Wisconsin AG's Police Arrest Video and Press Conference

TMJ4 Report ^ | 2-26-04

[Indy Pendance]

Peg Lautenschlager's Arrest Video

Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager apologizes in news conference following her guilty plea to drunk driving.

[DManA]

Here's the lesson we should learn from the chief law enforcment officer of Ws. If arrested, do not cooperate. Refuse to say or do anything until your lawyer shows up.

I guess that's the smart thing.

[HRC]

Anyone want to bet that the fact she is a (D) will not make the news? If this was a Republican AG, this would be front news all over the country.
NAAG

[BlazingArizona]

Does this mean that Wisconsin will steal her car and strip her assets?

Oh, wait - that treatment is just for peons.

[July 4th]

Does this mean that Wisconsin will steal her car and strip her assets?

That would be kind of funny, since I think she was driving a state-owned vehicle. (whoops!)

[Indy Pendance]

(Wisconsin Attorney General) Lautenschlager arrested for DUI

"A Democrat, she is a former state legislator and U.S. attorney appointed by former President Clinton. She was elected the state's first female attorney general in 2002.

[george wythe]

I'll pay good money for the video of Janet Reno being stopped for driving while drunk and being let go while she was a State Attorney in Miami.

I guess I'll have to wait a long time to see it.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Thanks for the link. Her video "apology" was completely self-centered. She spent most of it talking about what a "difficult day" Tuesday had been for her and how "we all" need to work harder to make drunk driving less of a problem. She only admitted making "bad decision", not that she had broken the law.

The video can be archived (11 Mbytes) by right clinking here.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

This should be required viewing for lots of people: parents whose teenager kids are just getting their drivers licenses, people at AA meetings, etc. etc. etc.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Yes, you're right. Not once did she say she was sorry for having actually broken the law. Amazing for an Attorney General, huh?

[Indy Pendance]

It's all about her feelings, her mistake, blah, blah, blah. Taking full responsibility would be resigning.

[rj45mis]

"It's all about her feelings, her mistake, blah, blah, blah. Taking full responsibility would be resigning."

I agree. That is very typical of how leftists handle their mistakes. They seek to elicit an emotional "you poor thing" response from the very people they are disgusted by under other circumstances.

[An American In Dairyland]

>>That would be kind of funny, since I think she was driving a state-owned vehicle. (whoops!)<<

That means she was driving *my* car. Note in the video at the end she apologizes to everyone BUT the citizens of Wisconsin. Not even to the stoopid Demoncrats who put her in office (of which I am not one).

I accept her apology (such as it was) as an individual woman who screwed up and regrets it. However, as the highest law enforcement officer of my state, I demand she resign.

[FR_addict]

Pleading guilty and accepting the consequences of her plea is taking responsibilty. I think she did a good job in her apology.

Let's be fair. She took responsibility much better than the Republican Congressman who killed the motorcyclist.

U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow (R-South Dakota) pleaded not guilty on Friday, September 26, to felony manslaughter and other charges related to the death of motorcyclist Randolph Scott.

[Indy Pendance]

She never once admitted to breaking the law she was elected to uphold, and plus arrested while driving a state vehicle. If this would have been a republican AG, or Ashcroft, this story would be breaking news on every media outlet. And their jobs would be ruined. This is more about the attack mode of the liberals against conservatives, it's a double standard they strive for.

[blackdog]

The bitch in the ditch needs to understand that everyone is "sorry" they were caught driving while intoxicated. She's no variation to the club.

Since she accepts full responsibility for her actions I guess she'll be fired from her job gig. It's tough to ride a bike to and from her compound in Fondulac to Madison every day. And how would "taking full responsibility" involve using a state paid driver to provide her her transportation?

[Indy Pendance]

She can apply for an occupational license, which she'll probably be granted, and she'll still get to drive her tax payer vehicle, which, insurance rates will remain the same. Only her personal insurance will rise, if she even opts to use her own car.

[Indy Pendance]

Just a little background on what's being covered up here.

Lautenschlager: AG's alcohol level was 0.12 (Wisconsin Democrat - Won't Quit)

Lautenschlager told the deputy she had a couple glasses of wine at a Madison tavern, consuming her last one at about 10 p.m. She also said she had taken a tablet of the muscle relaxant Flexeril at about 4 p.m. Flexeril, which has a therapeutic cycle of about eight hours, can enhance the effects of alcohol.

Criminal Number 18F

Wow, just a fine and a loss of licence? To me the serious thing is the Cyclobenzaprine (Flexeril) abuse. It is a powerful drug, NOT to be combined with alcohol. If she was taking that and drinking she is probably a pretty heavy abuser of prescription drugs.

