gov schweitzer washes his hands
by problembear
@Kpaxnews just tweeted this…Gov. Schweitzer saying he’ll let the medical marijuana bill become law without his signature. Hear what he says next at 530 on KPAX
in an obvious move which is designed to get the GOP in trouble for the 2012 election cycle, brian has decided to allow SB 423 to become law without his signature.
brian knows that this contraption put together with paper mache and elmers glue won’t hold up to constitutional scrutiny in court so he is simply allowing this bad bill to go forward and let the chips fall where they may…. mostly on the shoulders of the grand old party who created it. smart move.
anyone want to guess how much this will help the democratic party in 2012 with younger voters? like i have said many times on this blog- time is on the side of the progressives. the old bastards who controlled the legislature decided to go against the will of the voters and shirked their duty to tweak the law so that is was workable. they have instead decided to make a political statement with this awful bill which will make it much more difficult for those who need medical marijuana to get the help they need. people who worked in this industry and people who depended on them to get their medication will be angry. and the legislators who voted for this bill will have to pay the price when it is time to face their constituents.
Gov. Schweitzer compared the proposed system banning profits to communism.
“There is a guy who thought of that system first, his name was Karl Marx,” said Schweitzer. “That’s not what most of us think is the American way, that is, capitalism.”
bad news for an estimated 2500 jobs in a fledgling legitimate industry which provided badly needed paychecks for montanans ………..good news for the illegal dealers though. mo money….mo money…. mo money.
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April 29, 2011 at 6:46 pm
His hands aren’t clean – he is in control right now and if he lets it lapse into law, it’s the equivalent of signing the thing.
How does not signing it while knowing it becomes law OK? Especially when you have the opportunity to veto it?
It doesn’t make it easier for either side in court. It doesn’t alter the legal status of it.
In other words, using your “washes his hands” imagery, if it becomes law Brian has his hands just as dirty as the rest.
April 29, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I was wrong. I said he’d sign the original.
But why take away the theatrics of a burning hot branding iron, right?
Where’s the lights, cameras, fawning crowds this time, Brian?
April 30, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Wrong again, Swede? No way!!!
I had hoped he would veto, but I’ve become used to my Democrats letting me down when we need them most.
Brian also let the anti-citizen HB 391 become law. That limits every Montana’s initiative rights. It takes away local citizen control over locally funded law enforcement.
With Democrats like Brian, (and Fred Van Valkenburg) who needs Republicans?
I remember when Democrats stood up for democracy. Too bad that’s done.
It’s like how Republicans used to stand up for personal liberty. Too bad that’s done, also.
A pox on both their houses.
April 29, 2011 at 7:38 pm
I don’t have a dog in this fight but will grow for free if needed.
April 29, 2011 at 7:44 pm
As far as the Gov signing/vet0ing the bill… We will see. He said he would veto it but he has dithered back and forth on the issue. He is also getting a lot of flank from Federal Enforcement and he might sign it just to get them off his back. The Feds would love to do another series of raids and in the absence of any legislated regulations, they would pretty much have carte blanche to do so. The Gov is an a lose/lose situation at this point. If he vetos it, he opens up the suppliers to more Fed raids but he makes a majority of Montanans happy. If he signs it, he has already admitted he feels it is unconstitutional and is likely to get critisism not only from the pro medical marijuana crowd, but likely to get a LOT of critisism from his base. If he has political asperations for next year (like stepping into Rehberg’s spot), he really can’t afford to alienate his base and certainly can’t afford to alienate the majority of moderates in Montana. It should be interesting to see how he falls on this one.
If he simply refused to sign it an allow it to become law anyway, he has accomplished nothing and, in my opinion, made a poor choice. The Gov is well known for taking a stand and this is not the Schweitzer we have come to expect. Further I REALLY dislike the idea of throwing a bad law into the court system rather than just say it is a bad law and veto it.
April 29, 2011 at 7:54 pm
just like pontious pilate. He’s pot ious pilot.
He hands aren’t clean. thousands of hurting, dying, suffering people will be much worse off because of his unwillingness to get his hands dirty.
And diane sands gets no pass from me. she sided with harrison himes, how can that be?
April 29, 2011 at 8:45 pm
PB, what’s to keep people from understanding that Schweitzer, and by extension, his party, could have saved us from “communism,” but chose not to?
Schweitzer would be a “communist” enabler if he does this.
April 29, 2011 at 10:05 pm
that would be a political strategy that shows callous disregard for the collateral damage of patients.
April 29, 2011 at 11:16 pm
exactly lizard.
winning is everything. being and doing right is for suckers.
April 29, 2011 at 10:58 pm
this post is not an endorsement of brian’s tactics. just observation. the GOP dominated legislature lit the fuse by tossing this bomb to brian. they know he can’t risk a veto on this and let things go back to the carnival sideshow that has dominated the landscape of our empty storefronts like the past two years.
the apparently hidden point i was tongue in cheek making here is that partisan politics produces nothing but failure in this country anymore. there was practically no effort on the part of either side to produce anything useable here. defeating the enemy by swapping trojan horses seems to take precedence over actually solving problems for the constituency that they are supposed to represent.
it is all about the next election. making the right decision and doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do is officially extinct. and the failure of our legislature to produce a simple, workable way to make this work just perfectly illustrates this fact for me.
April 30, 2011 at 5:35 am
He can “risk a veto” and veto this thing. It is against the will of the people.
