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.