Today In WTF? Wisconsin Edition

June 27th, 2011

After the miraculous discovery of unsecured votes in the 11th hour of the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, one might have thought that the victor, Justice David Prosser, would be mindful that his every action would need to bear greater scrutiny. After all, Prosser didn't have the most sterling of reputations prior to the debacle.

Just before the vote, Meg Jones wrote for the Journal Sentinel:

"Prosser recently acknowledged that he called Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a "bitch" behind closed doors and threatened to "destroy her" more than a year ago when the court split over removing fellow Justice Michael Gableman from a criminal case as he faced an ethics allegation."

Flash forward to just two weeks ago. Not only has Justice Prosser seemingly learned no lessons in decorum, much less humility, it is alleged that he has taken his resentment and animosity towards his fellow female justices to dangerous new levels.

From the JS:
"Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley late Saturday accused fellow Justice David Prosser of putting her in a chokehold during a dispute in her office earlier this month.

"The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold," Bradley told the Journal Sentinel."

If true, the actions stipulated by Justice Bradley constitute a felony assault under Wisconsin law.

Now, if you thought that this was the WTF? moment, hold onto your hats. Leave it to the resident, senior legal expert at FOX News, Greta Van Susterin, to devolve the discussion further. In a post from her Gretawire site, a post that has been subsequently scrubbed, Van Susterin coolly analyzed the breaking news and argued that Chief Justice Abrahamson must resign. You read that right.

Greta Van Susterin as quoted by ThinkProgress:

"And while I have no idea who is off the wall (Justice Prosser or Justice Walsh or both), I do know one thing, CHIEF JUSTICE SHIRLEY ABRAHAMSON sure is not doing her job to lead the court and to give confidence to the people of Wisconsin. She needs to step aside and let someone else attempt to run that zoo."



Greta seems to have actually argued that a male Justice allegedly physically assaulting a female Justice is the result of a failure to lead on the part of... another female Justice. Again, Van Susterin has removed the post from her site without comment.

We are requesting that any reader who has a cached version of the Gretawire piece or a screenshot to contact us. The story continues to develop...