Speaker Gunn Devoid of Good Ideas

Yesterday, we discussed Governor Phil Bryant's goals for the upcoming year. This time, we take a look at House Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton).

Gunn spoke with the Clarion-Ledger to lay out his priorities for the upcoming legislative session. After watching parts of the interview and reading the text of it, Gunn's priorities look to be the Tea Party's wish list. This should come as no surprise since coming into office Gunn has been the Igor to the Tea Party's Dr. Frankenstein.

From the Clarion-Ledger interview, these are some of Gunn's/the Tea Party's goals:

•Convention of states: Gunn wants Mississippi's Legislature to join 34 other states in passing a resolution calling for a federal constitutional convention to amend the U.S. Constitution and require Congress to pass a balanced budget. Article V of the Constitution says two-thirds of states can force a convention, and delegates of 38 states can ratify amendments.

•Common Core: Gunn said he supports "removing any federal control" over Mississippi's education standards and wants the state to "opt out" of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing tied to Common Core standards.

•MAEP lawsuit: Gunn said he opposes litigation led by former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on behalf of 21 school districts suing the state for $230 million they say is owed them under the Mississippi Adequate Education Program formula. Gunn said Musgrove is "taking advantage" of confusing legislation and trying to line his own pockets through legal fees and he wants the Legislature to pass a measure to thwart the litigation.

I don't know about you, but Gunn's wish list looks pretty pitiful.

A convention of states? This is his priority? We have the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the country, and this is how Gunn wants to spend the legislature's time? I would ask why Gunn isn't calling for a convention of policy leaders to discuss how to fix our state's poverty issues, but the answer is already known. Gunn doesn't care.

And there's Common Core, a policy supported by the state's business community and education professionals. Gunn has held the Speaker's gavel for three years. If he has such reservations about the policies, he is three years into his tenure and has put no reform proposals on the table.

With respect to the MAEP lawsuit, Gunn is missing the point. Rather than fund public education as the law mandates, Gunn throws out a knee-jerk idea like enacting a law to keep plaintiffs out of court. Imagine the precedent this sets. Furthermore, if he thinks the MAEP is "confusing legislation," why has he not pushed a single reform bill in the three years he has been Speaker of the House? Perhaps he is more interested in maintaining and complaining about the problem than solving it.

This Week in "Senate Conservative Coalition Doesn't Actively Oppose."

Lately you may have heard some of us on the Cottonmouth team singing the praises of a new Mississippi policy blog called RethinkMS.

It makes sense that the blog's curator, Jake McGraw (who has taken a pro-Common Core stance in the past) was in the crowd when Senator Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula) made some shocking allegations and factually incorrect statements about Petal School Superintendent Dr. John Buchanan. Watson, both on his Facebook page and while speaking to the crowd in Jackson, said that Dr. Buchanan threatened to fire any faculty that opposed Common Core's standards. Despite the meeting minutes obviously disproving this charge, Huffington Post notes that Dr. Buchanan has been taken to task for the comments he didn't make...Including:

A post on the Facebook group Stop Common Core in Mississippi calls on members to call the superintendent and “tell him bullying and silencing teachers is unacceptable.” A comment on the post goes so far as to compare Buchanan to Adolf Hitler. 

While the Internet is often a tad more harsh than the public arena, a crowd member still deemed it fit to shout comparisons of Dr. Buchanan to a certain German dictator.

Word of advice to Common Core opponents: When audience yells out "Like Hitler!" at rally, speaker should disavow. Right, @MichaelWatsonMS?
— Rethink Mississippi (@RethinkMS) January 7, 2014

Rethink Mississippi (an offshoot of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation which calls itself a "service for those who seek more substantive engagement with the state's critical issues"), as you can imagine, had any number of reasons to take umbrage with the situation...take your pick. But Watson being the proud champion of the people chose to ignore the comments, saying:

@RethinkMS Feel free to hold me responsible for my words, but I'm not speech police. Not even sure I heard that comment. #FocusOnTheIssue
— Michael Watson (@MichaelWatsonMS) January 8, 2014

Not one to "police speech," Watson didn't feel the need to trounce such notions, despite the opportunity for a real learning moment for those in attendance. In fact, Watson suggested that maybe-sort of-he-might-not-have-even-heard-the-comment, though he did take the time to pseudo-defend the right to say it.

Perhaps Watson misspelled #FocusOnTheIssue and meant to type #PlausibleDeniability.  Especially since first-hand accounts of the event say that the quarters were small, and Watson acknowledged previous comments by the same gentleman just minutes earlier in the speech.

But Watson's friends came to his defense; Mayor Hal Marx of Petal actually suggested it was possible that a"liberal" is the one who yelled that Common Core's practices were Hitler-like...And who cares if one of Watson's supporters did compare a local superintendent to a brutal dictator responsible for tens of millions of deaths? Complaining about it is just #politicalcorrectnessrunamuk.

@RethinkMS @MichaelWatsonMS How do you know it was a supporter of his? And so what? #liberalhypocrisy #politicalcorrectnessrunamuk
— Hal Marx (@MayorHalMarx) January 9, 2014

It seems crazy to have to make this suggestion in 2014, but maybe the Senate Conservative Coalition should oppose comparing people to Hitler...and start promoting honest conversations about plausible issues.