Jeanette Mott Oxford is the ranking Democrat of a committee she’s not on. Word.

Despite the pressure from House Democrats for Republicans to put her back on the Children and Families Committee, despite her thirty years experience as an advocate for children, the poor, and working-class families, and despite the fact that other Democrats turned down the appointment before Ron Richard found someone willing to fill the slot, Richard has kicked her off Children and Families where she has served for four years. And he won’t explain why.

Since being on that committee was Oxford’s top priority for this legislative session, and since none of the other Ds on it have ever served there before, the Democratic leadership registered its outrage by appointing her the ranking Democrat, even though she only “serves” by staying in touch with other Dems–you know, the ones who actually get to attend the committee meetings.

Normally, a situation like this wouldn’t arise, because Democrats would get to choose which of their number would serve on given committees, but Children and Families is one of the 26 committees that Rod Jetton converted from a Standing Committee to a Special Committee, so that Republicans would have complete say-so over the members. Richard converted 18 of the 26 back to Standing Committees, but not this one. People are puzzling over why he so adamantly wants Oxford off of there.

Democrats have heard that Richard’s Chief of Staff, Jeff Brooks, said the GOP caucus finds her “highly offensive.” Richard and Brooks deny that Brooks said it, but even if he did, who knows what he found offensive? Sylvester Brown, a Post-Dispatch columnist, explored the question today and quoted Joan Briccetti, an arts management consultant who lives in Mott Oxford’s district:

“Knowing the gentlemen in Jefferson City, I’m not surprised. They might have problems that she’s a woman, a lesbian, a liberal, that she’s overweight or a combination of all those things,” Briccetti said.

Considering who the new head of the committee is, the lesbian issue looks likely. Cynthia Davis, family values wingnut extraordinaire, now heads the committee. Reports I hear are that she’s a sweet natured person but that, ideologically, she’s out in left field. No wait. What I mean is that she’s so far out in right field that she’s jumped the bleachers and left the stadium.

When I talked to Representative Oxford earlier this week, she mentioned that the former head of the committee, Ward Franz, had been a fair person to work with, that he gave Democrats a chance to express their opinions.

Well, she’s not getting a chance to express her opinion in that committee these days. Maybe that is because Davis objects to her lesbian lifestyle–as many on the internet assume. Brown again:

Liberal organizations and gay and lesbian groups across the country are spreading the story, via the Web, about a Missouri politician who was punished because of her lifestyle.

Or maybe Cynthia Davis has nothing to do with it. Whatever the real reason, Ron Richard is unlikely to cave and let Jeanette onto the committee. He’s pulled up stubborn and maintains that he finally settled on appointing Mike Corcoran  because “he’s one of my favorite guys.”

Fine. You want to feed us that nonsense? Go ahead. But I thought you prided yourself on being tough, on being a “bad actor” when people push you too hard. Really? How much harder are we going to have to push before you abandon that weak-assed lie?

GOP governors consider turning down stimulus money

By Melinda Deslatte

Associated Press Writer

Posted: 02/19/2009 06:37:07 AM MST

BATON ROUGE, La. » A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment….

Yep, if Jay Nixon (D) wasn’t governor at this point we’d be in a world of hurt because, you know, like many other right wingnuts Missouri House Speaker Ron Richard (r) has a problem with the stimulus:

Missouri GOP not sold on stimulus

Republican leaders decry much-debated package at annual Lincoln Day.

Chad Livengood • News-Leader • February 8, 2009

…House Speaker Ron Richard, R-Joplin, suggested Missouri reject any federal bailout money and “just send it on back” to Washington.

“We could do that,” Richard told about 225 Republicans at the annual event at the University Plaza Hotel…

But you won’t, will you? Because we’re lucky enough to have a Democrat in the governor’s mansion who isn’t an idiot, much unlike that hypocritical republican queen of federal largess and earmarks in Alaska or those right wingnut republican base pandering fools in Idaho, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas.

And no, this time it’s not McCaskill or stimulus-related. According to Dave Catanese’s Twitter feed, Missouri Speaker Richard said that he was speaking ahead of  the “next US Senator.” The next speaker at the Lincoln Day festivities just happened to be Roy Blunt.

Do we have some coalescing around a consensus candidate?

