GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Winter has drifted in and out of Juneau this past month, mostly in.

The remnants of Mayor Bruce’s ‘Stealth Snow Removal Program’ clog downtown streets and sidewalks making walking, driving or parking an irritating and sometimes dangerous challenge.  Clear skies expose spectacular panoramas.  Plunging temperatures and  brisk winds rudely remind those brave enough to venture out that it’s winter time in Alaska.

The calendar reminds locals the 26th Alaska Legislature invades our semi-quiet hamlet next week.

So what are they gonna do when they get here, and why?  Are they going to acknowledge their constituents shout out for civility, or continue their myopic obsession with petty partisan paybacks?  Or at least do the “payback” in a politically professional manner, like “some day”, but not cloud the public’s immediate agenda.

The uneasy question is:  When did our politics, our political structure, drift into this seeming cycle of campaigns never ending?

Campaigns are campaigns, and legislative deliberations are just that, legislative deliberations.

The politics of a legislature need to be more sober and pragmatic.  They need to be something different, still rough and tumble, but a better character of political focus on issues, on actually doing something relevent.

What’s the prognonis?  Only time will tell, but surprisingly, the outlook may not be all that good.

Old lessons teach us that politicians, here or anywhere, usually don’t stop doing the things that got them elected, the things ‘that worked’, not until they’re  proven not to work. The song plays on until no one listens.

After four decades our young state still remained a virgin, free of major corruption.  Then came the increasing political earthquakes, our string of corruption revelations, indictments, trials, leaving politicians in an uncertain quandary of: “Where are we?”

The public jury has left an uncertain message, cutting the legislative pie pretty much to the “status quo.”

This question lingers: “How deep are the old political tracks?”  Why don’t we think, show, do, change and rearrange the circle of legislative discussion.  Why not find a way to be different.

Why not take lawmakers into a committee of the whole and talk about our fiscal future?  An Alaska vision quest.

Do we have a vision?

Legislatures, and for some good reasons, are static constructions, ridged unless leadership makes them look and live alive!  If this legislature wants to be seen as different, then it has to look different and sound different.

So far it doesn’t, but its early.

Making all this more difficult is that legislators instinctively fear change.  They paid their chits to get into the “game as played,” not something new and uncertain.  The system can and should run with looser reins and invite more inclusion. It should let a broader array of issues surface to floor debate and let the votes fall where they may.

Shame on those who lose and whine.

Leadership needs to be willing to lose a procedural vote once in a while.  Stay cool.  Maybe no one knew it anyway.

It takes a leader to open up the process, it takes a sense of ultimate confidence.

Do the new leadership coalitions have what it takes to let the system run loose again?  To keep their political six-gun’s in the holster and save the gnashing of teeth for where it counts?

Running a good system builds political reserve, respect and tolerance for the time in each session when a legislature and public need ‘the crunch’ , the decisions.  The time when legislative closure, the end of the session, requires “discipline and decision.

And crunch.

Politics and legislative deliberation demand both competition and order. Then closure.

Confident leadership will let the system run, knowing they have what it takes to grab the top of the bag and close it.  If the Legislature wants to appear to improve its trust and image, this leadership needs to slack the reins and risk change.

The  first important rule for leadership is: if you have the votes, you are the leader, you make the rules – push conclusion.

The second rule is: If you’re backed into a corner with ‘you and yours’ or your ‘best friend’, leadership says:  ‘You and yours’ win.

The “skill of politics” is ones ability to avoid “the corner.”

It all begins, officially, Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

Stock up on lemons.

Stroller