Republican lawmakers change rules to cover up future misconduct

The Republican majority in the Arizona Legislature, which claims to believe in government transparency, changed the rules lawmakers must follow so that they can hide everything.

Or as the Cheshire Cat says to Alice, “We’re all mad here.”

Republicans, using their small majority in the House and Senate, decided this week to exempt lawmakers from public records laws in order to cover up future misconduct.

That’s not how they described their action, of course.

In fact, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma told Capitol Media Services, “I don’t think there’s any intention on my part to hide anything.”

If there's nothing to hide, why allow hiding it?

It’s an interesting statement, since what GOP lawmakers did was create rules that allow them to hide their official exchanges from the public.

The guidelines the Republicans pushed through over the objections of Democrats allow lawmakers to destroy all email correspondence sent or received by lawmakers or staff after 90 days.

Bad behavior does not always come to light quickly.

Messages reveal:Cyber Ninjas' ties to Trump during election 'audit'

If such a rule were in place for the past couple of years, for example, we might not have ever known about the extent Arizona Republican lawmakers went to overturn the election victory of President Joe Biden.

That’s why records should be maintained.

A 30-minute debate limit on 'controversial' bills

Now, lawmakers will be able to shield themselves from future embarrassments (or investigations) by simply destroying the evidence of who they are and what they said.

The fact that some lawmakers presume the need for such protection should give us pause, don’t you think?

That’s not the only change Republicans pushed through, either. They’ve decided to limit debate on what is considered controversial legislation (as if there is another kind) to only 30 minutes.

I’d guess lawmakers in North Korea may get more time than that.

They also decided that their Republican speaker has the final say on any future rule changes, even if a bipartisan majority of the Legislature would like to pass one.

How about creating a de facto governor?

This led Democratic Minority Leader Andres Cano to say, “If a member wants veto power, run for governor.”

They tried that. It didn’t quite work out for Republicans in the last election.

So, since the person the Republican majority favored did not win the popular vote, GOP lawmakers decided to manufacture a de facto version of governor in the form of the speaker.

I’d guess that even the grim old dudes running North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party hadn’t thought of that maneuver.

Although, they might now.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Legislature change rules to cover up future misdeeds