It is hard to look at what remains of the Missouri Senate and not be ashamed of how far governance has fallen there. The Senate, once proud of its role as a bipartisan deliberative body—it used to be said, “The House passes the bills; the Senate writes the laws.”—is in total disarray because a few members will go to no ends to get their ways although it is abundantly clear their only support is themselves. We remember when the Rs and the Ds could argue as if it was Gabriel versus Satan on the floor but with respect and civility.
Today there are 24 Rs and only 10 Ds. Actually, there appears to be 19 Rs, 10Ds, and 5 soreheads who want to run the place and throw tantrums if they cannot get their way. The number of soreheads might be seven but five are the biggest problem so for today’s contemplations, let’s say fice, for consistency.They have adopted the name of a similar bunch of miscreants in the U. S. House of Representatives.
The Freedom Caucus.
At the start of the session, caucus chairman, Rick Brattin warned, ““Peace is no option…In terms of advancing policy, this will be a show-no-prisoner type approach.”
Such is the level of adulthood within this caucus.
There is nothing free about taking hostages and that is what happened recently in OUR State Senate. 25 hostages to start. There have been deserved consequences and it was about time. But they let these five to claim they are victims of a failed system. They have it wrong. It is they who are the failures.
It is time for some basic lessons in Government for People Who Don’t Care About Government But Better Learn Something Instead of Thinking Everybody is a Crook or a Liar, Etc.
They aren’t, as a large general rule. A few, however, are the products of these times, thinking disrespect for the system is respectable and minority bullying that stops orderly public service is acceptable.
One of the Senate’s roles is to confirm or reject governor’s appointments to state boards and commissions. The Five Senate Soreheads and two others who voted with them stopped any business from being transacted for 11 hours on January 18th by keeping 25 Missourians from being confirmed to positions on various state boards and commissions, most of the positions being voluntary and unpaid personal public service commitments.
The 5SS wanted to invoke an almost-never used rule to start immediate debate on a plan to make it harder for citizens to file petitions to create or change laws without an opportunity for citizens to be heard in committee hearings. They lost 25-7 and had a hissy fit about it. They decided to keep the Senate from considering the appointments until they got their way, not a prudent move by supposedly intelligent prople who several times in recent years had pulled the same kind of stunt.
The leader of the remaining 19 Rs and 10 Ds, President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, called the behavior, “..unequivocally, without a doubt, the worst show of bad faith, or the biggest show of bad faith, I have ever seen in my life.” The floor leader who has the traditional role of setting the debate schedule, Cindy O’Laughlin, salled the caucus “terrorists.”
There is something to be said for filibusters as a tool to force negotiation and compromise, but the caucus is interested in neither, as Brattin has noted. The egregious disregard of senatorial courtesy and procedure is coupled with a disrespect of the process of government. As Rowden observed last week, the caucus had held the floor for 16 hours and 45 minutes of the 17 hours and 52 minutes the Senate had been in session so far.
Minority Leader John Rizzo, whose Ds quietly have watched the Republicans’ ability to govern disintegrate into a worsenig rolling internal mud fight, called the latest implosion “the civil war within the Republican Party that is showing its face and that has come from outside of the smoke-filled back rooms and is now front and center. This has been going on for years now. The only difference is that now the public is seeing it.” He says the Senate reflects the national fight by Trumpian MAGA true believers trying to control the U. S. House of Representatives:
“They’re…sick and tired of having to take orders from someone else and they are pushing towards an authoritarian government, as we’ve been saying forever.”
Last Monday, Rowden showed had had more than enough. He took away committee chairmanships from caucus members Brattin, Bill Eigel, Andrew Koenig, and Denny Hoskins. Senator Mike Moon did not have a chairmanship, having lost that distinction in 2022 for wearing bib overalls on the Senate floor, a violation of the dress code, and refusing to apologize.
This might seem to an outsider to be quibbling. But within the political bubble, this can be a pretty stiff penalty. Committee chairs have enormous power to determine whether important legislation ever gets debated and ever has a chance to become law. They also have influence in getting things done for constituents or for favored interest groups. Loss of that power can take away important self-serving talking points during campaigns for higher office and become fodder for political opponents who want to raise issues related to public trust.
Moon is the only one of the five not seeking statewide office this year. It is hoped that voters select their more adult opponents of whatever party they choose.
The caucus, called “the chaos caucus” and “swamp creatures” by Rowden who probably should not have lowered himself to name-calling, has indicated it is not fazed. Hoskins called Rowden, “the worst President pro Tem in the history of the Missouri Senate,” the kind of exclamatory dialogue to which observers have become accustomed from this caucus.
Hoskins is a CPA much more than he is a Senate historian. Perhaps someone should ask him to name who else is on his bottom five list of pro Tems.
Regrettably, O’Laughlin let her frustrations get the best of her in a news conference earlier Thursday when she said remarked, “Two years ago I said, ‘You know, with 23 votes you can throw somebody out of here. I would do it today. I absolutely would.” That would mean cutting a deal with Democrats to get enough votes and Republicans seemingly would ask to be injected with cholera first. But the statement illustrates how far beyond reason the leadership thinks the 5SS have gone.
The intemperate observation, which mentioned Eigel by name, led Eigel to go wildly ballistic with a screaming fit aimed at O’Laughlin, a continuation of behavior that raises questions about whether one who has shown a propensity to be ungoverned in his present office should be considered fit to govern others. Eigel thinks he would be an excellent governor.
It was, to be blunt, disgraceful, and a total display of disresprect for the tradition of courtesy that has made the Missouri Senate effective. To the credit of O’Laughlin, Rowden and others on their side, they have resisted the shouting, rude interruptions, and arm waving of the 5SS. If someone is to make a spectacle of themselves, it is unlikely to be them.
There still has been no confirmation votes. The number of appointments awaiting confirmation has risen to 42. Governor Parson, also an R, said last week, “They’re not doing anything wrong, nobody has anything against them, yet they’re in the crossfire of what’s going on here politically, internally, and that’s not right. It’s simply not right.”
Innocent people who are willing to serve on tne boards and commissions that oversee programs and services from which all of us benefit are in danger of losing the opportunity to serve and the caucus does not care.
The behavior of caucus members past and present goes beyond disrespect for the other 29 members of the Senate. It also has affected all 163 members of the House who work hard for four months to get bills into position for final passage only to see all of that work go up in smoke in the Senate because nothing is more important than what the caucus cannot convince a majority of their own party to buy.
To put it directly, the 5SS have lowered work by a revered part of our state government to a depth beyond the worst nightmares of all of those who have served in it for more than two centuries and it is incomprehensible that their demagoguery should be tolerated much less supported by some county party committees. But some do.
Should any of them be expelled? No. People in seven Senate districts deserve representation even if is from senators more interested in their political futures than in respecting the functions of government. They still can do constituent services while contaminating the lawmaking process. They have to face opponents on the ballot who are being given ammunition against them every minute they continue to abuse the process of OUR system of government.
They say they are fighting for their causes. Perhaps they might be better off WORKING for their causes. Working has a tendency to engender respect and that can produce progress. When work, respect, and progress give way to bullying, shouting, and minority dictatorship, representative government fails the broad interests of the people.
As long as they carry on, the legislative branch of our state government is failing us.
And these are the failures behind the failure.