Quote, unquote

"The original Patriot Act is a case study in the perils of speed, herd instinct and lack of vigilance when it comes to legislating in times of crisis. The Congress was stampeded, and the values of freedom, justice and equality received a trampling in the headlong rush."

-- Sen. Robert Byrd, D-WV, who says he wishes he had voted with Sen. Russ Feingold, who cast the only "no" vote on the original Act.

Hat tip: Think Progress.

And now, the good news from Iraq...

--Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, via Cagle.

Stacking the deck

If you wanted to get a reading on what the people of Wisconsin think about a constitutional amendment to limit government revenues and spending, where would you go?

Why, to the middle of Waukesha County, the hotbed of anti-tax, anti-government sentiment in the entire state.

The Republican leadership in the legislature, reluctantly, has decided to have an actual public hearing on Bride of TABOR, which they like to call the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, instead of having invitation-only "hearings" where they pick and choose the witnesses.

So they plunk the hearing down at the Country Springs Hotel on I-94, near Pewaukee, a favorite spot for Republican fundraisers, and a long ways from anyone who might actually want to testify against the amendment.

If that's not enough to insure an anti-tax mob, Wis. Manufacturers and Commmerce (one of those "shadowy" groups that doesn't disclose who's paying for the radio ads its running on the issue) is paying for auto calls from Republican radio's Charlie Sykes and others to tens of thousands of conservative voters in southeastern Wisconsin, urging them to attend, WisPolitics reports.

The hearing of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee will be at 4 p.m. on Wednesday. If you're going to testify against the amendment, consider wearing body armor.

---

UPDATE: We've established that Journal Broadcasting has no problem throwing its corporate support behind a political issue, ad evidenced by the free radio spots Sykes aired on school choice.

So this script, where he identifies himself as WTMJ's guy, should come as no surprise, I guess. But the line between corporate contributions, lobbying on an issue before the legislature, and issue advocacy by WMC has been totally erased now. It's not just Sykes who's a shameless shill for the right wing agenda; it's his employer, too. The script for autocalls to voters:

Hi, this is Charlie Sykes from WTMJ with an important taxpayer alert.

On Wednesday at 4 o'clock, the legislature is holding a hearing on Wisconsin Taxpayer Amendment at the Country Springs hotel on I 94 in Pewaukee.

You need to attend to counter the gloom and doom from the teachers' union and others.

The amendment caps taxes and will lower our tax burden. It's common sense, but the politicians need to hear from you.

Please, go the hearing, and tell the committee to vote yes on the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

Wisconsin will only lower its tax burden if our citizens reclaim our government. I

If you can't attend the hearing, please call 800 362 9472 and tell your legislators to vote yes on the Wisconsin Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: A message from the Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.

Withdraw in 2006, troops in Iraq say

UPDATE: John Zogby, whose firm did the poll, writes: A letter from the troops.

---

Supporters of the war in Iraq always say we should ask the troops if we're in doubt about whether we should be there.

Someone has done that, and actually taken a poll, with some surprising results:

U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006

Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they are needed”

While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy

Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown

Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks

Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner interrogation

Plurality of troops pleased with their armor and equipment

The poll is suspect for a number of reasons, including its sponsorship by a college Center for Peace and Global Studies, along with Zogby pollsters.

And there's this unusual methodology:

The survey included 944 military respondents interviewed at several undisclosed locations throughout Iraq. The names of the specific locations and specific personnel who conducted the survey are being withheld for security purposes. Surveys were conducted face-to-face using random sampling techniques. The margin of error for the survey, conducted Jan. 18 through Feb. 14, 2006, is +/- 3.3 percentage points.

But even if the margin of error is 33 points, instead of 3.3, there is strong support among the troops to end the war this year.

Hat tip: Political Wire.

Creepy thought

Is Karl Rove obsessed with Hillary Clinton?

She thinks so.

Let's hope he's not stalking her. It's probably not a "Fatal Attraction" thing. But it does make your skin crawl.

Green's denials less believable every day

The news for Rep. Mark Green just keeps getting worse, with a steady drip ... drip ... drip from the Scott Jensen trial. Green's denials that he had any idea what was happening get a little less believable every day.

The latest: Assembly staff, on state time, helped Green get elected to Congress in 1998.

