Abe Sauer — at The Awl — attempting disrespect toward Gov. Scott Walker, displays his ignorance of American military history and its great mascot Old Abe.

Abe Sauer thought he was insulting Scott Walker when he began his description of last week's budget address like this: "Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's budget address was delivered beneath a dead and stuffed eagle." Above that line is a photograph framing the Governor and the eagle. The simplest effort at Googling — e.g., eagle in wisconsin assembly chamber — would have gotten Abe to the story of Old Abe:

Old Abe (1861? – March 28, 1881), bald eagle, was the mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War and is the screaming eagle mascot depicted on the insignia of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division....

Company C named the eagle after President Abraham Lincoln, and designed a special perch on which they carried the bird into battle. Old Abe participated in the Second Battle of Corinth (in which the 8th Wisconsin lost half of its men) and the Siege of Vicksburg, among other battles. In battle, Old Abe quickly became legendary, screaming and spreading his wings at the enemy. Confederate troops called him the "Yankee Buzzard" and made several attempts to capture him but never succeeded. Several times he lost feathers to bullets and saw his handlers get shot out from under him. When passing by, Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and William Rosecrans were known to doff their hats to the eagle.

In 1864, Old Abe returned to Wisconsin with several veterans who did not reenlist. Nevertheless, he remained famous and was invited to, among other events, the 1880 Grand Army of the Republic National Convention, and the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When not at public events, his caretaker kept him in the Wisconsin State Capitol.

That storied creature is for Abe Sauer just some absurdity that Awl readers should laugh at. Laugh at the stupid people in Wisconsin who think there's some meaning embodied in the carcass of a bird.

Crushing ignorance from Abe Sauer.

IN THE COMMENTS: "But Old Abe's carcass indeed is gone."

Abe Sauer — blogging at The Awl — goes on a bizarre rampage about Meade getting in to see Scott Walker's budget address.

This wasn't anything sneaky. Remember? I blogged a couple photos Meade iPhoned from the assembly chamber just before the speech began. And this guy Abe Sauer imagines he's uncovering some kid of scandal:

What kind of special access was granted to the assembly chamber that day? How did everyone get in? Let's look at Larry Meade...

His name isn't "Larry," Abe. Abe Sauerkraut.

Meade did not have press credentials. When I asked Althouse about how he got in, she told me, "Legislators had tickets to give out, and he was given one. With a ticket, you got in for the speech."

Which legislator let Meade in? Althouse and Meade live in the University Heights area of Madison, which is represented by Brett Hulsey (D-77). Their Senator, Democrat Fred Risser, is currently in Illinois to prevent a quorum and was not the source of the pass....

Representative Hulsey's office confirmed that it did not let Meade in—what's more, that "no tickets were allotted to Rep. Hulsey."

Ann Althouse did not respond to further questions about Meade's presence in the gallery or who let him in.

Abe Sauer published that after sending me 2 emails, the first, which I answered as quoted, and the follow up, which I hadn't noticed yet in my overflowing email inbox. He makes it look like I was covering up. Meanwhile, it seems he's calling my representative's office and asking personal questions about me and Meade! That's pretty creepy.

Meade spoke to Hulsey's office yesterday, and they said they would not disclose such information about their constituents. Maybe Sauerkraut thinks it's important, newsworthy information about me and Meade. Is it? I think you'd first want to know what the procedure is for getting into a Governor's speeches and whether there's anything amiss if a legislator gives a ticket to someone outside of his district.

Sauer didn't bother to do the research before he began flinging mud shredded pickled cabbage around. Meade, however, did the research. It turns out the Governor's office controls the tickets to his speeches. That's true now, and it was true in the past when there were Democratic Governors. The Governor's office distributes some tickets directly and gives other to the majority and minority leaders of both houses, who then pass those out however they want. (If Hulsey, a freshman, didn't get any tickets, it was, I think, his own party leader's decision.) Now, the minority leader of the senate is one of the fleebaggers. So no tickets went that way. Anyway, one of the legislators who had tickets to distribute offered me 2, and I accepted the one for Meade. (I had to teach a class.)

The idea that legislators must only give tickets to their own constituents is a figment of Abe Sauer's imagination. Several legislative staff members told Meade that tickets are distributed to nonconstituents all the time and have been for years, by Democratic and Republican legislators! If Abe Sauer's made-up ethical rule were in place, that would mean that someone like me, who lives in a Democratic district but looks unfriendly to the Democratic agenda, couldn't get access. And if you were a Democrat in a Republican district, you'd have a hard time. It would be an access-restricting rule.

So: two prominent local cheerleaders of Governor Scott Walker had access to the address, without going through their Representative (who was, interestingly, provided with no tickets, in any event), while thousands of Wisconsin citizens remained locked outside. This is the sort of thing that raises questions about the extent of special access in Madison, in light of Walker's relationship with Koch Industries and the makeup of the audience in general for the budget address.

There's the conspiracy thinking tell: Koch. And if it's so interesting that Hulsey didn't get tickets, why didn't Abe Sauer try to find out why? The answer lies with the assembly minority leader, a Democrat. But why find out the fact? It's so much more exciting to take a few data points and fantasize.

Utter conspiracy bullshit from Abe Sauer and The Awl.

UPDATE: Sauerkraut Balls.