Saturday, March 12, 2011

While we were gone, democracy failed in so many ways



"While we were gone, democracy failed in so many ways,"
said Sen. Lena Taylor.

The 14 Democratic Senators have returned to Wisconsin. Above is my favorite quote from the linked article. The absurdity of it is breath taking in its oblivious irony.

First the Democrats got clobbered in the election, losing both houses of the state legislature and the Governor's office. Then they got clobbered when the Budget Repair bill got passed in spite of their maneuvering.

Now they've returned to Madison for the Michael Moore called protests and they're circling the Capitol Building like conquering heroes. Apparently, in defense of democracy, they next plan on transitioning into campaign mode for the recall election.

However, prior to any recalls, the first vote that will be held will be the number of current Union members who don't send in their checks to cover Union dues. I suspect they'll find scant comfort in the count of those numbers.

7 comments:

Lincolntf said...

Their refusal to do their jobs is even more disgraceful than the teachers who abandoned their classrooms, the Doctors who issued falsified medical info. and the policemen who stood idly by while the Capitol was trashed by petulant children.

ambisinistral said...

While reading the poll numbers for Walker that the Unioistas always bandy about, I've wondered what the poll numbers for the 14 Democratic Senators are. My guess is that they're in the mud or we would have heard them by now.

loner said...

http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/110305WPRIFinal.pdf

Q28. Do you approve or disapprove of Senate Democrats' decision to leave the state in order to prevent
the passage of the budget repair bill that would reduce public employee benefits and change collective
bargaining rights?
Strongly approve.................................................... 36
Somewhat approve................................................. 11
Somewhat disapprove.............................................. 9
Strongly disapprove ............................................... 42
Don't know / Refused .............................................. 2

loner said...

The above wasn't supposed to be my full comment (or have that formatting), but Preview didn't work and I wasn't logged in. I lost access to my contributor blogger account at some point after I moved to Nevada and I was unable to find a way to reset/revise it as I no longer had access to the email account to which it was attached.

With regard to Wisconsin: Politics is the art of the possible. Same guy who also gave us (in German): Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made. I don't see how Democrats in Wisconsin don't profit from what's happened over the past month.

With regard to Get Smart, I agree with Knuck's mom. I watched a lot of TV when it was on one of the independent Los Angeles stations six times a day for awhile in the '70s.

ambisinistral said...

loner,

I don't remember the yargb email password either. Email me at ambisinistral[ampersand]gmail.com and I'll fix your account for you.

Anonymous said...

Of course it has to be Barbara Feldon.

chuck said...

Loner,

What I find astonishing is that those numbers come from a famously liberal state. And as other states plunge over the deficit cliff I wonder if the spectacle won't be sobering to many.