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

"Generally, Assembly Republican staffers were encouraged to work on any races throughout the state which were sympathetic to the party," former Assembly Republican Caucus (ARC) graphic designer Eric Grant told the State Journal...

...Grant told the State Journal that during his five years with the ARC, he also worked on the successful congressional campaign of U.S. Rep. Mark Green in 1998 and the failed bid for Congress in 1996 by David Prosser, who now is a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. He said he also used the ARC office to produce campaign literature in 1998 for Dane County Board races, which are supposed to be non- partisan...

Grant testified that he used the ARC office and equipment to produce campaign literature for Green at the request of Green aide Mark Graul. In an interview, Grant also said he was present when Green's campaign organized state staffers to participate in a mass mailing of Green's congressional campaign literature at the ARC conference room in 1998.

Rob Vernon, the spokesman for Green's current campaign for governor, didn't deny that the mailing took place at the ARC but said, "As far as I know, there were no Green campaign staff that were present." He said the Republican congressman denies that he was aware of any illegal campaigning at the Capitol; Green was the Assembly's fifth-highest ranking Republican during four of his six years in the Legislature.

Green now is running against Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker for the Republican nomination for governor, and the two are vying to challenge incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle. Last week, Green's gubernatorial campaign said graphic design work by Grant was paid for separately by Green's campaign and that Green assumed Grant was working outside of the state office. Grant, however, said Graul communicated with him about the campaign at the ARC office.

It is hard to keep track of the players without a scorecard, but Mark Graul, who was a Green Assembly staffer, is now his campaign manager in the governor's race. He also has served as chief of staff in Green's Congressional office, where he was befriended by associates of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and accepted freebies to Abramoff's skybox.

The Democratic Party asks another pertinent question: Given testimony at Jensen's trial about Assembly staffers taking part-time leaves while working full-time on campaigns, is Graul one of those who did that? Their release offers some documentation that raises serious questions about it.

Bush's numbers too low to be in the toilet

As my drill instructor used to say, "You are lower than whale shit. And that's on the bottom of the ocean."

The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high.

How many more?

Family says Marine from Superior killed in Iraq

SUPERIOR, Wis. (AP) -- A Marine from northern Wisconsin with only 15 days of active combat duty left in Iraq was killed by a roadside bomb there, a sister said Monday.

Adam VanAlstine, 21, of Superior, was killed Saturday in Ramadi outside of Baghdad, said his sister, Dawn Meyers of Cottage Grove, Minn.

The Marine, a 2003 graduate of Superior High School, left for Iraq in September and was scheduled to return in April, she said.

-- Wisconsin AP

Meet the threats to Wisconsin marriages

As the Republican-run Assembly gets ready to put a constitutional ban on gay marriages and civil unions on the ballot, it might be instructive to meet one of the couples who pose such a threat to marriage in Wisconsin that we need a constitutional amendment to stop them.

Meet Bill Hetland, a friend of mine of almost 40 years, a journalist's journalist who left his positive mark on a number of Midwestern newspapers before changing careers and working in the addiction prevention field.

The story of Hetland and his longtime partner, Phil Anderson, is inspirational. It's a lesson in loving, caring and commitment.

As you read it, think about just what kind of threat it is that they pose -- and to whom.
Bill wrote this op ed column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in August 2004:

What threat to marriage?

By BILL HETLAND

As I gave my paralyzed life partner, Phil Anderson, a urinary tract flush on a recent Monday night, his catheter failed. Following two unsuccessful attempts to replace the catheter and a phone call to an emergency room nurse at the Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee, we were able to correct his problem on the third try. I got to bed at 1 a.m. and was up at 4 a.m.

The following Wednesday night after I returned to our Kenosha home from making a work-related presentation at a courthouse in Waukegan, Ill., Phil had a temperature of 105 degrees. I slept on a couch so I could get up and put cold compresses on his head. He sleeps in a hospital bed in our sunroom because he has no access to the two bedrooms on our second floor. I had about two hours of sleep that night.

So, when I read columns and letters about gays wanting to get married so rice can be thrown at the ceremony and that loving couples like us are a threat to the "sanctity of marriage," I get angry. It isn't so much about having the same rights as straight couples - although that would be nice. Rather, I'm angry with those who demonize gays and think that loving gay couples like us somehow threaten that sanctity. We have been together for almost 16 years and have survived incredible challenges during the past three and one-half years.

