Just obey our hostage demands, and we’ll let ourselves go: “AWOL Wisconsin Democrat calls CNN with list of demands.”
It’s certainly a western theme in any case, hearkening back to the Wild West of ancient yore: “Texas Democrats Flee to Neighboring State to Avoid Redistricting Vote,” recalls this 2003 headline.
Also at the intersection of Wisconsin unions and early 1970s comedy movies, this protest sign seems oddly reminiscent of the “I have a gub” scene from Woody Allen’s Take the Money and Run: “I AM THE FUTURE I NEEN QUALITY TEACHERS.”
Somebody set up us the debt bomb!
Update: The self-hostages have been found!
Wisconsin state Democrats who refused to show up for a vote on Governor Walker’s budget repair bill have been located.
The lawmakers are in Rockford, Illinois at the Best Western Clock Tower Resort.
Law enforcement officials have been looking for at least one Democratic senator to bring in for a quorum required for a fiscal measure, but Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach confirmed to Newsradio 620 WTMJ that he and all of his Democratic colleagues boarded a bus and left the state…
According to the Twitter account of Democrat State Senator Chris Larson from Bay View, “For those looking for us, we are right here, standing with the people of Wisconsin.”
To be fair, based on this photo of a waitress at the “Tilted Kilt” restaurant found by Jim Geraghty, there are worse places to hold yourself hostage.
Meanwhile, at the Campaign Spot, Jim writes, “First Cambridge Cops, Now Wisconsin Teacher Contracts:”
It probably shouldn’t surprise us that President Obama begins his comments on the Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals with the words, “I’d say that I haven’t followed exactly what’s happening with the Wisconsin budget,” and then promptly declares that Walker’s plan “seems like more of an assault on unions.”
House Speaker Speaker John Boehner lowers the boom on the president:
“According to news reports, the White House has even unleashed the Democratic National Committee to spread disinformation and confusion in Wisconsin regarding the governor’s courageous actions. I urge the president to order the DNC to suspend these tactics. This is not the way you begin an ‘adult conversation’ in America about solutions to the fiscal challenges that are destroying jobs in our country.
But then, why would President Obama choose this moment to start to acting like an adult?
Update: Jay Nordlinger adds:
Couldn’t Obama say something? Couldn’t he pretend he’s president — president of all the people — and say, “We have political disagreements, but we’re going to work them out peacefully and democratically. For example, massing at lawmakers’ homes, to shout and threaten, is out of bounds.”
Wouldn’t that be kind of . . . big of him? But in my observation — and he has been president for two years now — he is small. He was willing to speak out after Tucson. That was relatively easy. To speak out now would be exceptional, and exceptionally helpful. It would be helpful to Obama politically, too.
But why would the same president who told bank CEOs in April of 2009 that “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks,” want to put down the Alinsky playbook now?
“But then, why would President Obama choose this moment to start to acting like an adult?”
Yeah, for one thing, everybody would know it’s just an act. For another, he’s had no experience in the role.
But then, why would President Obama choose this moment to start to acting like an adult?
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Oh, snap!
I am not a lawyer, so I am subject to quaint notions about what the law should be, rather than what it is.
A group of Wisconsin legislators have traveled out of state specifically to avoid a central duty of their office.
Isn’t this the definition of obstruction of the law and failure to uphold the state constitution and the rule of law.
Haven’t each of them abandoned his office? To my mind, they have resigned in fact by their actions. Is it really necessary that they deliver a resignation letter, when their actions have so much more real effect?
I seem to recall that this type of situation is addressed in “Robert’s Rules of Orders”. As I recall, when a minority absents itself to prevent a quorum then the chairman can declare the present members to form a “Committee of the Whole” and then start revoking the memberships of absent members until there is a quorum. It may not hurt to reread the book to confirm this is the case. If it is, I wonder how those delinquent Democrats will like it when they wake and find that they no longer have jobs and now must seek honest employment like everyone else? ^_~
Road trip!
Back in ’03, Democrat Texas House member Pete Gallego was quoted as saying it was a “tremendous bonding experience” for the brave little hide-n-seekers playing fugitive in Oklahoma Holiday Inns.
