Brower outraged by people doing the thing he’s accused of doing
Wait, what?
State Sen. Greg Brower, R-Reno, is apparently angry about a letter sent by more than 200 defense attorneys, threatening to withhold political and fundraising support for any lawmaker who doesn’t come out against Assembly Bill 193. (That bill, as amended, would allow hearsay testimony at a preliminary hearing or a grand jury proceeding involving sex-crimes against children younger than 16.)
The defense bar is adamantly against the change, which is allowed in other states. The relevant portion of their letter reads: “Any elected official who advocates the passage of AB 193 will not receive any support from the signatories of this letter. This includes no financial or monetary support and/or soliciting third parties to support your candidacy by way of endorsement.
“Due to the importance of the subject matter of AB 193 we call upon all elected officials to declare either their support or opposition to this bill. Neutrality is not an option.”
According to Brower, chairman of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, this threat is outrageous, an unprecedented break in protocol, etiquette and propriety.
But Brower himself has been accused of threatening to stall all Democratic legislation, and over a hell of a lot less than a stand against a major change in criminal procedure. State Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford, D-Las Vegas, said Brower threatened to stall Democrat-authored bills because a state party-financed “tracker” is haunting the legislative building in Carson City armed with a video camera.
(Trackers are people employed to follow political candidates, recording their every public utterance in the hopes of catching them saying something stupid that can later be used in a television attack ad. Think Sue Lowden and chickens for checkups.)
“He [Browe] told me, ‘I’m not going to hear any more Democratic bills until she [the tracker] is gone,” Ford said in an interview with political commentator Jon Ralston. “I told him it’s a blatant abuse of power.”
Brower denied saying he’d hold the bills, and said Ford was “overreacting.” But two Democratic bills were pulled from a Senate docket on Wednesday anyway.
So if it’s wrong for defense lawyers to threaten to withhold fundraising support and endorsements from lawmakers over a bill on which they have strong policy disagreements, would it not also be wrong to threaten to hold back bills because of political irritation?
And make no mistake, the tracker — who ostensibly is targeting Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson — has irked the Republicans. In fact, when the tracker showed up in the Judiciary Committee, Brower mused aloud about finding a way to kick her out.
“I appreciate you being here, until, of course, we figure out a way to kick you out,” Brower said. “We haven’t quite figured that out yet.”
Kick a citizen out. Of a public meeting. Held in a public building. And it didn’t look much like he was joking, either. (Watch the video for yourself, below.)
No matter how unprecedented or impolitic it may be for a political campaign tracker to appear in the legislative building, no matter how unfortunate it is that the permanent campaign has now been extended into the Legislature, it’s still politics. What’s really — what’s the phrase, again? — outrageous, an unprecedented break in protocol, etiquette and propriety, is for an elected official to threaten to eject anyone from a public meeting for no good reason but politics.
There’s a lot of crazy characters in the Legislature. The chairman of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, has written some outrageous things about minorities and gays. Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, told a colleague to “sit your ass down” on the Assembly floor. Fiore and Assemblywoman Victoria Seaman, R-Las Vegas, have rudely interrupted witnesses because of testimony they didn’t like in committee.
But none of them has threatened to search for ways to throw a citizen out of the building. That has only come from the lips of Brower, who just happens to be a former U.S. attorney for the District of Nevada, somebody presumably more than familiar with what is, and what is not, allowed by law.
Let’s hope we never see this kind of outrageous, unprecedented break in protocol, etiquette and propriety again, no matter the motivation.
