Gregg Opens Mouth And Inserts Foot

Former House Speaker John Gregg (D) called Gov. Daniels an "idiot" during his WIBC radio talk show, "Open Phones", yesterday morning because Daniels supports Indiana's decision to leave behind its third world past and join the rest of the modern world in adopting Daylight Savings Time. Gregg apparently forgot that his law firm, Bingham-McHale, lobbies the General Assembly and the Daniels' administration, and that he is a member of the firm's Government Services Practice Group.

Gregg would be the same former legislator who as Speaker of the House helped engineer the creation of the health insurance for life perk for former lawmakers which is now drawing heavy public criticism because of the huge financial liability the self-serving perk poses for taxpayers. He was also a long-time opponent to Daylight Savings Time as a lawmaker. If Gregg checks with his firm's lobbying clients, we think he would find that pretty much all of them supported Daylight Savings Time. And didn't the owner of WIBC, Emmis Broadcasting, also lobby for Daylight Savings Time? Now, who's calling who an idiot?

Gregg tells the Star he didn't mean to use that word:

I intended to say what an idiotic idea it was (to switch to daylight-saving time) . . . You owe respect to the office,” he said . . . You don’t have to agree with the person or the programs, but you have to show respect to the office. I should never have used the term ‘idiot’ when referring to the governor or anybody. That’s not the way I was raised. You can refer to ‘idiotic’ ideas, but name-calling is a no-no.

Perhaps Gregg should be apologizing to his firm, his firm's clients and his employer at Emmis Broadcasting as well.