South of the border: Dem senators share snippets of life on the lam

[Pharaoh]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_176d994e-4454-11e0-95d2-001cc4c002e0.html


Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, steps off the elevator to his latest hideout, a downtown Chicago hotel room he found for eighty bucks a night on Priceline.com.

He steps into the hotel’s lime-green and gold lobby and makes a beeline for the free coffee and Kleenex. “I gotta blow my nose,” he says, and blows.

Life on the run hasn’t been exactly glamorous for Erpenbach and the 13 other Democratic senators who fled Wisconsin Feb. 17 to prevent a vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial budget repair bill. Their strategy relies on Senate rules that require a quorum of 20 legislators to vote on bills with a fiscal impact.

It’s been an exhausting rush from hotel to hotel — with tea party activists sometimes in mad pursuit — and a blur of phone calls and e-mails as senators struggle to stay on top of breaking developments back home, where throngs of protesters have occupied the State Capitol for about as long as the senators have been driving around Illinois.

[dragonlady]

1. Senate just passed a bill to punish them financially

If they don't show up within two days from tomorrow, they will be fined $100 per day, assessed the cost of sending troopers to search for them, and
"Maj Ldr can also direct clerk to cease expense reimbursements, parking privileges for all staff until end of biennium". Sorry, I don't have a link, this is from a twitter feed.

[snagglepuss]

2. It's too bad, some democrats couldn't billet them. These senators aren't just doing

a great service for Wisconsin but for the nation and for the Democratic Party. These guys are walking the walk.




:loveya: