The new Republican majority in Wisconsin must have that state's citizens feeling God-like. What else when a simple legislative election elevated their status to that of aristocrats empowered by divine right?
We all know the Badger GOPers didn't need a quorum to shove a bill through a Senate in which they were the only party present.
Now, "The Washington Post" reports, they don't have to listen to Wisconsin judges enjoining their pet law to destroy unions from implementation.
By way of background, Judge Maryann Sumi ordered the secretary of state not to publish the law while she sorted out the whole sordid business of its run through half a one-party legislature.
In the democratic world, that means the plaintiffs' claims have merit and all bets are off while the courts consider the matter.
Happens every day.
But in Wisconsin they have Tea Party kingdom, which is anti-government, and means they just seek out another Tea Partier, say, "the legislative reference bureau," have them publish the law, and call it even-Steven: "Your legally appointed/elected judge, our bureaucrat."
Same thing, see?
Judge Sumi tried to make it "crystal clear" she wanted the law iced until the courts have checked out the smelly sausage for themselves.
But the top-down chamber run by Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald is subject to no checks and/or balances. He said Sumi's ruling, and we quote, "flies in the face of the separation of powers between the three branches of government."
It's not surprising Fitzgerald's got an alternative take that empowers his branch of lawmakers over the one conceived to review what they legislate.
He went on to say, "It's disappointing that a Dane County judge wants to keep interjecting herself into the legislative process with no regard to the state constitution," by which we can assume he thinks the state constitution does not provide for judicial review when affected citizens request it.
If you're wondering whether Fitzgerald's nuts, stop. And bear in mind his brother is the Senate Majority leader; also much put-out by a judge mucking up the majestic legislative process over which the twin-headed ignoramus presides.
And we do mean majestic, because King Scott Walker and the Princes Fitzgerald won an election granting them absolute power to revoke long-held rights and reduce the judicial function to one of (unheeded) advice and consent.
Judge Sumi, according to the article, has suggested the Republican majority might avoid all the ruckus by simply running the law through their House of Lords again, this time with a quorum, while adhering to the state's open meetings statute.
But those things are anathema to kings who poke their fellow citizens in the eye and call it democracy, who subpoena the e-mails of a professor who disagrees with them, while brandishing their freedom-loving pedigrees.
And that's because angry citizens and dissident professors can reap results which run counter to their wishes, and their wishes supersede anything those they govern desire.
Recall.
