When an apology just isn’t enough (see our original story on this here):
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate recorded a video apologizing to members of the Iowa Firearms Coalition for his office’s failure to meet a requirement that would have advanced a pro-gun amendment to Iowa’s Constitution.
The error set the gun rights amendment back years.
“Dear members of the Iowa Firearms Coalition: I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere regrets and apologies for the bureaucratic oversight in my office that resulted in a setback in making the right to keep and bear arms part of the Iowa Constitution,” Pate said in the video and in a written apology.
Pate said in the video that his office has instituted a system to make sure a similar error does not happen again.
– Stephen Gruber-Miller for the Des Moines Register, Paul Pate Apologizes to Iowa Firearms Coalition for Constitutional Amendment Mistake
Bullsh*t that’s a political cop out, for what ever reason he didn’t want it to pass so he pulls this crap. And he doesn’t even have the balls to own it, it wasn’t his mistake, it was the bureaucracy’s fault🤢🤢🤢
We have a winner.
+1.
This “the bureaucracy ate my homework” is total BS. “The bureaucracy” is composed of people. People who screw up in offices of public trust must be held accountable.
Pate needs to come clean on exactly WHO screwed up, and whether it was due to incompetence (in which case, said persons should be fired) or because said bureaucrats decided to create and exercise their own pocket veto of something they didn’t like (in which case those people really need to be publicly named and shamed so that they NEVER are given such an opportunity ever again). If said persons are still drawing a state salary, Pate needs to explain why he hasn’t fired them.
If he can’t or won’t do so, then it means it’s 100% Mr. Pate’s fault for being an an utterly incompetent and ineffective manager, in which case he ought to do the honorable thing and resign.
One would hope that there is someone in the Iowa Legislature who has the stones to call an oversight hearing and ask Mr. Pate these questions under oath. But I fear that the politicians are far more interested in covering for each other than ding their jobs.
You make a good point. Honestly, though, I also blame the NRA and the other Iowa gun rights advocacy groups too. For all the time, money, and effort that went into lobbying for this State Constitutional Amendment, they didn’t have ANYONE who read and understood the law which provided the mechanism for passing the Amendment?? NO ONE in any of those organizations was paying attention to see if the necessary deadlines for publication were being met?
One man’s office dropped the ball big time here, but plenty of other ostensibly intelligent people–who are supposed to be our advocates–stood by and watched it happen.
(For the record, I’m an Iowan.)
Meh. It’s a symbolic measure. We have a federal constitution that says it’s my right to walk about New Jersey while armed but what’s that constitution going to do for me if I try that out? Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Rhode Island and Washington all have the right to keep and bear arms in their constitutions, but I’d much rather live with Iowa’s gun laws than theirs. It’s just words on a piece of paper to be ignored by the people we let rule over us.
BTW, what kind of ‘man’ goes by a hyphenated last name?
Probably a Gillette man…
“Gillete man”
We have now entered an age where that is meant as a derogatory term.
🤠
Nothing deragatory about being a beta male.
Besides, they brought it on themselves.
Hey be nice. Not everyone with a hyphenated name is a conceited dick. My name has a cool history, and it’s not about basting in the glory of two distant relatives. It’s actually funny.
Incompetent dickhead or lying dickhead.
Either way….they need a new dickhead.
^^^ Nailed it. Right here. ^^^
Well, perhaps, but he was elected by the voters, not appointed by someone else, so it’ll be up to them. (And we’re still light-years ahead of Oregon- or, perhaps, behind, if you believe the Oregon rulers…)
.make a real apology as in GTFO & stay out – useless commie a**hole
.some politicians (but not all) are like crack-whores – they will do anything, except that crack-whores can be arrested for illegal actions & quickly removed from their place of “business”
Except crack whores can provide a useful service.
correct sir!
I guess none of these posters have ever made a mistake.
Your name tells me all I need to know.
No mistake as a public servant ignoring the will of the people, desired legislation and screwing with constitutional rights. No.
Everybody makes mistakes, Elmer. It’s how you act when you realize you made it that matters. (Or, perhaps, when you get caught.)
