Time for the next funnel; Register has a handy dandy cheat sheet. Some stuff gets prioritized:
The Judiciary Committee endorsed a House-passed bill that would make it a felony to mutilate or dismember a human corpse, or to hide or bury one with the intent to conceal a crime.
Another bill had no trouble at all in meeting this week's deadline.
Lawmakers were moving with lightning speed in response to a federal judge's ruling last week that Iowa's flag desecration laws are unconstitutional because they are too vague to be enforced.
So pieces of cloth and dead bodies are protected. What about equal rights for the living?
Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday that he will push the Iowa House to approve changes in the state's civil rights code that would make it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
"I think it is time," he said of the legislation, which has stalled in the House. "As we move into the 21st Century and as our economy grows and as we fight to compete with other states and countries in the world, the time is now (to take) this very important and symbolic step."
House leaders have said they will not bring up legislation, which would amend Iowa's civil rights code to forbid discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons, unless they have 51 Democratic votes. The Senate approved an identical piece of legislation last month on a 32-17 vote.
The leaders respond:
Civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iowans? ``We don't have 51 votes at this point,'' House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, said."
``We're doing a great job of succeeding in passing priorities in the face of extreme partisanship, constant partisan bickering and an overall atmosphere of politics as usual from the other side of the aisle,'' House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Des Moines. said.
Priorites, McCarthy says. Priorities. Gays and lesbians are as solid a part of the Democratic coalition as labor, and have been told "we need the trifecta, we need the trifecta" since the near-miss of teh early `90s, when non-discrimination passed alternating houses in alternating sessions. Murphy's shown he's willing to push very very hard when he wants to. So why isn't the leadership making non-discrimination the kind of high priority, three line whip issue it's made Fair Share?
Musical tangent: I first heard the phrase "three line whip" in the Police song "Demolition Man."
I'm a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom
I kill conversation as I walk into the room
I'm a three line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban
I'm a walking disaster, I'm a demolition man
Sorry to get all British and all.
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