Has common sense prevailed in the Arizona State Senate?
That may be a stretch, but one of the more embarrassing pieces of legislation to find its way through the Arizona House this session won't get a vote in the Senate -- this session anyway.
The controversial "birther" bill was sidelined today because it doesn't have enough Republican support to pass a vote, and legislators are trying to wrap up this year's session.
The bill, which would require President Barack Obama to show his birth
certificate to the Arizona secretary of state if he wants his name on
the state's 2012 presidential ballot, is opposed by all Senate
Democrats and lacks the support of four of five majority Republicans to
pass, Senator Jack Harper tells the Associated Press.
We called numb-Skull
Valley Representative Judy Burges, the sponsor of the bill, to see if
she would explain to us -- just one more time -- why such a bill was
necessary, but she never got back to us.
Like most people with a
shred of common sense, Senate President Bob Burns, a Republican,
doesn't seem to be a huge fan of the bill, either.
Burns confirmed to the AP today that he told a supporter of the bill that he questioned whether the Legislature needed "the controversy it would create."
He's probably right -- it seems SB 1070 has already filled the Arizona legislature's controversy-quota for at least the next decade, so maybe steering clear of bills based on conspiracy theories isn't such a bad idea.
