Ponderable

Scorched earth: WI Republicans strip powers of governor, AG after midterm losses
Ed MorrisseyPosted at 8:41 am on December 5, 2018


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Tony Evers will take the reins in Wisconsin in a little over a month, but at least Republicans are graciously relieving him of some of Scott Walker’s old workload. That’s the reason the GOP is stripping powers from the governor’s office, right? And to think every Democrat in the state legislature opposes this oh-so-kind gesture!

See Also: Good news from Kirsten Gillibrand: The future is female and intersectional

In the real world, though, it’s a perfect example of the dog-in-the-manger ploy:


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The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate has passed a sweeping measure taking power away from the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general, and reducing how long early voting can take place.

The measure was approved on a 17-16 vote with all Democrats and one Republican voting against it. The Assembly was expected to give final approval later Wednesday morning and send the measure to Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who has signaled his support.

The bill would limit the governor’s ability to put in place administrative rules that enact laws and give the Legislature the power to control appointees to the board that runs the state economic development agency until Sept. 1.

The legislation would also require legislative approval to withdraw from lawsuits, taking that away from the attorney general.

This legislation evolved over the last couple of days, when it became apparent that Wisconsin Republicans were serious about this project. The final version of the bill didn’t emerge until late in the process, leaving lawmakers complaining about the lack of preparation for the vote. After a new iteration of the bill dropped at 4 am this morning, state senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) exclaimed, “Not a way to run a government!”

Evers is curiously ungrateful for the efforts to lighten his workload:



Republicans say that they just want to make sure that the legislative and executive branches share power equally:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester told reporters he wanted to make sure lawmakers have as much control of state government as Evers.

“We did have an election. Whether everyone here likes it or not, I respect the fact that Tony Evers is the governor and he’s going to be starting on January 7,” Vos said at a news conference. “But he’s not the governor today and that’s why we’re going to make sure the powers of each branch are as equal as they can be.”

Republicans have controlled both branches for eight years. Their concern about constitutional balance seems at the very least tardy. If that’s the reason, why not take it up before the election — or earlier, when it would have limited Scott Walker’s authority?

There are all sorts of outcome-based reasons for doing this, of course. Republicans will insist that Democrats wouldn’t have played fair with executive authority without those restrictions. As Evers notes, both he and incoming AG Josh Kaul ran on a platform of activism, so the impulse behind this effort may well be understandable. There is a need to protect a lot of good work done over the last eight years, especially from the GOP’s perspective.

That still doesn’t make this the right method, unless we’re now fully embracing a means-justifying-ends philosophy. Elections do have consequences — and Wisconsin voters chose Evers and Kaul to fill these offices as they were established. Republicans will succeed in this effort, and in a similar one in Michigan, thanks to a lame-duck period for outgoing Republican governors and GOP legislative majorities. However, the next time an election comes around, they’d better be ready for those consequences — and the consequences of the precedents being set in both states for scorched-earth tactics regarding constitutional offices.
 
Sheriff Joe said:
Sen. Mazie Hirono: ‘Democrats Have a Hard Time Connecting To People’s Hearts Because We Democrats Know So Much’

Posted at 6:37 am on December 05, 2018 by Elizabeth Vaughn


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In case you’ve ever wondered why Democrats have a hard time connecting to people’s hearts, you now have your answer. It’s because of “how smart they are.” Yes, she really said it. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) was interviewed by journalist Dahlia Lithwick at the “Bend Towards Justice” conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.




Lithwick asked Hirono: What is the thing that Democrats need to be saying about why the courts matter? Hirono replied:

One of the things that we Democrats have a really hard time with is connecting people’s hearts instead of here (points to her brain). We’re really good at shoving out information that touch people here (points to brain again), not here (points to her heart). And I have been saying at all of our Democratic retreats that we need to speak to the heart, not in a manipulative way, not in a way that brings forth everybody’s fears and resentments, but truly to speak to the heart so people actually know that we’re actually on their side. We have a really hard time doing that and one of the reasons that was told to me at one of our retreats was that we Democrats know so much. That is true. (Interviewer chuckles)

And we have to tell everybody how smart we are and so we have a tendency to be very left brain and we think, really? That is not how people make decisions and one of the books I always bring up is “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt where the image is of an elephant. And the elephant is making all the decisions – go right, go forward, whatever. There’s a rider on the elephant. The rider simply explains the elephant’s decisions. Republicans speak to the elephant, the Democrats speak to the rider. That is why we’re not speaking to people here (heart) and we’re just mainly going here and it’s a huge issue.
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Too bad they didn’t know about the Russians in 2016.
 
Bruddah IZ said:
Has been since 2016. We still don’t know how many votes were hacked by the Russians to favor Trump. Nor whether what was known about Hillary, by the Russians, was not already known by American voters. And, whether and if the Russians did disclose information about Hillary, how many Americans changed their minds in the electoral process. These smart people crack me up.
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Then Citizen Trumps sarcastic remark about the " Russians " finding her
missing " 30,000 e-mails " is the ignorant basis for this WHOLE collusion
with Russia Witch Hunt .....That's how inept the Democrats/Rhinos/Mueller
and the MSM are....
 
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