The Republicans in Wisconsin are notable for not taking Rule of Law for an answer. As we noted last week, a judge appointed by Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage this particular midwest subsidiary, whacked the governor for stalling a couple of special elections just because the Democrats might win them.

Up in Madison, Walker, and the Republican majorities in the state legislature, have decided to be quite contemptuous of that particular court. From the State Journal:

The Senate and Assembly, which wrapped up their regular session business this week, are planning to meet in extraordinary session to take up a bill that would change the timeline for special elections, according to a statement issued Friday by Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester. Walker—even before formal legislation had been made public—said that he would sign the bill.



“A D.C.-based political group wants to force Wisconsin taxpayers to waste money on special elections at a time when our Legislature is ready to adjourn for the year,” Walker said. “It would be senseless to waste taxpayer money on special elections just weeks before voters go to the polls when the Legislature has concluded its business.”

Following the law is a waste of taxpayer money. Elections are a waste of taxpayer money. The devotion of the conservative order to the institutions of democracy remains almost unbearably touching. Walker, as is customary for him, is completely full of beans. Quite simply, he is employing the standard law-school definition of “chutzpah” in a different context.

Under Reynolds order, however, the elections need to be held as early as May 29 or as late as June 12, months before the November general election. And if Walker had acted before Jan. 2, the elections could have been held with the spring nonpartisan election April 3, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Meanwhile, the Republican leader of the state senate seems bound and determined to piss off every judge in the state while declaring Walker to be The Real Victim here.

Fitzgerald criticized the tone of Reynolds’ ruling in which she questioned why Walker didn’t call for special elections to fill the vacancies as required by law. On Thursday, Vos criticized Reynolds as an “activist Dane County judge,” which prompted Fifth Judicial District Chief Judge William Hanrahan to demand an apology.

Fitzgerald said Reynolds’ and Hanrahan’s public statements were “way out of line” and reflected a larger problem with Dane County judges being hostile to conservatives and Republicans. He called the Fifth Judicial District a “laughing stock” in the state and said he would talk with Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Pat Roggensack about the situation. “All of those comments about the governor were just way out of bounds,” Fitzgerald said. “I would hope that Justice Roggensack would police that.”

Suck it up, snowflake.

Fitzgerald wouldn’t offer an opinion on whether Reynolds’ ruling was a correct interpretation of the law, but said it creates headaches for local elections officials, particularly with possible overlapping nomination paper and absentee ballot deadlines for the August primary and November general election. He said Reynolds didn’t consider those practical effects in her ruling. “The logistics of this is very messy,” Fitzgerald said. “I don’t think Judge Reynolds considered that at all how this would transpire in the real world. … The average taxpayer is going to be like, ‘You’re kidding me.’”

It is not that hard to hold an election. Unless, of course, you don’t want to hold an election. Then it becomes very hard. And I’ve searched the law high and low and I have yet to find an exemption for a town clerk’s headaches. Try an aspirin and do your job.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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