From The Nation
Not content to deny state, county and municipal employees and
teachers a voice in the workplace -- with legislation that takes away
collective bargaining rights -- Wisconsin Republicans have now moved to deny Democratic legislators the right to vote on legislation as it is being considered by state Senate committees.
For the better part of a month, fourteen Democratic state senators
denied Republicans the quorum they sought to pass Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker's anti-labor legislation -- and, in so doing, provided the
time for the development of a mass movement that last Saturday drew more
than 100,000 union supporters to the Capitol. The Democratic senators
have returned and the legislation has passed.
But Republican poll numbers have collapsed. And they are furious.
How furious?
Walker and his legislative consigliere, state Senator Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, have now moved to deny the dissenting Democrats the right to participate in the legislative process.
On Monday afternoon, Fitzgerald, who has publicly admitted that he
and other Republicans advanced the anti-labor legislation in order to
strengthen the position of the GOP in 2012 elections, sent a letter to
senators that read: "Dear Members: With the return of the Senate
Democrats this weekend, questions have arisen regarding Democrat
members' participation in Senate standing committee public hearings and
executive sessions. Please note that all 14 Democrat senators are still
in contempt of the Senate. Therefore, when taking roll call votes on
amendments and bills during executive sessions, Senate Democrats' votes
will not be reflected in the Records of Committee Proceedings or the
Senate Journal. They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony,
debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their
support/opposition, but those votes will not count, and will not be
recorded."
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In other words, the fourteen Democrats who refused to go along with
legislative moves that have sparked multiple lawsuits and raised serious
constitutional questions will now be denied their ability to represent
2.2. million Wisconsinites who live in their districts.
This was the latest authoritarian move by Fitzgerald, who last week
spoke of having the Democrats arrested and openly discussed expelling
them from the Senate as punishment for their dissents. The majority
leader's over-the-top actions have led one senior legislator, state
Representative Mark Pocan, D-Madison, to begin referring to the
Wisconsin as a "third world junta" state that he calls "Fitzwalkerstan."
While that line gets a laugh, the assaults on representative democracy are serious.
"Senator Scott Fitzgerald isn't content with illegally passing a
bill which takes away the rights of 175,000 working Wisconsinites and
now has expanded his attacks to disenfranchise the voices of 2.2 million
more Wisconsin residents and taxpayers," declared Scot Ross, the
executive director of the One Wisconsin Now advocacy group, who referred to Fitzgerald's latest move as a "tantrum."
"Considering how the Republicans plan to slash $900 million
from our public schools, cut healthcare for 1 million Wisconsinites,
raise prescription drug costs for countless seniors, raise taxes on the
working poor by $51 million while at the same time handing $200 million
in tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate special interests," said
Ross, "Senator Fitzgerald might better spend his time convincing his
fractured caucus that Governor Walker isn't sacrificing their majority
in pursuit of higher office."
State Senator Fred Risser, a Madison Democrat who is the senior
member of the legislature, was aghast at what Fitzgerald had done.
"Who does Senator Fitzgerald think he is? Just because his brother is
the speaker of the Assembly and his best friend is the governor of
Wisconsin does not give him the power to decide who can and cannot vote
in the State Senate," said Risser, whose Senate service began before
Fitzgerald was born. "His statement that Senate Democrats can no longer
vote in committee is the height of arrogance. In my tenure in the
legislature, I have never seen any attempt to deny duly elected
legislators their right to vote."
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
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