Cyclobenzaprine is a powerful muscle relaxant. It's often given for joint pain, soft tissue damage, tendinitis. The standard boilerplate on the package from your pharmacist will say, "do not drive or operate machinery." And there are extremely strict cautions against combining it with alcohol. For most people it's not a problem because it slows them down enough to put them right to sleep.

The interactions are listed as: "Alcohol and other CNS [Central Nervous System] Depressants potentiated." What that means is it makes the effect of booze much more powerful. The booze also enhances the drug. If you were to take a Flexeril and then go boozing, you would feel like you were going 70 when you were only going 30 (like our Peg). And if you needed to react to anything, your arms would be too rubbery to turn the wheel and legs too rubbery to work the brakes.

And then, why do you want to take this stuff in the first place: "adverse reactions are drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, headache, hypotension, nausea, etc..."

This lady is a serious and extreme drug abuser... the people of Wisconsin are probably not safe unless she turns in her licence for good, or does a good inpatient rehab (30 days or so). Otherwise she's gonna do it again. It was blind luck she didn't kill anyone... she had no more control over that car than if she was in the back seat.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

Flexeril

[Glenn]

She admitted her guilt. She'll accept her punishment. I can live with that. No sense beating people up when they do the right thing. And this was the right thing.

[Colonel_Flagg]

For most people it's not a problem because it slows them down enough to put them right to sleep.

Boy, can I speak to this. I was put on Flexiril for a time when I was in college due to a back injury. After I took one I had half an hour to get wherever I was going because after that I was sound asleep.

Thankfully for me, I took the bus to and from school.

[eddie willers]

It's a shame it took 14 posts before somebody got it right.
She stepped up to the plate, took responsibility and plead guilty.

Rare at all these days, much less with public officials.

[Indy Pendance]

And even rarer that the main stream media refuses to analyze it unless of course it's a conservative. This woman was not only drinking, but taking Flexeril on top of that (see post #18). Of course, it's not important she was driving a taxpayer vehicle, and it's not important that the previous AG just happens to be our Governor, and happens to be a democrat. Nah, none of that matters. Taking responsibility for your actions, when you are the top cop in the state would be resigning from that position. It's obvious she can not abide by the state laws. All that's important is she's sorry. Sorry is always good enough for a liberal.

[blackdog]

What is responsibility? Actions have consequences.

Let me explain to you how it works in the real world......

Mary Jane Doe goes out after work, celebrating her department's third quater results and as the manager pats all on the back with a fine meal, BUT NO BOOZE.

Now after the meal, Mary remains behind with two other managers and ties on a load. Now Mary, unable to ask a coworker or lesser for a ride home, as that would break the managerial rule, drives it alone.

Mary is now pulled over for a DUI because the tires at the establishment she was at were chalk marked to be spotted by a light down the road held by a cop. Mary has no idea why she's been pulled over.

Mary blows a .012 in the breathylizer and is handcuffed, and spends the night in lockup. In the morning she calls her employer first to explain she will not be in. She then gets released and gets her lawyer.

Mary now loses her drivers license, cannot drop her kids at daycare, was fired from her job due to her actions and unavailability to travel for her job, rent a car, or work late hours. Mary has her insurance trippled and her homeowners got increased for some risk reason unexplained.

Mary cannot get a new job, let alone one as the state's atty general because nobody will hire a person with a DUI.

Now Mary was sorry for what she did, and she took full responsibility for her actions, but somehow Mary's life has a different definition of "Full Responsibility" Than the Attorney General.

Mary's kids are now on the county WIC foodstamp program. Mary had to sell parcels of her family farm to keep her house and she's working at McDonalds making $6.80 per hour to feed and clothe her kids. Her kids by the way who used to go to private school and who's mom used to make $84,000 per year. Their prospects for college are somewhat slim now.

Mary is a person who lives about a mile from where I live. She took full responsibility and her life and the life of hers children was ruined.

Somehow Peg Lautenshlogged's full responsibility comes from an alternate universe.

[w1andsodidwe]

Anyone want to bet that the fact she is a (D) will not make the news?

This fact will prevent her from having to resign.

[unspun]

What an OUTRAGEOUS sob story, she gives!

Yeah, what an "apology...." Go home, Attorney General.

[republicanwizard]

I can't forgive the twit, the Dean supporting windbag. A couple weeks ago, I learned who she was by seeing her at a Dean rally. I thought it was very inappropriate for an attorney general. Now I find out that she drove drunk. Honestly, this dingbat has no idea of what her job is. It is to enforce the law. Then when the twit breaks it, she says that we, as a people, don't realize the danger of drinking and driving. The pretentious bag of wind insulted the American people. I'm 20, and I've never drove drunk. I didn't take an oath to uphold the law. The people of Wisconsin ought to demand her resignation.

