Photo credit: la64 | dreamstime.com
Presumably the "Wanted" posters are being printed up as we speak:
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald Thursday morning ordered the apprehension of the 14 Democratic senators who left the state two weeks ago to avoid a vote on Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget repair bill.
According to Fitzgerald and his 19 voting-in-lockstep Republican cohorts, the Wisconsin 14 has until 4:00 p.m. to come in, and:
That means the Senate sergeant at arms can "with or without force" and with or without the help of any law enforcement officers in the state to take them into custody and bring them to the state Capitol.
Fitzgerald said the action is the equivalent of arrest,
"It's the same as an arrest," he said. It is an arrest."
Well, sure. Except it isn't:
"As long as they're out of the state, the sergeant at arms is unable to get them," explains Dennis Dresang, professor emeritus of public affairs and political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "There's not much the governor could do. You might say he could declare a state of emergency, but there's not an emergency here."
And while Fitzgerald claims this action is necessary because Wisconsin is on "the edge of a constitutional crisis," the more likely reason was laid out by Governor Scott Walker in his infamous phone call with the blogger posing as Walker's billionaire benefactor from Kansas, David Koch -- get the 14 into the capitol and Walker has his quorum.
Looks like a another ham-handed attempt to ram through Walker's union-busting bill.