Tribal Relations Secretary David Flute had to take some heat aimed at his patron (matron?) Governor Kristi Noem at the Capitol yesterday. With Flute testifying before the Legislature’s State-Tribal Relations Committee, Senator Lance Russell (R-30/Hot Springs) accused Governor Noem of making multiple mistakes in forcing her unconstitutional “riot-boosting” law through the Legislature last winter:
Russell said Tuesday the governor’s office used “a strong-arm effort” to pass the two bills. He said they should have gone through the standard legislative process, with individual hearings in committees of the Senate and the House, rather than one hearing apiece by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations. He said it was poor planning to have the hearings while tribal elected leaders were in Washington, D.C., and that sent the wrong message to tribal citizens.
…Russell said Flute had been “palms up” with the committee and called Noem’s maneuvering this year a “flub” and “miscalculation.” Russell said he doesn’t want any further legislation overruled in federal court and said many people don’t think Noem has been hearing them [Bob Mercer, “State Tribal Relations Secretary Won’t Say Whether Governor Plans More Pipeline Bills,” KELO-TV, 2019.11.12].
Noem continues to err, it appears, by not informing her Tribal Relations Secretary whether she is planning another round of anti-protest legislation that would weigh heavily on the tribal relations that Flute is supposed to be Secretarying:
Senator Red Dawn Foster, a Pine Ridge Democrat… [and] a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, put the question to state Tribal Relations Secretary David Flute during a meeting of the Legislature’s State-Tribal Relations Committee. She also wanted to know whether tribal governments would be more seriously consulted this time.
But Flute… didn’t say what Republican Governor Kristi Noem might be planning.
“I do not have an answer for that at this time. I apologize for that, senator,” Flute told her [Mercer, 2019.11.12].
Senator Russell suggested that Secretary Flute encourage the Governor to send any such anti-protest bills or other measures bearing on the pipelines that so concern our Lakota neighbors to the State-Tribal Relations committee in time for review at their December 18 meeting. Noem is obviously too busy hosting conferences, campaigning for Trump, and setting up her hubby with a video camera, so such transparency from Governor Noem would give more attentive lawmakers and the public a chance to review any proposed bills and save the state from losing another costly lawsuit or infringing on the Constitutional rights of South Dakotans.
Nope, she is too busy raising money to put down the radical left democrats in SD who are out to get everyone. I just got the letter in the mail.
To quote the outside of the request for more money. it says, “THE RADICAL LEFT IS TAKING OVER SOUTH DAKOTA-ACT NOW TO STOP THEM.”
The caps are mine. In the last presidential election 69% of the voters voted to POTUS. 31% voted for democrat candidate. So, this small minority is radical and going to take over SD? HOW?
The only way is if the Republican Super Majority screws up. Let’s see: building a fence around the governor’s/South Dakota’s house? Adding massively more security to the State Capital building, the People’s Capital building. Another bathroom bill?
For a party that wants less government interference in their lives, they add more and more every year.
Let us hope all further action against the felonious and pernicious out-of-state paid riot-boosters comes as a righteous thumping at the hands of the law enforcement officers they throw rocks at and spit upon, while illegally squatting on land not belonging to them. Let the skull crackings begin…
Mr. Russell, a scab upon my District numbered 30, would be wise to stop suckling at the government teat whilst remaining a disgraced and inglorious attorney. Perhaps he should send his proposed and doomed law bills to Governor Noem for her review prior to December 18, and also to grudznick, for I could clean up many of Mr. Russell’s messes before he embarrasses himself by dropping his law bills at the deadlines provided by rules. He should follow the deadlines he proposes for Ms. Noem and send all his law bills to grudznick now, to avoid them dying later when the masses are roused against his ideas, insaner than most.
Grudz,
I’ve never been a fan of Russell, either, but he’s right about this. Legislation should go through regular order.
Mr. Pay, the regular order is what is laid out by the Council of Legislative Researchers, and that says nobody has to give Mr. Russell a sneak peak until they hit the deadline to introduce said legislation.
Those, sir, are the rules. Mr. Russell should abide. The little bald bossturd.
Post script, for Mr. Pay. You know darned well, sir, that nobody has to vet or give sneaky peaks to their legislation to anybody else before the Rules say they have to drop the law bills. You know this. You only gave sneaky peaks when it was in your best interest, you did not give sneaky peaks when you wanted to plop your turds out there with a surprise. Why should anybody, be they a coal company or a governor or an environmental whacko have to follow different rules?