Phil was paralyzed from the waist down in a February 2001 auto accident and has since been hospitalized for femur reconstruction, lung surgery, a stroke, gallbladder surgery, multiple seizures, chronic pain and numerous other health problems. Last September, during a celebration of our 15 years together, I presented Phil with a framed "Certificate of Survival" in recognition of his incredible courage.

I'm 60 and Phil will be 49 on Nov. 23. Yet somehow, loving gay couples like us are a threat.

We are fortunate that Phil, a Marine vet, received life-saving surgery at Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital and that he gets good ongoing care from the spinal cord injury unit at the VA hospital. The medical staff, social workers, psychologists, therapists and other employees have been quick to respond to our needs. As far as I know, they don't consider loving gay couples like us as a threat to marriage's sanctity.

We are also grateful for the support and understanding of many friends - most of them straight. Those friends include my colleagues at the addictions prevention and treatment agency I work for in Illinois. And both Phil and I have been blessed to have members of the Anderson and Hetland families in our corner. Phil's brother-in-law and a brother, for example, directed the construction of a wheelchair ramp so that Phil could have easy access to our home. Before the ramp was built, I had to pull Phil up and down the front steps in his wheelchair.

Having the support of our families means a lot because there are too many smug and sanctimonious zealots out there who seem to think that loving gay couples like us are not only a threat to the sanctity of marriage, but also to the sanctity of the family structure.

Good heavens, we love our families. Phil has received some real morale-boosters by attending family events like the high school graduation of a niece last year in the Upper Peninsula and the wedding of another niece this June in Brown Deer.

Yet, despite our strong belief in the value of the family structure, there are still far too many individuals out there who perceive loving couples like us as a threat to society.

Like Phil, I'm a veteran, having served in Vietnam. We have both served our country honorably and have been honorable in our commitment to each other. Yet there are still folks who see gay couples like us as a threat to the sanctity of marriage.

Are we a threat to that sanctity? We are not.

---

from the Action Wisconsin website:

Bill Hetland & Phil Anderson, Kenosha

My life partner, Phil Anderson, and I have been in a loving, monogamous relationship for more than 17 years. Phil is a Marine Corps veteran and I served with the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. Phil was featured in a Kenosha News article for enduring numerous physical and emotional challenges since his paralyzing accident on Feb. 19, 2001.

At a celebration of our 15th anniversary in our home in 2003, I presented Phil with a Certificate of Survival for his bravery in surviving “back surgery, femur reconstruction, broken ribs, lung surgery, gall bladder surgery, bladder infection, urinary tract infection, a stroke, excruciating chronic pain and two major seizures.”

In a feature article by Karen Gustafson of the Kenosha News, Karen noted: “It’s been a survival story as well for their partnership that has endured despite the physical, emotional and financial struggles. Theirs is a stronger relationship both say in spite of all the life-altering events that could have torn it apart.”

Considering what Phil and I have endured -- and survived -- I'm still almost amused at those who fear for the sanctity of marriage. It's amazing to us that there are so many people who assume that all gays are immoral and promiscuous. We certainly aren't "recruiting" people to our "lifestyle." It's also unsettling when we read about legislators and clergy who say they fear for the future of the family structure if gays are given additional rights. After all, we are so appreciative of the members of our families who have rallied to provide support in so many ways, including building a wheelchair ramp so Phil can get in and out of our home. We've attended weddings, graduations and funerals involving members of our families. It's hard to fathom why relationships like ours can be perceived as a threat to any family.

Republicans recycle garbage

In case you wonder whether Wisconsin Republicans think they are being damaged by Scott Jensen's caucus scandal trial, with its daily focus on illegal GOP activity, consider this desperate release.

The GOP is re-issuing the same phony charges that they made during the 2002 campaign against Jim Doyle, claiming that Doyle staffers did campaign work on state time, too.

They're handing out the same information from Doyle's schedules that they peddled to the media in 2002. That all got a thorough airing four years ago, and it turned out to be a lot more smoke than fire.

