Wisconsin senators' absence raises questions on tactic ('setting themselves up for a BIG failure')

Yahoo ^ | 2/19/11 | Eric Johnson

[Libloather]

Wisconsin senators' absence raises questions on tactic
By Eric Johnson – 17 mins ago

CHICAGO (Reuters) – As demonstrators wrangled on Saturday over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's move to weaken public unions, analysts weighed the consequences of 14 Democratic senators' decision to flee the state to stall the bill's consideration.

**SNIP**

"As far as the constitution goes, there is nothing that expressly forbids their actions," Copelovitch said. "But if the same thing that is happening in Wisconsin spreads to other states, there should be explicit rules written to forbid it."

Senator Jon Erpenbach said Friday that the senators were prepared to be away for weeks, and Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said he didn't know when they would return.

"Sooner or later all 14 will have to return--they are away from their states, homes, and businesses," said Sabato, adding that a vote is inevitable and the mathematics is not on the side of the Democrats.

"The upside is that they have brought a lot of attention to their point of view. The downside is they are setting themselves up for a big failure in public relations at some point," Sabato said.

[BAW]

[Loyal Buckeye]

Got it. Couldn’t agree more; get it over with and put them out of their misery.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Got it. Couldn’t agree more; get it over with and put them out of their misery.

[NoLibZone]

They need to do something huge like CCW’s for everyone.

Or a 10 month waiting period on abortions.

Because this tactic will be used in every state and every county.

[KarlInOhio]

Plus it's hard to run a campaign to fight a recall from a hotel room in Illinois. And if they step into Wisconsin, have the state police nab them and haul them back to the capitol for the vote.

How is a quorum determined in the Wisconsin senate? Since every single Democrat senator fled the state, there is no one to demand a roll call. Can the Republicans just assert that there is a quorum unless there is an objection? The Texas senators who fled the state left one or two behind to force quorum calls, but the Wisconsin ones didn't have that luxury.

[chickadee]

Thanks - I hope you are right. I know Scott Walker has the spine for it, but, with RINOs, one never knows. There is one loony Senator in Racine who actually wants to put a 2 year sunset amendment on the removal of the collective bargaining. (ugh)

[Junior_G]

The longer this stays in the national news the better. Not even the mainstream media can save the image of the leftist loser teachers and their union thug masters.

[KarlInOhio]

Pass a photo ID requirement for voting... or (even more extreme) pass a law to clear the voter registration list and make everyone in the state reregister. That should wipe out years of fraud, multiple registrations, left overs from those moving out of state and the occasional Chicago-style zombie voter.

[Hamilcar_Barca]

There are two or three Republican Senators that could “go wobbly” that's what the Democrats are hoping for. The sad thing is one Dem. Senator was reelected by 403 votes. The teacher's union spent a couple of hundred thousand $ on her campaign. Without that there would be 20 Republican Senators.

[MNlurker]

Yeah Van Waangard...he whined to his constituents in a letter that he never imagined he’d have to make these type of difficult choices. He’s a $(@$@(* coward, but so far I guess he’s holding up...from the sounds of it the Jesse Jackson’s of the world showing up has only strengthened the resolve to get this done.

[RoseyT]

To quote my 17 year old son your post was “epic.”

[freespirited]

I want to know whose money is paying for their hotel and travel expenses. Are they financing this themselves or using taxpayer money? The latter option would really raise questions.

Or maybe the DNC is footing the bill.

[chickadee]

Thank you, I am very cheered up after reading you.

[axxmann]

Unions are for people too weak to negotiate their own compensation.

[Mountain Mary]

“Well thank you Cap’t Obvious. That point has come and gone Mr. Sabato-you less than intelligent wazoo”.
LOL, Keith in Iowa, LOL!

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Did you read the comments after the article where some idiot (Nicole I think) said there had been TRILLIONS of dollars made since the stock market rebounded the past two years???????????????? What was she smoking?

[LaineyDee]

Are they financing this themselves or using taxpayer money? The latter option would really raise questions.

Most likely your "stimulus" tax dollars at work....

[MNlurker]

I’ll be much happier if I’m right!!! ;)

[Richard Kimball]

I just “unfriended” a person on Facebook that I’ve known for about ten years. She was posting in favor of the Rats, and I just don’t feel like dealing with it anymore.

[WHBates]

"I want to know whose money is paying for their hotel and travel expenses."

Actually an interesting question, I don't know about WI but in Florida State reps don't make that much money, it has to be a big personal drain. If the DNC or Obama using Federal funds and somehow paying for this I would think people would think that was a very, very serious problem.