Friday, August 2, 2019

Vos Finds Self In Hole, Keeps Digging

Image from Jimmy Anderson for Assembly

Wise people know that if you find yourself deep in a hole, they should stop digging. Wisconsin Republican Speaker of the Assembly is not a wise person at all. In fact, he's rather fricking stupid.

On Thursday, I reported that Vos was refusing to make a small accommodation for Democratic Representative Jimmy Anderson, who is paralyzed from the chest down. Anderson wanted to be able to appear telephonically for committee meetings for when he is unable to be there due to his health concerns or not having a personal care worker available to help him for very early or very late meetings.

That same day, Vos sent a very nasty letter to Anderson, accusing him of grandstanding:
"This is an unfortunate way to communicate," Vos wrote. "It calls into question your seriousness. Instead of resorting to political grandstanding, you could have called my personal cellphone at any time to discuss the matter."
But Vos wasn't done there.

Vos then went on to say that Anderson never told anyone about his need or his request for accommodation. Vos also insinuated that Anderson was a liar because in 2017, Anderson voted against having any sort of telecommunications for meetings.

In reality, in 2017, Anderson wasn't but a month into being in office and didn't know what his needs were going to be at that time. Anderson also pointed out that he had raised the issue in the early part of 2019 when the state assembly was again addressing the rules for that legislative body but that Vos ignored him.

I would also point out that when a person has a serious disability and health related complications, their needs can change, sometimes very rapidly.

But wait! There's more! There's always more.

Image from PRWatch
Vos dug that hole even deeper by offering Anderson a non-compromise. He said that they could videotape the meeting and then let Anderson vote by a paper ballot after the fact. But as Anderson points out, this would not allow him to offer input or ask questions, thereby not allowing him to properly represent the voters of his district.

Quite understandably, Anderson is even more upset and angry than he was before:
In an interview, Anderson said Vos' proposal fell short and he thought he would have to sue the state to get the accommodations he says he needs.

"This doesn't allow me to participate in the legislative process," Anderson said of Vos' proposal.

"It seems like Speaker Vos is going to take every opportunity to denigrate me and act as if I'm acting inappropriately when I'm simply asking for accommodations related to my disability. And so at this point I can't trust him to do the right thing and that's really frustrating. It really feels like we're moving toward having to file a lawsuit."
Just in case Vos hasn't quite proved himself to be the scum of the earth and a miserable excuse for a human being, there is one more thing that needs to be pointed out.

While Vos won't make one simple, common sense accommodation for a fellow lawmaker who has a disability, he had not problem whatsoever delaying actions and votes for Republican fundraisers and special interest funded junkets around country and the world:
Legislative Republicans are delaying the start of their state budget deliberations until at least May 9, according to the office of Republican Joint Committee on Finance co-chair Alberta Darling, as reported by the state news service WisPolitics. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Analiese Eicher noted the delay gives top Republicans, including Senate and Assembly leaders Scott Fitzgerald and Robin Vos and the co-chairs of the powerful Joint Committee on Finance, the chance to shake down special interests at a fundraiser hosted for them at the offices of a Washington D.C. lobbying firm on May 1.

“It’s a pretty clear sign of the Republicans’ budget priorities when they’re delaying the start of their budget deliberation until after they’ve had a chance to shake down special interests for campaign cash,” said Eicher.

Wisconsin Republicans’ hosts at the Washington D.C. firm the BGR Group were reported to have made over $27 million in income in 2018 from lobbying on behalf of special interest clients including big pharmaceutical, tobacco, oil, energy and insurance companies.

Individual event attendees will need to donate at least $1,000 per person for the general reception. A special “host” reception is available for donors willing to pony up a minimum of $5,000, payable to the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

Ironically, the May 1 fundraising event is being held on the same day the Republican-controlled legislature began voting on the state budget in the Joint Committee on Finance in 2017.
It's obvious to anyone who is not a corrupt Republican or Republican apologist that Vos needs to profusely apologize to Anderson and the people of Wisconsin. Then he needs to step down from the speakership, since it is equally obvious he is not fit for the job.

3 comments:

  1. A family member of mine asked me, "Where are the [fracking] Democrats?" The Assembly Dem leadership? What are they doing?

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  2. Assembly Dem Leasership has been trying to deal with the Speakers office on this but of course, Vos isn’t willing to budge.
    In the meantime the entire dem caucus is supporting Jimmy and taking our lead from him. He has asked that at this point we continue to share everything we can on social media, which is what I’m going to do with this.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the Vos MO. Very arrogant. He corrected all of us teachers at the assembly budget meeting making it very clear we were only watching and would not be tolerated if we made any sounds or overt actions like waving to our reps. Sinicki blew him off-loved it!

    ReplyDelete