THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

And the latest blow came from the Florida Supreme Court which ruled that his rules making schemes were in violation of the law, something Rick is familiar with.

Today, the nation's most unpopular governor lost his first case, a lawsuit brought by Rosalie Whiley, a blind woman on food stamps. She argued -- successfully -- that Scott overstepped his authority by freezing all rules until he could approve them. Whiley argued that Scott's edict delayed a rule that would have made it easier for her to order food stamps online.

The Miami Herald reports Florida's Supreme Court sided with Whiley. According to the Herald,

The court, in a 5-2 opinion, concluded that rule-making authority belongs to the Legislature, not the governor.

Hah! Even better, Whiley's lawyers had made fun of Scott for claiming he had "supreme executive power." According to Tampa Bay Online, the lawyers said

... "the Governor's theory seems to have come from a Monty Python skit. See the discourse between 'Arthur, King of Britons' and 'Dennis the Constitutional Peasant,' from Monty Python and the Holy Grail."

In that scene from the 1975 cult classic comedy, King Arthur explains to Dennis, a filth-covered peasant, that Arthur rules over all Britons because a mystical Lady of the Lake "held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king."

Dennis responds: "Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony … You can't expect to wield supreme executive power because some watery tart threw a sword at you."

So was Ricky elected by the Watery Tart Party?

// posted by montag @ 11:47 AM