The common law history of sending "the police" to find legislators is not pretty. The usual historical concern is that those in the executive branch, who want to prevent a bill from passing, will simply arrest or detain a legislator long enough to prevent his or her vote on the matter, thereby changing the vote's final outcome. It represents one type of executive meddling with the legislature- a violation of the concept of separation of powers.
The post I commented on indicated that the legislature sent the police, not the governor. This concerns me too! Since when does a typical legislature have the police power of arrest outside of its chamber? I have simply never heard of this before (which doesn't mean it hasn't happened). My take on it is that legislators in the majority could simply use police power to arrest the minority. Not a good idea, in my opinion, no matter how or why that power is used.
As to the missing Democrats, they are behaving like infants and are idiots, no matter what one's opinion on the substantive issue is. Maybe they see their absence as a heightened form of civil disobedience. I don't know. Any legislator in Florida who pulled a stunt like that should, in my opinion, be impeached. Unfortunately, we here in Florida don't have that problem right now. We have a different problem... a single-party, super-majority with a governor of the same party. They are capable of overturning every law ever passed; every vote ever taken and every state supreme court case. Too much power in the hands of too few...
rfenst wrote:
