Anakin Skywalker’s morph from good to “the dark side,” brought about one lasting thought about the whole Star Wars saga: Boy, what a waste of what could have been. I feel the same way watching CNMI Senate president Edith Deleon Guerrero degenerate from a pillar of anti-corruption strength to just another politician willing to let the dark forces control and win.
Skywalker and Deleon Guerrero share the same Achilles Heel: their egos. They are so blindsided by their self-entitlement, they no longer can distinguish between right and wrong. In their minds, anything they perceive is done against them is wrong and must be destroyed.
My disappointment in Ms. Deleon Guerrero’s slippery slide back to her republican crony roots was validated this morning, when I read Ferdie De La Torre’s article in the Saipan Tribune that was, in summary, a mudslinging, name calling feast by the Senate president. Something straight out of the movie Mean Girls.
Only Darth Vader replaces Regina George as the main character.
The democrats and independents received a clear mandate from voters to do everything Ms. Deleon Guerrero refuses to do and to avoid doing what she has done so far. She is the Senate president because the majority coalition elected her to lead the Senate and the legislative agenda the majority was elected to push.
That – with abundant clarity – is about fighting corruption, keeping the corrupt republicans at bay, finding some way to get the economy going, and stabilizing the government’s Torres-plundered finances.
What has Ms. Deleon Guerrero done? Her latest political activity is to attack her coalition colleague in the House, Marissa Flores, by disparaging her, calling her names, and even mocking her freshman status. That freshman representative, Madam President, has done more for the fight against corruption in this legislature than you’ve done the entire time you’ve held that gavel.
As if it were not enough for her to attack her House colleague, she went on to blame her Senate colleague, Donald Manglona, for the bottleneck of 45 House bills awaiting Senate action. Ms. Deleon Guerrero knows full well she controls what measures make it to the floor of the Senate. She took that power from its floor leader, Corina Magofna.
Ms. Deleon Guerrero has been quick to blame everyone but herself on the problems of the Commonwealth, some of which she created herself. Remember when she told everyone she found millions in unspent ARPA funds in “fiat currency?” Maybe at the time we didn’t want to believe she had fabricated it all just so she could attack the governor. After all, it was just a few weeks into their new term of leadership. It’s become clear, though, that that and several of her other attacks and public antics have been nothing more political theatrics.
And what of her record? What is it she proposes the government does to fight corruption, improve the economy, and stabilize government finances? Well, the Senate president has introduced legislation to require that public swimming pools be covered when not in use. She also wants to have the power to subpoena documents and witnesses, ironically while opposing this grant of power to the attorney general. And, what else? Oh yes, she wants to do whatever it is the republican senators from Tinian want her to do.
The same republican senators who blocked the removal of Ralph Torres from office based on clear and convincing evidence of his corruption. So much for anti-corruption.
She stopped being blue some time ago. We can’t even call her purple anymore. Edith Deleon Guerrero has gone back to her lollipop red roots. And she’s going to help the Empire to strike back.
1 Comments
Russ Mason
01/17/2024 at 11:34 AM
Although the precise moment is unclear, at some point Edith stopped caring about the People of the Commonwealth.
What motivated such a sea change? I believe she was threatened. No idea who or why, but she’s not the same woman who angrily told Gov. Torres to put a sock in it.