We can only hope that Otter, D-Day and this gang from Madison grow as close as their Lone Star counterparts did on their manly journey of self-discovery.
I’d rather go to the Tilted Kilt than take part in that sorry mess in WI. Another ale, lass!
Phil Gramm was right back in the 90s when he promised that “we’ll be hunting Democrats down with dogs” after the turn of the century.
Couldn’t one republican switch parties for an hour to make a quorum for a vote?
It’s a numbers issue, not the fact that a dem isn’t there. Quorum calls for 20 Senators out of 33 in WI, there are only 19 Republicans.
IIRC, there was an incident like this involving the Texas State Lege in … the early 70s, which was written up in Molly Ivins’ first collection – wherein one of the fleeing legislators was found hiding behind the stereo cabinet in his dear Mama’s house, whereupon Ms. Ivins quipped “Well, he always did want to be the speaker.”
Oh, dear – all this sort of legislative shenanigans just seemed funnier when it happened in Texas. What the heck has happened to all of you people!!??
Has anyone heard from Willie Nelson? When Texas Democrats boogied out of Austin rather than vote on a bill they hated, Willie sent each legislator a case of whisky.
Wonder why he did that? My take is that they had already quit their jobs, why not take to drinkin’ in a serious fashion.
Put down the Alinsky playbook? Why now?
Oh – wait. Maybe he forgot that he is The Man. Must be why he seems so small.
Why doesn’t anyone, including Obama, suggest the Governor raise the argument Obama used during the healthcare debate: “I won.”
Elections have consequences.
Dear Democrat politicians,
Please please please stand up for huge pensions and unlimited benefits and retirements at 50 for government union employees. Pretty please. Tell the American taxpayers that it is the union’s right to prosper at the expense of the beleaguered taxpayer.
This is a gift for the GOP and the Tea Party.
Who are they kidding? They just wanted to go there to see that waitress. And I would be in support and agreement with that decision.
I am in complete agreement with you on that waitress at the Tilted Kilt. The Democrat Senators picked the right spot to go to in my opinion, now of course they need to lose their jobs since they aren’t representing the people of their districs anymore but their own selfish interests.
Why do you persist in the belief that Obama, the Unions, and Democrats weigh the best interest of the people of America at anything other than zero? Everything they do makes sense only if they are working mightily to destroy freedom and liberty. I, for one, welcome our new Red overlords. (I said it here in public. That should keep me from a beating by union thugs, OK?)
TakeFive, it’s not the party affiliation that is preventing a quorum, it the numbers. The Republican members are one short of a quorum by themselves, hence the need for a Democrat member to attend.
Towering Barbarian, the Roberts Rules web site says:
[55] The quorum of the committee of the whole is the same as that of the assembly [64]. If the committee finds itself without a quorum, it can only rise and report the fact to the assembly, which in such case must adjourn.
[64] In an assembly that has the power to compel the attendance of its members, if a quorum is not present at the appointed hour, the chairman should wait a few minutes before taking the chair. In the absence of a quorum such an assembly may order a call of the house [41] and thus compel attendance of absentees, or it may adjourn, providing for an adjourned meeting if it pleases.
[41] When the call is ordered the clerk calls the roll of members alphabetically, noting the absentees; he then calls over again the names of absentees, when excuses can be made; after this the doors are locked, no one being permitted to leave, and an order similar in form to the following is adopted: “Ordered, That the sergeant-at-arms take into custody, and bring to the bar of the House, such of its members as are absent without the leave of the House.” A warrant signed by the presiding officer and attested by the clerk, with a list of absentees attached, is then given to the sergeant-at-arms, who immediately proceeds to arrest the absentees. When he appears with members under arrest, he proceeds to the chairman’s desk (being announced by the doorkeeper in large bodies), followed by the arrested members, and makes his return. The chairman arraigns each member separately, and asks what excuse he has to offer for being absent from the sittings of the assembly without its leave. The member states his excuse, and a motion is made that he be discharged from custody and admitted to his seat either without payment of fees or after paying his fees. Until a member has paid the fees assessed against him he cannot vote or be recognized by the chair for any purpose.