"There They Go Again"--Only This Time It's the California Assembly Republicans

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

As hundreds of bills passed off the Assembly floor this last week, there has been some entertainment value in listening to Republican Members of the California State Assembly speaking about them.

I will never forget the debate on a bill to ban the use of transfats, deadly for heart disease, in fast food restaurants. The bill passed, but not before Republican Assemblymember Anthony Adams, a fairly articulate and almost always conservative member of the body, rose to speak in opposition. Reaching a cadence, Adams took his argument against governmental involvement to its logical conclusion. In forceful terms he asked, "Why not just ban all fat people in California?" A rather robust Democratic Assemblymember, Jim Beall, who by chance was walking behind Adams, was clearly startled by the comment, threw his hands up in the air and started waiving them. The chamber erupted into laughter and a few heads shook, with some doing both laughing and shaking in disbelief at the same time.

But on too many occasions in opposing the progress being made, the Republicans would not talk about the merits of a bill and instead whined about the process.

The Republican Assemblymembers have by and large marginalized themselves with opposition to the major legislation of the year that has made it through the committee process and passed before Friday's deadline. With no plan to provide health care to vote for, the Democratic bill, AB 8 by Speaker Fabian Nunez, was passed entirely with Democratic votes. It received the votes of all 47 Democratic Assemblymembers present and was opposed by all 32 Republicans votes in the house. The only Member not to vote was Democrat Nell Soto who was absent due to illness.

What did they have to say about this sad state of affairs?