Let me describe the video below: it walks through an interesting scenario planned by Wisconsin Democrats with regard toGov. Walker’s budget repair bill. Essentially, what happened was that Madison mayor Dave Ciesliewicz (D) colluded with state senator Mark Miller (D) to convince Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette (D) to delay publishing said budget repair bill once it passed for long enough to allow Ciesliewicz to sign last-minute, fat union contracts. As the Fox7 investigation noted, while La Follette ultimately refused to play ball, this was eventually a moot subject, as the Democratic senators (who are recipients of considerable union largess), somehow ‘spontaneously’ all decided to flee the state anyway.
[Video not loading: here's the link.]
[UPDATE: Video, thanks to PoWiP]
The reform group Citizens for Responsible Government called this “collusion,” and it pretty blatantly is. Remember, the problem here is not in trying to rush something through before a law is passed; that’s lawful, even if it it’s unwise, not truly legitimate, or more than a little rules-lawyering. The problem here was that Democratic politicians had engaged in planning on how to delay the law once it had passed, which is considerably more iffy from a legal, ethical, and/or moral point of view. That La Follette ultimately declined to play along may or may not be commendable (it depends on what would be a legitimate and reasonable length of time that it would have normally taken to publish the bill). That Miller and his colleagues played along with what was apparently Plan B is most certainly not.
(Via @jgramins)
Moe Lane (crosspost)
PS: This is, by the way, precisely why such doctrinaire conservatives such as FDR hated the very idea of public sector unions. The temptation towards corruption is built-in, and is tragically easy to succumb to.
Moe Lane
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
The "doctrinaire conservative" FDR
Loren Heal (Diary) Thursday, March 3rd at 12:41PM EDT (link)is unfortunately accurate in comparison to today’s Democrats.
–
Join the Concord Project, and follow @lheal, if you dare.
Hogs at the trough
podkayne3000 Thursday, March 3rd at 12:45PM EDT (link)Some people just don’t seem to respect the concept that resources are finite.
Unions have a stake in pretending that, if the size of the slice of the pie you want is bigger than the pie, more pie will somehow materialize out of thin air.
Rush just mentioned the fleebaggers
peg_c (Diary) Thursday, March 3rd at 2:28PM EDT (link)Said they could be brought back to Wisconsin IN CHAINS by law enforcement. Oh, pleeeeeeeze, what I would give to see this!!
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Madison mayor interview upcoming
carolina Thursday, March 3rd at 3:37PM EDT (link)“A spokeswoman for the mayor of Madison did not deny the maneuvers. She told me over the phone that the mayor is not hiding from the story and that he would agree to talk with Newsradio 620 WTMJ about the issue some time this afternoon.
-
Fitzgerald accuses Miller and others of trying to delay the budget to allow unions across the state to cut new labor deals.”
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117316138.html
I hope the latest contempt/disorderly conduct effort succeeds:
“The Wisconsin State Senate has approved a resolution that would set a deadline of 4:00 p.m. Thursday for Wisconsin’s 14 Democratic state senators to return to Senate chambers.
If they do not, they would be held guilty in contempt of the Senate.
They would also be guilty of disorderly conduct.
TODAY”S TMJ4′s Mick Trevey says law enforcement could go out with a warrant and detain them, possibly with the use of force.”
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117325873.html
Madison mayor interview upcoming
carolina Thursday, March 3rd at 3:37PM EDT (link)“A spokeswoman for the mayor of Madison did not deny the maneuvers. She told me over the phone that the mayor is not hiding from the story and that he would agree to talk with Newsradio 620 WTMJ about the issue some time this afternoon.
-
Fitzgerald accuses Miller and others of trying to delay the budget to allow unions across the state to cut new labor deals.”
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117316138.html
I hope the latest contempt/disorderly conduct effort succeeds:
“The Wisconsin State Senate has approved a resolution that would set a deadline of 4:00 p.m. Thursday for Wisconsin’s 14 Democratic state senators to return to Senate chambers.
If they do not, they would be held guilty in contempt of the Senate.
They would also be guilty of disorderly conduct.
TODAY”S TMJ4′s Mick Trevey says law enforcement could go out with a warrant and detain them, possibly with the use of force.”
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/117325873.html
Isn't this exactly what outgoing OH Gov. Strickland did?
Adjoran (Diary) Friday, March 4th at 1:30AM EDT (link)And perhaps another, too?
While no one advocates bringing back public floggings, one must admit they served a purpose.
This makes me happy:
carolina Friday, March 4th at 9:59AM EDT (link)But Democrats may be losing steam in their weeks-old opposition to the bill.
Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch said late Thursday that while the party has gotten the support of one Republican who plans to vote against the bill, it’s unlikely that Democrats will be able to find two more GOPers to join them in voting it down.
“In order to kill this bill we could never go home,” he told the Journal-Sentinel. “That’s not practical and most people realize it.”
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=5161164&start=1¤tPage=1
This makes me happy:
carolina Friday, March 4th at 9:59AM EDT (link)But Democrats may be losing steam in their weeks-old opposition to the bill.
Democratic Sen. Bob Jauch said late Thursday that while the party has gotten the support of one Republican who plans to vote against the bill, it’s unlikely that Democrats will be able to find two more GOPers to join them in voting it down.
“In order to kill this bill we could never go home,” he told the Journal-Sentinel. “That’s not practical and most people realize it.”
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=5161164&start=1¤tPage=1