Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Wisconsin Interests Shopping for Venues

Smarter people than me described the behavior of conflicting groups escalating their interests to higher authorities as “venue shopping.” News that Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices allegedly had a physical altercation is more venue shopping.

Because Wisconsin Democrats are in the minority in both chambers of the Wisconsin state Legislature, liberals tried to obstruct legislative action on Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill and impact on collective bargaining. Stymied by legislative creativity, losers in the legislative arena sought an injunction by a judge in Dane County. All of this was venue shopping.

Interest in the pivotal 2011 election for a new term for Justice David Prosser was expensive and narrow. Election losers demanded another venue with a hand recount in all Wisconsin counties. They still lost.

Losers in the Dane County ruling appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. They narrowly won. Aggrieved parties have looked to appeal to a friendlier court. This is now a harder strategy because police and fire unions have been peeled away by the Walker agenda from their previous tight coalition. Sometimes interests only threaten venue shopping.

Liberal activists gathered recall petitions targeting six Republican Wisconsin Senators, not for corruption in office but for casting a vote for the Walker agenda. Conservative activists targeted three Democrats for fleeing to Illinois. This is more venue shopping.

Now losers want to pour cold water on the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling by shopping around a story that Justice David Prosser choked Justice Anne Walsh Bradley before the vote. This is odd because former Assembly Speaker David Prosser is even more civil than me. The faction of Prosser had the votes. The faction with Anne Walsh Bradley did not.

Sometimes I am accused of being a smarty pants. I even discussed research methods with a server in Baton Rouge who was a doctor candidate in Economics. To quote Martin Luther: “Here I stand. I can not do otherwise.”

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