Today, a liberal judge in a liberal Wisconsin county at the request of a liberal district attorney has issued a temporary restraining order that blocks publication — and therefore the enactment, of the law Governor Scott Walker and Republican legislators passed that limits Public Union collective bargaining rights to issues regarding wages only. This order, issued by Dane County (Madison) Court Judge Maryann Sumi is strictly based on a technical procedural issue. No one’s arguing the law passed wasn’t constitutional (yet– see #2 below), the question is whether or not Republicans violated Wisconsin’s open-meeting law during the session in which the vote took place. They didn’t.
But whatever the legal outcome, the bill will still pass. In a worst case scenario the Republicans merely need to reconvene and pass the bill again, this time making triple-pinky-sure the Left can’t hassle them in court regarding the open-meeting law. Should this happen, the big question is whether or not State Senate Democrats will repeat their shameful escapades and hot-foot it to Illinois again. But even that won’t stop the law from passing because a quorum isn’t necessary for this part of the bill.
So if this is the case, then what’s going on? If there’s no way the Left can stop the law from eventually being passed, what are they up to?
Three things:
1. The Psychological Game: Yesterday, I published a piece detailing the intensifying threats, violence, vandalism and intimidation taking place in Wisconsin against Republican legislators and their supporters in the form of Tea Party leaders and local businesses. Obviously, the idea here is to use the worst kind of thuggish mob tactics on legislators in the hopes they’ll be too afraid to vote for this bill a second time. If you remember the tension and stress we as a nation went through while the 2000 presidential election was being recounted and litigated, multiply that times 100 and mix it with the continuous threat of violence. That’s the atmosphere hanging over all of Wisconsin right now. Ratcheting that tension even higher today is the fact that there will be no final ruling from this judge for at least another two weeks, which means the tunnel of emotional hell these legislators thought they might finally be emerging from has just slammed shut.
Unbelievably, the judge who issued this ruling did so knowing she’s leaving for vacation until March 28th! So it is more likely than not that the intimidation tactics are only going to get ramped up in the coming days in an effort to change enough Republican legislators’ minds about whether or not going against public unions is worth living through a nightmare.
2. Using the Left-wing Courts: The effort to win in court what the Left couldn’t at the ballot box might move to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. On April 5th, a state-wide State Supreme Court election takes place. This is supposed to be a non-partisan office, but everyone knows that the incumbent up for re-election, Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, is a reliably conservative vote. His opponent, however, JoAnne Kloppenburg, would be a reliably liberal vote — and local talk radio hosts have been complaining for days that she’s been none-too-subtle in letting the unions know that they can count on her to overturn the collective-bargaining bill once it passes. And she would be the crucial swing vote.
With the whole country watching and so much on the line for public unions and Democrats nationwide, you can imagine the money and volunteer muscle unions are pouring into the state to get the vote out for Kloppenburg. From the Wisconsin State Journal:
Kloppenburg’s supporters were working the crowd at last Saturday’s giant union rally in front of the Capitol, urging people to vote for her as “the next step” in the fight. Kloppenburg’s Facebook page is alive with comments from people trying to mobilize get-out-the-vote efforts for her and criticizing Walker and the GOP.
3. Wisconsin is Being Made an Example: With a wave of anti-public union sentiment washing over the entire country, the White House and unions everywhere obviously want to show the country what could happen to other states should they attempt similar measures.
Life is miserable in my home state right now, for everyone. Families have been pitted against families, neighbor against neighbor. This entire awful episode — that would not have happened had 14 Democratic State Senators not fled to Illinois — hangs over everything and everyone like a dark cloud. The White House and the unions are clearly sending a message elsewhere: This is the terrible price you and yours will pay for following Wisconsin’s example. I’m not sure how effective that message has been (see the good news here), but they’re determined to send it nonetheless, if only to hold onto power in a crucual 2012 swing state.
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The stakes here for the unions, Democrats, and President Obama are huge. Public Union money is a major source of campaign cash both locally and nationally. Right now in Wisconsin (and other states), and whether they like it or not, public employees are forced to join the union. Furthermore, their union dues are automatically taken out of their paychecks by the state and guess where millions upon millions of those union-due dollars go? That’s right: to elect Democrats — including President Obama in what will be a crucial swing state in 2012.
This Public Union racket is major source of left-wing power and money in this country. Walker’s bill gives public employees the right to not join the union and stops the State from automatically garnishing union dues. If unions want their monthly dues they will have to collect the money themselves from each employee. Obviously, this is going to mean a lot less money coming in and therefore a lot less money to get Democrats into office.
Those are the stakes, and in my opinion, they couldn’t be higher.
And even then, even after all the hell listed above has run its course, there’s still the threat of recall elections.
Pray for Wisconsin. They’re gonna need it.
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