A Legislative House of cards

Last spring, when Representative Melissa Hortman complained that her card playing white male colleagues were not doing their jobs she also complained that Representative Ilhan Omar, a black female, wasn’t being shown the respect due her.

When the accusations of sexual harassment against Representative Cornish and Senator Schoen were first made last fall there was a chorus of women who work in the legislative environment who complained about the pollution of disrespect and harassment at the Capitol. 

That made me think of the last spring’s card game. It seems like the card game was a symptom of a broader systemic problem of disrespect for women and even for the democratic process. This polluted environment is older than the current Republican control of the House and Senate. However, the current Republican leadership is responsible now. What will Kurt Daudt, Ron Kresha and Paul Gazelka do to clean up the mess that they have both inherited and fostered. They are part of the problem. Now they need to become part of the solution.

Below is the Long Prairie Leader column regarding the Legislative card game that I wrote last spring.

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The Minnesota Legislature is a house of cards. Last April House Minority Leader Representative Melissa Hortman made a motion called a “call of the House”. The motion requires legislators to return to the House floor where an important debate or vote is taking place.

Prior to Hortman’s motion Representative Ilhan Omar had delivered a speech on police brutality. In her speech Omar had connected the action of Black Lives Matter protesters back to the civil rights protests in Selma, Alabama — where police assaulted protesters. The event is known as “Bloody Sunday.” During Omar’s speech, Hortman noticed that several of her male colleagues were not on the floor listening, so she made the “call of the House”.    

Rep. Melissa Hortman

 

“I hate to break up the one-hundred percent white male card game in the retiring room, but I think this is an important debate,” she said.

The retiring room is a private area where legislators can go to take a break during long debates.

Rep. Bob Dettmer (R-Forest Lake), a white male, took offense at Hortman’s comments. He didn’t mind the allegations of card playing during debates. He was bothered that Hortman referred to white males as . . . well, what we are. He asked her to apologize for calling white males white males.

“I have no intention of apologizing,” Hortman said. She said she was “really tired of watching women of color in particular being ignored. So I’m not sorry.”

"This is a new thing, members sitting in the back playing cards for extended periods of time. There is a whole new level of disrespect and disregard for debate and discussion," she said. "I don't know a lot of people who get to sit for two hours and play cards and ignore what everyone else at their workplace is doing.”

Guess what!? This exciting exchange on the floor of the ever-so-polite Minnesota House of Cards was red meat for the media jackals. They were all over the story about a white female blatantly calling white males white males. They reported on calls for Hortman to resign her leadership position because of her audacious refusal to apologize for calling a spade a spade, so to speak. One does wonder what part of being called white and male white males find objectionable. Gender and race identity are so confusing these days! But I’ve let my curiosity wander elsewhere.

Who at the State Capitol is playing cards on the tax payers dime? To find out I called Nick Colombo who works as an aid to Representative John Poston. 

I asked Nick if he’d heard about the card games and if he knew who was playing. Nick gave a sort of locker room laugh that said - one white male to another - that boys will be boys.

“Nick, this isn’t funny. Was Representative Poston playing cards?”

“I don’t know.”

I could hear Nick sit up straight and delete the old boy grin.              

                              

Rep. John Poston

“Nick. If John Poston was playing cards at tax payer expense he needs to come home and find another job. Can you find out and call me back?”

Seven minutes later Nick called. Representative Poston was not playing cards. He has never missed a committee meeting. He takes his job extremely seriously, he said.

Next I called Hortman’s office. I spoke to Legislative Assistant Mary Faust.

“Who’s playing cards,” I asked.

“I wasn’t there. They’ll have to tell you themselves.”

I badgered her. After all, her boss started this.

“Well, speaker Daudt wasn’t on the floor. He must have been in the retiring room.”

Wow! The Leader of the Card Players Caucus in a high stakes card game. That’s red meat!

“The Speaker was not playing cards. I don’t know where he was. The Speaker has many legislative duties,” Isaac Schultz, Daudt’s assistant told me.

He also told me that there had been an ongoing card game in the retiring room this session. The legislators, Schultz told me, need a place to relax and refresh during lengthy debates. Sometimes they need to call their constituents. Besides, there’s a tv in the retiring room that broadcasts the floor debate. How can our legislators can play cards and watch a televised debate, I wondered.

Did you ever see that old movie, The Invisible Man? The Invisible Man, a white male, can hold, for example, his cards. You see the cards move around the table but you can’t see him. So that’s what I had so far - a group of well paid invisible white men playing cards.

Then I got a tip. It was about Representative Pat Garofalo, a white male Republican from Farmington, admitting on a private Facebook account that, “he was playing cards but "lots of others were too" so he didn't get what the big deal was.”

I called Garofalo’s assistant Meagan Rice.

“Representative Garofalo said on Facebook that he was playing cards but "lots of others were too" so he didn't get what the big deal was. Can you tell me who was playing cards with him?”

I waited.

“No I can’t,” Ms. Rice said.

I think that was an admission that her boss was playing cards in the retiring room.

I wanted to ask about Rep. Garofalo’s comment that "lots of others were too" so he didn't get what the big deal was. It sort of made me wonder about his leadership style. But I didn’t.