Fallin's Drama

It is always comforting, on an ironic level, to see Oklahoma politicians act like fools. It is a public validation of our day-to-day realities here because it shows just how screwed up most of the big-time leadership is in the state, and, well, frankly, it is always entertaining in a particular slapstickish-yet-ghoulish way if you can stop yourself from looking into the existential meaning of it all.

This week, Lieutenant Governor Mary Fallin and the State Senate Democrats put on the legislative session’s best show so far. Prior to their drama all we had for entertainment were the crybaby fits of Oklahoma House Leader Todd Hiett (R-Kellyville), and even then once a few people paid attention to him he dried his tears and started playing like a “sort-of “ regular kid on the playground. Here is what happened:

The State Senate Democrats and Republicans are fighting over dueling worker’s compensation bills. As you would expect, the Republicans’ bill is anti-worker and anti-middle class, and it plays into corporate interests. If workers get hurt on the job, the Republicans want the employer to choose the injured workers’ doctors. The Democrats, supported by the American Medical Association, want injured workers to be able to continue to choose their own doctors.

So the two bills float around the Senate floor, one pro-corporation, one pro-worker. But since the Democrats still have the majority there, they are not allowing the Republican bill to gain any traction. Last I checked, that is how democracy worked. You go by the legislative rules and count the votes.

So Fallin enters the mess under an overreaching constitutional interpretation that says the Lieutenant Governor can preside over the senate. Supposedly, Fallin wants to bring the Republican bill to the floor for what she says will be a straight up and down vote. As the presider, she “might” be able to force a vote on whether the Senate will consider the bill, but as The Daily Oklahoman(John Greiner, May, 2, 2005) noted, “The vote would have to be on bringing the bill to the Senate floor to begin with. Accomplishing that would take a two-thirds vote of the Senate—32 votes.”

So the Democrats, who argue Fallin has no such constitutional power, took a walk on Monday. That’s right; they actually walked out on her.. They just left her sitting there baffled. On its website the next day, the Oklahoman screamed, “Democrats Snub Fallin.” Poor Mary. Surely, there must be some “bully” law or procedure she can use to stop these mean, ole Democrats from doing the right thing.

Later, the Democrats magically reappeared, and State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan moved to end Monday’s session and to reconvene Tuesday. As he did this, he did not even LOOK at Fallin. (I heard your gasps from here.) He completely ignored her. Later Morgan mentioned that he felt Fallin’s unusual move may be tied to her future political aspirations to be governor, though Fallin and her associates denied this and threw out their best hateful and deceitful clichés about Democrats and trial lawyers, blah, blah, blah. (Surely the lies and hubris of the right these days must get boring for even those true believers in extremist conservative doctrine.)

So, at this writing, it is a standoff. On one side we have Fallin and the Republicans trying to screw workers; on the other side we have a centrist and weakening majority party, which has abandoned many of its founding principles, losing its cool and playing into the hands of the right-wing extremists. In the middle is our stalwart governor Brad Henry wringing his hands and asking everyone to just be friends. I think I see a pattern here.

And the worker? You and me and just about everyone else in this state? That is the last person you going to hear about from either side in this theater of the absurd, and that plays far more to the advantage of the right than it does to the left. Frankly, if I get hurt on the job, I want to choose my own doctor, not some sold-out, old corporate shrill who wants to deny me access to adequate health care so s/he can save the company a few bucks. What kind of doctor would even serve in this capacity? Why, of course, it would be doctors like our own U.S. Senator Tom Coburn or the U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee).

So now Okie Funk will give the more serious side of this issue. As is its modus operandi, the Funk will give its arguments in numerical form. (Caution: These will be progressive arguments. In these here parts, we call them “liberal” idears and such. Careful, one of ‘em might just reach out from the computer screen and bite you in the ass.)

(1) As usual, the Republicans are inconsistent and illogical. Emboldened by the conservative juggernaut in this country that is supported by a relentless right-wing media machine, the GOP is now convinced they can just suspend law whenever they want. Fallin’s actions are in the same spirit of an upcoming move by Frist and the Bush administration to change U.S. Senate rules eliminating the centuries-old filibuster to allow for up and down votes on judges. (Both Fallin and Frist use this “up and down” language, as if this is some type of rallying cry for the masses. That is not true, people. It is deceitful propaganda being employed to mess you up bad.) The problem is that the Republicans, as the minority party, used procedural rules all the time to stop former President Bill Clinton judicial nominees. And, oh yeah, Mary, the Republicans do not have a majority yet in the Oklahoma State Senate, but do not fret because this will happen sure enough if the Democrats do not locate their guts soon and speak out for the ordinary, hard-working people who elected them.

(2) Note how the worker’s compensation issue is already framed by the local right-wing media and the Republicans. The assumption of the right-wing press is that “everyone” should be disgusted by these terrible Democrats who, alas, want to hurt the poor, struggling corporations like Chesapeake Enery or Kerr-McGee or GM. These Democrats actually “snub” and do things like that. Yes, folks, they are “snubbers” and double “snubbers,” too. (Don’t cry, Todd.) What a crock! The Republicans want to take away your right to choose a doctor if you get hurt on the job. They want to do this so corporations can hire doctors who will make sure the injured worker pay out of her/his own pockets for medical expenses. This will mean that the owners and principal stockholders of these big corporations will get even richer. Meanwhile, your wages will remain stagnant as you pay more and more in health costs and health insurance. So, under the current Oklahoma Republican ideology, you will not even get a fair shake if you get injured on the job. Why would any of us, except the very richest who will never have to care one bit about a doctor’s bill, want to go along with this madness? Have you ever had a really big medical bill even if you have health insurance? Well, then, you are lucky. I have had one before, and it is not fun because you have to actually pay it, month-by-month, year-after-year. Workers need protections from corporations because this country has a long and sordid history of big businesses acting unethically to benefit only the elite wealthy in this country and this state. These businesses do not care about you, and Mary Fallin does not care about your medical bills even if you get hurt on the job.

(3) Okay, I agree, the Fallin and Democrat issue has some, ahem, how shall I say, some panache, some energy, some Okie quirkiness in that good ole Oklahoma square-dancey way? It deserves a laugh or two, sure. But the larger symbolism here is that the Republicans are power mad on both the state and national levels. They will not give up, nor will they back down until the people rise up against them, and it is time we rise up against them. Many of my liberal and centrist-type friends keep speaking of a mythical “correction” in the political landscape when suddenly the country will shift back to a more centrist and reasonable government. After my friends do this, they usually hand me a beer. “Relax,” they say, and then they turn up the stereo. But I do not think the correction mythology holds true today for many reasons, and I think this Fallin incident is a good example of why I think this. Here we have a showboating state Republican politician disregarding workers’ rights, a Democrat majority in a state legislative body, and all Oklahoma voters, and she gets a free pass in the so-called mainstream media. Fallin’s cheap, theatrical move, for all its down-home Okie comedy, is an example of how quasi-fascism grows in leaps and bounds in red-states like Oklahoma. Watch out New York, watch out Los Angeles, it is coming your way.