Gulfed

The best thing about state legislatures is that the people who win those contests often don't have to have polished off all of their rough edges, since they're working with a much smaller electoral base.

So you get dunderheads like Mississippi Democrat Steve Holland, who introduced a bill in his state's House of Representatives that would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." You might think I would make fun of Rep. Holland's narrow, jingostic provincialism, but not exactly.

Rep. Holland says his bill was a joke, a satirical way to criticize the several immigration-related bills that will be heard by Mississippi lawmakers this session. He wasn't serious about the renaming; he just wanted to introduce a bill he thought was as wrong-headed as the bills he didn't like in order to make a point.

I haven't read any of the other measures so I don't know anything about them -- a majority of these kinds of bills tend to be exercises in one-upsmanship pandering that masquerade as crackdowns on illegal immigration but one or more of the Mississippi ones may be different. Thoughtful legislation or not, there are legitimate cases that can be made against these other bills. There is room for satirizing or mocking them as well.

But because this satirical gesture was performed by an elected lawmaker using the actual legislative machinery of a state government, it is a dunderheaded move. There are costs -- printing and copying if nothing else -- associated with proposing legislation. Some Hispanic organizations that heard of the proposed law but weren't acquainted with Rep. Holland's merry wit criticized it in press releases and statements. Many of the people who heard the critiques won't hear the "oops!" when the organizations walk back their words upon finding out the whole thing is a joke.

And should Rep. Holland rise to speak against the bills to which he objects, perhaps then marshaling facts, figures, history, logic and reason to make his case, he will have already ceded to his opponents substantial ammunition for their arguments against him. Since he doesn't always take his role as a representative seriously, why should anyone else?

Joke's on you, Mr. Representative.