Jay Weber transcript 11-11-20 7:10am
My friends...I don’t know if the Republicans in Madison are inclined to cooperate with Governor Evers on more covid-19 measures...given our ever-increasing numbers...
But I do know that Evers’ call for cooperation and working together last night was high-irony.
The high-irony here is that Gov Evers and his team have had the avenue of cooperation open to them for nine months and have refused to work together with the GOP legislature.
Folks-the reason Tony Evers is floundering now, and has no moral authority on any new covid-19 measures he suggests...is because he and his team have insulted Wisconsinites and other Wisconsin leaders repeatedly ...since taking office...
And because when this covid-19 crisis it, the governor issued a series of bullying orders instead of following the law and the Wisconsin constitution...and getting buy-in from the other 132 elected officials in Madison.
And yes, I’m counting the people in his own party and on his own side of the aisle. Evers and Sith Gau didn’t ask any of their own party members to participate in forming reasonable covid-19 plans, either. They just started issuing blanket, bulling, emergency shut down orders.
And let’s remember where the rift really occurred. Let’s be clear on why Gov Evers finds himself with no legal...or moral...authority here.
He and his putrid team of handlers who just...cannot...get over a decade’s worth of grudges over the successful walker era...
Never even tried to follow the law and implement a legal and defensible covid-19 plan after that first 60 day emergency order ran out.
Do you remember how this played out?
After the first-legitimate- 60 day emergency window that Evers’ team had to call all of the shots and lock down businesses and all the rest...
The law says they need to get legislative input to either extend that order...or manage the continuing crisis.
Wisconsin’s other 132 elected officials-which we, the people, send to Madison to represent our parochial interests- must be a part of the process. There’s a rule making process Evers could have followed...or a legislative process he could have followed. He did neither.
Please remember the scummy move that Evers and Gau pulled at the end of May...in blindsiding everyone by issuing a second emergency extension for another 60 days.
They tried to cut out the republican controlled legislature and leaders Scott Fitzgerald and Robin Vos completely.
The ugly Evers team tried to do an illegal end-around on 132 other elected officials!
That is when republicans sued and got that emergency extension stopped and Wisconsin reopened. That was, when? Early June?
And to this day.
To this very day. Six months later. Neither Tony Evers nor his team members have extended a hand of cooperation to Republican or Democrat leaders in the legislature.
Evers has tried to issue several more mandates and emergency orders since, sure. Like the mask mandate and the 25% occupancy limit...
But guess what? No one outside of the areas that are tightly controlled by democrats is following them.
The vast majority of Wisconsinites and Wisconsin businesses have ignored Gov Evers’ most recent mandates and orders.
Why?
And this is important: why won’t most Wisconsinites follow Evers’ subsequent mandates?
The answer is: because he lost their respect long ago.
Governor Evers and his admin...lost the respect of a huge, huge chunk of the Wisconsin people, and other Wisconsin leaders, when he tried to play dictator and go rogue and bully Wisconsinites into compliance with orders instead of negotiating more reasonable rules with other elected officials.
This! Is why Gov Evers is standing...Impotent....on an island by himself.
This is why he needed a ‘major statewide address’ last evening...to try to regain some of his political and moral authority.
Because Tony Evers, himself, has botched this covid-19 response and he has gotten some really, really bad advice from agroup of socialist progressives around him who are still holding grudges and are primarily driven by trying to get ‘pay back’ on Wisconsin republicans for 8 years of GOP dominance and reforms.
This is where Gov Evers is where he is.
And it is why his approval ratings have sunk like a stone in the last several Marquette polls.
He-Tony Evers- and his putrid team- have mishandled this crisis, terribly. And now he’s grasping for a lifeline.
He’s hoping that some prime time speech last night will put some pressure on Madison Republicans to toss him a lifeline.
Every time i have had Vos and Fitz on over the last nine months, i have asked them the same question. Intentionally.
Has the governor contacted you in any way...and request a genuine effort at covid-19 cooperation?
No.
The latest was Scott Fitzgerald just a little over a week ago: has Governor Evers extended a hand and said, no kidding, we need to get together to see if we can do something about these escalating numbers.
Because, folks, that’s leadership. That is-by definition-what a governor is meant to do.
Fitz’s answer was a flat- no. Nope.
Tony Evers-who is quickly becoming one of Wisconsin’s worst governors ever- has patently refused to extend a hand of cooperation to Fitz and Vos or even asked for input from the leaders of his own party...for over 8 or 9 months now.
And I want to emphasize...that as he makes his little plea for cooperation and unity last night-
I want to emphasize and any honest reporter should emphasize...that this avenue of cooperation has always been there. Fitz and Vos requested input in the middle of May...because they knew the governor was going to try to cut them out of the decision making as his first shut down order expired.
They had a good idea of what was coming...as did Evers. It’s why he and Sith Gau and the bitter haters in their office made an illegal power grab and tried to layer a second emergency extension on top of the other one...out of the blue...catching everyone off-guard.
Last night he said:
Screw you! You’re the one who has displayed a lack of character and compassion for nine months. You’re the one who tried to bully Wisconsinites into extended shut downs and take away our civil rights...as well as our right to make a living.
You’re the one who has refused to cooperate with anyone...or actually-lead- by swallowing your pride and trying to bring lawmakers together.
Tony Evers is no leader. Decades hanging out atop a useless educational bureaucracy hid that fact...but he hasn’t made a single good decision since becoming governor.
He hasn’t made a single-difficult-decision since becoming governor.
And he hasn’t exhibited an ability to cooperate and compromise and -lead- since becoming governor.
And as for covid-19: the very way he has mishandled the response with his blanket, bullying orders, has caused most Wisconsinites to tune him out and write him off.
My god: most of the State’s County Sheriffs have said publicly- several times now- we aren’t going to enforce those orders.
Imagine that.
I don’t know if i have ever seen that in 35 years of doing this: the sheriffs of nearly all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties -and numerous mayors- say openly: you can ignore the most recent ramblings of Gov Evers. We’re not enforcing that order here.
That! Is likely unprecedented in this state and speaks to how much credibility Tony Evers has lost with other elected officials.
photo credit: Fox 6 news