[MindBender26]

Since she is the chief law enforcement officer of the state, how can she now effectively enforce any laws?

Where is her resignation?

[Indy Pendance]

These liberal apologists are something.

[JohnnyZ]

Oh wow . . . I can't stop laughing at this video

I gather that we're supposed to feel sorry for her, huh? LOL

[KINGEDWARDIII]

Her speach was very self-centered, but she is doing the right thing by pleading guilty. Did anyone notice that even though it was her that broke the law, she was lecturing the whole state about the problems of drunk driving. Advice for public officials in the future, just plead guilty and shutUP. That says it all. You won't change the mind of the person that hates you, or the person that thinks a DUI should involve you going to hell, but by being stoic you can get the respect of people that understand that people make mistakes. Being AG and in a state car and lawyering up makes it worse but hey, she was drunk!
One other thing, drunk drivers don't kill, drunk drivers that kill kill!!

[gorush]

It's funny to listen to all the enablers in the media always say that she is taking full responsibility and that it's a wonderful thing that no innocents were injured. If innocents had been injured they would be using a different rationalization, something closer to the Ted Kennedy treatment.

Chuck Chvala is still a State Senator with 4 or 5 felonies being litigated. Democrats have no shame and never see a need to resign from public office. Let's compare the outcomes of the scandals of Chvala, Clinton, Kennedy, Lautenschlager and Frank with Livingston, Gingrich, Lott and Packwood.

Granted, Lautenschlager is guilty of a minor infraction. The fact that she was driving a STATE car is where her treatment will differ from most others. She was embarrassed, will pay over $700 in fines and has gratefully agreed to pay for damage to the STATE vehicle. That's it, and that is considered to be taking full responsibility. Now can't we just move on?

[Indy Pendance]

Of course, she's a Democrat. GOD forbid she was a Republican. Holy Moly, she'd be toast.

[Indy Pendance]

Her speach was exactly what any democrat would have said. She's sorry, let's move on, nothing to see here. Oh, wait, there's that little thing called Flexeril (see #18)

[Indy Pendance]

And the enablers on this thread, she said she was sorry! Geez, let's move on, let's drop it. Of course, if it was a conservative, we'd know the birth weight of their second born, which is in direct correlation to the glass of wine consumed by the mother in 1985, at a party hosted by a friend, of the one poor sole incarcerated for DUI, who met Ronald Reagan at a White House social. Not only is it Bush's fault, it's clearly Ronald Reagan's fault, those ****ing conservatives.

[MediaMole]

One issue that hasn't been brought up is the state's policy for state employees who are caught driving drunk in a state-owned vehicle.

She should be subject to the same disciplinary action that one of her employees would face in the same situation.

[Indy Pendance]

She's the top law enforcer, who broke the laws. She has no other recourse than to resign. Right....

[Dr Snide]

as someone who is a WI state employee who is issued a state car myself I can say that the standard result of this is to be fired. I signed an agreement to that effect when I got my car. I'm not even suppose to go shopping with it let along out drinking. Despite her claims that she will subject herself to the same consequences as any other state employee in the same circumstance I suspect she won't get fired or quit like I would have to. That's the party of the people for you. So let me get this right, fighting against the 2nd Amendment as she did recently is ok because gun are dangerous but drunk drivers are different?

[Indy Pendance]

In you're position, do you have the authority to weigh in on this? Do you have 'clout'? Thanks if you can, and it should be done. These liberals know no boundries, unless it's a conservative.

[MediaMole]

That was my assumption.

IMHO, a state car isn't supposed to be used for commuting, especially a 150mile(?) round trip daily. There are exceptions, but a daily commute from Fondulac to Madison is really pushing the limits.

FWIW, the State Patrol wheel of drunkenness says that for a 135lb woman, it would take 4 drinks to hit .12, more than that if time had passed.

[laconic]

Why didn't Mary leave her car parked at the restaurant and call a cab home? That's the stupidity of it; not wanting to spend maybe $15 on a cab ride when her insurance will rise by more than that for each day she drives after a dui conviction, not to say what she'll spend on fines, evaluation, classes and rides. Norway has the right idea; young guys go into a place like Bergen and drink the town dry. But one friend never drinks and the bars let him drink (pop) and eat free all night; he's the designated driver and you'd want one if you drove the mountain roads around there!

[laconic]

She didn't quite do a "Torricelli" where the former senator and self-styled "tough guy" took the stage after he'd been caught and shrieked "when did we become so unforgiving as a people" while BAWLIN' his eyes out.