The Wisconsin State Assembly passed a resolution Tuesday to condemn "the anti-American hate speech" of University of Colorado-Boulder Professor Ward Churchill and request that the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater cancel a March 1 speech by Churchill.

The Assembly voted 67 to 31 to condemn Churchill, who shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks wrote an article called "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." In the article, he called people working in the World Trade Center "Little Eichmanns," after Adolph Eichmann, who was in charge of Hitler's Final Solution to kill Jews. Voting "aye" on the resolution, AR-8, were most of the Republicans present and a few Democrats; voting "nay" were most Democrats and four Republicans.

In a statement, Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater) praised the vote.

"I am proud that a bipartisan majority of members in the Assembly were courageous enough to take a stand against the anti-American hate speech spewed by Professor Ward Churchill," said Nass, a cosponser of the resolution.

But during debate on a similar joint resolution with the state Senate, Rep. Frank Boyle (D-Summit) said he would not vote to condemn Churchill.

"You're making this crazy dude (famous)," he said. "He's gonna be a superstar."

The resolution, however, has no real power.

"It's more of a 'sense of the state legislature,'" said Janet Boles, professor of political science.

UW-Whitewater has no plans to cancel Churchill's speech.

"Right now, we're continuing with the lecture as planned," said Bryan Mattmiller, director of news and public affairs for the university. "But we respect the need for the legislature to vote its conscience."

He said the biggest concern at the university was safety during Churchill's speech. Similar safety problems led to a cancellation when Churchill was scheduled to speak at Hamilton University in Clinton, N.Y.

"We think we have a plan right now" for safety and security, Mattmiller said.

Since UW-Whitewater's budget for the next three years, with the rest of the UW-System, is up for debate, the university may face reprisal from the Republican-controlled state Assembly.

While reprisal is possible, Boles said, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, would be able to use his amendatory veto power, meaning he could eliminate or change any part of a bill to stop any attempts at lowering UW-Whitewater's funding.

Churchill spoke Tuesday night at the University of Hawaii. In that speech, he said he did not try to justify or advocate the 9/11 attacks, according to The Honolulu Advertiser. Still, protestors stood outside the lecture hall.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 24 2005.