Several newspapers, pressed by the GOP to investigate, went through the claims in painstaking detail and came up with almost nothing. They found that in almost every case, Doyle staffers had taken leave to attend a political event, and that Doyle even used his own vehicle, not a state car.

Now, the GOP is recycling the same old garbage, hoping to distract attention from the Republicans who are being named every day in court, including their candidates for governor, Mark Green and Scott Walker. There's been testimony that key aides to both Walker and Green ordered, supervised, or engaged in campaign work on state time. Mark Green has been especially hard-hit by the trial coverage. Thus the attempt to muddy things up with some tired, worn-out claims about Doyle staffers.

The only thing new in the latest GOP releases are the names of the party staff. Instead of Chris Lato, there's a new flack, Bob Delaporte. But it's the same stream of garbage spewing out of party headquarters. The charges didn't hold water in 2002, and they won't in 2006.

Delaporte's best hope is that there are some new reporters on the beat, who weren't around in 2002, and who may think he's told them something new. Not likely, but worth a shot, I guess, if you are being pounded in the media every day and are looking at two more weeks of trial.

TABOR down the tube in Kansas

We in Wisconsin like to think that Kansas has a lot more red-state yahoos than we do, but here's some evidence to the contrary. The old Taxpayer Bill of Rights gambit is failing there, and even the Chamber of Commerce and parts of the business community are against it.

TABOR has become a dirty word, they say. It has in Wisconsin, too, so conservatives here just switched to a new name, the Taxpayers Protection Amendment.

The Wichita Capital-Journal reports:

Spending limits lose steam

Talk of adopting a constitutional amendment to limit state government spending fell to a whisper at the halfway mark of the 2006 session.

House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said Friday that broad-based opposition undercut momentum for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution known as the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights.

"There was a pretty significant pushback from various angles, including chambers of commerce and some sectors of the business community," Mays said. "I'm not picking up much appetite among House members, Republican or Democrat, to even talk about the bill this year."

If a TABOR measure passed the Legislature and was endorsed by Kansas voters, caps would be placed on state revenue growth and elections would be held to decide tax hikes.

Alan Cobb, state director of the anti-tax organization Americans for Prosperity, said House leadership should be held accountable for failing to help TABOR gain traction this session.

"What's dead is reform of our tax climate and business climate, and that's because of the lack of leadership," Cobb said. "You're part of the problem or part of the solution. We're not seeing a whole lot of solutions from leadership."

Cobb directed much of his ire at Mays.

"Unfortunately, Doug is listening to the establishment and the insiders -- not the public," Cobb said.

Mays said the Legislature had more pressing matters to consider than TABOR.

"We need to try to focus on those things that need to be addressed this year -- spend our time wisely -- and not spend a great deal of time and political capital pursuing things that have absolutely no chance of passing," the House speaker said.

A group of Kansas organizations, the Coalition for a Prosperous Kansas, formed last year to lobby against TABOR.

Gary Brunk, executive director of Kansas Action for Children, which is a coalition member, said conservatives would continue to press for TABOR in Kansas despite poor results elsewhere.

"The business community in Colorado came out against TABOR because the state was not investing enough in education and transportation to make Colorado competitive," Brunk said. "TABOR has become a bad word."

The view from DC doesn't include Walker

This line in a New York Times roundup of 2006 governor's races probably didn't sit too well with Scott Walker:

Republicans said they hoped to mount a strong challenge to Gov. James E. Doyle, a Wisconsin Democrat, with Representative Mark Green.

Walker can take some solace that it's the same kind of DC thinking that led Congressional Democrats to think Jim Moody would win a U.S. Senate primary and Tom Barrett would win one for governor. They have a hard time seeing beyond the Beltway. (Not that I think Walker will win, but he deserved a mention.)

Gard promised legislature would back deal

As the school choice deal teeters on the brink of losing in the legislature, the right-wing is lining up to blame -- who else? -- Gov. Jim Doyle, saying he didn't like the deal to begin with.

A reminder. When the deal was agreed upon and announced at a news conference, here's what Speaker John Gard had to say:

It's not an agreement between (just him) and I," Gard said. "It's going to pass the Legislature without a doubt."

Not between just Doyle and Gard, but between Doyle and the legislature. Gard, with big majorities in both houses, had no doubt he was speaking for the legislature. It's on him to deliver.

