Indiana's two major parties are having a little catfight over what the walkout by Democratic House members did or did not cost. Gov. Daniels has launched a TV ad saying it cost the taxpayers $400,000.
"It's not true," said House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.
He said the ad should be taken off the air, and on Friday an attorney for the Democrats sent letters to TV stations airing the ad, requesting that it be pulled.
Well, good luck with getting the ad pulled. The story notes that TV stations are pretty much ignoring that request, in keeping with the general practice that "political ads generally are given leeway in the media, which are typically unwilling to intervene in partisan fights." That's because people who write political ads, while usually not engaging in outright lies, pretty up their own views so much and distort or ignore the other side's views so much that in any other context it would be considered fraud.
That's certainly the case here. It is true, as Republicans say, that the walkout "cost" taxpayers money based on the fact that the General Assembly still had to be operated despite the Democrats' absence. Democrats are right, too, though, that the cost would have been the same with them there, and the state "saved" the per diems not paid to Democrats and will also profit from the fines they pay. But anyway you add it up, no business was conducted for five weeks, and the General Assembly now has to rush through a big agenda, so there's a lot of wasted opportunity.
This is my favorite quote from the walkout fallout so far, and it's about the upcoming redistricting, which the GOP totally controls:
Outnumbered Democrats are expecting the worst. Rep. Scott Pelath of Michigan City says it is just a matter of "how mean" Republicans want to be with the new districts.
I can just see the GOP in caucus, still fuming from having to sit on their hands for five weeks, now confronted with the accusation that they might think about being "mean." Everybody go "Awww."
Comments
They are worthless to begin with. The purpose of hiring someone to do a job is that they can do it better at a lower cost. If the walk out saved money, then let's just lock the doors and save more.
I say lock the doors on all of them and send them home. No budget, no expenses and therefore no taxes.
TV stations aren't in the news business. Neither are newspapers, for that matter. They're in the advertising business. Even though newspapers are sold to readers, they're sold below cost.
Trying to get the TV stations not to sell those ads is like trying to convince Exxon not to sell gasoline to people who are driving gas hogs. You'd need to have a REALLY good argument.