At least one Democratic legislator is not going to roll over and play dead for Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican reich, er, right. WisPolitics.com reports:
Assembly Dems were able to stall a bill to repeal a trove of changes to auto insurance passed in the last state budget.
Rep. David Cullen, D-Milwaukee, stopped a final vote by objecting to the third reading. Republicans fell short of meeting the two-thirds vote required to override the objection...
Cullen said Republicans used the issue to distribute "lies and distortions," and said the predicted rate increases never came to be.
The bill can come back to the floor for a vote in the next Assembly regular session day, which is set for Feb. 22.
It's only a three-week delay, but sometimes legislators actually hear from their constituents when they're home and have been known to change their minds. Regardless, it is an encouraging sign that maybe there is some fight left in the Dem caucus after all.
Republicans in Congress have used everything in the rules, not to mention threats and blackmail, to delay or prevent passage of the Obama/Dem agenda the last two years, despite a Dem majority, and the Rs were rewarded with an electoral sweep three months ago.
State Sen. Fred Risser can no doubt recall the days in the early 1970s when the GOP had the Senate majority but the Dems tied them into knots. Risser did a lot of the tying.
Here's hoping Cullen isn't a one-man band, but merely the first one chosen to stand up and execute a new Dem caucus strategy. We'd all be better served if they stopped this wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am style of legislating that we've seen in the special session, and let some of these issues marinate a bit.