Thanks for your massive number of hits yesterday and today. But stop and breathe for a moment.
Update - And a clarification of procedure
Well, I've got a couple of extra website visitors since yesterday. Say, about 1500-2000 extra.
I do appreciate the traffic, and the other websites pointing here talking about this story, but let's stop and take a breath for a moment.
The facts at this point are simply that Senate rules are alleged to have been broken, and a letter has been sent out from the Senate President Pro Tempore. And a follow up letter was sent from the Senate Minority Leader to his fellow Senate caucus member that he was also asking for action to clear it up. And that's alleged, as in not proven.
For those of you who are looking for more, until the deadline to respond to the allegations has passed (10/18), I don't think there's more to say about it, and there's nothing to be gained from sensationalizing it.
Either there could be a withdrawl from a State Senate Race, or we could hear a call for a special session. Or there might be a third or even a fourth option that I'm not aware of.
But until we reach that point where it's known, which could be Thursday or Friday at the earliest, let's take a wait and see attitude, and let the process work.
*update* - As I find myself responding to some anonymous boob posting off topic who says "be a man" and telling me that if I want civility that I must "Drop it until charges are filed." It's clear that some people are not up on their legislative procedure.
Or maybe it's just the manly man who fiercely girds his loins... and then posts anonymously.
Anyway, after about 18 years of kicking around legislators and the process, here's what I'm pretty sure you can expect;
I think we can consider the issuance of notice of the allegations of rule violations as close to 'charges being filed' as we're going to get. This is not a criminal or even a civil proceeding. It's a legislative procedure for a violation of senate rules, and it's clear that a lot of people don't understand that.
What is going to happen is that the member is going to have to respond to the alleged rule violation. (If I'm screwing up this procedure, legislators can e-mail me here)
(Point to remember) Each chamber sits in judgement of it's own members, so in this case, a request would be made for the Senate to be called into special session. At that point, they'd convene, possibly make rules as a body, and either a few members would form a committee, or the Senate could opt into going into a committee as a whole to hear the allegations, any evidence, and possibly statements from involved parties.
They'd probably break for caucus here and there, but eventually they'd come out and it would be an up or down vote on a motion of censure or some other action depending on the allegations.
There's no traditional court proceeding. It's a purely legislative procedure with some quasi-judicial overtones, but no true judge other than the body itself.
Now, the member could make it all a moot point by resigning their office and withdrawing from the election. In which case, there is no reason to make a determination of rule violation or not.
So, for Mr. Anonymous, there you have it. Your charges (in this case allegations) of rule violations ARE filed at this time. So, by your standards, I can sleep easy assured of my own manliness.
I do appreciate the traffic, and the other websites pointing here talking about this story, but let's stop and take a breath for a moment.
The facts at this point are simply that Senate rules are alleged to have been broken, and a letter has been sent out from the Senate President Pro Tempore. And a follow up letter was sent from the Senate Minority Leader to his fellow Senate caucus member that he was also asking for action to clear it up. And that's alleged, as in not proven.
For those of you who are looking for more, until the deadline to respond to the allegations has passed (10/18), I don't think there's more to say about it, and there's nothing to be gained from sensationalizing it.
Either there could be a withdrawl from a State Senate Race, or we could hear a call for a special session. Or there might be a third or even a fourth option that I'm not aware of.
But until we reach that point where it's known, which could be Thursday or Friday at the earliest, let's take a wait and see attitude, and let the process work.
*update* - As I find myself responding to some anonymous boob posting off topic who says "be a man" and telling me that if I want civility that I must "Drop it until charges are filed." It's clear that some people are not up on their legislative procedure.
Or maybe it's just the manly man who fiercely girds his loins... and then posts anonymously.
Anyway, after about 18 years of kicking around legislators and the process, here's what I'm pretty sure you can expect;
I think we can consider the issuance of notice of the allegations of rule violations as close to 'charges being filed' as we're going to get. This is not a criminal or even a civil proceeding. It's a legislative procedure for a violation of senate rules, and it's clear that a lot of people don't understand that.
What is going to happen is that the member is going to have to respond to the alleged rule violation. (If I'm screwing up this procedure, legislators can e-mail me here)
(Point to remember) Each chamber sits in judgement of it's own members, so in this case, a request would be made for the Senate to be called into special session. At that point, they'd convene, possibly make rules as a body, and either a few members would form a committee, or the Senate could opt into going into a committee as a whole to hear the allegations, any evidence, and possibly statements from involved parties.
They'd probably break for caucus here and there, but eventually they'd come out and it would be an up or down vote on a motion of censure or some other action depending on the allegations.
There's no traditional court proceeding. It's a purely legislative procedure with some quasi-judicial overtones, but no true judge other than the body itself.
Now, the member could make it all a moot point by resigning their office and withdrawing from the election. In which case, there is no reason to make a determination of rule violation or not.
So, for Mr. Anonymous, there you have it. Your charges (in this case allegations) of rule violations ARE filed at this time. So, by your standards, I can sleep easy assured of my own manliness.
