Georgia Senator Josh McKoon Is The Worst Kind Of Politician

When politicians wonder why the public doesn’t trust them, all they need do is look at this story to see why:

Down in Georgia Republicans are used to being underhanded to get their way, but last week they sun to a new level, buy taking a vote while many Democrats were on a bathroom break.

The incident occurred during a Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week  where they were discussing a proposed law — SB 129 — one of those “religious liberty” laws that most sane folks see as a blatant attempt to discriminate against LGBT people.

Committee chairman, and Republican, naturally, Josh McKoon [above] authored the bill, while Democrats, like Vincent Fort, tabled the proposed legislation when it was brought up to the committee last week. But, after several hours of deliberations at that meeting, Fort asked McKoon if he could pause work for a moment to use the bathroom.

McKoon obliged, but while the Democrat hurried to the lavatory, the rest of the committee — which consisted entirely of Republicans once Fort left the room — quickly pulled the “religious liberty” bill off the table and began voting. A staffer alerted other Democrats who rushed to the scene, but the committee had already passed the bill by the time they arrived.

“[McKoon] knew I was going to come back. It seems to me the right thing would have been to delay the vote until all the members who had appeared at the committee were in the room.” — Vincent Fort

The committee’s Vote While The Opposition Is Out Of The Room shenanigans are just the latest act in the ongoing drama surrounding the “religious liberty” bill; LGBT rights advocates and even some clergy in Georgia have called the bill unfairly biased and potentially dangerous to minority groups, as has former Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers, who once supported anti-LGBT gay policies but is now denouncing them as “nothing but an excuse to discriminate.”

Georgia Senate Majority Leader, and republican, Bill Cowsert even tried to change the bill to limit its potential to discriminate by proposing an amendment that would require the government “to state clearly that [it has] a compelling interest in protecting children from abuse and neglect and to prevent unlawful discrimination” and yet after the bill was forced through during PottyGate, Cowsert said he was “satisfied” with the bill without the amendment.

So when politicians wonder why the American people don’t trust them all they need do is look at Georgia Republicans to understand why.

via Think Progress