Rules are rules. The little bald bossturd with the long speechifying needs to bone up to out-legal grudznick. I have schooled Mr. Russell many a time, and delight in his failures in the legislatures.
Yep. Russell got this one right, as Don says. It’s one of the few, but I’ll give him credit.
Regular order means, as Senator Russell points out, running a bill through two full committee hearings. Regular order means introducing the bills by the usual deadline for new legislation at the end of January or beginning of February, not over a month late, barely a week before the end of Session.
And while there is no rule requiring the Governor or any legislator to share details of bills before introducing them, Senator Russell has every right to note that failing to vet her bills and then strong-arming them through a mostly uninformed Legislature last March worked out poorly and that, therefore, the Governor may have incurred an obligation, on this particular issue, to be more transparent and consultative than before if she tries flacking for TransCanada/TC Energy and stifling protest rights again.
We should thank NOem and her lackey legislators for funding the SD ACLU.
Let’s see whether they can able to do it again in the 2020 legislative session.
Ms. Noem May introduce her law bills up until February 7 and doesn’t have to give sneaky peaks to anyone if she doesn’t want to.
grudznick has ruled.
And remember, suspending the rules is within the rules.
Grudz,
As you know, there are very few secrets in the Capitol Building among the regular lobbyists, state government departments and veteran lawmakers. All you have to do is pick up newsletters, etc., from many industry groups or have or overhear conversations in the House and Senate lobbies and you get clued in pretty fast to what issues they will bring bills on. You also know that lobbyists often obtain signatures of legislators on their proposed bills. They do this right out in the open, or on the floors when they are open in the morning. You can overhear those pitches. You might not know what all the sections in the bill are going to cover, but you have an idea that what legislation is coming in advance of introduction.
So, if you’re an insider or even an outsider as I was, you usually have a good idea what’s dropping in the hopper.
As a novice lobbyist, I was all into secrets, but after two or three years, I found out secrets in the Capitol Building are virtually impossible. I tried to give heads up to DENR when we had bills coming on certain issues, and they would give me a heads up, too. I’m sure the Mining Association did the same, and there was some cross talk.
I’m sure there were some legislators clued into what Noem was proposing, and they may have helped cook up the idea of abusing the process so as few people as possible would know what was in the bills. For as long as Russell has been around, he knows this, and you know this, too, Grudz. The problem is the vast majority of citizens don’t know this.
The latest in South Dakota government intrusion comes with lottery tickets at convenience stores. You must show your driver’s licence in order to pay for a ticket that supports the state while they can possibly sell your gleaned information to who knows who (see Google’s latest). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/12/google-medical-data-project-nightingale-secret-transfer-us-health-information
So, if you’re a Democrat or Independent voter, your chances of winning just went down the tubes. Republican governing, less freedom and more ways to corrupt.
Seriously Jerry? To buy a lottery ticket in SD you have to show your driver’s license? WTH? Are they trying to discourage it?
Last time I bought a lottery ticket was a couple of years ago in Minnesota. The only thing I had to show was green $.
Mr. Pay, I guess you and I know stuff lots of people don’t. That is why we blog.
Seriously. I went to two stores in Rapid City, one on Jackson Blvd and the other on Omaha. Both wanted ID’s to purchase a lottery ticket. My thought is that they glean that information from your driver’s licence to sell to vendors. Why not, they know you gamble, they know your address age and everything else. Good business to sell that info. GNOem, working hard to corrupt the system.
Mr. jerry, they need to ban the lottery or subject those morons buying tickets to a drug scan. That, sir, is the kind of progressive business that Mr. H can get behind when grudznick is his chief of staff.
I’ll have to try that here, see if they ask for my ID. That’s nuts. If they ask me, I’ll know they’re up to something because I’m 66, clearly past 21 years old.
I had a drug scan once, just after a cat scan. Both looked right through me. Those cats can really stare and the drugs are not that good either, what’s your excuse for being a moron then Mr. Grudznick?.
Yep, those were Big D stores. I buy 2 lottery tickets a week and then on the holidays, I will put a couple of them in the cards for gifts. I can quit that as well and will stop going to those places for anything as I no longer feel that I can trust them.