This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE 6/28/05

What has the Oregon Legislature done?
We’re heading into the July 4th deadline for their session, and one must honestly ask.....what have they done with these six months of meeting.
The School budget....one of the most important items to face the Legislature has been a political football between the two houses, and some kind of a figure must be agreed on.
What have they done on such issues as changing the stupid law they passed in the prior session about the 20 mile per hour school speed limits be enforced at all times...even during the night and even during summer vacation time.
Oh, yes....they passed a breastfeeding bill.....and a bicycle bill that gave those riders the right to pass on the right...and even duck out of the bike lanes if need be.
What about all the fuss and bother on trying to legislate how Measure 37 should be adopted. That issue alone probably took as much time in both bodies as the school budget. Even a last ditch effort by Representative Bill Garrard to move it along was ignored. As I predicted earlier...the issue now will wind up with judges making the determination of just what the sponsors of that measure meant. And..we know that judicial decisions seem to lean to the left.
So...what has the Legislature done?
Well....they’ve traded barbs between the two houses...one run by the Republicans and the other by the Democrats.
Remember how they promised to work closely together when the session opened. It was an era of good will....that didn’t last very long.
And...where is the Governor in all this do-nothing session?
Well....beyond supporting a few issues....he does not appear to have exerted much influence in their deliberations.
The School Funding issue should have gone to a bi-partisan commission of several members of both houses debating the issue and coming forth with a solution....that’s the way compromise is supposed to work.
And...at the last minute Karen Minnis has come forth with as proposal to limit school financing to 51 percent of the total income taxes the state collects. That issue caught fire from both sides of the educational front.
Unfortunately we see the same things happening at the national level. We see the Democrats all united on one side against anything the administration proposes.....and eager to target the white house with anything it can. The Republicans aren’t much better.
Where is the issue of compromise? We don’t send people to Congress to vote in blocs.....we send them there to do what is needed for the nation....not what is good for one party or another.
Our so-called friends abroad are eager to publicize all these failings of the Democratic system that we want the rest of the world to copy.
Let’s remember this lack of leadership Legislature and do-little Congress the next time an election rolls around. Let’s elect our representatives who will work for accomplishments even at the need of compromise....and get things done.

This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.