A Morning Brief on Assemblyman "Lil Porno Mikey" Gatto for Hump Day

We commence our Hump Day Brief with a Ron Kaye take on Assemblyman Mike "Lil Porno Mikey" Gatto's obstruction of proposed Porn Industry Condom Legislation. 

The Porn Industry's Best Friend in Sacramento Assemblyman "Lil Porno Mikey" Gatto.

Great Mid-week Hump Day to all in the blogging political cybersphere as we bring you a Ron Kaye musing on the too-smart-for-himself Silver Lake Assemblyman. In recent weeks, "Lil Porno Mikey" has been fending off accusations that he is the sole obstructionist of legislation to mandate condom use in the Porn Industry. Yet, despite his multiple acts of denial, "Lil Porno Mikey's" intellect may have spun himself into exposing his knowing omission of Legislative Protocols as Kaye opines ....
 

What had happened was this: Back in May, Gatto, as chair of the powerful Assembly Appropriations Committee, put a hold on the bill, AB 332 (condom bill).
A month later the bill’s author, Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D-Compton) gutted another bill of his, one that dealt with regulating tobacco sales, and put the language of the condom measure in its place. The tobacco bill already had cleared the Assembly but when it was changed to a condom bill, it got stalled in the Senate Rules Committee because of what they call the “jailbreak rule.”
It is a long-standing rule of the legislature, one that is only violated in exceptional circumstances, that a bill held in a committee of one house cannot be taken up in the other house without the express permission of the committee chair, in this case Mike Gatto, or the Speaker, currently John Pérez.
“The protocol and accepted practice is we would not move the bill unless the leadership of the Assembly, meaning the Speaker, asked us to do so,” said Mark Hedlund, communications director for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
Yet here’s what Gatto told the L.A. Times: “I don’t control the California Senate. I’m flattered, but there are two houses of government.”
And the Daily News: “I have not made any decisions. We’re really not quite sure what they are talking about. It’s clear they are trying to engage in some public brow-beating. It’s before the Senate. It’s not before me.”

"Lil Porno Mikey" must love hearing himself spin and deny but Kaye intuitively, sought out the Assemblyman for attribution, resulting in this .................

The key question was this: “How does the Assemblyman square his comments to the Times and Daily News with the ‘jailbreak rule,’ which is intended to prevent utter chaos and destruction of the committee system?”
In his emailed response, Gatto noted the bill was held “on suspense,” along with hundreds of others, “because of cost concerns,” litigation and enforcement costs in this case amid doubts about “whether such a law could ever be enforced.”
He suggested state inspectors might be required on film sets, saying, “Imagine a government official asking a filmmaker, ‘Excuse me Mr. Spielberg, but what will your upcoming film portray, and would you mind if we posted a monitor on the set?’”
He noted the bills, if passed, would not take effect for more than a year, so they would have no impact on reducing concerns about an HIV epidemic in the adult film industry and addressed the core question this way:
“As for the rest of your questions, I know even you can’t seriously expect me to try to prove a negative. The California Senate has its own rules, and I serve in the Assembly. I can tell you that the framers of our constitution put legislative procedures in place specifically to avoid hasty, emotional decisions, and prevent tactics that undermine the legislative process and committee procedures.”
His response ended: “It’s clear that AHF is trying to bully the legislature into spending taxpayer money, and that they don’t understand the legislative process. There are two houses of government, and I don’t have a vote in the Senate, let alone control it.”

Did someone forget to stop the spin cycle?

Your thoughts ..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14