Do little lawmakers or a know little governor?

(4/11/09) An outside blog calling itself Conservatives4Palin, has added fuel to the already burning fire between the legislature and Governor Sarah Palin by calling lawmakers, "Alaska's Do Little Legislature."

In response to the claim, one reader wrote: wisetrog,  April 6, 2009 2:01 AM   they don't want sarah to look good and appear like she's accomplishing stuff.

These delusional souls based somewhere beyond the surely bonds of reality, must have missed the last 82 days as the governor has been AWOL, absent with out leadership.

We've written about this over the last few weeks as lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated because Palin refuses to lead on any issue.

In December, Palin held a press conference and announced her priority health care initiatives. So what has she done about proposals like expanding health care coverage for low income children? Nothing.

During a legislative hearing that would expand the health care coverage that the governor said she supported, her health care official that testified couldn't say definitively whether the governor supported the bill.

When asked whether Governor Palin supported the bill, Jon Sherwood of the Health Department stated, "the administration does not have a position of opposition to this bill."  He went on to testify, "I'm not trying to hide anything, I don't think I can answer your question directly."

In addition to the fracas over stimulus spending and the governors faulty claim of federal strings when actually there are none, lawmakers are expressing frustration because Palin has spent more time talking about her press coverage than about public policies.

In Sunday's Juneau Empire, Pat Forgey writes that many leaders in the Republican-dominated Legislature say they're baffled at the Palin administration's failure to push even its own bills.

Among the Republicans' biggest complaints: Palin is disengaged from the legislative process. There have been multiple complaints that Palin administration officials won't take positions on bills, including any indication about whether the governor is likely to sign bills that make it through the process.

"It appears the administration doesn't really push their own bills," Republican State Sen. Bert Stedman told the Alask Budget Report last week. "They ask other members within the legislature to sponsor them and move them forward, with little-apparently-support."

Take the case of Valdez Republican State Rep. John Harris who introduced a controversial measure to adjust cruise ship wastewater standards. "I was asked to sponsor the bill because the administration didn't want to. It really should have been an administration bill."

Meanwhile, legislators are finding it continually difficult to work with administration officials because they are afraid to express any policy positions on pending legislation. "They're not really allowed to say they support anything," Democratic State Sen. Johnny Ellis said in the ABR this week.

In fact it's safe to say that Palin has spent more energy going back and forth with Democrats over filling the vacant Juneau Senate seat than she has on any critical public policy issues.

Even her two priority energy bills won't pass this year due to a lack of leadership and planning. While the folks at Conservatives4Palin are all in a twitter about the legislature not passing these two bills, they probably missed the day that Palin told majority house members that they weren't priorities after all.

But the big question for these out of state Palin worshippers is: why weren't these priority bills drafted back in the fall?

The governor had already announced ANGDA was moving forward on an in state gas pipeline during a June 2008 press conference and the idea that utility consolidation would be necessary to facilitate any major energy projects has been known for almost a decade.

None of these issues are new, all were known and Palin's energy czar had been on the job since March.

So why weren't these bills drafted when state government was so slow it could be governed by Palin's Blackberry when she was on the campaign trail?

But keep blaming lawmakers....it's the Palin way...blame others and take no responsibility for anything.

More on Governor Palin's relationship with lawmakers:

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/041209/loc_428496963.shtml 

Conservatives4Palin blog posting:

http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/04/alaskas-do-little-legislature.html