As I’ve mentioned numerously – there was no enforcement under the current law. The Administrative Rules (ARM) were weak, at best.
He can direct his administration and his department heads (working with law enforcement and county attorney’s and the AG) To institute some real rules with effective enforcement – rules directed at sellers (the current rules are directed almost solely at card holders – bass ackwards, if you ask me given the main issue of contention) – that address the biggest complaints.
He (Schweitzer) should remind local government that they have some control too – they have zoning as a tool and city ordinances that can address the fear of storefronts and proximity to schools.
This whole situation is absolutely ridiculous. Making more law on top of stuff that wasn’t enforced in the first place isn’t going to solve anything.
Except create big government.
Medical Marijuana, it seems to me, is a victim of both “unfunded mandate” (a law that required oversight and enforcement and got not) and the malfeasance of the legislature who ignored the issue since it was approved by a majority of citizens in the Great freedom-loving State of Montana.
April 30, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Very astute. I am very disappointed that the Gov shirked the oportunity to apply administrative rules and make I-148 work until the next legislature. And, as a patient, I’m heartbroken, angry and ready to carry on the fight. Let the lawsuits begin….
April 29, 2011 at 11:28 pm
I apologize, as I’m not very well versed in the intricacies of gubernatorial powers, but can this be vetoed? If he isn’t signing the bill, but just waiting it out and letting it come into effect, then there must be a certain time period in which this could be vetoed? Is this a time for urgent, angry letter writing, or is it too late to change anything?
April 30, 2011 at 5:40 am
It can be vetoed. He has 10 days to veto or approve – after 10 days, it lapses into law.
Urgent letter writing to the newspapers and the governor’s office are most certainly appropriate.
You can also email me with guest posts and I will gladly print them (at hotmail dot you-know-what)
April 30, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I think it takes 50 votes across both houses to override a veto. A veto after the legislature adjourns can be overridden, but the secretary of state has to poll the members. I don’t know if this has a time limit. I wish he would veto it. Urge everyone you know to call or email him. Minds can be changed.
April 30, 2011 at 2:01 am
Preferred he veto’ed the damn thing! The ink ain’t worth the GOP paper it is printed on legally… but you have a stubborn majority in the house that gave away something else somewhere so we did’t get totally screwed.
This bill will be in Court before it’s time to go into effect. The GOV gave the MM industry time to get lawyers and facts down to the court house to sue the state. The GOP will look pretty foolish by the end of the year because they have a few more bill then this that will be challenged. Don’t worry I believe he did the right thing!
April 30, 2011 at 5:45 am
He told them how to fix the legal issue part. They did do that.
Seeking a court situation is a shirking of duty. And a push for big government and more litigation.
It also shoulders opponents to this bill with the cost and responsibility of bringing forth litigation. Personally, I’m not a fan of government saying “fuck you – you can’t afford to sue me” to its citizens.
I guess if that is a good think, then Governor Schweitzer can be thought of creating jobs with the Lawyer Stimulation Bill of the 62nd Legislative Session.
April 30, 2011 at 7:31 am
I don’t think making the GOP look bad is a legitimate justification for allowing so many Montanans to be hurt physically and financially by this train wreck of a bill. Look at the last session, does the GOP really need any help looking bad? I’m pretty sure that is one of their only talents currently.
There is nothing good about this bill, I would have preferred a straight up repeal, at least we’d have voter sympathy when we put it back on the ballot.
April 30, 2011 at 8:44 am
Dave Wantsomeweed for Govenor 2012!
April 30, 2011 at 8:56 am
Wanzenried will make a fine Governor. He was on the “right” side of HB198 too.
Wanz was the only one in the entire Missoula Senate delegation that voted again HB198.
He also knows how to work across the aisle. His bill to remove the death penalty once again passed a Republican-controlled senate only to fail in the house.
April 30, 2011 at 3:00 pm
Although I differ from Wanzenried ideologically, I do like him a lot. He is one of the only members of the state legislature who ALWAYS responds to my emails. I appreciated his bold testimony on the medical cannabis bills.
April 30, 2011 at 2:13 pm
Oh, Mick, you are really bad! lol
May 1, 2011 at 12:51 am
Hate to break it too all of you who can’t read the tea leaves, but Schweitzer never planned to veto this bill and the happiest guy in Montana about it is Steve Bullock.
The FBI, IRS and a half dozen Federal agencies do not coordinate statewide criminal actions over 18 months with over twenty Montana state, regional, county and city law enforcement agencies without thefull knowledge and full approval of the Montana Attorney General’s office. Bullock knew about the raids in advance and signed off on them.
It is no secret in Helena that the Feds have given the word they will continue to raid and close down grow operations in Montana. While he ducked public criticism after the first Fed/State pot bust, Bullock knows the media and the pro pot industry will quickly connect the dots and blame him for his complicity in future raids unless someone puts an end to it.
Many of you are either too young or too new to Montana to remember Montana Attorney General Robert “Bingo Bob” Woodall who made a rather infamous name for himself by shutting down local community bingo games throughout the state in the early 1970s. If Schweitzer vetoes the current MM bill giving the green light to more million dollar grow operations and corresponding highly publicized Fed/State pot busts, Bullock will be known as Pot Bust Bullock and have his dreams of winning a Democratic Governor’s Primary go up in smoke.
This bill is Bullock’s salvation and he knows it. Schweitzer has a similar problem and a similar political salvation. They can now both sit on the sidelines and criticize Republicans while ducking their own role in this whole mess.