Wisconsin GOP Leader: We Won't Count Dems' Votes

Wisconsin's Senate Democrats have returned to the state, but they may as well have stayed away as far as Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald is concerned. In a letter to his caucus yesterday, Fitzgerald said the Democrats are still in contempt, and therefore can't vote in the legislature. "They are free to attend hearings, listen to testimony, debate legislation, introduce amendments, and cast votes to signal their support/opposition," he wrote, "but those votes will not count, and will not be recorded."

One Senate Democrat called the letter a "mean-spirited response from a man who lost the battle of public opinion," according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I am not sure what purpose this serves." (More Wisconsin stories.)