I Must Tell the King that the Sky is Falling!

My old boss, Washington Monthly founder Charles Peters, is famous for long ago identifying a clever ploy used by bureaucrats to fend off budget cuts. He observed that, for instance, whenever Congress threatened to cut the budget of the National Park Service, the agency would come before Congress and lament it would be forced to close the Washington Monument. Of course, the situation was never so dire, but no good legislator could risk incurring the wrath of the millions of home-state tourists who would be shut out of the legendary federal attraction, so the budget would be restored.

Some "fear of lawsuit" stories strike me as falling into a similar vein. Take this one, from Nebraska, where legislators have been considering legislation to change the state's public recreational liability statute. Last month, the town of Norfolk announced that it would be canceling its annual "Big Bang Boom" fireworks show because it claimed it couldn't afford the insurance to cover the event. The local business association has also threatened to cancel the annual Christmas tree lighting and even downtown trick-or-treating events as well unless the state legislature offers them some relief from onerous liability requirements.

There's nothing like sicing disappointed ghosts and goblins on state legislators to move legislation, but you'll have to forgive me if I find these threats a little dubious....