Friday, November 02, 2007

An Assault on the Constitution.

This bastardization of the legislative process is finally on its way out in Wisconsin. As things stand currently, the governor of Wisconsin can (and does) sign into law a bill which is markedly different from the one passed by the legislature. How? By crossing out words, numbers and punctuation to create new sentences with completely different meanings from what was intended originally. Up until 1990 Wisconsin's governor would sometimes cross out individual letters. Even now s/he can cross out individual numbers.

Check out this example from a Milwaukee newspaper. (The pdf is hosted on a republican senator's webpage - though despite her protestations, Governors of both parties have been guilty of abusing the line-item veto. Currently a Democrat holds the Governorship.)

Here's another example.

Incidentally, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld this ridiculous veto usage.