We here in Madison are fortunate to be represented in the House by Tammy Baldwin, the first woman elected to Congress by the state of Wisconsin, an excellent legislator, and a wonderful pubilc servant.

Our friends to the east are not so lucky. They are represented by F. James Sensenbrenner of Menominee Falls. Yes, that F. James Sensenbrenner, who rewrote the Congressional Record to accuse Democrats of supporting child molestors. The very same F. James Sensenbrenner who gavelled closed a Congressional hearing on the PATRIOT Act because he didn’t like the questions. When the Democratic members of the committee objected, he ordered their microphones shut off before slinking through a side door. C-SPAN recorded the entire shameful incident. No points for guessing what the F stands for.

And now Angry James is at it again, this time directing his imperious wrath at his constituents. Tim Schilke reports for Fighting Bob on a Q&A session Sunday night in Pewaukuee, in which the Congressman was challenged for storming out of the hearing:

Sensenbrenner: [The agenda] was chosen by Democrats and Mr. Conyers. And again, if that went on in any courtroom, you know, where irrelevant testimony that did not relate to the issue that was before the court, the court would have had to abstain, ah, sustain an objection. I didn’t do that I let ‘em talk!

Constituent: I’m not asking for an apology for that, I’m asking for an apology for your behavior. For your huffing, your puffing, (Sensenbrenner supporter in front of me can be heard: “OH, Come on…”) your interrupting them, and your screaming and shouting. I’m not yelling at you, but you’re yelling at me. So now I ask you personally for an apology because you’re yelling at me.

Sensenbrenner (interrupting): The hearing was over with, and that’s why the hearing was adjourned (Sensenbrenner supporter can be heard: Yeah, yeah, Pfff). Everybody who was there was able to have, after five minutes to be recognized to say what they wanted to say. The witnesses spoke for five minutes, they were able to answer questions that were offered to them by members of the committee, and the fact is that…

Constituent: They actually weren’t able to answer all the questions…

Sensenbrenner (interrupting): Well, because the time ran out, and you know the thing is…

(Much laughter throughout the room. Obviously, the reason “time ran out” on June 10 is simply because Sensenbrenner himself ran it out when the gavel came down, mid objection.)

Me (laughing): Point of Order!

(Forget publishing a book, this was the highlight of my year hands down. Sensenbrenner shoots a look across the room, looking for the offending satirist.)

Sensenbrenner: The thing is, when you ask a question that’s 4 minutes and 55 seconds long…

Constituent: It’s common courtesy to allow somebody to expound on a question…

Sensenbrenner: No it isn’t, because, and…

Constituent: And you have the power…

(At this point, I shut down my recording device due to funny looks.)

There’s audio available from the Fighting Bob website. The text doesn’t convey his condescension, his sense of entitlement, his anger at our impudence in questioning him, his belief in his own power, nearly as well as the audio does. Tim concludes:

The outcome of the Sunday evening session was important. I now realize that my Congressman is dangerous; but not simply because he’s a Republican, and not because he’s got control of an important committee discussing the elimination of the sunset dates on 18 potentially controversial Patriot Act components. Rather, he’s dangerous because he appears to have been poisoned by the power of his position, to the point that he has forgotten who he works for.

Who is that, you ask? He works for me. And he works for you. When I complete my term-end performance review of Mr. Sensenbrenner, you can be sure I will be dinging him in the areas of constituent responsiveness, communication skills, tolerance of diverse opinion, and leadership ability

Democrat Bryan Kennedy is running to replace Mr. Sensenbrenner in 2006. With a lot of hard work, we can throw the bum out and send someone to Congress who will stand up for the middle class and the working people of Wisconsin, someone who understands the importance of defending our civil liberties whenver they are jeopardized, and someone of whom Wisconsin can be proud.

Update: 6/28 5:45PM: I’ve been reliably informed that the technical term for the Honorable Mr. Sensenbrenner’s behavior is batshit crazy.

Posted by Ben at 10:33 am, 28 June 2005 and filed under Wisconsin News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.