The Great Wall of Mexico

Here's an idea. F. Jim Sensenbrenner likes it, so that's good enough for me.

A proposal to build a double set of steel walls with floodlights, surveillance cameras and motion detectors along one-third of the U.S.-Mexican border heads to the Senate next month after winning overwhelming support in the House.

The wall would be intended to prevent illegal immigrants and potential terrorists from hiking across the southern border into the United States. It would run along five segments of the 1,952-mile border that now experience the most illegal crossings.

The plan already has roiled diplomatic relations with Mexico. Leaders in American border communities are saying it will damage local economies and the environment. And immigration experts say that -- at a cost of at least $2.2 billion -- the 700-mile wall would be an expensive boondoggle.

The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

Tommy will never say never

"Never say never" is one of the most overworked cliches among politicians, but Tommy Thompson has taken it to extremes. He is simply unable to admit that his political career is over. Yes, he hates Jim Doyle, but we've known that for 15 years or so. Does he dislike Mark Green and Scott Walker, too?

Running for President? Please. Didn't we all have to live through that once?

Tomm's really going to keep flying around like a madman and pocket his corporate millions until he collapses or has his heart attack (which his friends fear.) But he won't say that. Sunday's story:

He muses about running for governor against incumbent Democrat Jim Doyle this year. His antipathy for Doyle is plain. He condemns his performance as "awful," spelling out the word for effect: "A-W-F-U-L." Or running for the U.S. Senate against another incumbent Democrat, Herb Kohl, also on the ballot in November. Or even seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.

His closest political associates won't predict what he'll do, especially in the governor's race, what with two Republicans already gunning for Doyle's job. Thompson said he could throw his hat in the ring as late as June, when the state GOP holds its annual convention.

Xoff outs self; the mysterious Kate Falk

Before Charlie Sykes writes about how insightful he finds this post by his protege, Jessica McBride,

Spivak and Bice out Xoff, and Opine on Catch and Release Kate

let me make two small points:

1. The fact that I produced the radio spot in question wasn't exactly news, and I had even written about it myself.

2. Paul Bucher is the first person in history to call Kathleen Falk "Kate." Anyone who knows Falk will wonder who he's talking about. Katie Falk sells real estate in the Milwaukee area. Kathleen Falk, called Kathy by her friends, is the Dane County executive. Kate Falk? Never heard of her. In doubt? Google "Kate Falk."

Fun and games under the dome

Isn't this cute? Republican legislators and their staffs routinely broke the law, pretty much on a daily basis, by doing political work on state time. And State Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Brookfield, on trial for charges stemming from that illegal activity, trained the caucus director.

The story was written straight, but the headline writer apparently thought that kind of Capitol hi-jinks deserved a light trteatment. Hence the headline below. Caucus capers?

Jury is told of caucus capers
Man who campaigned on state time says he learned from Jensen

By PATRICK MARLEY and STEVEN WALTERS

Madison - The former director of the Assembly Republican Caucus told jurors Friday that he learned how to do his job - which included campaigning on state time - from Scott Jensen, the former Assembly speaker accused of directing aides to campaign on the taxpayer's dime.

Before Jensen was elected to the state Assembly in 1992, he served as caucus director. Ray Carey said that when he was hired as caucus director in 1994, he learned much of the job from Jensen.

Often, that work consisted of campaigning on state time, Carey said, acknowledging that he drafted numerous campaign memos and a campaign handbook on state time, using state resources.

Walker should tread lightly on ethics

Is Scott Walker damning Mark Green with faint praise, or praising him with faint damning?

Whatever you call it, Walker's blog uses a radio commercial that I produced, raising questions about Green's blind spot on ethics violations, to take a slap at Green himself. Cute.

What Walker doesn't mention is that he also served in the Assembly Republican majority at the same time all of the illegal activities being discussed in Scott Jensen's trial were taking place.

And Walker, like Green, says he never had a clue that any staffers were doing anything wrong. (That's the two gov wannabes above, right, showing how they operated.)

And he neglected to mention this, from a Journal Sentinel story this week:

• Bruce Pfaff, on Jensen's staff during the 1998 elections and now Walker's campaign manager, was named on what Grant said was a work order for three campaign brochures.

