Wait 'till the fire turns green

"What the heck is going on here?” Jorgensen said. “Is politics at play here?”

Remember when Wisconsin wasn't a stand-in double for Old South-style electioneering chicanery a few years ago? Those days are dead, and you can largely "thank" Der Burgher for it.

Madison - A GOP candidate from Green Bay running in a Senate recall race has been convicted of two misdemeanor counts, arrested on other occasions, and now faces another probe by the Oconto County Sheriff's Department.

The incidents involving David VanderLeest, which were raised by Democrats Wednesday, stem from domestic violence allegations. VanderLeest, 34, helped organize the recall against Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and is the only Republican on the ballot challenging Hansen in the July 19 election.

(snip)

VanderLeest, a Green Bay wind farm developer with a history of other legal troubles, was convicted of two misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges in 2007 as part of a plea deal in Brown County Circuit Court. Also Wednesday, Democrats pointed to at least two other dates in which VanderLeest was arrested for alleged domestic abuse involving his ex-wife in 2006 and 2009 but was not convicted.

His former wife also obtained restraining orders against him in 2005 and again in 2006. VanderLeest, who is not a lawyer, represented himself in the court cases.

As part of the 2007 plea deal, VanderLeest avoided a felony charge of intimidating a witness and misdemeanor battery and bail jumping charges. VanderLeest entered an Alford plea, which means he maintained his innocence but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him. In the plea hearing, the judge in the case stressed VanderLeest had received leniency, according to a court transcript released by the Democratic Party.

(snip)

The Democratic Party Wednesday also released Green Bay Police Department reports on separate incidents in 2006 in which VanderLeest was arrested for pulling out a chunk of his ex-wife's hair and for throwing her to the kitchen floor to keep her from calling police. Those arrests led to the later charges and 2007 plea deal.

VanderLeest was also charged in 2009 with battery and disorderly conduct - those charges were dropped by prosecutors, according to court records.

First, David "Chokey" Prosser, and now this. My, Wisconsin politics is interesting in the Chinese sense of the word, isn't it?

Madison - In a move that hastens a larger showdown, a Dane County judge has struck down Gov. Scott Walker's legislation repealing most collective bargaining for public employees.

In a 33-page decision issued Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would overturn the legislation because GOP lawmakers on a committee broke the state's open meetings law in passing it March 9. The legislation limits collective bargaining to wages for all public employees in Wisconsin except for police and firefighters.

On March 18, Sumi had placed a temporary hold on the law, but Thursday's ruling voided it entirely - at least until the Supreme Court decides whether to act in the case.

"It's what we were looking for," said Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat.

Ozanne sued to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) filed a complaint saying that GOP legislative leaders had not given proper notice to the public in convening a conference committee of lawmakers from both houses to approve Walker's budget-repair bill.

In the latest legal volley in Wisconsin over Gov. Scott Walker's new law curtailing public employee unions, Dane County (Madison) Judge Maryann Sumi issued on Thursday morning an amended restraining order, declaring that the law has not been validly published in order to take effect -- following efforts by the state Republican leadership to sidestep her earlier orders against publication by going through different agencies.

This followed a declaration on Wednesday by Secretary of Administration Mike Huebsch, stating that the law was still in effect, despite two different orders by Sumi to block it, and maintaining that the law was validly published and that Sumi's order did not apply to his department.

In these days of massive budget deficits, the cost of government labor at all levels must be reined in. Limits on collective bargaining, carefully drawn, are reasonable. The state is $137 million short for the rest of this year alone.

But the Republicans went too far in their zeal to bust the unions and too far in their stubborn tactics to accomplish that mission. They are forcing these changes on an unwilling state at great cost - and they still haven't filled the budget hole the original measure was designed to fill (emphasis mine). 

The Republican's blinkered blitz may have violated the state's open meetings law. Robert Dreps, an attorney and expert in the law, said he didn't think the conference committee could meet on such short notice. Normally, 24 hours are required, although an "emergency" meeting can be held with just two hours' notice. The furious pace raises a question: Once Republicans decided to split up the bill, why not debate it? What are they afraid of?

Both sides in this sorry affair have opened wide the door to extremism. The Democrats should not have fled the state. The Republicans did not need to resort to the petty contrivances of the Fitzgerald brothers - Scott in the Senate, Jeff in the Assembly - who called votes without Democrats in the room, played games with Democratic paychecks and even resorted to fining their absent colleagues.

Why the rush? This is, in my opinion, the best part - but only if you actually like gawking at the political equivalent of a multiple-fatality car crash:

Republicans, in the end, did what they had said they would not do: They cast aside provisions in the "budget-repair" bill that actually dealt with the budget and took an up-or-down vote on ending most collective bargaining. Fiscal matters require a Senate quorum of 20; the Republicans have only 19 members.

That's right. The Repubs in the Senate effectively did this as a naked, entirely opportunistic "get the unions" move and not much more despite all protests to the contrary. And the Journal Sentinel smells an ugly precedent being set in the offing:

Both parties are playing with fire. A walkout to thwart legislation will be as attractive to Republicans when they are no longer in power as it is to Democrats now. And scorched-earth tactics, such as those practiced by Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald, will seem just as attractive to Democrats when they regain control of the matches and accelerant.

Walker never campaigned on disenfranchising public-employee unions. If he had, he would not have been elected. He got a spare 52% of the vote - hardly a mandate for what he is trying to do.

My guess is that more than a few of the 52% who voted for Der Burgher greatly regret making that decision. They should.

The call also allegedly reveals that Wisconsin Republicans are planning to hold Democrats' paychecks hostage by changing the rules to end direct deposit, placing their printed checks in their desks on the floor of the senate, forcing them to physically come in to pick them up.

The voice alleged to be Walker also said he was trying to find ways to prosecute Wisconsin Democrats on ethical violations if they accepted favors from union organizers.

Moments later in the call recording, Walker allegedly accepts an offer for similar favors from the fake Koch.

These are your state gummint tax dollars at work, Wisconsin. Hope you've got enough air sickness bags to go around.

The BB's page on the Wa*ker call is here if the site is currently available.