Wisconsin GOPer And Fugitive Dem Meet At McDonald’s In Kenosha

Wisconsin State Sens. Scott Fitzgerald (R) and Tim Cullen (D)
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Some semblance of negotiations are beginning in the standoff in Wisconsin, where state Senate Democrats have fled the state in order to block a budget quorum on Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-public employee union proposals — but only a semblance.

As the Wisconsin State Journal reports, GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald and Democratic state Sen. Tim Cullen met on Monday in Wisconsin — at a McDonald’s in Kenosha, right near the Illinois state line.

Fitzgerald is taking the meeting as a sign that some Democrats could be itching to return home: “”There’s six, seven, eight, nine of them that are starting to say, ‘Listen, we’re starting to look like we’re out of touch with what’s going on in Madison, and it’s time to get back.”

However, Cullen told the paper that a lone return will not happen. “No one will go back and be the 20th vote,” said Cullen. “We’ll go back as a group.”

Of note, Cullen was the same Democrat who Walker said he’d reached out to, on the infamous phone call with reporter Ian Murphy posing as Republican billionaire David Koch. Walker said: “So he’s good to reach out to for me, but he’s not a, he’s not a conservative. He’s just a pragmatist.”

Fitzgerald appeared Tuesday night on Greta Van Susteren’s FOX TV show, saying that the collective bargaining provisions in Walker’s proposal were not up for negotiation. He also reiterated his belief that the meeting — which included a number of unidentified Democrats, according to Fitzgerald — meant that some of the Dems wanted to come back.

In response, Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach told Van Susteren: “I think a couple of senators, from what I understand, met with Scott. I don’t know what was discussed. But I got to believe that we’re a little more firm in our stance. Now to hear again from Senator Fitzgerald that he wants us to come back and debate something that’s not negotiable. I don’t know how that’s going to break any stalemate.”

He also added: “But to a senator, all 14 of us have agreed we’re not going to be the 20th senator on the floor. We’re not even going to be the 21st senator on the floor.”

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