The Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives recently removed two committee chairmen from their positions, claiming that they had been disloyal to him. The move ignited a statewide spate of indignant editorials and letters to the editor. Every one of them missed the point.

House Speaker Jake Flake is not the problem. He is only a symptom of a bizarre political system that “civilians” don’t even know about. He may even be a blessing, in that he has made people aware.

The speaker of the House decides who will be on the committees, who gets what staff, who gets what office space, what color the walls will be painted and everything else.

You won’t hear the former chairman complaining; they know that’s how the system works. There’s no appeal and no explanation. They voted to elect the speaker and there’s always a 100 per cent vote of the speaker’s party.

Besides, complaining would really be disloyal. I remember a legislator who criticized the speaker in the newspaper. He was unable to get called on to speak for the entire remainder of his term.

People know how the Legislature can override a governor’s veto, an infrequent event. However, few know that the speaker can veto any bill simply by refusing to hear it. It doesn’t matter what the voters in a district, or even the whole state, or even a majority of the legislators think.

(There are petitions to bring a bill to a vote, but that is so disloyal that during my 14 years in the Legislature, it was only used once). Or, sometimes a legislator can get his bill heard by promising to vote for another bill that makes him gag.

Can anybody recognize democracy in any of this≠ These are just legislative rules, supported only by tradition, not by the Constitution or even by law.

They could be changed if someone would just do it.

I once tried it, and to my surprise, came within a few votes of success, even though I wasn’t even a member of the ruling party. When rules are adopted, someone just has to move that:

1) Decisions on operations be made democratically.

2) Each legislator be limited to introducing five bills (so there is time to read and vote on them all).

3) When a bill is introduced, it is automatically set for hearing and a vote.

If writers and editors were to focus on these righteous reforms instead of bothering with Flake bashing, we could have real representative democracy.

In a sense, Mr. Flake could be the patron saint of it all.

John Kromko, a Democrat from Tucson, served in the House from 1977-1980 and 1983-1992.