Legislators to re-invoke their weasel clause

Tip of the hat to Rob Mikolewski and Capital Report, link.

We are disappointed but not surprised to find a weasel clause the New Mexico Constitution.

We are not surprised because, when good ol' boys get together to write the rules, they always add a rule that excepts them from the rules.

The good ol' boys who got together to write the Constitution a century ago created for themselves, just such privileges and immunities; Article 4, Section 13, link;

Members of the legislature shall, in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions of their respective houses, and on going to and returning from the same. And they shall not be questioned in any other place for any speech or debate or for any vote cast in either house.

They write open government laws that apply to everyone but themselves.  By what reasoning should laws apply to everyone but the people who write them?

The "reasoning" will go unexplored.  There isn't going to be a press conference where the opponents of transparent accountability in government will defend their logic.

Fortunately, on occasion, one of them allows their arrogance to get the better of them and lets us know in no uncertain terms, how the cow eats the cabbage.

One such is Rep. Eliseo Lee Alcon, who let fly with these pearls;

“As a citizen legislator, it’s up to me to decide if it’s a public record or not," “It’s up to the person seeking that record to prove that to me … I don’t care what they do. … I think it’s up to me to decide if you can have my record.”

Talk about calling a spade a spade, wikilink.

If you went looking for a text book example of the appearance of a conflict of interests, you couldn't find any, any better than a politician or public servant redacting the record of their own public service.

It defies logic even to suggest it.
It is utterly indefensible.

Politicians and public servants cannot be allowed to redact their own record.  The record of their public service belongs to the people.  It is up to the people to decide how it will be redacted and by whom.


The next hearing of the HCR1, link, will be on the House Floor.  The weasel clause is re-invoked in part C.

It is on the House Floor Calendar for Monday, item 27.




photo Mark Bralley