Do you remember those vintage "Chatty Cathy" dolls that spoke some sentences if you pulled a cord on the back,
and do you remember how garbled the sentences became when the doll's sound mechanism began to fail?
Something like 'Cathy Mary has a new blue dress" could become "Tacky is eew boo derpo," or sounds to that effect.
It appears as if something like that is happening to Robin Vos, the GOP Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, who has been talking a lot about the power grab bill he and his allies have rushed to outgoing GOP Gov. Walker's desk after Walker's stunning 30,000+ vote loss to Democrat Tony Evers.
And when offering up one of the GOP's talking point justifications for the bill to The New York Times last week, Vos came up with these words:
I'd be like someone calling Chicago sports talk radio and saying, 'If you took Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers out of the record books, the Bears would have a clear majority' of wins between the two teams.
Or, "If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state population formula," Wisconsin would be without its two biggest revenue donors. And its biggest economic, cultural, financial, educational, commercial and transportation centers."
Which would leave Vos and fellow election nullifier Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald managing a smaller, poorer, less interesting, less forward-looking, less attractive state with a much-reduced flow of state income tax collections, vital federal funding based on population, and at least two fewer Congressional seats and electoral votes.
So...sorry, Mr. Speaker. You have been able to pack partisan votes into legislative districts which have given our party artificially-lopsided majorities, but somehow erasing Madison and Milwaukee voters from the rolls would be an impossible end run around various constitutions.
But keep up these attacks on foundational democracy and our big cities, and you make Minnesota look even more attractive as the upper Midwestern destination of choice for people looking to live, work, invest and send the kids to college.
and do you remember how garbled the sentences became when the doll's sound mechanism began to fail?
Something like 'Cathy Mary has a new blue dress" could become "Tacky is eew boo derpo," or sounds to that effect.
It appears as if something like that is happening to Robin Vos, the GOP Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, who has been talking a lot about the power grab bill he and his allies have rushed to outgoing GOP Gov. Walker's desk after Walker's stunning 30,000+ vote loss to Democrat Tony Evers.
And when offering up one of the GOP's talking point justifications for the bill to The New York Times last week, Vos came up with these words:
“If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state election formula, we would have a clear majority,” he said.Now that, of course, is pure nonsense. It was word salad that went bad.
I'd be like someone calling Chicago sports talk radio and saying, 'If you took Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers out of the record books, the Bears would have a clear majority' of wins between the two teams.
Or, "If you took Madison and Milwaukee out of the state population formula," Wisconsin would be without its two biggest revenue donors. And its biggest economic, cultural, financial, educational, commercial and transportation centers."
Which would leave Vos and fellow election nullifier Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald managing a smaller, poorer, less interesting, less forward-looking, less attractive state with a much-reduced flow of state income tax collections, vital federal funding based on population, and at least two fewer Congressional seats and electoral votes.
So...sorry, Mr. Speaker. You have been able to pack partisan votes into legislative districts which have given our party artificially-lopsided majorities, but somehow erasing Madison and Milwaukee voters from the rolls would be an impossible end run around various constitutions.
But keep up these attacks on foundational democracy and our big cities, and you make Minnesota look even more attractive as the upper Midwestern destination of choice for people looking to live, work, invest and send the kids to college.
