Posted by mstebbins on 06/10/09 12:06 AM [Newer: Repost: Craig Westover on Defeat of Constitution Resolution at State Central] [Older: Tax Cut Rally Contests]

I've heard excuses from legislators in the past couple of days about why they voted against Medical Marijuana.  Now, I've never seen the pot issue as one to hold up as a banner.  But it's just not something to criminalize. 

Since the "Governor's Opening," that season which commences ten minutes before an incumbent's press conference announcing he is not seeking re-election, I have received the requisite phone calls from the candidates seeking support.  They tend to volunteer that they would have supported medical marijuana -- this is not something I ask them -- but mumble about problems with the bill's wording.  I have not gotten a call from Emmer, but understand he has a similar stand.

So when I read this about Mark Buesgens today, well, you be the judge:

"I'm an outsider," he said. "I have my colleagues ask, 'Why not go to caucuses?' The purpose of the caucuses is to learn about legislation. Well, I read the legislation. The other purpose is to tell me how to vote."

And that's a deal breaker for Buesgens.

He has opposed his caucus - and his governor - on some bills, the medicinal marijuana bill being a big one.

"I was the second author on the marijuana bill,'' he said, explaining that about a year and a half ago, his mother was painfully dying of lung cancer.

"Had she asked me to get her some marijuana, I would have done it," he said.

That's not exactly in keeping with the law-and-order Republican stereotype, which is fine with him.

"I'm more a libertarian than a Republican,'' he said.

I've known Mark for about ten years and always trusted him.  Now I know my instincts were right.