Former WI AG Says Walker May Have Broken Laws During Prank Phone Call

[Tx4obama]

Former Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager says there are three potential ethics, election, and labor law violations in the prank phone call taken by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Full article here: http://www.alan.com/2011/02/25/former-wi-ag-says-walker-may-have-broken-laws-during-prank-phone-call/

[napi21]

1. Go get him! nt

[Brickbat]

2. Which means nothing until someone actually investigates.

[AlabamaLibrul]

5. Obama DOJ has set a terrible prescedent on investigating governmental crimes

but I hold out hope.

[FBaggins]

9. What federal charges could their possibly be?

These would be state offenses if anything.

[AlabamaLibrul]

11. Justice is maintained from the top down - whether there are federal charges or not

which, is an interesting thought but not really what I was considering anyway, what kind of example is it to refuse to prosecute war crimes?

[midnight]

3. K&R

[savalez]

4. I saw that Thursday. They've got to investigate it.

I wonder if it's enough to hold it up in court.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x590103

[elocs]

6. Two big words here are "former" and "may".

If Democrats held any power in this state there may be hope for an investigation of some kind. As it stands now that is unlikely.

[FBaggins]

7. Good luck with that. Think the current AG will agree?

This is the guy who just cut a deal with a drilling company for a mere $7k fine and has already declared HCR "dead" in WI.

The Republican senators will say "oh dear... that sounds serious. We need to hold a vote re: whether or not to investigate. You guys just come on back for that vote. We'll play nice."

Regardless, it's a tough case to make.

There's no way to demonstrate what the governor meant when he said they "considered" it... and the fact that he rejected the idea pretty much shields him from liability.

The second count is even tougher. Almost all of the potential "unfair labor practice violation"s are irrelevant for state employees. Those that remain would be tough to enforce when the debate is whether or not to change that law. You can't argue that they can't undo the law because doing so would violate that law.

The third is the closest to on-target, but who would prosecute when he didn't actually accept any gift?

If the caller had kept the recording rather than releasing it... and waited until the hypothetical trip took place... then he would have a problem. But the recording would be too late to help on the larger issue.

[HereSince1628]

8. Lautenschlager should have let an attorney with SOBER judgment

DRIVE these accusations. If you catch my drift.

No matter how able she may be, she is too politically vulnerable to discrediting.

Sorry but it's true, politics ain't mumbledeepeg.

[AsahinaKimi]

10. I don't have much faith in a broken system

The rule of law used to mean something. Now it only applies to the "little people" which is why people like Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc are still walking around free. If we have learned ANYTHING at DU, it is..


The LAW NEVER APPLIES TO RICH REPUBLICANS.


But, maybe the State of Wisconsin will surprise me, by jumping up and bitting him on his ass.

[deacon]

12. Big kickith!