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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > March > 03 > Entry
Martin Gottlieb: Ohio GOP in 2011 mirrors ways of Obama Democrats
Setting aside the merits of the collective bargaining bill just passed by the Ohio Senate, let’s talk about the process in Columbus.
First, some background. Process has been part of American political debate forever, but notably in the past few years. The parties try to outdo each other in commitment to openness, deliberation, debate, fair play, honesty, democracy and generally to practices that are not embarrassing.
Accordingly, when the Democrats took control of Washington via the 2006 and 2008 elections, they portrayed themselves as a new breed, more committed to all good procedural things than their predecessor Republicans.
But they passed their stimulus package far too fast for the public or even legislators to have a good idea what was in there, much less what the pros and cons were.
They cut embarrassing deals to get their health care bill passed (some so embarrassing they had to be undone). They made last-minute changes in the health care bill so fast that few in Congress were able to keep up with them.
They achieved no buy-in from the other party, despite the president’s talk of bipartisanship.
The ugly process led not only to a general freaking out among the president’s political enemies, but probably also to a loss of passion on the president’s side. The fruits of embarrassment.
The opponents sarcastically reprised the Obama campaign promise of “Change You Can Believe In.” And they adopted the war cry “Read the Bill! Read the Bill!”
The charge was not simply that the Democrats were corrupt in some non-legal sense, but that any legislation passed through such dubious means must not be any good and was tarnished.
So now we come to Ohio in 2011. The Republicans find themselves in the Democrats’ national position two years ago, with total control. And, in racetrack terms, they’re off, much like the 2009 national Democrats.
And, like the Democrats, they’re doing whatever it takes.
To get the collective bargaining bill passed, they moved two independent-thinking Republicans off crucial committees at the last minute. Deliberation had revealed schisms.
Nobody is disputing the legal right of the Republicans to do this. But it undermines the whole idea of a legislative committee. It’s supposed to be the place where a bill gets focused on in detail and acted on by the most expert members.
Republican Sen. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati said he supported 85 percent of the bill. That was not enough to keep him on the committee.
A partner in a pro-management law firm, he had problems with specific provisions. He was replaced by somebody who didn’t. A similar change was made on the Rules Committee, which schedules what happens on the Senate floor.
Before all that, a wide-ranging 99-page amendment was put forth and adopted in committee in 24 hours.
Then — remarkably — the full Senate voted the same day as the committee on the larger bill, as if there is some emergency. Heaven forbid the full Senate should actually take some time to debate an important measure that divided the Senate in half.
The 644-page bill — complex and wide-ranging — was adopted less than a month after being introduced. Referring to the point when real action started, one Democrat called the process a “three-week sprint.”
Confronted with such points, committee Chairman Kevin Bacon notes how many hearings were held (six), how many opponents were heard (39) and how many proponents (31).
That’s exactly the way the national Democrats responded when criticized for their process on the health care bill, except of course that the numbers were bigger in Washington, as the bill was bigger.
Even aside from procedure, the similarities between the 2009 Washington Democrats and the 2011 Ohio Republicans are almost eerie. Both confronted crisis situations — the national economic collapse and the looming state budget shortfall.
Both got accused of taking advantage of those crises to do what they had wanted to do all along — adopt a bunch of spending programs (under the stimulus) and change Ohio’s collective bargaining law.
Both seemed to be proceeding from the premise that they must act fast, because they might never again have the same combination of legislative control and public support.
When you see that the similarities extend to process, you realize what a tight band of brothers and sisters they really are. The passions that polarize them also make them alike.
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