The Great Gadfly

Whose Ox Is Being Gored?

A friend in need is a friend indeed

By Peter Kenney

When Alaska Senator Ted Stevens used the age-old congressional method of sneaking a pet measure into law he was caught by environmentalists and publicly flogged in the press. And so he should have been. Stevens is the same fellow who squeezed millions of dollars out of an already bloated federal budget to build a bridge to nowhere... a bridge that actually went to nowhere.

Now – with the alternative-energy-facilities-in-state-ocean-sanctuaries bill -- we have a magnificent example of the same tactic at the state level. For two years I did a morning talk radio program with a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who was first a member of the powerful appropriations committees and then became minority leader. He was constantly amazed and dismayed at the number of the times a bill or an amendment slid onto the House floor before it was even actually printed. But the powers that ran the legislature then – and those that run it now -- see no need to change the system. The same is true in the United States Congress.

This latest insult to the public trust is just a further example of what is wrong with our system of government; the people have little to say in their own government and what voice they do have is only grudgingly granted by their elected officials. In Massachusetts, many benefit from specific “earmarks”...small items slid into the bills the legislature passes without the opportunity to review or debate them. The earmark -- federal or state -- is a cute device, much like a small weapon that can be easily concealed. But it is, like the midnight amendment, a slight of hand, a fake-out, a sneaky ploy.

If Massachusetts tolerates the Cashman/DiMasi (on right) ambush in the name of clean energy we will not be able to oppose other similar ploys in service of lesser or less worthy goals. Ted Stevens was wrong and so is Sal DiMasi. How reckless we are to trust our legislators to do the right thing in the dark of night and only after public debate has been squashed. Jim Gordon could have saved himself tens of millions of dollars...he should have just made friends with Sal DiMasi.
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• The archived stories on Ted Stevens.
  
• The archived stories about SalDiMasi.