Zealots in the House

Sometimes I really wonder if there should be a Florida House. Usually, those moments are brought on by the passage of such bills as the recent abortion restrictions which got passed out of the chamber.

Of course, it is no surprise these bills passed, considering the fact the onerous ultrasound bill was thrown at Charlie Crist last year purely out of the potential to politically embarrass the governor for using common sense in the wielding of his veto pen.

Politicians in Tallahassee are raising the rhetoric on the bill, with even a few pro-life Democrats citing the 10 commandments as a good arguing for legislating the morality of women in Florida. (Thank you, Daphne Campbell, for not only breaking ranks but just spitting on the entire principle of church-state separation as you voted in support of this disgusting attack on a woman's right to choose.)

But while I am disgusted, I am not surprised. The Florida House, made up of members representing relatively small districts that seem perfectly shaped to protect incumbents in nearly every part of this state. The chamber has been a bastion of extremism for as long as anyone can remember. Even when Democrats controlled the chamber, it ran to the fringes on the left compared to the deliberative state Senate.

If anything makes this House something to fear with more caution than normal, it is that we have a governor as crazy as the looniest of members. He practically promised to challenge Roe v. Wade on the trail in his quest to buy the governor's mansion.

And so we are left with this nonsensical legislation bearing a stronger-than-usual possibility of becoming actual statute.

Many people have suggested the House, elected every two years, better reflects the current attitudes of the state as a whole. I would say the Florida House has never done that and always gets dominated by extremists, and right now has a chance to ram legislation written by zealots and make Florida live under draconian laws.

The only bright side is that the extraordinary national embarrassment being delivered to the Sunshine State by the Scott administration and his far-right chronies will inspire a response from voters in 2012.

Sadly, that seems a very slim prospect.