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.

Republicans Make Me Sick

The worst of the storm affecting the country hasn't come to pass in the Northeast yet, so I'm still here as of this writing (obviously). And while I am, I'd like to pick apart the Republicans who are working tirelessly to end health care reform.

While Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell pushes for a repeal vote in that chamber, a federal judge in Pensacola, Florida has decided that the health care law as passed by Congress - not just the individual mandate, but the entire legislation (including the part that bars denal of coverage for pre-existing conditions) - is a violation of the interstate commerce clause in the Constitution. Then-Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum - one of the prosecutors in the impeachment and trial of President Bill Clinton - filed suit against the new health care law last year and saw to it that it was tried in Florida's most right-wing city. Two judges in the federal court system have upheld the law, but two others - including the Pensacola judge, Roger Vinson - have ruled against it, and so now it is being appealed by both sides.

Does the law stand a chance of staying on the books? It now depends on the Supreme Court. Which is my way of answering, "No."

I'm giving up on the idea that this country can make any meaningful strides toward progressive reform. It's not that Americans don't care; it's that the right is too daunting an enemy to fight. They have the courts on their side (especially the highest court in the land), and they're bankrolled by wealthy business leaders who like the status quo - a status quo in which workers and middle-class Americans keep getting held back or keep being forced to run in place. Their support for the status quo isn't a conservative position; it's a reactionary position.

I could suggest that when the Supreme Court does hear this case, the justices will strike down only part of the law (the mandate, say), but of course that's not a plausible scenario. If you disagree, go to last year's Citizens United decision, which struck down campaign finance laws dating back to the presidency of Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt - and opened the floodgates for corporate campaign money with no realistic chance of closing them. Citizens United was suing on a free speech question of a smaller scope - the proposed broadcasting of an anti-Hillary Clinton film that could be called a "documercial." In any event, this country is ruled by people who would stand to lose a lot of power and influence if the health care law is allowed to kick in. If the law gets kicked out, the losers will by the fifty million Americans who can't get health insurance otherwise. And don't expect Barack Obama to do something about it in Washington. He's only the President down there.

I'm hoping Ed Schultz comments on this revolting development sometime the week. I only hope that, when he does, I'll have the cable and/or electrical service to see it. In the meantime, I saw his show last night and he's lost little if any of his fire due to the change of format and time slot. And - telephone and text message surveys are back! "Psycho Talk" is gone, but at least there's the daily survey.