| Rep. Tom McGillvray (R-Billings) is one of the more interesting characters in the Montana legislature for a number of reasons. He represents a swing district and is real friendly in person, which may explain why he gets away with his views in a district that doesn't seem to share them.
He also happens to be on Twitter, which is absolutely fantastic for the cultural dissonance of seeing a primarily youth medium used by a middle-aged man who is terrified of divorce.
He recently tweeted: as a leader of house r's and the sr house r leader returning i was not given an interim comittee assignment. shortly after tweeting that he'd been "shafted."
Of course, he was probably just left off the list because the issues where he shows deep expertise -- hating divorce and disenfranchising voters -- didn't qualify for study committees this year, despite Rep. McGillvray's best efforts (at least on the divorce question).
So here's my only slightly tongue-in-cheek suggestion for the good lawmaker from Billings:
If you really want to study the causes behind divorce, why not set up your own study committee and begin by interviewing every Republican legislator who has gone through a divorce as well as their former spouses.
Given the gender makeup of the Republican caucus, I'm guessing this will be predominantly divorced men and their ex-wives.
Please -- do this in your official role as a state representative and make all the correspondence available to the public.
I'm sure I speak for a number of us when I say that for such a cause, I'd even be inclined to grant you subpoena power, although such a grant is not, sadly, within my authority. |
