A Few GOP Convention Side Issues Walker wants us to Ignore....

Real issues like jobs and health care take a back seat to these important votes at last weekends GOP convention in Milwaukee. jsonline:

Without debate, the convention passed a resolution opposing the Common Core.

Any alternative plans? Nope.

Oh, and here are a few "side issues" Scott Walker said should get all caught up in:

The convention approved resolutions that included backing "right-to-work" legislation, election reform, gun rights and an expansion of charter school and voucher programs across the state "without limits or strings attached."

Just to recap:

Delegates rejected a measure that demanded Wisconsin pass a bill to declare the Affordable Care Act null and void in the state and forbid state and federal agents from enforcing the act. One delegate said on the floor, "If we pass this, we'll be the laughingstock of America."

Walker said that when Democrats were in charge in Madison, the state's unemployment rate was 9.2%. It's now 5.9%, he said. In December 2010, Doyle's last month in office, the unemployment rate stood at 7.8%, as the state and country were recovering from the Great Recession.

The Journal Sentinel is one of the few papers to note how the Great Recession affected jobs under Gov. Doyle. 

Media Plays Down Yes Vote to Nullify ObamaCare by nearly Half of the Voting Delegates!!!

Were GOP leaders at the secessionist convention really that embarrassed by their party agenda that included nullification of ObamaCare, an unquestionably unconstitutional act?

When 145 vote yes to nullify, and just 303 vote no, I'd say the party wheels are falling off. Nearly a third voted to arrest and prosecute federal officials carrying out the law. From WPR:

Nullification and Secession the Big Issues for GOP Convention Goers....

Journal Sentinel's Dan Bice got a copy of the actual resolution the state GOP will vote on to secede, accept surprise, the even bigger topic is nullification of federal laws. We really are the northern most neo-confederate state. These teabillies are feeling pretty good about themselves and gerrymandered majority:

Republicans Less About Filibuster, more about Nullification!

This great article in The Atlantic by James Fallows hits the mark on filibusters and nullification. Heck, it didn't even occur to me until Fellows wrote about what is basically an observation by one of his readers. Check out all the great links he provides as well:

Not a Filibuster Problem, a Nullification Problem: I mentioned last night, just before a surreal immersion in Sharknado, some of the reasons to be concerned about a governance system many of whose members are uninterested in or actively hostile to the very idea of governance. 

Back to nullification. A reader says that I've missed the point of the latest Congressional standoff:

I actually think "filibuster disaster" is the wrong way of thinking of it.  We don't have a filibuster problem.  We have a nullification problem.  Abuse of the filibuster is just one aspect of it, and one of several tactics. Mass filibuster of presidential nominees to head organizations like the CFPB, NLRB, etc., isn't just an abuse of a tactic.  It's a nullification of federal law.  What's really breathtaking about it isn't the number of filibusters, but the fact that they've dropped all pretense of objecting to the nominees themselves: they say explicitly that they are blocking these nominees because they don't like the laws they would enforce.  

They don't think the CFPB or the NLRB should exist.  They don't have the votes (which is to say, the democratic legitimacy) to make their existence no longer the law of the land, so they nullify those laws by other means.

They do the same thing in the House by simply refusing to fund what they don't like.  They can't get the laws off the books, so they nullify them by other means.  It's a mass deployment of Andrew Jackson's famous reaction to the Supreme Court: some previous congress passed this law, now let them fund it.

GOP-controlled state governments, of course, are nullifying things left and right, or trying to. That's what nullification has historically been: nullification of federal law by the states.  What's new here is that, in essence, the federal government is nullifying itself.  You can even be more specific than that: it's the Congress nullifying itself.

It's bizarre and, to be honest, terrifying... 

For more on modern nullification, see this and this from yesterday's Wonkblog, this from Greg Sargent, and these items (first, second, third) from the past year. Or this Ur-statement from John C. Calhoun.

Republicans in Wyoming toss Constitution, federal gun laws, and enforce only laws they like.

Cafeteria constitutionalists continue to shred the our founding document by saying they're defending it. Yes, its opposite day everyday in Republican world again:

Think Progress: In a move that is as unconstitutional as it is presumptuous, lawmakers in Wyoming have already mounted their effort to block whatever legislative measures Biden might suggest. They aim to nullify any federal law that they do not like, and to create punishments for federal agents who might try to enforce new gun safety measures.

Any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming.

Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony.

And, upon conviction, shall be subject to imprisonment. 

“Constitutional conservatives” either haven’t picked up on this story yet, would rather not say anything that might remove them from power, or are proving just how little they know about their guiding document. Plus, it’s back, “nullification.” Did you ever get the idea these guys really don’t like being a part of the greatest country in the world.

There’s just one glaring problem with the legislators’ plan: If the federal government were to pass such measures, the bill would be unconstitutional. The constitutional theory they are implementing is called “nullification” … The constitution actually stipulates that federal law “shall be the supreme law of the land.”

But just like carrying guns before concealed carry laws, not implementing federal law reforming health care, undermining legal abortions and voting, Republicans only follow laws they like and break all the others. Think I’m exaggerating? Well...:

Rep. Kendell Kroeker adds that, no matter the constitutionality, “I think that its necessary when the federal government violates our rights in the Constitution we have to act.”  On the state’s ballot in November, lawmakers added a proposed constitutional amendment that would have exempted the state from Obamacare. 

But the real reason, paranoia: 

"I think there are a lot of people who would want to take all of our guns if they could."

Nullification pushed by Wisconsin Tea Party Republicans, and "Campaign for Liberty" wacko's.

The symptom is conservatism. Not everyone is susceptible to this mind numbing disease, and not everybody who has it loses the ability to think clearly. But many of those who do are either unaware of their problem, or in denial.

Extreme racism, bigotry, religious zealotry, nationalism and an aversion to the supposed “intellectual elite” (education) are all visible signs of this democracy killing disease.

The Journal Sentinel’s radically conservative editorial board gasped, and broke ranks with this opinion:     

Nine Republicans would like to take us back - way back - to 1832. They are: Sen. Mary Lazich of New Berlin; Reps. Chris Kapenga of Delafield; Don Pridemore of Hartford; Erik Severson of Star Prairie; Tom Larson of Colfax; Scott Krug of Wisconsin Rapids; and three Republicans elected last week - Rob Hutton of Brookfield, Mark Born of Beaver Dam and Dave Murphy of Greenville.

They agreed with a tea party-aligned group, the Campaign for Liberty, that they support "nullification" of the Affordable Care Act - and "authorize state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the unconstitutional health care scheme known as Obamacare."

They also must long for the administration of President Andrew Jackson because that was when this issue was settled. What they represent now is a fringe idea that is so far out as to be laughable - and disturbing.

Said Kapenga: "Just because Obama was re-elected does not mean he's above the Constitution." Kapenga might have a point if the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down Obamacare and the president had continued to push for implementation anyway. But the court, led by Roberts, upheld the law. Maybe Kapenga missed the news.

The Campaign for Liberty nailed down these legislators' support on other issues as well … But the strangest of all is their apparent adoption of the odious idea of nullification. The Campaign for Liberty has endorsed the notion that the 10th Amendment allows states to ignore federal law. Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), the newly elected Assembly speaker, said through a spokeswoman that he has no position on nullification … Really? Why not?

But here's a question any responsible member of the state Legislature should answer: Why in heaven's sake would they even think this is something they should support? No matter how much this retrograde gang may wish it wasn't so, Obamacare is the law of the land. Their constituents may want to remember that they embraced such utter nonsense.

I can guarantee their Democratic challengers will make an issue of these position in a couple years.