Ok, I'm surrendering and calling this what it has turned out to be on most past Fridays: a news dump day. The day of the week that "bad news" get announced in hopes that it will be completely ignored because news staff and us regular folks are busy going to Friday fries, planning our weekends, and weekend news coverage is incredibly thin for those of us even paying attention. Newspapers and news don't have a big viewership on weekends so bad news doesn't get much press or attention from the citizenry.
So they "throw out the garbage" on Fridays, usually late afternoon hoping and praying that no one notices. Well, they throw it out and I go through their trash.
Things are starting slowly, but I'm hoping that the pace of big tidbits picks up as the day moves along.
Out of the starting gate is Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice David (The Choker) Prosser
He has now officially submitted motions for Justice Ann Bradley (his victim) and Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson (she's the one he called a "total bitch" last year) to recuse themselves from his upcoming ethics trial in front of the State Supreme Court.
Prosser alleges in the petitions that both Bradley and Abrahamson are biased against him.PDF file submitted against Justice Bradley can be viewed here.
PDF file submitted against Chief Justice Abrahamson can be viewed here.
In an interview, Prosser said he likely will file additional petitions for recusal that, if successful, could kill the case since only the Supreme Court can mete out discipline to judges in Wisconsin.
The Supreme Court has been asked by the Judicial Commission to find Prosser guilty of three ethics violations for the June 13 incident. The physical altercation occurred in Bradley’s chambers during an argument over the timing of the release of a 4-3 Supreme Court opinion that upheld passage of the state’s controversial collective bargaining law.No, he doesn't even want his ethics case even heard by what would be a RW majority of justices on the State Supreme Court if his 2 motions are granted. He doesn't want the lingering suspiscions that linger over fellow RW Justice Gablemann whose own ethics violations, heard before the State Supreme Court, ended with a political ideology 3-3 tie and died because of that deadlocked decision. No, he wants everyone to forget that an impartial panel even filed charges. Let's move on, nothing to see here, seems to be his goal.The complaint alleges Prosser “willfully” violated the Supreme Court rule that requires a judge be dignified and courteous to people “with whom the judge deals in an official capacity,” the rule requiring judges to “promote the satisfactory administration of justice” by cooperating with each other and the requirement that judges personally observe “high standards of conduct.”
Prosser has called the ethics charges “partisan, unreasonable and largely untrue.” He has sought to paint Bradley as the aggressor in the incident.
He's being represented by Wauwatosa law firm Gunta & Reak SC. I don't know if he's getting the sweet deal that Gablemann got during this ethics case by being represented for free (and later voting in favor of that law firm in every case they brought before the State Supreme Court - a coincidence, he says).
Moving on....