Back in 1971, Rep. Tom (not “Tim”) Moore, Jr. of Waco, Texas — knowing that his fellow legislators in the Texas House of Representatives often passed bills and resolutions without fully reading or understanding them — pulled an April Fool’s joke on the House by sponsoring a resolution commending Albert de Salvo for his unselfish service to “his county, his state and his community.” That resolution read, in part:
This compassionate gentleman’s dedication and devotion to his work has enabled the weak and the lonely throughout the nation to achieve and maintain a new degree of concern for their future. He has been officially recognized by the state of Massachusetts for his noted activities and unconventional techniques involving population control and applied psychology.
The joke, of course, was that Albert de Salvo was more commonly known as the Boston Strangler, assumed to be responsible for the murders of thirteen women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. (Technically, de Salvo was never convicted or put on trial for any of those killings — he was sentenced to life in prison for sexual assaults on several other women and confessed to the thirteen murders as well. He was stabbed to death in prison in 1973, and whether he actually committed the murders he confessed to has been a subject of controversy ever since.)
As Rep. Moore expected, he saw his resolution passed unanimously; he then withdrew it and explained that he had offered the motion only to demonstrate a point. (A bit of sardonic humor offered at the time claimed that perhaps Moore was wrong: maybe the legislators had been paying attention.)
Although we would hope our elected representatives would pay enough attention to their jobs not to pass resolutions commending murderers, that Moore’s stunt succeeded wasn’t necessarily as outrageous as it might seem. Federal and state legislators see a steady stream of resolutions that have no real legal impact and are offered mostly as public relations measures on behalf of one group or another. Poring over each and every one would take an inordinate amount of a legislator’s time (especially in states like Texas where the legislature might be in session only relatively briefly and infrequently, creating a large number of bills and resolutions to be voted upon in a very short time).
If a fellow legislator introduces a resolution to honor some favored person or group, you’re expected to rubber stamp it as a gesture of good will — after all, you’ll want him to return the favor when you need to boost your popularity with your constituents by extending similar honors to some of them.
Obviously_Basura on July 11st, 2020 at 02:16 UTC »
My Grandfather was actually in the Texas Legislature at this time. He said he and every single legislator hated Tom Jr. after that point. He found out about the stunt while driving through Waco on his way back to Austin and heard the Rep on the local radio station.
"Damned legislator just wanted to hear his voice on the local radio, but I digress. It all turned out Mighty Fine."
After that point, they had people to read through every line on every piece of legislation.
The bill in question, according to my grandfather, was a Commemorative Resolution where people often listed family members and close friends to call out things like their birthday or congratulations on marriage. There was just this understanding that this is the bill where the state of Texas wishes their little niece or nephew a happy birthday and that no one had to read it.
Mr. Moore decidedly taught them all a lesson that day.
amishcatholic on July 11st, 2020 at 01:13 UTC »
Part of the issue is that the Texas Legislature only meets for 140 days every other year, and so stuff gets shoved through really quickly, without a whole lot of vetting. Texas is probably the most decentralized state--a lot of things that are done on a statewide basis in most states are done by local bodies in Texas. For instance, the governor is pretty weak historically (although for the last couple of decades less so) since a lot of statewide positions are elected directly instead of being appointed by the governor.
identicaltheft on July 11st, 2020 at 01:08 UTC »
"This compassionate gentleman’s dedication and devotion to his work has enabled the weak and the lonely throughout the nation to achieve and maintain a new degree of concern for their future. He has been officially recognized by the state of Massachusetts for his noted activities and unconventional techniques involving population control and applied psychology."
That's pretty funny. As far as satire goes, this is the A Modest Proposal of state legislators.