David Prosser
This is a pretty damn crazy story no matter how it turns out:
Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month.
"The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold," Bradley told the Journal Sentinel.
Sources told the Journal Sentinel two very different stories Saturday about what occurred. Some confirmed Bradley's version. According to others, Bradley charged Prosser, who raised his hands to defend himself and made contact with her neck.
The state capitol police are investigating the matter and their chief plans to comment later today. Everyone of course recalls Prosser's unexpectedly razor-thin victory over JoAnne Kloppenburg in his re-election campaign earlier this year. You might also remember some remarks of his which came to light during that race—specifically, when he called Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a "bitch" and threatened to "destroy" her.
ThinkProgress has a run-down on the various ways in which a judge can be removed from the bench in Wisconsin—and since they are elected officials, even recall is a possibility (though Prosser, newly re-elected, would be exempt for a year). And while some conservatives are, of course, calling for Bradley's expulsion, Fox News's Greta van Susteren took aim at a different target, instead demanding that Abrahamson resign. Just like Prosser, who said his outburst at the Chief Justice was "totally warranted," Greta wants to blame someone else here. In any event, we'll see what the police have to say soon enough.