On that work order were these notations: "Jensen wants to get these three (campaign) pieces out prior to our 9/28 poll" and "Bruce will pick up." Grant identified the "Bruce" as Pfaff.

Pfaff said Wednesday that he did not remember the incident, but that he did work on campaigns on weekends and evenings in 1998.

"Did I do things that somebody could construe as on-the-job campaigning? I don't know. Possibly," Pfaff said. "But I don't believe I did campaign work on state time."

Walker said he would review what was said in court.

Walker said that when he hired Pfaff as his campaign manager, he did not know that Pfaff had previously worked for Jensen. Walker and Jensen served in the Assembly together in the 1990s.

Really?

Walker's answer to the question of "What did he know and when did he know it" is "Nothing and never."

If I were Walker, I'd be careful about throwing stones at Green. There are two more weeks of the Jensen trial to come, too.

Referendums for nothing

James Widgerson wigs out in his first Waukesha Freeman column, over the idea that voters in some Wisconsin communities will have a chance to express themselves on the Iraq War in the April 4 election.

We're all for democracy in Iraq, of course. But if we asked the Iraqi people whether the US should withdraw its troops, 80% would say yes.

That's why we don't ask, except in public opinion polls.

Here, from the American Friends Service Committee, are 10 reasons why the U.S. must leave Iraq. Pay special attention to numbers 3 and 4.

Reynolds in the schoolhouse door?

Will Charlie Sykes be running free, corporate-produced commercials comparing State Sen. Tom Reynolds, R-West Allis, to George Wallace? That wouldn't be too big a stretch, and McSykes is saying Reynolds could be the key vote.

Endangered species shows sign of life

A liberal columnist has infiltrated the ranks of the Waukesha Freeman. And his first column, which runs alongside Mark Belling's, is -- gasp! -- in defense of the nanny state (from Belling's point of view).

He's Tim Schilke, author of a book, Growing Up Red,which is not about having Communist parents but about growing up in a red Republican suburb.

Hope he survives. Non-members of the Flat Earth Society have a short life expectancy in Waukesha County journalism. Witness Jessica McBride's unsuccesful (so far) campaign to have the Journal Sentinel replace Laurel Walker with her hero Charlie Sykes or Sykes Lite, Jeff Wagner, as a columnist. And Dennis Shook, for whatever reason, is gone from the Freeman.

Maybe Schilke can at least raise everyone's blood pressure a point or two. Well worth the effort.

Rs have their priorities straight

Republicans continue to block legislation to expand the state’s home heating assistance program and help 30,000 Wisconsin families keep their homes warm this winter. They have refused to act on the bill even though Gov. Jim Doyle called a special session to try to get their attention, and this week, on a party-line vote, the Rs all voted against pulling the bill from committee for a vote on the Senate floor.

Democrats knew they'd so that, of course, but it's always useful to get a roll call. If and when the bill gets scheduled is totally up to the Rs, who control both houses.

But how could they take up the heating bill when there was so much other important work to do in the final weeks of the session?

Why, just this week the Senate passed State Sen. Tom Reynolds' bill to bar lawsuits over obesity. It's not a problem yet (none have been filed in Wisconsin), but obviously the potential is there, if you look at how many fat cheeseheads there are. The Senate also voted 19-13 to pass a bill by State Sen. Alan Lasee, to exempt a Kewanuee County man from DNR rules and let him keep a shed on a wetland.

And let's not forget the Potluck Protection Act, which has passed, so it won't have to be considered as a constitutional amendment. (Yes, a D introduced it, but the Rs put it on the calendar.)

Work, work, work. No wonder there's no time to worry about poor people's heating bills.

Not letting the people decide

When they think it's in their interest, conservatives are all for "letting the people decide" on most anything -- banning gay marriage, passing an anti-tax amendment, whatever -- when they're confident things will go their way.

But when the people decide to do something sensible, like control handguns, it's a different story, as the people of San Francisco are discovering via an NRA lawsuit.

Jensen taking the team down with him

We've all heard about taking one for the team.

State Rep. Scott Jensen is doing the opposite, insisting on a messy trial that hurts his Republican colleagues more every day.

