Rusty Weiss points out that, like many other objects that are for sale, politicians are cheaper when you buy them in bulk:

Federal investigators were tracking nine Democrats in a probe involving State Senator Shirley Huntley, who wore a wire to record conversations with her colleagues. . . . Almost a quarter of the state Senate’s Democratic conference was in the FBI’s cross hairs last year, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday. . . . Separate filings indicate that only one of the nine investigated Democrats is believed to have done nothing criminally negligent.

That last guy must have missed a memo.

Glad to see Albany’s gotten cleaned up in the post-Spitzer, post-Patterson era. I’ll give New York governor Andrew Cuomo credit for a simple and accurate assessment: “Complicated, but basically all bad.”

That phrase applies to the state legislature as a whole, no?

The first Morning Jolt of the week features Rick Perry beginning to turn his focus to Herman Cain, the Occupy Wall Street protesters begin to fight among themselves, and this eyebrow-raising assessment of the economies of different states . . .

Red: Is it a State, or State of Mind?

Can being a red state, with less red tape, keep you away from red ink? If state government doesn’t make you see red by taking every red cent, does it leave you with more to paint the town red and create a red-hot economy?

At Forbes, Merrill Matthews offers an analysis that will leave many Republicans cheery and many liberals insisting it cannot possibly be accurate: “If you do not currently live in a red state, there’s a good chance you will be in the near future. Either you will flee to a red state or a red state will come to you—because voters fed up with blue-state fiscal irresponsibility will elect candidates who promise to pass red-state policies. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures(NCSL), 25 state legislatures are controlled by Republicans and 16 by Democrats, with eight split (i.e., each party controlling one house). There are 29 Republican governors and 20 Democrats, with one independent. And there are 20 states where Republicans control both the legislature and governor’s mansion vs. 11 Democratic, with 18 split (one party controls the governor’s office and the other the legislature). And though we are a year away from the 2012 election, generic Republican vs. Democratic polls have given Republicans the edge for more than a year. If that pattern holds—and if blue-state leaders refuse to learn from their policy mistakes, just like their true-blue leader in the White House—it likely means there will be even more red states in 2013.”

Susan Duclos writes at Wake Up America, “Red states are not only doing better economically than Blue states but the policies enacted in Red states are also providing conditions which make them superior, by the numbers, to Blue states in relation to job growth. This is a point I made back in late May with a two part piece I wrote called ‘Red States Add More Jobs Than Blue States.’ The breakdown over the last decade showed that Red states had a totaled 451,600 private-sector job increase from April 2001 to April 2011, Blue states had a totaled 2,041,300 private-sector job decrease from April 2001 to April 2011 and Purple states (swing) had a totaled 597,900 private-sector job decrease from April 2001 to April 2011.”

The Barrister writes at Maggie’s Farm, “Seems to me that most of it is about pols being in bed with government unions, and splitting the pie at the taxpayers’ expense. In blue states, who represents the citizens against the union machines? My state government (CT) is owned, top to bottom, by the government unions and functions like a Mafia conspiracy preying on the taxpayers . . . Perhaps the goal is to have everybody working for our government overlords. Feudalism. Government jobs are a necessary evil and are functionally parasitic, not a basis for the real economy which is required to work and make a profit to pay those government bills.”

Via HoosierPundit, a glimpse at the enormous self-regard that fleeing Democratic state lawmakers have for themselves: Indiana Democratic state representative Dave Cheatham explains why he fled across the state line rather than stay in the state capitol and provide a quorum for a labor-reform bill:

CHEATHAM: The thing that sticks in my mind, I guess, more than anything else — and this is something that has happened. My wife teaches first grade. This past week, one of the kids in her class, a little first grader’s dad is getting sent to Afghanistan. And he was really sad. And she said, ‘Eell, you know, your dad is doing something really good. He’s going to a country where people there are trying to take away the freedoms of other people there, keep them from living a good life. So he’s leaving to do something good.’ And one of the little girls in class just on her own — and this has never been talked about in class, because my wife doesn’t do that — said, ‘It’s kind of like Mr. Cheatham, he left to make our schools better.’ And when I heard that, that gave me a reason —” (drowned out by applause.)

Oh, I see. Fleeing the state and refusing to show up for work as a state legislator is just like serving in the U.S. military in Afghanistan! And I guess that would mean Republican state legislators are the Taliban and al-Qaeda in this metaphor.

