The State Senator who has already proven that he will stand against immense political pressure to compromise freedom principles, is taking a tremendous stand right now. He ran the NAIS constraining legislation in Missouri and took unbelievable flack from proponents of NAIS and would not back down. Now he won't back down on a deceptively named bill that has had a lot of political intrigue behind it.
The "Manufacturing Jobs Act" is a bill that tries to bribe Ford Motor Company to stay here, even though Ford hasn't asked for a bribe, nor have they testified for the bribe. This is a Missouri attempt at following Federal economic policy, and Purgason is filibustering in this special session "till he drops" to stop this bill. What that means, is he went for more than 20 hours.
A little history on this bill indicates that there must be some push from on high in the Republican leadership in Missouri. In regular session, this bill was filibustered and dropped. At nearly the end of session, Missouri's Democratic Governor, Jay Nixon visited the President Pro Tem of the Senate at his office for a 45 minute closed door meeting with armed guards stationed outside. After that meeting, there was a Special Session called by the Governor.
Now,I am not clear on all the rules regarding irregular legislative processes, but I know enough to recognize untoward party and leadership pressure. Purgason was removed from his Chairmanship of the Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee by the President Pro Tem of the Senate because Purgason wouldn't bring the bill to a vote.....Remember this bill died in regular session.
Prior to removing Purgason as Chair and installing himself as Chair, the President of the Senate, Charlie Shields had a 45 minute meeting at the end of regular session with Democratic Governor Jay Nixon, who really wants this bill....Neither one of them, nor the armed guards outside of Shields' office, said what transpired in the meeting. But a Special Session was agreed upon.
During the Special Session, on the House side of things, House President Pro Tem, Bryan Pratt (who referred to the bill as a bail out bill) and Representative Kraus were removed and replaced from the Committee the bill had to go through to make it to House floor.
So, strong arm tactics with leadership in both parties pushing hard for the same legislation that is highly questionable, seems indicative of something seriously wrong in the General Assembly at least.....It would be my guess that if one were able to follow the money, it would go back to the powers behind the parties. It would take a good long while to chase that bunny down the trail, but the behaviour of the leadership strongly suggests that there is a bunny to run down.
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