In a shocking turn of events Wednesday, not a single Missouri Republican legislator made an angry floor speech—or even called an emergency press conference—to attack Gov. Jay Nixon for seeking federal disaster aid from President Barack Obama for blizzard recovery in the state.
Yes, that Obama, the nefarious purveyor of Kenyan Muslim Socialism, the man who wants to threaten our way of life in Missouri with more health care for poor people, high-speed trains, and probably Sharia law. Certainly, any aid Obama would provide would be the first step toward eroding some freedom, such as our Right to Remain Irrational About Climate Change.
It is truly unbelievable that no patriot legislator rose to question the constitutionality of the federal government imposing “relief aid” on our state. We don’t need Washington telling us how to shovel snow, do we?
Where’s Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis) when you need him? Here’s what he could have said, if someone had just given him a microphone:
“These very limited powers that we’ve delegated to the federal government are just that—they’re limited," he should be saying. "This is what you have authority over, and everything else goes back to the people and the states.”
Actually, those were Lembke’s words last month on the subject of limiting federal power when it comes to health-care reform. Don’t the same principles apply to disaster relief?
The Founding Fathers were familiar with blizzards. Had they wanted the federal government involved in disasters, it would be in the Constitution.
Apparently, Missouri legislators aren’t so concerned about states’ rights when it’s time to run to the federal government for help. In fairness, however, it should be pointed out that the Republicans—and a fair number of Democratic legislators—actually would have resented the disaster aid if the blizzard had only hit poor people.
Speaking of resenting the poor, the legislators have been especially shameless in trying to conflate principle with partisan politics in attacking health-care reform. It apparently wasn’t enough to have passed an air-headed ballot measure to make a symbolic statement against health-care reform during the last election.
Now comes the issue du jour: a demand that Attorney General Chris Koster join 25 other states in suing to stop the health-care bill—and it has become laughable even by the legislature’s pathetic standards.
First of all, the attorney general is not the staff attorney to the state legislature and has no obligation to follow its instruction with regard to any piece of litigation. Here’s the Missouri Constitution, Article II, on the subject of “the distribution of powers":
“The powers of government shall be divided into three distinct departments—the legislative, executive and judicial—each of which shall be confided to a separate magistracy, and no person, or collection of persons, charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of those departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except in the instances in this constitution expressly directed or permitted.”
Take that, tea bag people.
Not only does Koster not owe it to the legislature to follow its unqualified legal advice, he’d be setting a terrible precedent in doing so. And it would be even scarier for the attorney general to start accepting legal advice from the public through ballot items such as last year’s referendum.
Whether the state ought to join any piece of litigation filed by other states is a strategic legal decision that should be based on a number of factors: the substance of the law at issue, the costs of participation, the benefits of being involved, and the likelihood of success, among other factors.
It is a technical, legal decision, not a political one.
In this case, Missouri has absolutely nothing to gain by jumping on the bandwagon: The outcome of the lawsuit will be the same for Missouri—and all other states—regardless of whether it is a participant.
In a time of draconian budget cuts in Jefferson City, it’s hard to imagine why the taxpayers would want to waste a dime of scarce legal resources in the attorney general’s office to help one of the political parties make its point. Then again, Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) insisted this month that entering the lawsuit wouldn’t cost Missouri a thing.
Perhaps she’s about to produce a bill calling for an all-volunteer attorney general’s office.
It would make about as much sense as the rest of the noise coming from the state capitol this time of year.
SLM co-owner Ray Hartmann is a panelist on KETC Channel 9’s Donnybrook, which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m.
