Letter to the Editor: Lame Duck Intervals, 62 Days of Terror

A purpose for a November to January time gap between elections and assuming office was justified, in the early days, because travel was arduous from colonial homes to capital cities. The November-December weather was generally bad. There may or may not have been bridges. One of Wisconsin’s first roads was a plank road between Fort Howard (Green Bay) and the Mississippi River. Lame duck legislative sessions were never in place for lawmakers to wreak havoc with the will of November voters and with democracy.

I credit Dr. Kitchens for his willingness to listen to me, read and respond to emails and for his candor and integrity in his recent interview with Editor Jim Lundstrom of the Pulse. One thing about veterinarians is we can smell ketosis in a dairy cow, smell intestinal Ascarids on the breath of a puppy, and smell the stench of lame duck appointments and legislation emanating from the State Capitol.

I believe Dr. Kitchens when he said he “just hated this thing” and I believe he did his best to make the partisan stink less egregious, but still, unlike one or two of his Republican colleagues, he voted for these lame duck measures. At the same time, he is asking for bipartisan support for efforts to reform funding for Wisconsin’s public education. What would bipartisanship look like? There is still plenty of lame duck time for some Republican operatives to cook up more shenanigans, and at the same time, here are more opportunities for Dr. Kitchens and others we’ve re-elected, to honor the democratic process, to exhibit bipartisanship, to do the right thing and either vote no or simply have the proposed lame duck legislation considered in regular session after January 7, 2019.

Lame Duck intervals are an accident of history, and because they have been misused before, as they are today, that does not make it right. The 20th Amendment could easily have rectified this (1). It didn’t. Lame Duck intervals are codified in the Wisconsin Constitution Article XIII, Section 1 Political year, just above Article XIII, Section 2 Dueling. The dueling section was repealed in 1975, although, believe it or not, the vote was pretty close.  

Norman J. Wilsman, DVM

Sturgeon Bay, Wis.