The Senate dealt with a bill yesterday that amended some provisions regarding the parole board. Republican Senator Russ Weeks attempted to amend the bill to keep dangerous criminals in prison, but the Democrats would have none of it.

Senator Weeks (R-Raleigh) offered an amendment that would keep felons incarcerated for a longer period of time before they can be paroled.

Under current law, if a criminal is committed to prison for life, he can be up for parole in 10 years. “If we are going to send a criminal into prison for life,” Weeks said on the Senate floor, “we should make the sentence closer to life.”

Week’s amendment would change the limit from 10 years to 20 years for criminals sentenced to life, from 15 years to 25 years for those sentenced to life and previously convicted of a felony, and for those convicted of first degree murder, from 15 years to 25 years.

Unwilling to vote against Republican amendments outright, the Democrats have a technical move they frequently use to keep from showing their true feelings. They employ this particular chicanery in hopes that the general public is too ignorant in the ways of the senate to notice or understand. All they have to do is get a Democrat to ask for a ruling from the chair that the amendment is not germane to the subject of the bill, then the President rules that it is not germane and the amendment dies.

Senator Bowman (D-Hancock) was the Democrat who stood to kill Senator Weeks’ amendment. He first made a disingenuous effort to praise the amendment, moved that it was not germane and asked for a ruling from the chair. The Senate President ruled it not germane, all the Democrats voted in favor and that was that.

Do I honestly believe that the Senate Democrats want dangerous criminals to roam West Virginia’s streets? Not really. But I do believe they are guilty of letting partisanship trump wise policy. As Senator Weeks said in a press release, “The Democrats are playing politics with the safety of West Virginians. They would rather shoot the bill down on a trumped up technicality than vote for an idea from a Republican.” This is the greater transgression. West Virginia never wins as long as Democrats put their party’s welfare before the public’s good.