Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Tee Off with Chenault

So there is this special session because the house, the senate and the governor can't play nice. It's costing the state tens of thousands of dollars each day and the bill is way over $500,000 already as the legislatures get their per diems and expenses covered. So what is the Speaker of the House, Mike Chenault's, plan to end the gridlock? He's gone to Atlanta to play golf for a week. And get paid for it. And get his expenses paid for the trip. Seems he conveniently scheduled a meeting in Atlanta for a day so Alaska could pay for the trip. Since he'll be there, why not play a few rounds?

WTF? Chenault needs to be doing all that he can to end the stalemate, but he knows he can be as arrogant and self-serving as he can be because he'll get re-elected. He's a republican, the conservative party. The party that's against waste in government. The party that's for efficiency. Riiiggghhht. It's reason 2358 why we're SOL - the voters here don't care if a politician is in it for their own good as long as if the politician is republican and a tool of the oil industry.

4 comments:

AKSmoke Salmon said...

The very large national legislative conference Speaker Chenault is attenting this year will be coming to Alaska next year, thanks to the efforts of Speaker Chenault to make that happen.

He is going this year to make sure all the details for next year's conference here in Alaska are taken care of.

You can ask Speaker Chenault to bang his head once more against the Senate Bi-Partisan coalition, in an effort to show leadership, but isn't their supposed to be leadership in the Senate?

The Senate leaders want to abandon the concept of checks and balances in capital budget - not Speaker Chenault.

Souldotna said...

Mike is going to play golf. His staff will arrange the details - keep in mind that the conference is a year away. Remember, Mike was a cap-wearing member of the CBC. The senate is trying to keep the oil companies in check, Mike,the house and the Gov are all about giving away the resource that belongs to all of us in Alaska.

Unknown said...

Guess that bicameral process of government worked as designed, with the Senate realizing that there are actually two other parties involved in the capital budget process.

By the wayside went the Senate Princess clause - basically saying to the House and Governor that they need not lift a finger or brack a finger nail with any oversight, review or veto.

Hah, that lasted until the end of the special session - how nice - what a complete waste of time just so the Senate could come to the same realization that it should have had during the regular session, that the Senate does have a couple of other dance partners they are required to interact with and don't just exist in their own little bubble.

Souldotna said...

I hope that you don't think the House (Chenault) and the Guv didn't play there part in the debacle. Remember that they wanted to give away $2 Billion + /year to the oil companies and the senate wouldn't roll over like a whipped dog. Parnell threatened to veto most everything in the capital budget. The House was miffed because they didn't get to add their pet projects.

But the post was about Mike flying off to play golf while on the extended state dime. Seriously slimey stuff.


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