Thursday, September 30, 2010

Political Football

Congress just took off for recess with a stack of unfinished business, as your elected officials decided to avoid giving their November opponents any more fodder for campaign ads. "They couldn't even pass a budget!" screams the headline in the Drudge Report.

To some it's slacking. To others it's basic time management. Why waste hours of debate on things that could be radically altered or DOA after the midterms? In football, punting is not only an admission you can't keep a drive alive but also a tactic designed to set your opponent back. If Congress does indeed turn over to a Republican majority, the budget will now be their problem, along with all those other items on the list.

Then there's punting because you don't know how to score, don't want to score, are afraid to score, or think you're playing tennis. Here in FrancisPage's hometown of Tucson, the city and the board in charge of downtown redevelopment have been tossing a hotel project back and forth like a hand grenade. Nobody wants to greenlight would could be another expensive boondoggle. Nobody wants to kill another Rio Nuevo development and add another failure to an embarrassing list of misfires going back a decade. I remember a chiropractor in the Rio Grande Valley used to drive a van around with a model of a human spine on top. Many somebody could rent that and park it in front of City Hall as a friendly suggestion.

On the election day ballot, you will see 10 state propositions, nine of which were put there by lawmakers. To be sure, your Grand Canyon State congresspeople had no choice to put some of their actions to a public vote. Please don't punt on these.

No comments: