Dave Clark's Secret of Legislative Success

Phil Riesen, our legislative investigative reporter, was johnny on the spot last week.  In his earth shaking report he outed Dave Clark's discussion with members of the business community.  Phil indicated that Clark related legislative success in healthcare reform to legislative success in educational vouchers. Scandalous, don't you think?  What if I also told you that legislative success in tax reform, transportation funding, math standard, primary elections, reading achievement programs, and every other legislative activity are all related to both healthcare reform _and_ education vouchers?  What is this magic glue that binds the whole legislative universe together?  It's just one of those nasty 4-letter words:  work!

Every legislative activity takes work (hard to believe, isn't it?).  The legislative process is so cumbersome that stuff just doesn't happen (think: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).  Bills just don't pass themselves.  Majorities just don't magically form.  Public support just doesn't happen by accident.  If you want to get something to happen legislatively, then you are going to have to work.  Whether you are a widely popular governor, a humble legislator, a neighborhood activist, or a politically connected member of the business community, you have to put forth effort (aka work).

Vouchers won't happen just because some members of the business community issues a report recommending them as a component of education reform.  Nor will healthcare reform happen just because another report was written.  It requires painful, difficult, time consuming (day-after-day, year-after-year) work!

I guess we all know why the media didn't report that.  "Rep Clark says: Stuff Takes Work."  Where's the news in that?

Comments

[Davis Didjeridu]

Maybe the public is just tired of hearing about organized extortion being wrapped in the noble phraseology of "work." Great sausage-making, John!

[Jeremy]

So...this is a defense of Rep. Clark right? Seriously?

[Craig Johnson]

John,

I imagine it takes hard work - crazy-busy style - to be a lawmaker.

But that doesn't explain why Dave suggested a codependency between two completely disjointed public policy initiatives. Why did he do that?

Some strategies should just be out of bounds. Dave crossed the line of what you shouldn't do. I guess I just don't understand this dog-eat-dog mentality since we're not dogs and we're not supposed to treat each other like dogs.

Perhaps that's just idealistic liberal wimpish drivel and I've been wasting my time not just gettin' when the gettin's good.

[Jesse Harris]

When the story first broke, I didn't presume the worst. As more time goes by, it's clear that Rep. Clark's implication is that if vouchers don't pass, the legislature will be so busy working on that (since they consider it a higher priority) that some other large issues might not make it to the docket. It seems that some choice individuals chose to assume the worst and reinterpret this to something much more dastardly.

[Obi wan liberali]

So exactly what is the difference between "work", and "coercion"? Is holding education hostage "how work gets done?" If so, I'm glad to know that my children's education is just a pawn in the political gamesmanship of Rep. Clark. Or did I misread what you are saying? Some clarification would be helpful.

[Voice of Utah]

Clark's comments still sounded like a threat of retaliation, veiled or otherwise. I don't see how anyone could suggest that it wasn't newsworthy.

[Curt]

Hmmmmmmmm,

Threatening people with their very livelihood if they don’t support your pet union busting project. All in a days work. What’s next? Swimming with the fishes? Breaking knee caps?

Do you think maybe this group of legislators may have lost their way?