Ridiculous is hardly the word for it. 'Juvenile' and 'irresponsible. also come to mind.
But "ridiculous" is how Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker characterized a letter he received from Democrat state Senator Mark Miller, suggesting a meeting on the Illinois- Wisconsin border to try and 'work things out.'
Miller is the leader of 13 other Democrat state senators who fled from Wisconsin to hole up in hotels in Illinois back on February 17 to prevent a vote on the budget plan that includes limits on collective bargaining for public employee unions.
According to Governor Walker, Miller has been a big part of why legislation to deal with the state's critical $137 million budget shortfall remains unresolved.
Walker said top Republican lawmakers and even some of his own staff have already met repeatedly with some of the Democrat senators, including one meeting over hot chocolate at a McDonald's. Walker said things seemed to be progressing, but the state's Democrats still remain hidden out in Illinois.
"Time and time again, the person standing in the way of making that possible is Sen. Mark Miller," Walker said.
GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said that Republicans are willing to work with the Democrats but he keeps getting conflicting signals and it's unclear who is in charge of the caucus.
"It's the most frustrating process I've ever been involved in," he said.
There were reports today that the senators might be back on their way to the state "soon", but the Democrat senators said those reports weren't correct.
"Dems will return when collective bargaining is off the table," Sen. Chris Larson said in a posting to his Facebook page late Sunday. "That could be soon based on the growing public opposition to the bill and the recall efforts against Republicans."
Hey, if you can't win elections or govern, flee, and then and try to overturn the results. How Alinsky!
So far, the Republicans who are in Madison still engaged in doing the people's business have approved resolutions charging the fugitive Democrats colleagues $100 a day fines until they return and declaring them in contempt if they didn't return by last Thursday. On Friday, Walker's office issued notices to unions, warning them of possible layoffs in early April if the budget impasse continues.
I guess we'll see who breaks first.
As I've discussed before, this has nothing to do with union rights and everything to do with maintaining public employee unions as tax payer supporter funding of the Democrats.
i wonder if anyone has suggested, when/if these democrats attempt to come back into wisconsin, they are prevented from doing so.
ReplyDeleteif the shoe were on the other foot, the dhimmocrats would do just that.
so, if they are not in wisconsin, they can not seek elected positions of government.
saul alinsky would propose just such a measure.
"I guess we will see who breaks first." I suppose so. What is clear is the media has taken the side of the Democrats. As such, the Republicans and Mr. Walker are taking constant viliification in the news media. Can they stnad up to it? We shall see. It would be tough for anyone. The politician or leader who has the character to do this are few and far between. We shall find out shortly if these people have the character.
ReplyDeletei have said this before and i'm sure all know it, but i'm going to repeat it.
ReplyDeletethis is nothing new for dhimmocrats to do.
in the early 2000s, when texas was undergoing congressional re-districting, the dhimmocrats, newly in the minority, first ran across the border to oklahoma, then to new mexico.
this is nothing new for them.
i was just wondering, if a measure like what is going on in wisconsin were to come up in alaska, what would the dhimmocrats do?
the hawaii dhimmocrats better be glad they are in the majority.
Okay this is moot now, but in my sick mind I was thinking, "Meet on the border?" Would have to be on the Illinois side. We used to play a game in camp called Capture The Flag. The camp was divided by a dirt road down the middle. If you ran across or were dragged across by the enemy they could hold you and say, "Caught, caught, caught," and you had to go to "jail." I was thinking if the Republicans could drag even one Dem across the line, have them arrested and take them to state house, they would have the quorum.
ReplyDeleteI know idiotic. But I guess this is politics in the US now...