Edifying, Fun (?) Video from Wednesday’s Debate on Reorganizing Virginia’s State Senate

I actually watched much of this live (I know, seriously, GET A LIFE!), but presumably most people didn’t (because they HAVE lives?). Anyway, I found much of it entertaining, some of it infuriating, and a lot of it edifying (in various ways). For instance, the video below has Republicans laughing sarcastically at Senator Donald McEachin (who does a great job running the floor debate on this) talking about a change “meant to protect the integrity of the Senate committee process.” I love seeing Sen. McEachin glare back at them, then cooly proceed to explain what the purpose of the amendment is – “when a bill comes back from the House with a substantial change…that the committees in the Senate have not endorsed or even maybe entertained; what this rule does is allow the Chairman of Rules to direct the Clerk to send it to the Rules Committee” for action. Great stuff by Sen. McEachin in response to the hypocritical Republicans, who when they had the power, used it to the max — without consulting the Democrats, needless to say!

On the “flip,” check out video of Senators Donald McEachin (D) and Tommy Norment (R) going back and forth on the Senate reorganization. If you’re a total wonk, you’ll probably find this fascinating. If you’re not a total wonk, you still might find it entertaining for the lively back and forth between McEachin and Norment. I particularly enjoyed when McEachin directly quoted Norment’s previous words back at him to highlight the Republicans’ hypocrisy and double standards. Also enjoyable was when McEachin said his “affection for the Senator from James City County knows no bounds” before diplomatically telling him to stop wasting everyone’s time (not using those words, of course) by “going back and forth” with the “very knowledgeable Senator from James City County.” Finally, the back-and-forth on whether the Senate should care about the House of Delegates (short answer: Sen. Norment himself has said many times, according to Sen. McEachin, that the Senate shouldn’t care about what the “toher chamber” thinks or does). Gotta love legislatures, huh? 😉

P.S. It might be edifying to watch this video from January 2013 of Tommy Norment defending the GOP’s outrageous redistricting ploy.