Kinda like the one your parents made when they conceived you?
Politicians don;t make mistakes. Their actions are born from either complete stupidity or strategic maneuvering.
People like you are the mistaken / mistake. Are you lost , or just another useless troll ? T’TAG you’re IT !!
Failure deserves punishment.
He screws up and gets a pass. If I miss paying for any of Iowa’a stupid “Reports” that do nothing both generate cash, I get penalized, etc. Gov. is right, it’s just words and we do have some of the best laws in the country.
Tar & feather b##ch…😩
You beat me to it
There’s no question that Pate screwed up on this, but some of the blame has to fall on the Iowa Firearms Coalition (not NRA ILA) for their handling of the issue in the first place. They are, for the most part, unseasoned and perhaps, unrealistic in their attempts to pass what is a noble and necessary addition to the Iowa Constitution. Their president has already accepted a bit of blame for not seeing to it that the necessary paperwork was filed and maintained, and it’s really upon him and the IFC that I put the onus. It’s their/our baby and far from the normal day to day of the Sec of State- they should’ve had their own system of checks and balances in place well ahead of time.
Add to this mix the confusion caused between a Constitutional Amendment (IFC) with Constitutional Carry (IGO) which Iowans have been bombarded with via daily emails from a little yap-dog gun rights wannabee who isn’t even registered as a lobbyist. I am constantly trying to straighten this out to gun show attendees, as well as explaining the entire amendment process and what’s involved, as well as what Constitutional Carry would and would not do for Iowans in general. IFC may have attempted to do likewise on their website but have been sorely deficient in even engaging the general public at gun shows and other firearms events. They put in decent effort and did run the first round but obviously figured their work for the time-being was done. Now all for naught- Lesson learned at great expense…
Perhaps now IFC will listen to some sage advice by people who were in this business in Iowa even before some of them were born. They have left themselves and Iowa open to a much steeper road now, to regain the lost ground and move to the next plateau which is now even more distant. Had they met their own obligations and insisted the government do likewise, passage through this session’s Republican-held House, Senate and Governor would’ve been fairly likely, passing the proposed amendment on to the voters in the following year. As it sits now, we’ll now have to fight the first round over, then wait for round 2 until after the 2020 elections, when we may not control all three. As IFC has now burned many of the across-the-aisles bridges that previously existed to the benefit of Iowa firearms owners, that would be a huge hurdle should the democrats retake either.
part of goober-ment charter is needless complexity to enable a**covering, inefficiency, and job security @ all costs.
To be fair, I, for one, believe amending the constitutions of Iowa and at the national level should be a rather long and difficult process to determine that a real need has been demonstrated to exist. I know that was the intent of the Founders. If not, for example, we’d have lost the Electoral College 20 years ago.
As a side note it’s “interesting” that our Governor Reynolds has proposed an amendment to the IA Constitution that would restore voting rights to felons, presumably after they’ve served their time, as well as another amendment to detail the rights of crime victims, including notifying victims when their aggressor/predator/whatever has been released from custody. She didn’t mention the amendment Pate and IFC blew.
Well stated post. The dumb ass House majority leader is a big part of the problem. big time Fudd.
Pate is one of the good guys. An actual conservative.
If Kimmy wants to give the demtards more voters by giving felons the vote than the amendment needs to include:
ALL rights of a citizen will be restored including permitless/Constitutional concealed carry. All other Iowa citizens the same. And the provisions of the Kansas’ Second Amendment Protection Act.
It’s the liberal cop out, I’m not corrupt, just incompetent. Either way this idiot should be replaced.
He acts like the people of Iowa are a bunch of school kids and he accidentally cancelled the school trip.
Because that is how he sees the people that pay the bills. A bunch of little people he Lord’s over.
“Dear IRS: I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere regrets and apologies for the bureaucratic oversight in my office that resulted in a setback in paying income taxes for the last ten years.”
Hey, it’s worth a shot.
At least it has precedent.
What a jerk. This wasn’t a mistake it was purposeful. He or others in his office intended to derail this. Pate should be impeached.
