Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Got this historical tidbit from a reader this morning:

31 years ago almost to the day, Speaker Buddie Newman unilaterally gavelled the House to adjournment so that the membership would not have to debate the Kindergarden legislation.  He, of course, didn't issue a press release afterwards to explain himself, but 10 years later, when a USM history professor drove to Valley Park to do an oral history with him, Newman explained he knew there were not enough votes on the House floor to pass kindergardens (they needed a supermajority), so he did it to protect his members.

Sound familiar?  If you read the Clarion-Ledger this morning, it would:

“The decision to kill the Senate Medicaid Technical bill was not made lightly,” (Speaker Philip) Gunn said. “However, there are not enough votes in the House to expand Medicaid. Because of this, the House was faced with what would have been a long and divisive debate on the issue of expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, which would have served no purpose and would have ended with the bill being defeated."

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...