The Capital Times' headline on David Callender's story asks, "What price to save Jensen?" and says Republicans are furious about all of their dirty laundry being put on public view.

The thing is, it probably won't save Jensen anyway. It will just take everyone else down with him.

Hate to say it (actually love to say it), but I told you so.

--Joe Heller, Green Bay Press Gazette. (Click on cartoon to enlarge.)

Gunning for Doyle

When I started to read this Spivak and Bice column, I fully expected to find that the gun nuts were going to put Jim Doyle's face on the targets as they conducted their submachine gun fundraiser.

Doyle has had an NRA target on his back (or front) since he first ran for attorney general in 1990 as an advocate for the Brady Bill and a waiting period to buy a handgun. The relationship hasn't warmed up any since he became governor and twice vetoed concealed weapons bills. The NRA and its allies have tried hard to beat him four times now, and failed every time.

So this event seems like a natural. What a great way to vent some anger. Get all riled up about Doyle and squeeze off a burst.

Why was it canceled? All depends on whose story you believe. The Spice Boys offer several conflicting versions. Pick your favorite.

Green's caucus scandal connections spotlighted in Jensen trial testimony

The headline says a lot, and it has to be Mark Green's worst nightmare. His old friend Scott Jensen has landed Green in the caucus scandal spotlight, and not in a good way.

The headline on today's Wisconsin State Journal story: Mark Green comes up in caucus trial.

Green has insisted he knew nothing about illegal activity by the caucus staff while he was in the legislature, but even some former colleagues have a hard time swallowing that.

The story includes a laundry list of Green's connections to illegal campaign work, making this radio commercial, which caused such ourtage from Green and the GOP when it started to air on Monday, seem a little tame.

The story:

In the past two days, the names of gubernatorial candidate Mark Green and two of his staffers have surfaced in the official misconduct trial of former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, adding fuel to the already heated debate over ethics in the governor's race.

Former Assembly Republican Caucus graphic artist Eric Grant testified Wednesday and Thursday that in the late 1990s he worked on campaign literature for Green while at his taxpayer-funded office, and documents introduced at trial show two staffers who now work for Green in Congress were involved in campaigning at the Legislature.

Despite this week's testimony and widespread, bipartisan acknowledgment that doing campaign work was common at the Capitol, Green says he knew nothing about state staffers doing campaign work on state time during his six years in the Assembly, including four as one of the highest ranking Republicans in the Assembly.

Green's campaign manager, Mark Graul, has labeled the Green Bay Republican "squeaky clean" when it comes to the scandal that resulted in fines and jail sentences after four of Green's former colleagues pleaded guilty to charges related to running private political campaigns at the Legislature. Jensen, R-Waukesha, is the only person charged in the scandal to go to trial.

"We had a strict rule: Nobody did campaign work on state time," said Green, 45, who is seeking to unseat Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in November.

Green, an attorney, served in the Assembly from 1992 through 1998 and has served in Congress since then. He became the caucus chairman for Assembly Republicans, the party's fifth-highest ranking leader, two years after he was first elected, and he held that position until he left the Legislature.

Republican leaders above Green and more than two dozen Republican Assembly staffers are expected to testify in Jensen's trial that campaigning was common at the ARC when Green was there. Documents introduced in the trial and others obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal also suggest Green and two key aides, Graul and Chris Tuttle, were involved in campaign work at the Legislature.

Two legislators who served with Green questioned how the former leader could claim ignorance about the widespread campaign activity that has spawned the biggest political scandal in state history.

DuWayne Johnsrud, his former Republican Assembly colleague who retired in 2004 after 20 years in the Legislature, said everyone at the Capitol from lawmakers to staff to lobbyists and even reporters knew legislative and caucus staff were campaigning on state time.

"There are no angels in the Capitol on this issue," he said. "To say you didn't know what was going on - that's a big stretch." Referring to the old TV show "Hogan's Heroes," Johnsrud added, "To play Sgt. Schultz - 'I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing' - come on. That doesn't seem very possible."

The issue of ethics is shaping up to be a large part of the governor's race, which pits incumbent Democrat Doyle against Republican challengers Green and Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive. Walker served in the Legislature from 1993 until 2002 and said through his spokesman, Bruce Pfaff, that he never participated in any campaign activity at the Capitol.

