Committee chairman Tommy Reynolds, D-Charleston, has little control of his meetings or the committee members. The end result is entertainment.
Reynolds had trouble today getting committee members to show up. There was no quorum when the meeting started at 11 a.m., and he had to leave to round up enough members to vote on a piece of legislation that is key to House Democrats this year- early voting.
The bill that eventually cleared his committee does not include voter identification provisions. This prompted State Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon, to demand that Reynolds come clean about whether he intends to bring forward any legislation that has anything to do with voter i.d.
“Well, gentleman, I’m just the committee chairman, and I do what I can do about what I can do,” Reynolds replied.
An unknown man sitting beside me leaned over and whispered that he thought the phrase may have been coined by Plato or Aristotle.
Finally Reynolds told Baker that his question was not proper, and Baker eventually left before voting on the bill.
As discussions over the measure continued, State Rep. Willie Perkins demanded that it be amended to enhance curbside voting, since his grandmother is in a nursing home, can’t walk, did not receive an absentee ballot, had to be physically carried to the polls, and Perkins is “mad like hell” at the Leflore County circuit clerk about it.
Natalie Chandler Blog
Clarion Ledger
1/28/9
Magnolia Tribune
