I spoke with the legislator last night about his proposal, and at this point he wants to remain anonymous, but promises me that he will have several sponsors for the bill.
The bill, if passed would implement a law that requires all current and new legislators to undergo a mental health evaluation and IQ test. They will also have to take a UA (drug test) and undergo an addiction screening.
I asked Legislator ‘X’ why he is proposing this.
“Well, do you need to ask? Every year we are faced with more ridiculous bills, in this year alone there has been bills introduced that would limit surrogacy, limit transgender treatment, allows people to avoid vaccinations for their children, and take taxes off of guns and ammo (instead of food).”
I reminded him of what Hunter S. Thompson once said about that, why would people want to hoard food for an apocalypse? You want to hoard guns, because the people with the guns will have the food.
After a brief chuckle from Rep. ‘X’ he continues, “Many times these laws are unconstitutional and that costs taxpayers money to fight them in court, which brings us to HB 1004 which would allow the legislative body to ’employ legal counsel other than the attorney general…to represent the Legislature in any court of this state or the United States.’ In other words more kooky right wing groups interfering in our court system.”
So what do these bills this have to do with the mental health evaluation?
“Because the legislators that are proposing this crap are batsh*t crazy!”, exclaimed Rep. ‘X’ “They are either crazy, stupid or on drugs, and this bill addressed them all.”
Well you cannot argue with that.
So what are the repercussions if they fail one or more of the tests?
“If they are newly elected, they will be ineligible to serve to begin with, if they are already serving, they will be removed. In both situations they will also have to pay for the testing.”
I asked him how many legislators he suspects that will leave us with and Rep. ‘X’ said this, “A handful, and they will probably all be Democrats.”
So what would happen after this mass exodus of crazy folks? He said the first thing that would happen is we would have to increase the funding to the state hospital ‘significantly’ and secondly we would have to have a second emergency election to fill those seats. Rep ‘X’ is not certain how that would work, but he said in order to make the legislature viable we would probably have to leave ‘Republicans off the ballot’ in the emergency election.
Some have argued with Rep ‘X’ that this proposal is crazy and goes against personal choice of the electorate. “Yes, it does go against ‘personal choice’ and this may be why they just might support it”, says Rep ‘X’. “Because if the state legislature in South Dakota is good one thing, it’s taking away your personal choices.”
A majority of both houses just may be ‘crazy’ enough to support it.
*This piece is satire and only meant to inflame the nutty right wingers in Pierre.
Did you steal this from The Onion, it almost sounds like an article they would have. If not you may want to think about posting for a job there. That was pretty good one and you don’t often write satire so until I got to the end I was sitting here thinking, “this can’t be real”. HA
Thanks. I had a prominent lobbyist ask me today why I have not been calling out the homophobic BS going on in Pierre, so this was my response.
I’d vote for this fictitious person.
I attended the Saturday Legislative Coffee in Sioux Falls, and speaking of “batsh*t crazy,” I especially found humor, confusion, and disbelief to how one particular legislator, Rep. Latterell, can advocate legislation to outlaw surrogacy by payment, because he claims it is like selling kids and this is a pro-life issue, too, he mentioned, then that same legislator can also authored a bill, which would allow parents to have the final say on whether their kid or kids would be vaccinated. So let me get this right, this legislator claims to be “pro-life,” but he doesn’t care if a kid or kids get the measles and die?
Keep in mind, too, that this same legislator for some strange reason trusts the reasoning of parents when it comes to vaccinations, but when it comes to any possible transgender procedures for someone before age 18, then those parents’ decisions can’t be trusted according to this legislator.
With that said, I also found Rep. Latterell rather articulate and confident in his positions, but wondering how such an educated and presentable person could also have such an illogical legislative track record?
On an other note, I very much appreciated Senator Nesiba’s direct attacks on Republican politics at this legislative coffee. I think there were four of them. We especially need to continue to hear such things from Democrats coming out of District 15, which should be the Massachusetts of South Dakota when it comes to voicing our Democratic concerns. Let other Democrats from other legislative districts play a more cautious game, but 15 Democrats have a special duty, and at the Saturday Legislative Coffee in Sioux Falls, Senator Nesiba executed that duty and gave the good fight on that one for South Dakota Democrats and South Dakotans in general, who care about a healthy, viable, and distinguishable two party system.
And Trump should have the power to not only fire his impeachment witnesses but all Democrats in Congress.
VSG,
“… wondering how such an educated and presentable person could also have such an illogical legislative track record?”
Because Latterell is a political chameleon.
Consider this part of the track record – the fact that Latterell, in his genuine and original form, was a Democrat … in Brown County.
After failing to gain election to represent Brown County in the legislatures as a Dem candidate, Latterell undergoes the ‘Lederman Conversion’ (relocate to suburban South Dakota; become a ‘Republican’).
Bam! Immediately elected to the legislatures as a Republican to serve the good people of Tea!
Much like flags change with direction of the winds, so also do political chameleons like Latterell form stance on policy, failing to reflect anything resembling a consistent approach.
In your vernacular – the political chameleon is ‘illogical’.
Those Democrats who undergo the procedure known as the Lederman Conversion often experience an astonishing, rapid rise through the ranks of the political party to which they newly-identify.
Those converted can expect to be found in lofty places such as state party chairman or voting delegate to the National Party Convention which will nominate the next POTUS.