ALEC Legislator - I Don't Know What I'm Introducing

I don’t know what is in the bill I am introducing.

I am only doing what ALEC told me to do at the last meeting.

I have no idea what the hell this legislation is all about.

The news story is a year old - but it probably happens every day.  

American Legislative Exchange Council has a hand in S.C.politics

COLUMBIA — Sen. Mike Rose stood up on the Senate floor earlier this month to clear confusion over a bill and asked for a delay so he could check with the measure’s creator.

But the proposal’s author wasn’t a fellow lawmaker or anybody in South Carolina.

“This is an American Legislative Exchange Council bill,” the Summerville Republican told his colleagues. “What I would like to do over the break is to do the research now with ALEC and address the senator from Orangeburg’s concerns.”

WAIT! I have to call ALEC.

    I don’t know what is in the bill I am introducing.

    I have no idea what the hell this legislation is all about.

    I am only doing what ALEC told me to do at the last meeting.


Also a year old - but fits well with the article above and is an important and inspiring message for us all.

As important as the financial hits undoubtedly are, the even more important development is the emergence of ALEC from the shadows, where it has always flourished. In state legislative circles, its influence has long been legendary, and not just among Republicans (as a tax-exempt organization, ALEC has always been extremely careful about getting at least smattering of Democratic legislators to show up at its typically swank events, though that was a lot easier back in the days when overtly conservative Democrats walked tall in southern state legislatures). But mentions of ALEC inside the Beltway drew blank stares until very recently. And the legislators who championed ALEC-written cookie-cutter bills in most states were able to get away with pretending they were the actual authors.

All that has changed now, for good, and for the better.