The Big Ws

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has even more reason to feel like the cat that swallowed the canary, as the state Supreme Court has overruled Judge Maryann Sumi's decision barring implementation of the state's new anti-labor law. The law stripping collective bargaining rights from most public workers had been blocked from implementation by Judge Sumi on the grounds that adequate notice of a Wisconsin Assembly conference meeting to isolate the provisions of the law from a larger budget bill and make it separate legislation had not been given - thus violating the state's open meetings law. Peter Barca, the Assembly Minority Leader, had been present at that meeting, where he protested against the lack of adequate notice given - even as the Republicans present created the separate bill and walked out as if Barca wasn't there.

In a 4-3 decision, the Court ruled that enough adequate notice had been given of the hastily called meeting under the circumstances. The Court added that Sumi had overstepped her authority by having "usurped the legislative power which the Wisconsin Constitution grants exclusively to the legislature."

The ruling had been aimed not at the merits of the bill but at the way it had been drafted and passed. With the process now having been upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Walker can now look forward to . . . a challenge to the bill on the merits in federal court. This is probably going to a high court that rules for more than just one state.

Meanwhile, the coup de grace has just been delivered to Anthony Weiner. A nightclub dancer former pornographic priestess - oops, I mean actress, goo goo g'joob - named Ginger Lee has come forward and told the media that she and Weiner had corresponded after she wrote something commendatory of the New York congressman on her blog. Wow, that's astonishing! Exotic dancers write blogs?

Ginger Lee - not to be confused with Ginger Grant, who defeated Ginger Lee in the Miss Appomattox beauty pageant - said that Weiner connected with her online, and that she and Weiner exchanged e-mails between March and June 2011. Ms. Lee then said that Weiner told her to lie about it if she were asked by the media. She added for good measure that Weiner would direct the conversation to sexual matters but that she, professional exotic entertainer that she is, refused to reciprocate.

That did it. Weiner must have been dreading the inevitable moment of shame. I mean, of course, when his wife Huma Abedin got home from a State Department trip - she works for Hillary Clinton - and he had to confront her. But aside from that, he has to take another inevitable step. He is announcing his resignation.

Scott Walker can breathe a sigh of relief that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled on the collective bargaining repeal law just before people were ready to pay attention to his state again, with the Weiner story about to fade away. But he'd better get used to Wisconsin workers literally making a federal case out of it.

With a Little Help And No Friends

New York congressman Anthony Weiner, friendless and alone on Capitol Hill, has decided to take leave of absence from his job and seek help. Somehow, I don't think Democrats will miss him. Republicans, noting that he's still a congressman, probably won't forget that fact, and they're not going to let Democrats forget that either.

But things may change . . . for the benefit of the Democrats. Late word tonight is that Weiner may in fact resign, now that, ahem, even more embarrassing photos of him have surfaced!

My take? Weiner will quit, and we'll have forgotten the whole thing by Independence Day . . . and the press will then distract Americans from the debt ceiling debate by reporting the disappearance of a white woman in the South . . . or that one of the Kardashian sisters has run out of dental floss. :-p

An Open Letter To Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

Dear Representative Weiner:

What's it like to be a total jerk?

Let me see if I've got this straight, Tony. You sent a lewd photo of yourself to a 22-year-old woman in Seattle via Twitter. You mistakenly put it on your own Twitter page, then removed it after someone had seen it and told everyone your Twitter account was hacked, essentially lying about it. You blamed Andrew Breitbart, the right-wing blogger, for implicating you in an Internet sexual flirting scandal, even though you sent lewder photos of yourself to a couple of other women. Well, maybe six women. And after trying to pretend you did nothing wrong, you had to go before the national media in a press conference and confess, answering all of their questions in the hope that this would clear the air but instead encouraging even more questions, such as whether you used government computers or violated congressional rules.

And you think an apology and a desire to move on is going to solve everything?