Is new House Speaker, Republican Ron Richard, less partisan than Rod Jetton? Hell, yeah. A raging bull would probably be less partisan than Jetton. Less devious, for starters.

Take the “special committee” issue, for example. The difference between standing committees and special committees is that standing committees work on issues that need attention every year, whereas special committees deal with one-time topics. Usually, a House Speaker appoints one or two special committees per session. For example, a special committee was formed in 2005 when the school funding formula had to be decided.

And the rules specify that the Speaker appoints all the members to a special committee. Standing committees are different: each party decides which of its own members will serve on them. When it came to creating special committees, Jetton was a sailor on a drunken spree. He had 26, almost all of them converted from standing committees. Those moves allowed him to shuffle Democrats off of any committees where he thought they might prove inconvenient.  

Ron Richard has reduced those 26 to 8. Much better, don’t you know. But even so, six of those used to be standing committees. Democrats tried to get those six changed back, to no avail. But Richard did allow Minority Leader Paul LeVota to choose his own appointments to the special committees, subject to Richard’s approval. And in “subject to his approval” lay the rub. He ousted Democratic members off five of what used to be standing committees and substituted other Dems.

For example, one low profile committee regulates professional registration. It deals with licensure for doctors, lawyers, anybody that needs to be licensed. Big deal, you might say. But actually it is, because the members get to know a lot of professional people around the state and that makes it easier for them to raise campaign money. Jason Kander and Vicki Englund, both freshman legislators who are on the House Democratic Campaign Committee, were blocked from the professional licensing and registration committee. They were replaced by Democrats Charlie Norr and Michael Spreng, who is term limited out in 2010. Finish Richard’s line of reasoning for yourself, then: Kander and Englund will work to raise money for House Democrats, therefore ….

Richard also knocked LeVota’s choice off The Special Standing Committee on Emerging Issues in Agriculture (read: Committee on CAFOs). Tom Shively, who opposes CAFOs, was replaced with Rachel Bringer, who supports them.

The Special Standing Committee on Workforce Development and Workplace Safety (formerly the Labor Committee) lost its union Democrat, Mike Frame, in favor of Democrat Terry Swinger from Caruthersville. Not exactly a hotbed of union sentiment, Caruthersville.

Richard took T.D. El-Amin, from the city of St. Louis, off the Special Standing Committee on Urban Issues and replaced him with Vicki Englund from South St. Louis County.

And finally, Jeanette Mott Oxford, of St. Louis City, was removed from the Children and Families Committee. Oxford has twenty years experience addressing childhood poverty and public health issues. She is being replaced by Belinda Harris, who doesn’t want to be on the committee, because it’s not her area of interest and her plate is full already. In fact none of the other Democrats on the committee have served there before, so institutional memory will be sacrificed.

Oxford is appealing that decision. We’ll see. But let me just ask, what is the point of keeping someone with experience and interest in children’s issues off that committee?

Look, Ron Richard and Charlie Shields got bent out of shape–like the press–about Nixon banning cell phones in his office.

Richard told reporters he doesn’t like Nixon’s rule but will respect it — for now.

“But I didn’t stage a walkout like the press” was going to do [when asked to leave their cell phones outside], Richard said. “I’ll stand by this. I’ll work with anybody until I can’t work anymore, and then I can be a pretty bad actor. But I haven’t gotten there yet. I’m still pretty open-minded.”

Could we have a little perspective here? Speaker Richard, if you’re going to profess your interest in bipartisanship, then quit already with the power plays on special committees that shouldn’t be special. Or if you won’t go that far, at least ease up on the tough talk over cell phones. It’s a non-issue.

Cole at Fired Up Missouri catches incoming Missouri Speaker Ron Richard undermining my defense of earmarks.

Richard is proposing that a new Missouri River bridge be shoe-horned into a legislative deal to build an additional nuclear power unit at Ameren’s Callaway plant.

The $50 million bridge would link Chamois (pop. 456) and the Molle Dozier Chute (pop. 0).

No word on how much it would cost the state to relocate bridge users to the area.

I still say that it’s the job of other legislators to object to egregious earmarks, just as Congress stripped the earmark for the “Bridge to Nowhere” but then again, it might be difficult for the majority to say no to their head honcho.