Evers mask order upheld; GOP's pre-election evasion ploy fails

I went to a management workshop years ago where the facilitator closed with this summation of successful leadership: "Don't let other people make their problems your problems."

Which is exactly what a judge in northwestern Wisconsin said in effect Monday to Wisconsin's do-nothing GOP legislators when he refused on their behalf to overturn Gov. Evers' mask order.

"The legislature can end the state of emergency at any time, but so far, it has declined to do so. As the statewide representative body of the citizens of Wisconsin, the legislature’s inaction is relevant and it weighs against judicial intervention, especially when the requested intervention will have statewide impact," Waterman wrote.

I'd looked at the case last week, here.

Unwilling to play errand boy for the accountability-ducking duo of Vos and Fitzgerald - 

 - St. Croix County Circuit Court Judge R. Michael Waterman - a Walker appointee - told GOP legislators who joined the case through a taxpayer-funded legal brief they could have convened anytime to kill the Governor Evers' emergency moves.

Amazing that the same ol' boys - 

- who'd been grabbing power from the Governor for the last two years when it suited their ideological agendas - some examples, here - and who openly wished they had broken off more for themselves while they were at it - had to be reminded by a judge that they already had the power to do with Evers' mask order what they hoped the judiciary would step in and do for them. 

Of course, debating the Governor's masking policy in a public legislative session - remember those quaint events of yore? - and then voting to overturn it  - otherwise known as 'doing your job,' or 'taking responsibility' or displaying the 'courage [sic] of your convictions [sic, LOL] - would also mean opposing a common sense and science-based proven practice that has broad public support because people know wearing a mask might keep others off a ventilator and their grandparents alive.

Everyday people who, unlike state legislators, have been able to acquire this knowledge while managing work and kids and stress about money and fear of disease from home for the same 180 days during which Vos and Fitzgerald enjoyed full taxpayer salaries and benefits and campaign schedules of their choosing.

So the question is for GOP leaders who have have been kicked to the curb in a courtroom where their judge-shopped case got punted because you can't always control such outcomes:

Will these same one-dimensional partisan cowards dare come back into public session before the election - of course well-protected by Zoom, or further swathed inside their chambers by hypocrisy and all the protective personal equipment good money can buy -

- and overturn the Governor's mask order?

In the face of catastrophic data that highlights our state's high-profile COVID-19 hot spot status?

Or will they continue to follow a pathogen-ridden and partisan playbook which prefers griping and sniping until the election is over when they can't be held accountable by the voters?

Stay tuned.