It's only been a little more than a week since the class of spring 2011 walked, and the rest of us are back at it in Gainesville - well, at least the lucky few of us who get to soak in the first dog days of summer during a much-less-populated Summer A term at UF.
While you were gone, Florida's best and the brightest convened for a legislative session that left a whole lot to be desired.
The state Senate and House of Representatives just finished a 60-day session. What was slated to be one of the most conservative legislatures in the state's history unraveled into political sissy-slapping, as both houses tried to see who was the bigger, badder legislative body. Senate President Mike Haridopolos, a Republican from Merritt Island and a faculty member at UF's Bob Graham Center for Public Service, found himself in a game of one-upmanship with a man he called his "friend" - House Speaker Dean Cannon, a Republican from Winter Park. Their chambers rejected each others' bills in what they perceived to be power plays. The bills concerned fringe issues like the regulation of interior design and mold assessment industries, and the budget debate didn't begin until late in the night.
Cannon, a UF graduate and former Student Body president, postured himself as a champion for reconvening his chamber early Saturday morning to pass the budget, forcing the Senate to immediately follow suit instead of continuing discussion later Saturday.
By the end of it Cannon looked petty for all of his power-tripping, and Haridopolos looked like a schoolboy who got punched in the nose and had his lunch money taken. The grandstanding resembled a scene out of UF's Student Government chambers - with meaningful discussion being replaced by ego and displays of power.
In the wake of all the sparring, we're left with state employees, including teachers and police, who must contribute 3 percent of their income to their pensions. We face cuts to education and the elimination of thousands of state jobs.
And to top it off, the petty infighting prevented the legislature from compensating Eric Brody, a Broward County man who was left brain damaged and paralyzed after a deputy crashed into his car, and William Dillon, a man who was wrongly incarcerated for 27 years.
Way to go, boys!
And Gov. Rick Scott sits in the middle of the fray - a man who led members of his own party to balk at his quixotic requests. Cut the state budget by $5 billion? Sorry, Mr. Governor. A $700 million reduction will have to do. An Arizona-style immigration law? Too much disagreement and not enough time.
Slick Rick, nevertheless, is calling the session a success.
For all the theater that permeated throughout our legislature's chambers this session, it became our elected representatives who accomplished very little. Instead, they spent their time playing political hardball, teaching a governor that too-much-too-fast doesn't work and passing some legislation ripe for late-night talk show mockery.
At least students in this indecent state will stop wearing their pants so damn low, and nobody will be having sex with animals.
Because, of course, job creation isn’t as big a deal as those things. Right?
