Isn’t there something fundamentally dishonest about the sort of calculation that RI House Majority Leader Gordon Fox is making in his campaign for speakership?

… with one notable exception, he is guarded about where he stands on some of the more volatile issues the 2010 legislature is likely to face, including casino gambling, gay marriage and calls for the legislature to place itself back under the jurisdiction of the state Ethics Commission after a late-June decision by the Supreme Court left the commission’s powers in question.

Shouldn’t one’s positions on all of the major issues of the day constitute the platform for any political race — especially for a current legislator seeking a powerful central post? If he isn’t able to articulate his position, after so much time in office, then he’s an incompetent boob, and if he thinks his intentions will sink his candidacy, he’s a plain deceiver for withholding them. The statement — not unfamiliar in Rhode Island — becomes, “Elect me because I’m next in line, and I’ll tell you how I’ll govern after I’ve got all of my political protections in place.”
This General Assembly — this state, politically — is unbelievable.