It's quiet out there post-TABOR
It's awfully silent in the wingnut cheddarsphere this morning, in the wake of a devastating, embarrassing rejection of the right-wing's legislative centerpiece, a constitutional amendment to limit spending.
It was a terrible idea, ill-conceived and badly managed. Is it a surprise that it was killed 2-1? Republicans with a conscience and a smidgen of common sense could see it was nothing but a gimmick. And enough of them actually believe enough in our system of government to reject this piece of crap (that's a technical term.)
When does the intra-party bloodletting begin? Kevin at Lakeshore Laments draws first blood with a blast at State Sens. Mike Ellis and Rob Cowles.
Others are probably still sharpening their knives.
But the people who most deserve criticism are the ones who tried to foist this terrible idea onto the Republican majority and, ultimately, the people of Wisconsin -- and that includes radio's Belling, McSykes and Company as much as it includes State Rep. Frank Lasee and State Sen. Glenn Grothman. And let's not forget Wis. Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's powerful business lobby, which pushed very hard on the issue.
They should all be red-faced today, after being caught red-handed trying to force-feed some bad public policy to the legislature and the voters.
Someone is probably already working on the next version of this abomination. Don't put it past them to try an extraordinary session later this year if they think they have the votes. That may be one reason not to go ballistic with criticism of GOP leggies who opposed it. So opponents -- and they are legion -- must stay vigilant.
If this bad idea surfaces again, let's drive a stake through it.
UPDATE: Dennis York: Somewhere last night, Mary Panzer opened a bottle of wine, sat back, and smiled. She held strong and refused to put her members through a tortutous vote on a TABOR when she knew it couldn't pass. While it killed her in her district, State Senate Republicans picked up a seat. We'll see if they're so lucky this time.
UPDATE 2: Here's some of the sophisticated analysis and commentary we've come to expect from Dad29.
posted by xoff @ 9:04 AM
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2 Comments:
"Sophisticated" analysis does not penetrate the skulls of certain Republicans.
Sometimes It Takes a Club...
Mark Belling knows who's naughty and nice,and he knows it was those @$%#*! outstate Republicans who spoiled TABOR Fun
By Rich Eggleston
Talk about creatures that eat their young.
"After last week’s debacle in the state Assembly, it is apparent that Wisconsin Republicans are no more willing to deliver real tax relief than the Democrats. The version of the Taxpayer Protection Act that cleared the Assembly... wouldn’t stop any tax increase in the state ever," wrote talk radio host Mark Belling in his column in the Waukesha Freeman even before TABOR went down in flames in the Senate, 21-11.
Belling decried "the refusal of Wisconsin’s ruling class to do something about our status as a tax hell."
What's wrong with them? Don't they know that talk radio hosts are the real ruling class in Wisconsin?
Belling said the problem with the failure of Rep. Frank Lasee's version of TABOR "isn’t (that) the entire state GOP that has sold out. It’s just the Republicans from outstate Wisconsin."
Outstate Republicans voted by a 2-to-1 margin against the Lasee amendment, while from southeastern Wisconsin, only Rep. Curt Gielow of Mequon voted agaist it, Belling said. And Gielow isn't seeking re-election.
If there were only more talk radio hosts outstate like him, Belling lamented, and if Republicans outstate were only more willing to eat their own, the outcome might have been different.
Of course, there were other reasons, rooted in Wisconsin's tax system, reasons a talk radio guy may not understand.
Or maybe Republicans outstate are just smarter.
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