electoral districts, crack down on pension fraud and require that local governments have adequate levees before approving new development in agricultural areas. All those and others deserved honest deliberation, and all died in the great sausage machine of the last week.
Yet if this session produced many disappointments, it also brought into focus some of the forces that block functional policymaking, and prompt lawmakers to sometimes act like the cast of "Little Miss Sunshine."
• Partly because of term limits, legislative leaders now feel a stronger need to put their name on bills, leaving less time to shepherd those of others. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez carried two of the more high-profile bills of the session -- one to regulate greenhouse gases and one to let telephone companies compete with the cable television industry. Both gained lots of attention for Núñez, possibly helping him in a future run for Los Angeles mayor. But they also forced him to use up lots of political capital. Former Speaker Willie Brown rarely put himself in such a position, but then Willie -- until voters enacted term limits -- didn't need to worry about his next job.
