Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd has so routinely insulted and belittled his legislative colleagues that people tend to forget audacity is not his only attribute. Lost in the indignation over his characterization of House members as "sheep" is that his personal outrageousness often obscures his political extremism.
In the same interview in which Byrd mocked legislative colleagues, for example, he also revealed a stunning contempt for public schools. Not content merely to expand private school vouchers, he told the Tampa Tribune he would shut down public schools if he could. He called such a prospect "the next renaissance in education." Not content with the accelerated pace at which the Legislature has cut money to public education and social services, Byrd likened Senate Republicans to his spendthrift daughter, a Naval Academy graduate. "Whatever she gets on Friday, she spends," he said. "It's gone by Saturday." Not content merely to reduce taxes at a time when even criminal prosecutors are crying foul, he refuses to consider measures intended merely to enforce existing tax laws on corporations and Internet providers. Asked previously to justify such a position, he said: "If you ask me, that's a tax."
House members may be smarting for having elected such a boor as their presiding officer, but, as the 2004 session begins on Tuesday, the better question is one of ideology. Does Byrd really represent Floridians? Does he represent the views of House members who elected him? Do Republicans plan to overthrow the public school system?
Byrd's ascendancy owes largely to two factors: 1) a safe House district; and 2) special-interest money he used to feather the campaign nests of House members who would pledge their vote to him. As presiding officer, though, he has enormous power to move or to kill legislation. Don Sullivan, a former senator who is a new representative, says he has not voted on a single substantive bill in committee in his first five months on the job. "There's something wrong here," Sullivan told a reporter. "The process in the House has gone awry."
One reason is that 119 elected House members have handed over their institution to a man with views that most Floridians would consider extreme, perhaps reactionary. Combine that with Byrd's arrogance, his penchant for self-promotion and his pursuit of a U.S. Senate seat, and this upcoming legislative session promises to be as tragically out of touch as the previous ones.
