Why Hasn’t This Gotten More Attention?
[Posted by The Angry Clam]
Leftist California State Senator Carole Migden pushes the voting button of conservative Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston on one of her pet projects.
Money quote:
It is Aug. 31, and Sen. Migden is lobbying on the Assembly floor for her bill, which would require cosmetics manufacturers to advise the state if their products contain cancer-causing ingredients.
Migden’s presence is typical. Senators routinely troll the Assembly floor like bass tournament boats on Clear Lake.
As the lawmakers vote, the bill comes up one shy of passage and time is running out.
In a bizarre move, the zealous Democratic senator punches a Republican Assemblyman’s yes-vote button.
Houston’s startled seatmate, Southern California GOP Assemblyman Bob Huff, watches as Migden then calls for the vote to close.
Huff swiftly reverses Migden’s action.
And just where is Houston while a Democratic senator appropriates his vote?
He’s in the back of the chamber lobbying the governor’s staff about a couple of his bills.
“Then I looked up and I saw all these goings-on at my desk,” Houston recalls. “I went over and (Huff) started telling me what happened. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, Migden usually pushes my buttons but this takes it to a new level.”
How much do you want to bet that if the participants were reversed, there would have been front page cries for their heads from the SF Chronicle, the LA Times, and the Sacramento Bee for weeks on end?
Clam,
I’ve seen something similar. While in college, I took my English girlfriend, a Labor Party stalwart, to the polls with me so she could experience a US election.
However, she became so dismayed at the prospect I might cast my vote for the GOP, she invaded the polling booth and tried to cast my vote for Jimmy Carter.
Of course, she was intercepted by appropriate authorities and ejected. It really was a very educational experience, and she learned quite a bit about American elections. I recall her beauty and spirit with great fondness, and I have surely enjoyed telling this story for years.
PS: She’s now a Dean at UCLA
Black Jack (ee9fe2) — 10/11/2005 @ 10:31 amThis post and Black Jack’s comment are both riotously funny. Write the L.A. Times about it, Clam. I’d *love* to see what they come back with.
readersrep@latimes.com
Ask her to pass it along to editors.
Patterico (5abeae) — 10/11/2005 @ 10:42 amwench
TCO (b85fd9) — 10/11/2005 @ 10:42 amAppalling, just appalling, I’ve always known some people try to steal elections, but that’s just ridiculous, what’s amazing is, it shouldn’t even a topic of discussion she should just be removed. That one would appropriate another legislator’s vote is madness.
Joel B. (c0bbd9) — 10/11/2005 @ 10:44 amIf a *Republican* did that even once, the press would scream bloody murder.
Bostonian (a37519) — 10/11/2005 @ 12:27 pmThis kind of junk is a bit crazy- but like gerrymandering districts, recounts that ignore statistically sound math, campaign money laundering (or at least underhanded re-distribution), dirty whisper campaigns, 527 bald face lies, and electoral systems that are seem to only outrage the losing side for a short time are all indicative of the same thing.
ajds (d3705b) — 10/11/2005 @ 12:29 pmWhy do we think the term “professional politician” is a negative and then react with shock at such a lack of professionalism?
You all seem so shocked to find out that a Democrat doesn’t really believe in representative democracy. I guess the unwashed masses have now been elected as California State Republican Assemblymen, and must be protected from their own bad choices, whether they like it or not.
I’m not an advocate of violence but I’d have been hard pressed not to pop her in the nose.
Bench (7df803) — 10/11/2005 @ 12:54 pmCan’t separate her PMS from her politics, I suppose. Or as they might say at Berkeley, PMS is inherently political.
Zhombre (79b635) — 10/11/2005 @ 2:00 pmA couple of years ago there was a major scandal in Israel, when a legislator was caught on video voting for a colleague who had taken a bathroom break. There was a police investigation, and IIRC criminal charges were either threatened or actually brought. And that was where the two legislators were on the same side, and the absent one would have voted as she was recorded to have done, had she been there.
This is beyond the pale; why has she not been arrested?
Milhouse (74db9b) — 10/11/2005 @ 2:09 pmI blogged about this when it happened. I observed at the time that this is why the Democrats need so badly to hold onto their control of the media. Consider how many of their big names could never have kept office or influence without press support. With a truly adversarial press, they would have lost Kennedy the murderer, Kerry the traitor, Clinton the rapist, Byrd the clansman, Jackson the blackmailer. And how many other reports have you seen about Democratic politicians or activists doing or saying something that would have cost a Republican his career, but for the Democrat it just disapears over night?
Doc Rampage (47be8d) — 10/11/2005 @ 3:11 pmShe should be doing time not to mention kicked out of the legislature.
jpm100 (06f700) — 10/11/2005 @ 3:26 pmI doubt this is conduct unbecoming of a politician, so they won’t kick her out, but the Assembly sure ought to suspend her floor privileges.
Kevin Murphy (9982dd) — 10/11/2005 @ 5:19 pmI was under the impression that this was a common occurance in CA – and that there was no penalties or sanctions for it.
I read about a bill that was passed in a similar fashion last year, I thought…
Of course, as long as it’s Democratic double voting, it’s not a problem to the media. (Compare and contrast “Ohio 2004” discussion to “Wisconsin 2004”.)
Addison (0b2cc0) — 10/11/2005 @ 7:19 pmVoting for your tablemate is a common occurrence, as the article makes clear. However, that is essentially just informal proxy voting.
What this woman did was 1) vote in the Assembly, while she was a senator 2) vote without the Assemblyman’s permission or knowledge and 3) vote contrary to the Assemblyman’s wishes.
Angry Clam (a7c6b1) — 10/11/2005 @ 7:56 pmPicky, picky, picky,
Obviously, Clam, you focus on the wrong point, and we wouldn’t want to seem tinged by the vapors of sexism here. California Senator, Carole Migden really, really, really, cares about carcinogens in her cosmetics. And, she was only helping out her good friend, Assemblyman Guy Houston, by seeing to it his vote was recorded the way he would have voted himself, if he had the time to come to a thorough understanding of how important this issue is to all the millions of older women in California who are in desperate need of good, healthy, high quality, face paint.
Black Jack (ee9fe2) — 10/12/2005 @ 8:27 amCaught Cheating Again
Cheating is a fine old tradition in the Democratic party!
The View From The Nest (77dd58) — 10/14/2005 @ 10:36 am[…] I originally saw this during my blogging slowdown, and so I’m just catching up on it now. It is Aug. 31, and Sen. [Carole] Migden is lobbying on the Assembly floor for her bill, which would require cosmetics manufacturers to advise the state if their products contain cancer-causing ingredients. […]
Hoystory » Blog Archive » An interesting read (322185) — 2/6/2006 @ 8:57 pm