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Gov. Riley’s legislative counsel Jeff Rabren entered the House last night to deliver last minute vetoes to the House right before the session ended (including a line item veto in the General Fund budget to remove language designed to protect Medicaid and other agencies from budget cuts). “Happens every legislative session” with every governor, Clerk of the House Greg Pappas tells the Parlor. The idea is that there will be no time for the legislative bodies to override the vetoes before the session ends.
One source tells the Parlor, “Representative Jeremy Oden actually went Charles Barkley on the Governor’s representative and tried to physically block him from delivering the veto. Rabren got a little physical himself and delivered the veto.” Rep. Jeremy Oden (R – Vinemont) had a local TVA bill for Cullman County that he did not want vetoed (HB 880).
Oden was trying to physically prevent a veto from being delivered? I asked Pappas. He starts laughing. “Yeah, he was. Oden grabbed him in a bear hug. [More laughing.] Jeff is a little taller and a little bigger. He reached up and over him to deliver the vetoes.” Still laughing.
Was it fun and playful? Or confrontational?
“Oh, it was very confrontational,” he said.
Another source says that Oden was worked up and adds, “Tempers were hot for everyone. [Democratic Sen. Phil] Poole even came down on the House floor in a rage after someone accused him of killing all the Republican bills this session. It was a hell of a night!”
Regarding the timing of the veto, “I don’t understand why the governor’s rep didn’t send it 20 minutes earlier,” said Pappas. There was nothing we could have done with it – not with the House locked up and the Senate locked up like they were.”
“I’ve seen a couple of times when the body has adjourned before the Governor’s rep gets to the chamber. I remember when a fellow walked through the door into the Senate to deliver some vetoes for George Wallace right as the Senate was adjourning sine die. He had to take those bills back because they became law as soon as the Senate adjourned.”
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“Tempers were hot for everyone. [Democratic Sen. Phil] Poole even came down on the House floor in a rage after someone accused him of killing all the Republican bills this session. It was a hell of a night!”
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The most worthless senator in the state … and that’s saying something!
Phil” I’ll sell my vote for a road” Poole
and the Republicans have Oden!
I bet ole Phil is mad as heck that after two years his promised prize has not yet come to fruition….do I hear special session, senator?
Those interested may want to look up HB422 sponsored by Representatives Vance and Martin on ALISON.
the Ed Budgets and everything else were sacrificed at the alter of the smoking bill. Big Tobacco Uber Alles.
I’m trying to find how each senator voted for the cloture vote on the Ed Budget Bill. Does anyone have that info?
An official roll call of senators voting found that not a single Republican voted to cut off debate.
More embarrassing idiocy from Oden.
Cullman County: you’ve got 2 years to rid yourselves of the “Laughing Stock” tag. Go out there and find a candidate with at least the brain size of a chipmunk to knock off this moron.
The GOP “brand” is never going to be repaired at the local level until the Odens of the party are run out.
Actually, Scorpius, Oden is a centrist, which is the only kind of GOPer that can win in a Dem-leaning swing county like Cullman. I disagree with him on several important issues, but he has been a supporter of education in this state, which is very important to people in Cullman County.
Scorpius, I will say that Cullman would have deserved to be called a laughing stock if they had voted in your preferred candidate, a Klansman who can barely speak English, over a much more qualified black man in that special election a few months ago. Cullman, however, did the exact opposite and, in the process, went a long way towards repairing their image on race relations state and nationwide.
Oden may be goofy, but there are plenty more (and goofier) goofballs in our state legislature so no need to single Cullman out on that front anyway.
Rather have an honest black democrat than a lying RINO as a Cullman legislator
Me too.
Really? the black democrats are the only lying theives in Montgomery. They run all their graft through the black caucus and trade truth for profit in the meantime. Yall are really some bad apologists, or simply outright children. Blacks have ruined the time honored traditions in the Alabama Legislature.
And that, children, is what a real-life dinosaur looks like.
And that, Children, is what a real life well meaning, inexperienced true believer looks like. Samford Dem, you are a mere snack for the machine, but please keep feeding them. One day you will wake up and wonder what happened not only to your well meaning good intentions, but also to your life. Dinosaur? not hardly. Child, not in many years. College Dem? never.
While I respect your fervor and collegiate involvement, youth has a way of blinding the young to the harsh realities of the real world. Just look at Obama’s support. It will burn off like a fog on a summer morning when the heat is turned up. Such is the folly of youth, corruption and stupidity. Where do you lie?
I don’t think the blacks have a monopoly on corruption in this state. Check out all the folks in trouble with the 2 year college system and take a look at the leadership in the Democratic party. What happened to their Covenant anyway?
Margaret, I didnt mean to imply all blacks in alabama politics are corrupt.
But, the lessons learned from white politicians over the last 40-50 years have found permutations, roots and mutations via the black caucus and manifest themselves in perverse fashion via the dicates of the Democratic Party bosses like AEA.
Outside of AEA there are no Democratic party bosses. That thrombophlegmatic map runs many ways, many times but once, all leading to AEA, shrouded via courtesy of PAC to PAC transfers that result in the enigma/anathem question. Quite simply, there is no ultimate question. The Feds must shut down our Pac maze money laundering. Before too much longer, Ahmehdinejhad will be calling on Alabama Lobbyists for advice to avoid Interpol detection.
There are lying thieves and honorable leaders in every party, race, and level of Alabama politics. That is the way it is in our state and it is likely the way it will always be. The best we can hope for is to change the ratio of thieves to leaders.
Cooter didn’t claim all blacks were corrupt; he claimed black politicians were the only corrupt politicians in Montgomery, which was not only disgusting but idiotic and naive. The real time honored traditions of the Alabama legislature are ignorance, uselessness, and graft, punctuated every few years by maybe one piece of mildly effective legislation.
We Obama supporters aren’t wild-eyed idealists that think he can magically solve all of our problems with one deft swoop. For the most parts, we’re fairly pragmatic realists that see the awful ways folks like Mr. Coot have squandered the great potential of this nation and think that maybe a different approach might just yield different results.
The folks that thought an invasion of a massively hostile Middle-eastern nation could be accomplished on the cheap in a matter of months with a small, mobile force were the stupid ones. The folks that used that same invasion and their political connections as an excuse to pass off shoddy products and services as legitimate military contracts charged to the taxpayer by the billions were the corrupt. The folks that look at the past eight years and want more of the same are the unrealistic and the naive.
Obama has outlasted a would-be political dynasty that not only was a combined 20-0 in contested elections since 1980, but a candidate who was, at the beginning of the primaries, probably the strongest non-incumbent primary candidate in modern American history in terms of fundraising, establishment support, and organization.
Over the past five months, the Clintons have thrown every weapon in their arsenal at Obama and his poll numbers have barely moved, if at all. He can take the heat. The question is, what are folks like Cooter going to do if and when they have a President Obama?
I think Senator Poole is unstable. I hope Rep. Gerald Allen or Rep Robert Bentley run against him next go around. They’ll have plenty of support! We deserve more in Tuscaloosa.
You tuscalosers have given us the likes of Phil Poole and his dad … and Bryant Melton
Time to redeem yourselves and get rid of this jackass