He is doing half of what is necessary. The other half is to resign in disgrace and bow to the people as he says sorry for his actions. Then all will be well. He may not have meant it but he would be humbling himself.
It’s easy to say sorry when nothing happens either way. Even a murderer will write an apology letter just to reduce his sentence. The guy didn’t even stand up (out of respect) when he read the letter nor called the media to be there.
Americans need to learn how to take responsibility and respect their society. They behave like children who are forced to apologize by their parents when they don’t want to.
Some fuctionary pocket-vetoed this on their desk n he let it happen.
Some functionary pocket-vetoed this on their desk, n he made it happen.
Either way, I see two terminations, here. If this was a one-off honest mistake, they can reapply.
Yeah, but apparently not for two years.
Funny, I don’t see the plan to undo the damage of A General Mistake’s mistake. That would be an actual apology.
Where’s the road map to get it through the amendment process again? Commitment from AG to orchestrate that personally?
Is that AG elected? Assign all remaining campaign funds to a single-issue non-profit — The Will Of The People — with the single mission of walking that legislation through the process, again.
“You funded my campaigns to represent you, and I didn’t. All the funds remaining from my campaigns go to securing that representation. While I remain in office, redressing this abuse — in which my entire department was complicit — will be the priority within our legal and administrative operations. Until it’s enacted, work around this amendment goes to the front of the line.
“I hope you will permit me to remain to try to put this right. I will resign the day this amendment is enacted. If the governor, legislature or the people prefer to address this now, I will resign immediately on the governor, a bill, or a referendum seeking the same.”
“You can expect monthly reports on the progress of this correction, from me in this office at this desk.”
If you are referring to IA’s Attorney General (Tom Miller)- he’s gone from being a real friend of Iowa firearms owners to the other side quite a while back. Has to keep with party policies- he’s a dem.
I throw the BS card on that. Prove when that SOB marxist Tom Miller was ever anything other than a flaming worthless prog POS
When Miller first took office in the mid 70s he was always on-board with us and our activities concerning RTKBA. I still have a personal letter he sent me in response to a letter to the Leftwing Journal (DM Register) in the late 70s congratulating my POV in a pro citizen-owned firearms topic. Back then “Saturday Night Specials” (usually any handgun with a bbl less than 10″) were the target du jour. Sorry for my Frog… For many years he was no stumbling block to our efforts. That all changed as politics became more and more polarized. I can even remember back when we would get a fair shake from David Yepsen. Bet you can’t. It wasn’t long ago that we had many IA democrats siding with us. Not today, here or in DC.
When I first glanced at this articles heading I read Pol Pots not Paul Pates.
This amendment was not the only one that the public was not notified of – published in 2 papers in each of the 4 districts – by his office.
Perhaps the requirement dates to an era when mail came with a stamp and you had to see paper to read a paper.
Sounds like that requirement needs to be withdrawn by amendment.
The need has been demonstrated wi5h this SNAFU.
He’s a politician. He got paid to ‘forget.’ Threatened. Paid. Both. They’re just about all of the same ilk in politics, if they have any long life in that field where lying is mandatory.
Alright Mister Pate, I’ll accept your apology just as soon as you resign in disgrace and prove to us that your not the worthless piece of BS that all of us think you are.
Hari-kari
The sincerest of apologies.
Not a mistake.
Yellow-bellied lying sacks of feces do all of their double crossing according to plan.
If any of us make a mistake of the caliber at work, I am sure we will be seeing or arses handed to us on a plate. Where are the sanctions for an idiot politician? “I am sorry I fcked up” is good enough?
There’s NOTHING special about the process. He let others on but purposely dropped this because he wanted donations from gun-ban lobbyists.
He’s a traitor. Vote him out to make an example of him. Ask him to resign.
If he’s on the ticket, primary out the governor all-together.
So unless governor drops him from the next ticket, let him know he’s getting out at primary.
They are replaceable SERVANTS.
This is not a bug, but rather it is a feature.
“Incompetence is never a counts martial offense.”
Old Army saying.