Thursday, March 10, 2011

The GOP Overreach: Trap, Decoy Or Fundraiser?

By now, everyone except the most remote hermits in the deep woods of Northern Wisconsin knows that the Republican State Senators and Scott Walker did another one of Walker's classic overreach in trying to separate out the workers' rights section of Walker's Budget Disrepair Bill and voting on it in a highly unethical and dubious manner.

I will freely admit that I was originally outraged by this atrocity.  I am still angered, but as time as gone by, and with a calmer mind, I can see more clearly what the real story is.

First of all, as far as the vote goes, it's headline-grabbing without a doubt.  But it is also illegal.

For starters, the Republicans violated the open meeting law in that they failed to provide sufficient notice in a timely fashion:
The provision in Wis. Stat. § 19.84(3) requires that every public notice of a meeting be given at least twenty-four hours in advance of the meeting, unless “for good cause” such notice is “impossible or impractical.”; If “good cause” exists, the notice should be given as soon as; possible and must be given at least two hours in advance of the meeting. Wis. Stat. § 19.84(3). 
No Wisconsin court decisions or Attorney General opinions discuss what constitutes “good cause” to provide less than twenty-four-hour notice of a meeting. This provision, like all other provisions of the open meetings law, must be construed in favor of providing the public with the fullest and most complete information about governmental affairs as is compatible with the conduct of governmental business. Wis. Stat. § 19.81(1);and (4). If there is any doubt whether “good cause” exists, the governmental body should provide the full twenty-four-hour notice.
The Republicans did not have good cause to call take the actions they did without sufficient notice.  This did nothing to create jobs or repair the budget (which wasn't even broken until Walker and his cronies were sworn into office).

I would also question whether this would need to go through a public hearing, since it technically is a new bill.

Thirdly, they called a conference committee, which to my understanding, is to work on the differences between the Assembly's and the Senate's version of the same bill.  The Senate never voted as a whole on their split version, which is a whole different bill altogether.  It's like they were trying to mesh the proverbial apple and orange, when all they had was one pear.

Fourthly, the Senate's version of the bill contained fiscal items, to wit, the compensation plan for public sector workers.  Even Walker argued that point for us.

So, if the action was so blatantly and egregiously illegal, why did they do it?  Eight of the senators are facing recall, with some of them reaching an enthusiasm level that surprises even me.  This action will only flame those fires.

After a few hours of though, as well as discussions with trusted friends and advisors, it appears that there are three possible reasons for this unreasonable action: It was either a trap, a decoy or a fundraising tool for the endangered Republicans.

It could very well be a trap to get the Wisconsin 14, or at least one of them, to come back to Madison so that they can finally ram the whole unethical bill down our collective throats.  It darn near worked too.

It could also be a trap for the unions.  It is very conceivable that Walker and his cronies were trying to incite the unions and the other protesters into becoming violent.  This would have possibly helped turn the tide of popular opinion, which is strongly in favor of the workers, and growing stronger every day.  Fortunately, it did not work, and I am proud to report that the workers of this state kept level heads and no problems have been reported.  This, of course, isn't keeping the over-paid squawkers from trying to conflate things that didn't happen.

It would also be within Walker's style of leadership to do something this audacious if he knew bad news was coming down the road.  It could be something like the fact that there is no fiscal emergency or maybe the results of a John Doe investigation were going to be made public.  Walker liked to set up a decoy like that as county executive, to keep people's attention on something other than what could make him look bad.

Or it could be something much simpler.  It could be that the Republicans know that they are tanking in the polls and are having their own enthusiasm gap, so they needed to do something "bold" in order to take full advantage of an upcoming fund raiser, especially one for the endangered Republican senators and where there will be some big money to be had, say in Washington D.C., to shore up a recall defense fund.

Regardless of what their rationale was for breaking the law and for showing that this is the most unethical group in state history, the simple truth is that this cannot be allowed to stand.  This illegal action has to be called what it is, stopped in court, and the corrupt Republicans must be replaced by people with a moral compass that isn't broken.

4 comments:

  1. Brilliant, brilliant analysis.

    Thank you.

    The only thing I would humbly add as another option was that Walker really feared the 15-day deadline he gave himself for issuing lay-off notices. His handlers understood that would have hurt his poll numbers even more. Once Walker factored that in, the urgency of this made more sense to me. The closer he got to his deadline, the more transparent his motives would have been.

    Major props to the unions for maintaining their discipline.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that a bill stripping workers of bargaining rights has passed both houses, the senate has adjourned until April. After we had to listen to their B.S. about how this was not about union busting it is about the budget, the Senate has done its job in busting the unions without passing any legislation regarding the actual budget.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Except that it was legal, you lose asshole.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Why do you say that? Because Walker said so? Well, here's a news flash...He's a well known liar.

    Sorry, but this is so far from over.

    ReplyDelete