Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJuly 24th, 2008
Arizona State Senate President Tim Bee (R-Tucson) rejected a request to appoint a bipartisan panel to investigate whether Republicans broke legislative rules when they improperly ended a filibuster attempt to vote on the same-sex marriage amendment:
“I don’t see the point in it,” Bee, a Tucson Republican, said Wednesday of the request to appoint an independent panel. “If I were to appoint a separate commission it wouldn’t have any authority other than to have a hearing.”
… Bee said, “I had concerns about the way that came down that night,” but he said he would leave the decision to the Ethics Committee. He said he was “absolutely not” involved in any plan to break Senate rules.
A Senate attorney has already concluded Senate Chairman Jack Harper (R-Surprise) violated the rules by cutting off the discussion. Sen. Ken Cheuvront (D-Phoenix) filed a complaint to the Senate Ethics committee, which has agreed to discuss the issue on Monday.
Bee’s unethical performance in those final hours of the legislative session is a topic that he wishes would just go away. He’s currently running for Congress in District 8 against Democratic incumbent Gabrielle Giffords. In 2006, CD8 voted to defeat a proposed same-sex marraige ban 45.4% to 54.6%. That was a significantly wider margin than the statewide vote of 48.2% to 51.8%.
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homer
July 24th, 2008
Senator Bee’s ethics include a failure to respond to phone calls or emails asking him (nicely) to explain his position on the gay marriage amendment (before it passed). In contrast, other AZ Senators have returned phone calls or emails- even when they had opinions that were directly opposite of mine.
Patrick ONeill
July 24th, 2008
I think Equality’s tactics should be to target McBee and the other bigots this time and let them know that there’s a penalty for voting with the CAP.
That is the tactic they used and it worked
Erin
July 25th, 2008
Will someone please put Arizona out of
(our) misery?
Dave
July 26th, 2008
Honestly, letting the Ethics Committee deal with this issue is the correct response. That’s what the committee is for.
Equality Arizona’s request to Bee to create a special panel succeeded in drawing more attention to what happened, because it was woefully underreported at the time. It also created more (deservedly) unflattering publicity for Bee while he’s running against Giffords for Congress.
Erin, I’m not sure where you live or exactly what you meant by your comment, but I hope it wasn’t your intent to insult Arizona. It’s a beautiful state and a great place to live, and while we’re not the leaders, we are better than average where GLBT issues are concerned. In 2004, we had more openly gay elected officials than any other state. In 2006, we were the first to defeat an anti-marriage-equality amendment. I remain confident that we’ll beat it again in 2008, as well as gain a democratic majority in our house and senate (or at least pick up seats). Not too bad.
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