If Democrats truly have set a date to return to Wisconsin, it means they have a plan.Sometimes it feels like Democratic strategic planning revolves around an odd concept of victory, "We gave them everything they asked for and they took it - our plan is working."
It seems hard to believe that the only reason the Republicans didn't take action to end the stand off sooner is their desire to tie the union busting portion of their bill to the budet crises.
ReplyDeleteTonight's action (stripping out the budet portions of the bill and passing the remainder) could have been taken the night the Democrats fled the state . . .
CWD
But to do that would have required that the Governor and Republican Party admit that the union busting provisions were irrelevant to the state's budget.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the issue will now be litigated - the question is, will the Governor prefer to say, of course through a proxy "I was lying when I said that the union-busting was necessary to balance the budget when it's in fact irrelevant," or will he admit that the Republicans flouted the state's constitution in order to cram through his union-busting bill?
I've never actually seen the Wisconsin constitution, but at least according to the news the bill shouldn't have any trouble with the "quorum rule" - apparently there is case law stating that collective bargaining is outside of the scope of the provision in question; which seems to have been historically read very narrowly.
ReplyDeleteI think your point about the governor having to admit and accept the consequences of being disingenuous from day one is valid - or at least it would be if we weren't talking about politicians. : )
CWD