June 27, 2007
As we approach mid-year 2007 allow me to offer to you a glimpse of events and happenings in Alabama politics in potpourri fashion.
A lot has happened, the continuing unraveling of the Jr. College System corruption, the standoff in the Alabama Senate, the Presidential candidates’ forays into the State. However, the biggest story would have to be a positive one. Our landing the German steel plant, ThyssenKrupp, to the Mobile area is the biggest and best news.
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June 20, 2007
The presidency of George W. Bush will be viewed by history in two different lights. His Iraq blunder has devastated our nation. Besides the thousands of American lives lost, our respect and admiration has been destroyed worldwide, and he has incurred the largest financial deficit in our lifetimes with his hapless invasion. It will take years, maybe decades, to recover from the Bush Iraq debacle. Historians will be no kinder to Bush than the 72% of Americans who abysmally disapprove of his policy.
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June 13, 2007
The Alabama Constitution calls for the Legislature to meet every year. The session is to last for 105 days, about three and a half months. It commences the first Tuesday in February of each year, except in the first year of the quadrennium when it meets later. An organizational session precedes the regular session that year. It occurs in January and it is important because the President Pro Tem of the Senate and other leadership positions are selected and the rules are set for the four years ahead.
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May 23, 2007
There is an old saying that when spring is in the air a young man’s interest turns to love, but in Alabama politics a good many people’s interests turn to politics. It is like a sport in Alabama to start speculating on and handicapping the potential candidates for the next Governor’s race. Although it is almost four years away, the guessing has begun.
May 16, 2007
Many of you seemed to enjoy my story about Miss Mittie last week and her legendary prowess as the oracle of Goat Hill. She was such a peculiar looking sight in her floor length black dress and hat, always knitting and never looking up. It was like she had eyes in the top of her head. Miss Mittie would hardly look at you, much less talk to you, unless you had won her trust. She almost whispered when telling you where a legislator was or what was going on in each legislative chamber.
May 09, 2007
Whenever I travel in Alabama I am always asked to retell the story of Miss Mittie. It has been two years since this column appeared but by popular demand, here goes the story of Miss Mittie.
As a youngster I spent my summers working as a Page in the State Legislature. It was an invaluable learning experience and a glimpse into the world of politics, but it was a lot simpler time. When I observe today’s Legislature the most striking difference is computerization. In the 1960s the telephone was our most advanced technology. However, I fondly remember a little lady named Miss Mittie who was far superior to any computer.
May 02, 2007
In observing the ebb and flow of the Legislature during this first session of this four-year cycle, it occurs to me that things are very much status quo and basically a mirror image of the previous quadrennium. It is pretty much the same song, second verse.
The House works in precision predictable form like a fine tuned luxury automobile. The undeterred Speaker Seth Hammett sits perched in the chair orchestrating the machinations of the House like a maestro conductor. Hammett in his 29th year in the House and his record 9th year as Speaker has his ship in order. Hammett is deliberate, methodical, and very organized.
April 25, 2007
This year’s Legislative Session is at the midway point and it was moving somewhat smoother than was originally anticipated. However, the partisan acrimony created by the organizational session’s war for control of the senate has crept into the picture and has cast a somber cloud over the process. The early harmony was inspired more by the State’s strongest economy in years, than a bipartisan laying down of the swords.
April 18, 2007
This week’s column is a continuation of the two-week series written by former Governor Albert Brewer who is a proponent of a new state constitution. This is the culmination of a four-week series regarding Alabama’s antiquated 1901 Constitution.
History has shown that the efforts of the 1901 Constitution to put constraints on local government in Alabama were twofold: (1) the prohibitions of the Constitution requiring amendment of the basic document to enable local governments to engage in some activity otherwise prohibited by the constitution and (2) the virtually absolute control of local governments, particularly counties, by the legislature. The consequences are well known. We talk about the entire state having to amend the constitution to permit Mobile County to engage in a mosquito control program, to authorize Limestone County to dispose of dead farm animals, to ban prostitution in unincorporated areas of Jefferson County, to permit Morgan County to build a jail, and the list goes on and on.
April 11, 2007
This week’s and next week’s columns are written by former Governor Albert Brewer who is a proponent of a new Alabama constitution.
For the past several years a citizens’ group, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, has been pressing the legislature to allow the people of Alabama to vote on the issue of calling a constitutional convention to revise the constitution. One might ask: why a revision movement? Why does Alabama’s constitution need rewriting? To answer these questions, one must look at a brief history of the present constitution and its impact on our state.