Medical marijuana bill rests with Joe Bruno
I was quoted on the front page of a newspaper the other day. The subject was a proposal by two top legislators to allow people with serious illnesses to smoke marijuana. When the reporter called and asked, somewhat dubiously, whether the proposal had a shot, I assured him it did. When asked why, I told him that Richard Gottfried, the chairman of the powerful health committee in the Assembly, was in favor of it for all the right reasons – compassion, relative safety, and an effort to eliminate suffering. That takes care of the much more liberal Assembly.
The Senate, I said, would be for it because their powerful leader, Senator “Gentleman Joe” Bruno, was looking for efforts that would make his slim Republican majority look both humanitarian and more liberal. Let’s face it, the Republicans in the Senate are facing extinction in an overwhelmingly Democratic state and their members are getting older. When they’re gone, they will inevitably be replaced by Democrats. To make sure that moment comes later rather than sooner, Gentleman Joe is looking for low cost, low impact, liberal things to do.
The state Senate, long into the public service unions that keep it in power despite its Republican nomenclature, passes things like an increased minimum wage. To be fair, Joe Bruno is a decent compassionate man who, left to his own devices, tries to do some good things. When this medical marijuana bill came up, it was an easy solution to some of Bruno’s more pressing political problems. Then, when he was visited by TV superstar Montel Williams who has multiple sclerosis and asked for Bruno’s help, the die was cast. Officially the bill was carried by state Sen. Vincent Leibell, but nothing happens in the state Senate without Gentleman Joe giving it the green light.
That leaves Gov. George Pataki who wants to be president of the United States or, at least, vice president. His problem is that he can’t be governor in liberal New York any more. Unlike Bruno, Pataki doesn’t even have to give lip service to humanitarian, compassionate causes. What he does have to do is to keep the conservative faction of his national party thinking good thoughts about him. He is not going to do that by laying hands on a medical marijuana bill. Pataki and his moderate cohorts like Mitt Romney in neighboring Massachusetts, can’t be fooling with stem cell research and medical marijuana without getting points off from the meanies in the red states. So, it should come as no surprise that Pataki is running from this one. He will, of course, veto the medical marijuana reform bill.
Thus, the Democrats in the Assembly will have to override the gubernatorial veto. They will do exactly that with a great flourish of honest rhetoric about a mean governor who doesn’t care about dying patients and those with MS and other debilitating diseases. That will leave it up to the Republicans in the Senate. This is where the rubber will hit the road. My bet is they will not have the necessary votes, although I am willing to be surprised. Bruno knows how to keep his people behind him.
The governor will apply big time pressure. He’ll bring in drug experts predicting that medical marijuana and helping sick people will lead to the opening of the barn door and a drug scourge that will corrupt our children and everyone else in society. He’ll be playing to the national TV cameras. I’m sure that no Pataki has ever had a puff of a weed in their lives. Joe Bruno has had his troubles with George Pataki in the past and to a lot of people’s amazement, Bruno’s Republican colleagues have stayed with him. A lot of them will watch the bus running over all those conservatives who have opposed stem cell research. People will want their aging wives, brothers, sisters and even children to have all the relief they can find. The governor will argue that the drug companies have found other ways to relieve suffering and then take his next contribution from them.
Every once in a while in New York, there are moments when even little victories of common sense are achieved because enough people of every political stripe know what needs to be done and band together to do it. This bill is sensible and has all kinds of protections built into it. If and when it passes, there is every chance there will be other sensible reforms behind it. Let’s just hope it comes together.
- posted by Raymond @ 5/23/2005 07:51:00 AM

 
Twists, turns of democracy
I, Publius
Twists, turns of democracy
By Alan Chartock
Special to The Eagle

The town meeting is, in theory, the purest form of American democracy. It really is like Rockwell painted it in the Four Freedoms. I went to the Great Barrington town meeting last Monday, and I swear it was better than any Broadway drama that Roselle has ever dragged me to. You've got to get the picture. Bull Dog Ed McCormick, the town moderator, is what C. Wright Mills might have called, "The power elite of Great Barrington." He is not a man to be crossed, and he took no prisoners. He ran a tight meeting, just about as tight as could be. You did not want to be caught in his cross hairs.

There were two major issues that caused big-time confrontation. The first was a hefty pay raise for the town manager, Burke LaClair. Even with the raise, this guy, a bona fide workaholic, would still be the worst paid of the county's town managers. But despite some fierce fighting in his favor by the Finance Committee and the Selectmen, the pay raise item on the town warrant was turned down by those who were participating.

This was a real crisis. We have a very talented town manager, and those in opposition thought that he should have the same 3 1/2 percent pay raise as the rest of the town work force. The point was made by the town fathers that this had been a negotiation, and that to keep him, we'd have to pay him what he deserved. More than a few speakers suggested that if he wasn't paid what he was worth, we'd have to go outside to hire and would probably end up paying someone else even more. It made no sense to me, but the motion failed.

Then, in one of those movie moments, a citizen member of the Finance Committee, Andy Blechman, stood to ask for reconsideration on the article giving LaClair his deserved raise. To do that, according to Robert's Rules of Order, you have to be on the winning side. When the smoke cleared and someone who had voted not to give him a raise asked for reconsideration, there was a second secret vote and LaClair got his raise.


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The second issue involved the town library. A group of dedicated citizens has been working for seven years to expand the library. A few committed and passionate folks didn't like the idea of a few extra parking spaces on the library grounds, so they banded together to oppose the library expansion.

A few others were of the fiscal curmudgeon class, having recently arrived from places like New Jersey and Long Island to bring fiscal sanity to the rest of us. They had all kinds of reasons, and they made all kinds of assumptions, like the town could use the old school buildings and a lot of other stuff. But because the project needed an additional $600,000, the motion needed a two-thirds vote, and it failed by five votes. Inevitably, Walter "Buddy" Atwood III, husband of longtime library trustee Doreen Atwood, stood up and asked for reconsideration.

This time, the speeches were eloquent. One that stands out was offered by John Breasted, a resident who uses a wheelchair. He said he'd like to be able to use the library in his hometown, and his speech was on the money. It's one thing to speak conceptually about handicapped access and a whole other thing to put a face on it.

The other hero was Karen Smith, a Finance Committee member who identified herself as having been a longtime opponent of the project. This time, she said that the town should vote for the project, and I really had to gulp as I saw someone who had truly been brought around by the moment and the argument. In 2001, the original library plan had been proposed and supported by 93 percent of the voters. It all goes to show how fast things can change at a town meeting.


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I had a talk with Doreen Atwood. She's floating on the top of the clouds. Her phone has been ringing off the hook with people who were delighted that they would finally have a library that treated all people equally and that would be part of the 21st century. She also said that inexplicably several people had made donations to the new library since so much additional responsibility for library fund raising had fallen on her and her fellow trustees.

It's funny how sometimes a near crisis can bring people together in unexpected ways and have unanticipated benefits. Now people are opening up their hearts and pocketbooks. The town of Great Barrington had a meeting, and the people had their say. Now we will finally have the library that all our citizens deserve.



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- posted by Raymond @ 5/23/2005 07:43:00 AM