Wisconsin Assembly Pulls All Nighter, Democrats Become Snippy

23 Feb, 2011 by William Teach

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In the real world, mom and dad (or kindergarten teacher) would put the Dems into timeout, asked them if they had been eating Playdo. Right now, the Wisconsin assembly is going strong into their second day of debate and votes, along with a filibuster and enormous amounts of amendments from Democrats, and, we have Capitol Chaos

The Assembly began debate around noon Tuesday, with lawmakers coming to the floor under heavy guard as protesters in the rotunda cheered and banged on buckets and bongo drums. Democrats began introducing dozens of amendments and gave drawn-out, rambling speeches criticizing the bill. A vote didn’t appear likely until well into Wednesday, perhaps later.

“Can you hear that?” Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, screamed into her microphone. “Can you hear the cheers? Can you hear the chants? Can you hear the voices of the people who elected you? How can you not hear that?”

Republicans sat mostly in silence as the debate dragged into the wee hours, though tempers flared when two Democrats lashed out at Republican lawmakers and aides for laughing at them during the debate.

“This is not a game! We’re dealing with people’s lives! This isn’t funny!” Rep. Andy Jorgensen, D-Fort Atkinson, shouted in the chamber, his face red. “I haven’t laughed in a long time, especially not on a day like this!”

Someone is in dire need of a Prozac.

One of the missing Democrats, Minority Leader Mark Miller, delivered a response from Illinois.

“The only action available to us to slow this down and allow democracy to work was to take us out of the Capitol,” he said.

I thought representative democracy required elected officials to show up for work and vote, not run and hide like a 5 year old.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.