Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald jumped the shark last night and today, issuing rather startling statements about the 14 Democratic state senators who are returning to the state. The Democrats had fled to Illinois to temporarily deny the Republican majority enough votes to enact Gov. Scott Walker's union-busting bill this week.
In a statement, Fitzgerald said the appearance of the Democrats at a protest rally outside the state Capitol today "is in direct violation of the contempt order issued by the state Senate earlier this month, and it proves their absolute disregard for the institution of the Senate and the constitution they took an oath of office to serve."
As if that were not enough, Fitzgerald threatened the Democrats with arrest. Interviewed Friday by WITI-TV Fox 6 News in Milwaukee, Fitzgerald was quoted on camera saying that if the returning 14 Democrats appear at today's protest rally, as they plan, they risk being arrested on charges of contempt. During the hold-out, Republicans had cited the Democrats for contempt of the Senate on a procedural motion. Who knew you could use a Senate rule to arrest people?
"The Wisconsin Constitution absolutely prohibits members of the Wisconsin Senate from being arrested for a non-criminal offense,” wrote Wisconsin attorneys Lester A. Pines and Susan M. Crawford of the Cullen, Weston, Pines & Bach law firm of Madison. “The failure or refusal of a senator to attend a session of the Senate is not a crime. Nor is it in contempt of the Senate.”
Yes, but the threat sure sounds tough, and Republicans do love sounding tough. Red meat tossed to the party's electoral base, dontcha know.
The arrests won't happen. For one thing, the state Senate isn't even in session. What's Fitzgerald's plan? To have the Democratic senators put in handcuffs and escorted into an empty Senate chamber, then made to sit in a corner for two hours of detention because they lipped off and were tardy for class?
Then, of course, it would be quite an interesting scene if the Democratic senators, amid tens of thousands of protesters expected at the Capitol today, were approached by police officers. It almost makes a person think Scott Fitzgerald and his fellow Republicans would like to cause more trouble.
Apparently, Fitzgerald now thinks he can simply make decrees about civil and criminal law, and that the police then carry out his every wish. If so, let's wait and see if any unionized police officer or law enforcement agency head agrees. Whoops, well, there's one possibility: Scott Fitzgerald's dad, whom Gov. Walker conveniently appointed head of the Wisconsin State Patrol. But if cooler heads prevail, maybe Fitzgerald could simply show up at the rally in person and attempt a citizen's arrest. Wouldn't that calm the waters and lead Wisconsin back to rational, sane public discourse?