Now there's another huge lump of dumb in the Wisconsin Department of Justice's appeal of Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi's restraint order against publication of the Walker administration's union-busting law.
The department, at the direction of Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, filed the appeal saying they were representing Secretary of State Doug La Follette, who was identified as the "petitioner" seeking to have the temporary restraining order lifted.
Department of Justice attorneys did not consult La Follette in the matter, it was learned in the hearings. But, obviously, the department felt that the power to officially publish a state law must rest with La Follette or else they would not have used him as the petitioner.
Yet, the department is contending that "petitioner" La Follette has no power to rescind an order designating the date a legislative act becomes law. La Follette says he does.
In short, the DOJ was against La Follette before they were for La Follette before they were against him again.
The formal appeal filed by DOJ lawyers says that "Secretary La Follette respectfully requests" relief from Judge Sumi's order -- something the actual human being named Doug La Follette never has sought.
And it gets stranger. La Follette sought the court's permission to ask questions that "his" DOJ attorneys refused to ask on "his" behalf. Judge Sumi agreed with a Democratic Party lawyer's observation that the "petitioner" and his state lawyers were in disagreement. She said at this morning's hearing it would be up to Walker's office to appoint an independent attorney for La Follette at the state's expense.
Yeah, like that is ever going to happen. This is all beginning to look as surreal as a Fellini film.