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From the Friday, Feb. 13 publication of The Franklin Diplomat from the Franklin Resources Group (subscribe here):
Once, if not twice, in the last couple of weeks House Speaker Seth Hammett has met with some of the Senate leadership to discuss Sen. Poole’s tactics of killing House bills as he did last session. Speaker Hammett reportedly told the Senators if they allow Sen. Poole to continue killing bills, no Democratic sponsored bills will be debated in the House. When Senators implied their hands were tied and there was little they could do, Speaker Hammett suggested they “cloture” Sen. Poole. A cloture vote is used as a last resort to end a filibuster and requires a three-fifths majority vote. The underlying issue is a reverend philosophy that a person elected to the Senate deserves the right to speak his or her position on a matter before the body.
I asked a legislator about it who said:
The Speaker has spoken several times about this problem, and we have wondered about whether or not Phil Poole was going to kill another session. He spoke to some of us recently saying that he was going to give them an ultimatum to either get Poole to settle down or else Senate bills were not going to pass the House. Apparently he met with them last week some time and it appears that on Thursday things were starting to move again but with Poole who knows. The Speaker has been pretty frustrated with the entire Senate for some time but I think this past Tuesday was about all he could take after Poole killed that whole day up there over nothing.
Poole (D – Tuscaloosa) has a bill of local interest (background here and here) that involves annexing property into Lake View and de-annexing property from Woodstock to provide sewer service to an elementary school.
A legislator elaborates on the matter for the Parlor, “It is actually [Sen. Bobby] Singleton [D - Tuscaloosa] holding up his local bill because Singleton has a big supporter in Stan Pate the developer, who as it turns out has a huge stake in the growth of Woodstock which is where Lake View would annex property from.”
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Nice to see someone taking a leadership role. It’s a pity the Lt Gov and the Senate leadership have let things deteriorate to this level yet again.
Little Jim’s done such a good job with the Senate, I say we promote him to governor.
Phil Poole is crazier than a run over dog!
Singleton is not going to endear himself to those who live in AL 7 with these kinds of actions.
I’d like to hear from anyone who lives in Phil Poole’s district. Anyone out there want to defend your senator, whom everyone else — even those in his own party — seems to have had enough of?
Anyone? Anyone?
Phil switched sides in the Organizaational Session after being promised a Highway Project, the Dems don’t like him since they know he can be bought, and the Reps don’t like him because his word is no good.
He must do enough of the UA’s bidding to stay in Office
From the last paragraph of the post, it appears Poole is being blocked by another Senator over a sewer line needed to open an already finished school.
So, who goes to the pillory? Pate, Singleton, Pate or all three for their unwillingness to settle the matter?
Poole may irritate the heck out of the rest of us, but he is committed to the people of his district.
Poole is no more committed to the people of his district, which include me, than Bill Clinton is committed to storing cigars in the proper environment.
He will not let us vote on Sunday alcohol sales since he and Gerald Allen know what is best for us. He will not support a new Constitution, since again, he knows best. If he wanted to help us he would get the hell out of office of move into the 21st century. He is dedicated to being a thorn and obstructionist, and he is good at it unfortunately.
Look at my above comment for how I feel about his “commitment” to us. #8 is clearly off base here.
Personal Gain. Personal Gain. If Schmitz can be found guilty of what she so called did, what in the world could he and some of the others be guilty of if someone had the guts to really look at them. Imagine what our state could be if they worked that hard for the betterment of the state instead of their own pockets.