GOPs try their latest Power Grab. This time to ram through veto overrides

It was bad enough when Robbin’ Vos and the rest of Republican leadership in the State Assembly tried to lock out Rep. Jimmy Anderson from Committee meetings by not allowing the wheelchair-bound Dem to call in from remote sites. After two months of pressure, Vos and his fellow Assembly Republicans finally relented yesterday, saying they would allow the Assembly to join the 21st Century to let Anderson to call in.

Naturally, the common-sense/lawful move was met with typical whining from Napoleon.

"We took the politics out of it, just took a step back and all figured out the best way that Representative Anderson can represent his district," Vos said...

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, R-Kaukauna, said he and other leaders didn't meet with Anderson to review the proposed changes. However, Steineke said he believes the changes should be sufficient.

"I think if (Democrats) take a fair look at it, it’ll be clear we addressed his concerns in a way that doesn’t affect the integrity of the body," Steineke said.

Oh, Vos and Steineke don’t want “politics” involved in this? Then what’s with this extra crap part of the resolution?

However, GOP leaders paired that change with a number of rules that would give themselves more power. One change would allow unlimited attempts by the Republican-controlled Legislature at overriding vetoes made by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Current law only allows one veto override attempt.

Other changes would allow Republicans to set debate times for bills without Democrats' consent, bar Democrats from taking breaks from Assembly floor sessions to discuss bills under certain circumstances and allow themselves to convene a floor session to vote on bills even if a number of lawmakers are absent.

As a result, I’d hope Anderson and the rest of the Dem caucus all VOTE NO on this garbage, and make the GOP be the only people shown to support this latest Power Grab.

Small men in more ways than one.

Here’s the resolution in full, and I’ll pull out these key parts.

Current assembly rules permit any member who obtains the floor to request a call of the assembly to require absent members to return to the assembly chamber. Any such request requires 15 members to second the call. The resolution permits the presiding officer to order a call of the assembly, without any seconds…

Currently, assembly decisions on vetoes are not subject to reconsideration. The resolution amends the assembly rules to provide that assembly decisions on vetoes of proposals that failed to pass notwithstanding the objections of the governor are subject to reconsideration at any time and any number of times during the legislative biennium.

There’s also this bit of sleaze, which changes the rules regarding the amount of time for debate, which currently is set aside as a block of time of total debate on all bills.

The resolution amends the assembly rules to require the majority leader and the minority leader to meet to adopt reasonable recommendations for time limits and schedules for floor debate for each proposal on the daily calendar. If the majority leader and the minority leader reach agreement, the Committee on Rules must include the time limits and schedules for floor debate for each proposal in the recommendations on the calendar for that day.

The resolution further provides that if the majority leader and the minority leader do not reach agreement, the Committee on Rules must establish time limits and schedules for floor debate for each proposal in the recommendations on the calendar for that day.

And who runs the Committee on Rules? Republicans like Robbin’ Vos and Jim Steineke. So they could choose to ramrod any bill and/or veto override through with as little discussion as possible.

If this tactic sounds familiar, it should. It is very similar to what gerrymandered ALEC legislators did in another state last month – North Carolina.

While Democrats were attending 9/11 commemoration events on Wednesday, Republican members of the state House called a surprise emergency session — during which they voted to override the Democratic governor’s veto of the state’s proposed budget, a move Democrats had long opposed.

North Carolina House Democrats were under the impression that there wouldn’t be any votes until 1 p.m., according to an email sent by the House minority leader and obtained by ABC11.

But Republicans snuck in a vote before then.

Many Democratic representatives told the outlet that they were lied to by the House Republicans, who voted to override the bill while just 64 of 120 House members present. The resulting vote was 55-9 in favor of overriding the bill.

You can bet Vos and GOP No. 2 Steineke and the rest of the WisGOP Assembly leadership looked at what happened in NC and said “Why don’t we try that?” After all, the scum rises to the top in today’s Republican Party.

It reiterates a truth uttered by a former George W. Bush adviser.

There is no bar too low for this crew. If 50 Republicans go along with this garbage tomorrow THEY ALL GOTTA GO. Even GOPs who might make a show vote against this resolution need to get the boot, because they made the choice to put amoral slimeballs with massive Napoleon complexes in charge of their caucus.

Let’s see if the Assembly GOPs go full-on fascist, or if they back off like they did when they tried to gut the Open Records law in 2015.