This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1468992
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1468992
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Not that it makes any difference to Vos and his cronies. No one and nothing matters but what they want.
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This is a terrific analysis. If only the WI GOP cared about law and judicial independence! However, they do care about politics, and I predict that an impeachment of Justice Janet will backfire spectacularly.
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The question really is, how much damage will the impeachment attempt cause, before backfiring spectacularly?
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The very act of impeaching a justice who has not committed an impeachable offense is pretty damaging!
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Since when has actions “unsupported by law” stopped the modern GOP…?
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They shot a judge in Reno, just to watch her die.
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A slight adjustment - they care about power and how they can use politics to keep it.
While this is a great analysis on why impeachment of Justice Protasiewicz is outside both the norms and history of the process, that won’t stop the WI GOP from doing it. If you want to stop it, you have to convince them that impeachment will threaten their majority as much, or more, than having their gerrymander overturned. I don’t know the best way to do that, but having blue voters call their GOP state representatives and senators in opposition would be a good start.
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Is the error here forming a cogent response to a reactionary response and only lending it credibility?
If we’re going to close Fat-dora’s box were going to have to stop listening at some point.
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Is there no legal mechanism to prevent the impeachment process from proceeding at all?
Precisely. Features not bugs. Also anti-democratic. Trifecta!
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They don’t know how to ‘convince’ people of the properness of their beliefs (I believe they were shocked by her opponent losing by 11%) so they create ‘new’ rules (like McConnell’s ‘choice’ not to seat ‘judge’ Garland on SCOTUS).
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I often wonder the same thing. When the media will move beyond fact and logic-checking the GOP (“This claim is not based in fact,” or, “This claim does not withstand logical scrutiny”), to stories whose point is “The GOP is a reactionary insurrectionist minority faction.”
The current GOP pisses contemptuously on logic and factuality. That still hasn’t quite generally sunk in.
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Only if the U.S. Supreme Court steps in and I wouldn’t put much faith in that.
Protasiewicz could potentially challenge it in the WI Supreme Court, but unless one of the Republican Justices switches sides, the likely outcome is a 3-3 vote, where ties result in the status quo (i.e. Protasiewicz’s impeachment).
For better or worse, impeachment remains an explicit power of the Wisconsin Constitution, that says:
The assembly shall have the power of impeaching all civil officers of this state for corrupt conduct in office, or for crimes and misdemeanors
Obviously, the Constitution’s drafters never considered or thought it not a significant risk that the WI legislature could use it for their own corrupt purposes.
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Hagedorn has been a wild card in the past, especially on explicitly corrupt issues like this.
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That would be the optimistic outcome in the state Courts.
The trouble I see is that since Justices are elected, Hagedorn would be back in front of the voters in 2029 (presuming he runs again). At 45, he potentially has a very long career on the WI Supreme Court ahead of him, unless he blows it up by upsetting Wisconsin Republicans.
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Based on the last election, he may want to be more worried about pissing off Dems and Independents.
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Almost like starting an impeachment inquiry based on nothing at all. These bastards will do anything to keep a stranglehold on WI politics. They want to impeach her for telling the truth.
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She drew an Uzi from her robe, let consequences fly.
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The people supporting the corrupt Wisconson politicians are equally corrupt billionaires and evangelical Christians on a mission from God. They have no firm beliefs beyond demanding absolute power.
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