Perhaps Mr. Cheatham would like to reconsider his remarks.

From Wednesday’s Morning Jolt:

The audio of Mitch Daniels, found here, will be a bit of a Rorschach test for conservatives; I suspect a few will see a governor with a set plan to enact education reform pushing aside a separate issue that could poison the well for any bipartisan compromise. And I suspect a lot will see him as just another RINO.

For those whose instinct before today was to dismiss Daniels as just another RINO, I wish you had the chance to sit down and listen to him talk about policy. I recognized from day one my tastes weren’t necessarily going to match that of a majority of Republican primary voters. But to my initial impressions, Daniels seemed, in some ways, to be the perfect anti-Obama. He’s actually run things like the Office of Management and Budget and the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Indiana.

He worked for Reagan as chief political adviser and liaison to state and local officials. He’s worked in the private sector with some significant success at Eli Lilly. He worries about details. He says “we have to means-test the hell out of” entitlements once deemed untouchable. He tells people who he ought to be courting all kinds of things they don’t want to hear. If you consider the Obama-as-messiah hype of 2007-2008 to be a new national low point in serious political discourse, the candidacy of Daniels looks like a big bucket of ice water splashed on the dreamy electorate looking for magic wand solutions.

But when your state’s Democrats decide to throw a tantrum worthy of my toddler and high tail it across the state line like Smokey and the Bandit, you have to call them out on their crap. No constitution, state or national, includes an “I’m taking my bat and my ball and I’m going home” amendment. This is not political discourse or protest or an innovative tactical maneuver. These are refusals to abide by the established rules, laws, customs and traditions of the American political system: small-scale, temporary secessions.

And if you think I’m mad about these stunts, I’d note that the word that best describes many of my readers’ views on them is . . . Qaddaffi-esque.

As mentioned over on Campaign Spot, I thought I understood what Daniels was saying with the “social issue truce” talk; picture the most politically self-destructive synonym for “prioritization” you can imagine. Look, we all know the guy who takes the oath on January 20, 2013 is going to face a stack of problems that will make January 2009 look like the good old days. If the next Republican president manages to avoid Debt Armageddon, restore the economy to low unemployment and real growth, and keep any of the world’s maniacs from killing Americans, I’ll be doing cartwheels. And if we ever reach that economic and foreign policy Nirvana, then we can really put the pedal to the metal on trying to nurse our sick society to something resembling decency and traditional values.

But recent evidence suggests that the Democratic establishment, in Washington, in Madison, in Indianapolis and a slew of other states have reached a point where they cannot be reasoned with. They don’t know where the money will come to fund everything they want. They don’t really care. But they’ll be darned if they’ll let anybody apply the brakes to the gravy train that has been so good to them — er, I’m sorry, the high-speed-rail gravy train that’s been so good to them.

Does this sound familiar?

Democratic legislators are staying away from the Indiana House chamber, blocking the Republican majority from conducting business while hundreds of union members crowd the adjourning hallways in protest of a contentious labor bill.

Only three of the 40 House Democrats were in the chamber when Republican Speaker Brian Bosma tried to begin Tuesday’s session, leaving it with too few members for a quorum.

Rep. Terri Austin of Anderson said her fellow Democrats were studying proposed legislation and couldn’t predict when they would return. Bosma says he hadn’t heard from Democratic leaders and that he wouldn’t negotiate with people not doing their jobs.

I’d have the state police at the borders!

Maybe Indiana’s Democrats went to Wisconsin. I’d suggest Republicans in state legislatures begin a “Democrats Who Won’t Do Their Duty and Run Away Exchange Program.”

The slow, steady extinction of Southern Democratic officeholders continues:

When state Rep. Jonathan Perry, R-Kaplan, eked out a 688-vote victory Saturday in a hard-fought special election to fill an Acadiana-area state Senate seat, the Louisiana Republican Party completed a political sweep that would have seemed improbable just a few years ago. Perry’s victory over Democrat Nathan Granger gave Republicans a 20-19 majority in the state Senate, marking the first time since Reconstruction that the GOP has had majority control of the upper chamber. In a state where the GOP already holds the Governor’s Mansion, a House majority and all of the constitutional statewide offices, it also means Republicans now control every significant office in state government for the first time in modern history.

