Fitzgerald unrepentant

A big man has no time really to do anything but just sit and be big.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald (no relation)

Cue Entry of the Gladiators:

"We passed the law correctly, legally the first time," Scott Fitzgerald said. "Passing the law correctly and legally a second or third time wouldn't change anything. It certainly wouldn't stop another activist judge and room full of lawyers (from trying) to start this merry-go-round all over again."

Well it's marginally a downgrade from "supremely" and "perfectly."

So that's something.

"They could do (the legislation) over," said Dane County District Attorney Ismail Ozanne, plaintiff in the case. "It's been stated on the record that they could do the vote again."

By my conservative estimate, Senator Scott Fitzgerald, who is in charge of the Senate (or his brother Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, who is in charge of the Assembly), could have given seventeen 24-hour notices by now. And more importantly saved a Senate clerk from running — literally, that was today's testimony — back and forth between their offices in order to attempt producing A notice of their "hastily called" March 9 meeting. These guys are so organizized, Jeff Fitzgerald wasn't even in his office to affix his signature to the notice when the crucial moment approached. Rachel Veum, the Senate's Records and Forms Management Specialist, testified today that she had to jog — ran, she also said — around the Capitol in her clogs in search of the two elusive Republican power brothers, while building security personnel pointed and laughed and quipped, "Here she comes again!"

Among many of the revelations brought to the fore by the Ozanne v. Fitzgerald hearings are those pertaining to Scott Fitzgerald's style of management, which has elsewhere been depicted as inappropriately coercive as well. With employers like that in the business, my own reaction is inclined toward: "Thank God for collective bargaining."*

* Which comprises the very rights and privileges for workers the Brothers Fitzgerald and Gov. Scott Walker, aided by a "room full of lawyers" provided by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen's office, are attempting to strip from State employees. Is it any bloody wonder.