No, this headline is not hyperbole. Read the full article and weep. Especially if you happen to live in Senate District 17.

Yesterday, HB 1582, which would prevent New Hampshire from participating in the federal Real ID system, came to a vote in the Senate beneath a gallery filled to overflowing with citizens opposed to Real ID. After extensive searching, the Senate Republican leadership discovered a way to derail -- but still be able to pretend to support -- the bill.

Sen. Jack Barnes of Raymond, who voted for the bill in committee, proposed an amendment which would delete the entire bill and replace it with language calling for a committee to study the matter for six months. This is usually a subtle way to kill a bill, but might possibly have been an honest suggestion -- if one didn't know that a fiscal committee is meeting this morning at 9 to decide whether to accept the $3 million of "sucker money" (Sen. Burling's apt words) the federal government is offering if we agree to be a pilot state for Real ID. Accepting the money now would, of course, vastly complicate any attempts to get out of Real ID later.

4-22-2006

From the Exeter News

Pols letting little things spoil the big picture

The Legislature is operating at break-neck speed as we approach the end of the session.

In the midst of hearings, strategy sessions and bill rewriting, it is easy to worry about small, sometimes partisan concerns and to forget about the important principles we should be honoring.

Two examples of this tendency were front and center at the Statehouse last week in the areas of voting rights and education — two of the essential elements of our democracy.