The special session yesterday could have been wrapped up by dinner time at the latest. The Assembly moved expeditiously to approve the plans painstakingly negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio and Democrat Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley. But rookie Minority Leader Steven Horsford - running the show for his caucus for the first time since being elected to fill former Minority Leader Dina Titus’ pumps - gummed up the works.
Late in the afternoon, Horsford hopped on his high horse and went on a mini-rant on the Senate floor, spewing typical liberal pabulum about how the Senate was trying to balance the budget on the backs of school children. At issue was a plan to reduce the amount of money allocated for textbooks, a proposal actually put forward by SCHOOL OFFICIALS themselves who decided the textbooks really weren’t necessary, but teacher raises and administration bureaucrats were.
Assembly Democrats voted to cut the textbook money unanimously earlier in the day - which means Horsford wasn’t just accusing Senate Republicans of balancing the budget on the backs of school children, he was accusing Speaker Barbara Buckley and the entire Assembly Democrat caucus of…balancing the budget on the backs of school children.
After Horsford finished bloviating, a clearly irritated but composed Raggio rose and took the young man to the proverbial woodshed. As the kids would say, he ripped Horsford a new one - but in a professional and respectful way that only Sen. Raggio could. It was a thing of beauty to watch and well worth the price of admission. If I can get a transcript of his remarks I’ll post ‘em here over the next couple of days.
But Raggio wasn’t the only one irritated by Horsford’s shenanigans. As noted above, not only did Horsford accuse Assembly Democrats of balancing the budget on the backs of school children, he darned near undid the bi-partisan deal Buckley had negotiated with Raggio. The Speaker was reportedly none to happy with machinations of the wet-behind-the-ears rookie Senate Minority Leader. This little episode could have long-lasting ramifications for the 2009 regular session of the Legislature.
Final note: Only the experience and people skills of Bill Raggio made it possible to close out this special session in one day. Those who suggest he can be replaced with “any other Republican” are just plain wrong.
Posted on June 28th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: Nevada
Horsford is a horse’s *@%. Typical liberal. Trying to set himself up for something bigger, no doubt. You can take it to the bank that this guy and the rest of the libs will USE the children of Nevada to push through their liberal agenda.