Minnesota House votes to jettison legislator seniority

The Minnesota House voted Thursday to scrap legislative tenure in the state and replace it with a plan that gives house leaders the authority to consider performance when making decisions about committee assignments. "Experience matters, but the number of years served is not an adequate measure of ability, competence and success in forming legislation," said House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove. "We need to stand up for voters." Oh, my bad! That was "scrap teacher tenure", "decisions about layoffs", "success in teaching kids", and "We need to stand up for kids." See "House votes to jettison teacher seniority system", Kim McGuire, Star Tribune, 2012-02-16. However, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Too few politicians are noted for consistency.