Democratic senators in the Wisconsin statehouse have fled the state to avoid being brought back to work by newly deputized truant officers – the Wisconsin State Police – and restoring quorum.
At issue is a bill to end public service employee collective bargaining that Republicans planned to pass. The GOP now holds a 19-14 majority and can pass the measure – providing they have quorum. Hence, the flight of the cheese heads to neighboring states.
Senators are elected by voters. They represent them. They legislate in their stead. What these absent legislators are doing is childish and disenfranchising, to use a favorite word of the Left.
Whether you agree with this bill or not, fleeing the state – fleeing the state! – is not an appropriate legislative tactic.
May have to throw another Green Bay Packers tribute to lure them back in.
If this is a sign of things to come state-by-state, we’re in for a long decade.
It’s a time-honored tradition: Dems have done it in Texas, Repubs have done it in W. Va. Doesn’t seem all that much different from a filibuster. (Now I’m never going to get “The Flight of the Cheese Heads” out of my head:-))
Sorry about that! Thank God I don’t know the tune. La la la la la.
hahaha.. cowards.. The GOP legislators should schedule a vote on de-funding Planned Parenthood on the same day.. That’ll get their donkey asses back in the Capitol.. rapido!
John Boehner led a much-covered walk out of the house over the FISA bill just two years ago. As they say, what’s good for the goose…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9cxH0y0ty4
I know you and most of your readers don’t agree with this guy very often, but I’m encouraging you to read and to think about what Krugman wrote today in the NYT…
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ref=opinion
Thanks, D. I always read Krugman (It’s why I make faces.) He’s a super-talented writer and makes his arguments as well as they can be made. Thanks for posting the link.
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[…] select to describe the tenor in Madison. Isn’t Wisconsin the state from which the entire Democratic Senate delegation fled for a month to deny that body quorem? I’m pretty sure it […]