Tony, you just made a fool out of yourself, your very attractive wife, and your staffers. You've inspired a new sitcom - "$#*! My Congressman Does." You have Nancy Pelosi - not Speaker Boehner, not Eric Cantor, Nancy Pelosi - calling for an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. And worst of all, you've legitimized Andrew Breitbart!!

How do you account for all of this? Good grief, Tony, you've given your fellow New York Democratic congressman Steve Israel a hard row to hoe here. He has to convince voters in 24 swing House districts - in a national House district map sure to favor Republicans - to give the Democrats another chance in 2012. He had Republican plans to end Medicare as we know it in his favor. But instead of talking about Medicare "reform," Washington is talking about you! And moderate, independent voters like that farmer in Indiana or that suburbanite in New Jersey will have a hard time taking Democrats seriously if you stick around and continue to embody the typical House Democrat. Voters would rather vote for a House candidate who seeks to gut Medicare than vote for someone from a party representing moral irrectitude. And when they vote Republican, they do both! And thanks to you, it ain't gonna matter! Right-wing talk radio hosts are already painting you as emblematic of Democratic party values!

Wait! Now there are new revelations of Internet sex chatter with a Vegas card dealer? And there are more pictures that's going to make that underpants photo look like a Hallmark card design? Tony, give it up. You helped get health care reform (such as it is) passed, you've done your duty, now just go back to Brooklyn, or Queens, or wherever. You're an embarrassment to the Democratic party, and you're an embarrassment to Congress.

You know how bad this looks for everyone, Tony? Take me, for example. I'm the same age as you are. We're elders of our generation. So is Charlie Sheen. Finally, I thought when I first saw you fight for liberal causes on the floor of the House, a fellow Generation X elder who doesn't humiliate us. Tony, you're making me miss Charlie now. Also, I recently gave my business card, which has my blog's URL on it, to some very nice ladies, including a photographer who used to be a model and a TV news reporter who used to be a dancer. Not to mention a very nice woman who spoke at my writers' group meeting today. Pretty classy women, there. So they check my blog for the first time, but instead of seeing a blog entry about attempts to recall state senators in Wisconsin or the imminent collapse of the government in Yemen and what it means for U.S. national security, they're going to read this. They're going to see that I've written about you - because I have to, because every blog geek in America expects me to opine on your nasty little scandal! Thanks a lot, Tony, thanks a lot.

One thing you did do right, Tony - you got Sarah Palin off the front pages for awhile.

And by the way, if you're reading this, Tony, I hope that's all you're doing on the computer right now.

So, Tony, maybe you ought to just go gently into the good night and do something to turn your life around - like get your own cable TV show, or become a lobbyist. Think of the possibilities, Tony; you can be slimy in either profession and no one will ever condemn you for it. So please do us all a favor and just . . . go . . . away.

Incredulously yours, Steven Maginnis

P.S. Your last name is a good one for you, Tony. You have all the common sense of a Vienna sausage.

It's a Cruel, Cruel Summer. . . .

In an effort to keep health care reform alive, President Obama may have killed it by suggesting that a public option program may not be necessary. Well, in the case, maybe health care reform may not be necessary. Health care reform without a public program for people who can't afford private insurance may be taken off the table in order to get a bill passed in the Senate. We might as well forget reforming the medical insurance system for another fifteen years.

There aren't enough votes in the Senate to pass a bill with a public option despite a Democratic majority of sixty seats. Paradoxically, as many as one hundred Democrats in the House, led by Anthony Wiener of New York, refuse to support a health care reform bill if a public option is not included.

Health care reform in America is dead unless Obama bypasses the Republicans and gets some kind of public plan passed and twists a few arms in the Senate. I can't think of anything more depressing.

No, I'm kidding, this is America, so I can. Minnesota right-wing congresswoman Michelle Bachmann - who makes Sarah Palin look like Hannah Arendt - is thinking of running for President in 2012.