Rod Adair: Newspaper story wrong wrong wrong

State Senator Rod Adair
Commentary by State Senator Rod Adair via facebook: The front page story DEATH IN THE ROUNDHOUSE in today's Albuquerque Journal could not be further from the truth. The story purports to show "How Key Bills Died in the State Legislature." The entire story is---and I know this is harsh language---a blatant lie. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming the reporter. I believe he is acting in good faith and writing what he sincerely believes is true. But ...the idea that any bill dies (let alone the "Social Promotion" bill) because of dramatic, suspense-filled "maneuvering," or "filibusters," or what-have-you, is just plain false.  The Democrat majority in both houses "want" people to believe that. Many journalists, most likely through no fault of their own, buy into these false scenarios. The fact is that ANY bill could be shepherded through the legislature in 24 hours, from start to finish. It's been done, numerous times. The notion that "it's difficult to get a bill through in a 30-day session" is just not correct. The key component is the WILL to enact a particular idea, concept, or reform. And that will just isn't there. It wasn't there in last year's 60-day session (when, strangely, there wasn't "enough time" for any number of measures) and it won't be in next year's 60-day session, UNLESS the make-up of the legislature is subtantially changed.  It isn't about "compromise," or "talking," or other such notions. This particular issue (and many more) have in fact undergone hundreds of hours of talks, and many compromises have been made. So those kinds of excuses are nothing more than a gigantic canard. The fact is the "educatocracy" (the combined forces of the ingrained public education establishment, its unions and many, many lifetime educators and administrators, though not all of them) does not want change.  An additional unseen fact is that the very idea that certain bills are, oddly, always "waiting" on the floor on the final day reflects an opposition strategy that takes tremendous fake maneuvering just to pull off. Those bills could have reached the floor a week--even two weeks-- earlier. Opponents have to connive--they actually have to scheme fairly carefully-- to get things to "look" as if they "just ran out of time."  Journalists need to stop buying this "Child's Garden of Verses" kind of storytelling. And New Mexicans need to understand what is really going on in Santa Fe. See post

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