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Gov. Walker should “pardon” the Wisconsin 14

By: gawken (Diary)  |  March 1st, 2011 at 11:50 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The 14 Wisconsin Democrat senators continue to play hide-and-seek. Here’s a way for Gov. Walker and the GOP to change the dynamic, and increase their advantage. The Dems fled in order to prevent a quorum in the Senate, and thus are preventing a vote on the Governor’s financial legislation. The Senate Majority leader has several times sent WI State Troopers to their homes, to bring them to the Senate floor, and thus satisfy the quorum requirements.

Let’s try a different tactic. Gov. Walker, and the Senate majority leader, should publicly promise that they will not send police after the Democrat senators…they will not compell their attendance. Walker can state that he hopes, and expects, that they will return and fulfill the responsibilities of their office.

Given this, there is now absolutely no reason for the Dem senators not to return home. They can return to their homes, their offices, heck, they can even come to the Rotunda of the Capital building, and march with the protestors.  But they will also now have to face the electorate, and the media.

It makes Walker  and the GOP look good, and it will soon ramp up pressure on the 14 senators. It would be difficult for them to refuse Walker’s offer, and it will bring them back into the public arena.

COMMENTS

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  • http://www.coloradans4palin.com bjwilson83

    I say that if a few GOP senators are wobbly, let them vote against the bill. Walker could say he’ll postpone the vote a few months. Whatever. There’s no rush, just table it for a little while and then pop it right back out later. No one will want to rehash all the protests, the fugitive legislators, etc. – it takes a lot of work to put on a show like that. All that matters, at the end of the day, is that at some point in the next year one Dem shows up in the senate and 50%+1 of them vote for the bill. Beyond that, the union money laundering machine will be cut off and thus it will be impossible for Dems to get the bill repealed by electing majorities in the near future. Over time, their influence will diminish. (The only flaw in all this is the Wisconsin courts, which are undoubtedly liberal. I’m sure they’ll manage to fight the right to collective bargaining in the Constitution somewhere.)

    • http://www.coloradans4palin.com bjwilson83
  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I don’t know if it’d work, but it’s interesting.

  • Common_Cents

    I understand your idea is targeting public opinion and pressuring the fleebaggers. Isn’t time on our side here? My assumption is the longer they sit out the worse it is for them.

    Why not do something unique, like follow the law? Proceed according to the rules?

    To do otherwise only concedes defeat to the MSM spin of what public opinion really is and will only enable/encourage this behavior as a new precedent which will be solidified by the lame stream media.

    As I understand, there is plenty of business to conduct without the Dems present? for public opinion, just give them a heads up you are moving on. How about tell them to take all the time they want to whine and cry while Reps get on with their agenda.

    If there isn’t provisions for the fleebaggers to do what they are doing, then they should be reprimanded according to what the law, rules, and state constitution provides.

    I am tired of making exceptions for the lefts temper tantrums. Because, guess what? The left almost always, argues and supports the exceptions to the rule. Next time it will be “well, this time is the exception, no matter what the rule/law says.”

  • steve010

    I was a wrestler in high school and college. We had many rules. Some of the rules were designed to protect the participants. Like a participant had to cut their fingernails. You had to be the same weight as the other guy. You had to do your moves within the circle, anything outside was out of bounds. Most of all you couldn’t beat on each other with fists or kicks. If you did you would be disqualified, maybe forever.

    In all the time that I was a participant, I never saw another guy punch an opponent or be disqualified for a major infraction. We followed the rules because we knew that we had to and it was more fun that way anyway.

    These 14 politicians who left the State of WI and are awol are not following the rules. The rules of that game are, we have elections and somebody wins and the others lose. The one that wins goes to the State House and votes for his/her constituents. You as an individual representative do not get to choose who else sits in that chamber. You can only vote your vote for your constituents. You have to do it this way until the next election. Those are the rules. If you don’t like the rules, you have to work to get them changed, but while the game is in progress, you can’t change the rules.

    In most countries south of our border, people decide which laws they are going to follow and which laws that they are going to ignore. The problem with doing this is that this leads to government corruption and with enough government corruption, things tend to lapse into chaos, ie Mexico. We can’t choose which laws that we are going to follow and which laws we are going to ignore.

    The worst thing about this situation with the 14 elected politicians, is that they are deciding which laws to obey and which laws to ignore. If elected people do this, what does that say about chaos.

  • gawken

    No arguments with any of your points. However, we have to consider the consequesnces of any course of action. Walker send state troopers to the homes earlier..hoping to find one to make the quorum. Let’s assume they foudn the female, pregnant senator, sitting in her living room. What are they gonna do? She sits passively. Do they pick her up, place her on a gurney, strap her down, and whell her into the Senate? Talk about a game changer.
    I think this hide-and seek strategy by the Dems is a one time shot..and will be fixed by the ballott box..either next election or sooner, via a recall voter. By letting them back into the state, they will be forced back into the public area, and the spotlight..

  • carolina

    The missed deadline for the refunding issue is a cost due to the dems (from all reports). Layoff notices to state employees will up the ante.
    The paychecks sitting at the capital will provide an increasing pull for some of them, no doubt.
    Maybe his speech this evening provided some more impetus fo the dems to return.

  • Common_Cents

    and sticking to morals, rules, law, principle will do much to shape PR/image.

    I would also add that these two concepts are mutually exclusive as one is what to do, and the other is how to sell it and leverage it. (ie, do the right thing, then publicize it.)

  • carolina

    Tiabi reported that “they will straggle in over the next couple of days” based on what they told him.
    I guess they were just waiting for Walker to give his speech.
    I don’t ‘get it’.

  • carolina

    Tiabi reported that “they will straggle in over the next couple of days” based on what they told him.
    I guess they were just waiting for Walker to give his speech.
    I don’t ‘get it’.

  • proudgop

    I am not seeing this anywhere on web?

    That said I wish Walker told the Dems who was pulling the bill and that they need to come home. The Senate Dems come back and the minute they are in chamber the bill is read and cut to Scott Walker in Illinois lol

  • carolina

    He said he personally had talked to some of the dems – and they said they were returning, to help with the protest.
    Check out Kudlow’s site…… maybe you will see it there.
    I guess I will believe it when I see it myself.

  • carolina

    He said he personally had talked to some of the dems – and they said they were returning, to help with the protest.
    Check out Kudlow’s site…… maybe you will see it there.
    I guess I will believe it when I see it myself.