Green picks party over state

From this article, you would never know that Republicans control the majority of governorships in this country. Republicans currently control the White House, both chambers of the Congress and have control of 28 states, but the last National Governor's Association(NGA) meeting sounded like a rally getting ready to go burn down the U.S. Capitol.

What is a guy like Rep. Mark Green supposed to do as a Republican Congressman running for governor?

You would think that by now he would start to try to distance himself from the branch of government everyone loves to hate these days.

So why would Rep. Mark Green, a man who wants to be governor, vote to surrender power over the National Guard to the President of the United States?

I suppose we'll hear from the Green Team that it was a big bill, lots of things that were needed are in the bill, blah blah blah.

Ok, fine. I'll accept that. It is a really large bill and no one wants to be accused of "voting against the troops" by voting against that bill.

But where is his outrage on this provision now? Republicans governors are upset about this and have finally picked up on the fact that their colleagues in Congress have abandoned them.

Huckabee, who is considering a presidential bid in 2008, said Congress and the administration -- run by his fellow Republicans -- have moved far from what he called the "traditional states' rights position" of conservatives.

Huckabee is a Republican governor from Arkansas and even though his party is the one taking action against his state, he is standing up for his state rather than his party.

And from Green? Nothing.

Unfortunately, this is but one example in a long list of items where Green and his colleagues in Congress have stuck it to the states. In fact, all the issues listed in the Stateline.org article that governors were upset about at the NGA meeting are items that Rep. Mark Green went along with his party on despite having visions of running the state himself someday.

Governors also vented frustrations at Capitol Hill over illegal immigration, high gasoline prices and new driver’s license regulations, and in conversations said the relationship between states and the federal government has deteriorated since they were last elected.

Green didn't buck his party on any of these issues.

The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that the changes required by the REAL ID act on how states issue drivers licenses will cost the states $500 to $700 million. Since he wants to run a state after his stint in Congress, one might think Green would have prodded his colleagues to cough up the money for the program rather than forced the states to pay for it.

"The national mood is pretty sour out there towards Congress ... and I think it's getting worse, because people are just getting frustrated. They recognize the tremendous needs, and they don't see anybody stepping forward or a party stepping forward to getting it done,"

And just who made this comment at the NGA meeting? Wisconsin's own Tommy Thompson. And judging by that very unhelpful comment for Green, Thompson accepted the speaking gig at the conference just to be able to show Green that while he begrudgingly got out of the way for Green, Thompson still gets to go to the NGA meetings and Green might never get there.

Of course, Green cannot pretend he wasn't part of Congress. But Democrats should be happy that Green hasn't started thinking more like someone who is looking out for the state of Wisconsin first. As long as he continues to go along with what his party bosses in Congress want him to do, Thompson will still be the latest Republican governor from Wisconsin at the NGA meetings.