WI GOP State Senator Roth and his flaming pants

The veteran character Phil Roth - - no, not the more famous author Philip Roth - - played a doctor in the film adaptation of Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" which chronicled the insanity of war.

Now another Roth is playing a role in the insanity that is the GOP-led Wisconsin State Legislature.

Appleton GOP WI State Senator Roger Roth was caught with his pants on fire by PolitiFact for saying that his party's lame-duck legislation did not take away any of now-Gov. Evers and AG Kaul's powers - - a noteworthy bonfire  of the State Capitol insanities because Roth is no backbencher. 

He's President of the State Senate where those lame-duck power-grabbing bills were approved and moved along for Walker's signature.

In the lame-duck session, "no power was taken away from the governor. Power was not taken away from the attorney general."

— Roger Roth on Sunday, December 16th, 2018 in an appearance on "UpFront with Mike Gousha" on WISN-TV

The Senate President is that body's presiding officer, says the official Wisconsin Blue Book in the legislative section and p. 133, which makes Roth more or less like the crew chief umpiring at a baseball game. So literally has to be on the ball.

Now I also see that Roth had cleared the galleries when his party was ram-rodding the bills towards passage, so perhaps he'd ordered himself to the hallways for a while during an admittedly strenuous session and maybe missed something:

Republican Senate President Roger Roth ordered the galleries cleared shortly after debate began Tuesday. That led to an outburst of anger and shouts of "Shame!" from those forced to leave...

The Senate is debating lame-duck measures taking power away from the Democratic-elect governor and attorney general.

If not, you then have to wonder if Roth even reads the bills he's presiding over.

Or saw the morning Wisconsin State Journal's Dec. 5th story after his State Senate cast its deciding vote:

GOP lawmakers vote in wee hours to pass lame-duck bill curtailing powers of governor, attorney general

Or had read how his hometown Appleton Post-Crescent described the legislation the next day, December 6th, a full ten days before Roth lit his pants on fire:

The proposals would restrict the powers of Gov.-elect Tony Evers by, among other things, giving Republicans more control of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., including a program that can give tax breaks to businesses.

The legislation, which was passed only after hours of closed-door meetings among Republican lawmakers, will also hamper soon-to-be Attorney General Josh Kaul by making it more difficult to withdraw from a federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. 

So it's hard to see how Roth could get this wrong. Like I said, imagine if the crew chief umpiring a baseball playoff game was unaware of what happened in the bottom of the ninth inning. Or thought the winning run hadn't scored.

And speaking of games, PolitiFact in fact explains the game that Roth - - or should I say the staffer who had to throw up the chaff - - was actually playing:

Asked for backup, Roth spokeswoman Angela Roidt said the powers of the governor and attorney general are spelled out in the state Constitution, and that wasn’t changed. So, she said, their powers were not affected by the bills. 

But that’s a very narrow and technical view. Merriam-Webster defines power as "the ability to act or produce an effect." 

Roidt also argued the bills only affected "legislative oversight." But power and oversight are generally a zero-sum game — if one entity is gaining it, another is losing... 

The lame-duck bills transparently limited Evers’ and Kaul’s power on numerous fronts, including appointments, spending and rule-making. 

Roth’s claim is not only wrong, it’s ridiculous. We rate it Pants on Fire.

Remember: We all pay these legislators more than $50,000 a year and load them up with perks so they can have their fun even when wrong and ridiculous.