Of course, conservatives don’t need to get too excited:

While Perry’s victory gives Republicans fresh bragging rights, lawmakers in both parties said it’s unlikely to have much immediate effect on day-to-day operations of the Senate, where party identification has often mattered little in doling out perks and leadership assignments.

UPDATE: A reader in that neck of the woods adds:

You are 90 percent correct: GOP legislative majorities in Louisiana aren’t a HUGE deal, although there are some clarifications I’d like to add: (1) Populist Democrats have more sway in the Louisiana Senate than in the House (the House Speaker is a Republican, while the Senate President is more in line with populist Democratic sentiment); (2) With redistricting coming up. the psychological impact of GOP majorities will put limits on Democratic mischief-making, especially in the Senate; (3) The Senate has several term limited populist Democrats, but had they kept their majority, they’d have had more partisan cover to draw redistricting plans that preserved their majority for another decade.

The good folks at GOPAC provide a list of the 25 members of state legislatures who switched from the Democrat party to Republicans since Election Day:

2010 State Legislative Party Switchers

(as of December 30, 2010)

1.     Representative Allan Boothe – Alabama House

2.     Representative Steve Hurst – Alabama House

3.     Representative Mike Millican –Alabama House

4.     Representative Lesley Vance – Alabama House

5.     Senator Tim Golden – Georgia Senate

6.     Representative Ellis Black – Georgia House

7.     Representative Amy Carter – Georgia House

8.     Representative Mike Cheokas – Georgia House

9.     Representative Bubber Epps – Georgia House

10.  Representative Gerald Greene – Georgia House

11.  Representative Bob Hanner – Georgia House

12.  Representative Doug McKillip – Georgia House

13.  Representative Alan Powell – Georgia House

14.  Senator Chris Steineger – Kansas Senate

15.  Senator John Alario – Louisiana Senate

16.  Senator John Smith – Louisiana Senate

17.  Representative Noble Ellington – Louisiana Senate

18.  Representative Walker Hines – Louisiana House

19.  Representative Fred Mills – Louisiana House

20.  Representative Michael Willette – Maine House

21.  Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith – Mississippi Senate

22.  Representative Bobby Shows – Mississippi House

23.  Senator Eldon Nygarrd – South Dakota Senate

24.  Representative Allan Ritter – Texas House

25.  Representative Aaron Pena – Texas House

GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli: “We are pleased with the decision of these men and women to leave the Democratic Party and join with us.  They are adding to the ranks of Americans who want to put result-oriented ideas into action to get us moving in the right direction. Each of these legislators’ insight, experience, and commitment to common-sense, conservative policies will make our Party stronger.”

I suspect quite a few Tea Party members will be wary of the new guys until they demonstrate consistent fiscally-conservative stands….

Here’s an interesting development in the state legislatures: Post-election party switches.

In Alabama:

Four Alabama lawmakers announced today that they are switching from the Democratic party to the GOP, saying that they are more compatible with the Republican Party. Steve Hurst of Munford, Lesley Vance of Phenix City, Alan Boothe of Troy and Mike Millican of Hamilton bring the Republican count in the Alabama House from 62 to 66.

In Georgia:

The final shoes from the Nov. 2 election in Georgia may have just dropped. This has arrived from the office of House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge: State Representatives Ellis Black and Amy Carter today announced that they are joining the House Republican Caucus and resigning from the House Democratic Caucus.

Earlier:

In the past week, Reps. Alan Powell of Hartwell, Bob Hanner of Parrott and Gerald Greene of Cuthbert have all left the Democrats for the Republicans.

In Maine:

A Democratic legislator from Aroostook County has announced that he has switched his affiliation to the Republican Party. Michael Willette of Presque Isle, who was elected to a second term in the Legislature on Nov. 2 as a Democrat, told the Bangor Daily News on Friday that he has labored over his decision to switch since he couldn’t convince himself to support a tax reform proposal earlier this year that was supported almost exclusively by Democrats.

In Louisiana:

State Rep. Walker Hines of New Orleans announced today that he is switching his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, making the GOP the majority party in a legislative chamber for the first time in modern Louisiana history.

UPDATE: A reader quips, “Amy Carter? From Georgia? Does she have a position on the START treaty?”