Doyle has been under fire for months over allegations that his administration awarded state contracts and a favorable regulatory decision in exchange for campaign cash. Both Green and Walker have tried to capitalize on the allegations, which Doyle has strongly denied.

Questions were also raised earlier this month after Jensen's attorney submitted previously secret investigative reports showing that Assembly Democrats, including Doyle's top campaign aide, Rich Judge, routinely worked on private political campaigns while at their state jobs. Judge was employed at the Legislature's Assembly Democratic Caucus at the time.

Grant also testified that when he worked for Jensen, Pfaff, who is now Walker's campaign manager, picked up campaign literature at the ARC office at 17 S. Fairchild St. Pfaff said he has no recollection of doing that.

Earlier this month, Green insisted that any campaign work he did occurred outside the Capitol and outside his congressional office, and that his staff in the Legislature and Congress always used leave or vacation time while on the campaign trail. State and federal laws prohibit campaigning on the taxpayers' dime.

Green also said he had nothing to do with running the now-shuttered ARC, a taxpayer-funded campaign machine whose operations resulted in criminal charges against Jensen and convictions for two other Assembly Republicans who served above Green.

In court documents, Jensen has acknowledged running political campaigns out of the Legislature, insisting that such work was a key part of his job when he was the top leader from 1997 until 2002. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, who preceded Jensen as speaker, also acknowledged in a court document that during his seven years in leadership - 1989 until 1996 - state employees under his supervision often worked on private political campaigns at the Capitol.

Green, who served as a leader under both Prosser and Jensen, denied any knowledge of what went on at the ARC. Green said his duties were legislative, not campaign-related, including running meetings of Republican Assembly members and to plot strategy on legislation.

"I was not involved in the (Assembly Republican) Caucus operations," Green said. "That was not a function of the caucus chair."

But Marty Reynolds, a Democrat from Ladysmith who served with Green, said the fact that state staff and time were used for campaigns was known by virtually everyone in the Legislature.

"I can just say, if you didn't know what was going on, you weren't paying attention at all," said Reynolds, who served from 1990 until 2002. "And for someone in leadership to say they weren't paying attention is totally disingenuous."


The evidence

Documents obtained by the State Journal - and testimony and records from Grant over the past two days - indicate that Green's ties to the illegal campaigning were closer than he claims. According to the records:

Grant testified that while at the ARC, he designed campaign-related Packers and Badgers schedules for Green in 1997.

Grant also testified that he kept kept campaign materials on a separate disk from his official work. A handwritten log of work from one of the disks listed "Green stuff" that had been requested by Graul.

Green campaign spokesman Rob Vernon said Green's congressional campaign contracted separately with Grant for any campaign work, paying Grant $250 on Feb. 11, 1998, from Green's Assembly campaign and $50 on July 14, 1999, from Green's congressional campaign. Asked whether he knew Grant was using his state office, time and computer to produce the literature, Vernon said, "Mark Green did not know that."

Grant also testified that Tuttle, now chief of staff for Green in Washington, D.C., was one of three people at the ARC in charge of approving all campaign literature Grant produced. Tuttle also directed him to work on a special election in 1996, Grant said. Vernon said Tuttle didn't work for Green at the Legislature, and Green has said he never talked with Tuttle about the work Tuttle did at the ARC.

On March 13, 1996, Green had a fax line installed in his Capitol office, and his campaign committee, Green for Better Government, reimbursed the Assembly chief clerk's office $35.54 for the costs, Elections Board reports show.

Vernon said Green bought the machine for state business but paid for it with political contributions to get a nicer fax machine than was available through the Legislature. But Johnsrud said Assembly members at the time were allowed to have private phone lines installed in their Capitol offices for campaign work and personal business, and many did so.

A Republican Assembly group solicited volunteers for Green's 1998 congressional race in their taxpayer-funded offices, a possible violation of the state law that prohibits the solicitation of political donations or services on state property.

Two memos were distributed at the Capitol around Labor Day 1998 seeking volunteers for a "lit drop" for Green's congressional campaign. Green said he wasn't aware of any solicitation of volunteers at the Capitol on his behalf, but Johnsrud recalls Graul drumming up volunteers for Green's first congressional race at the Capitol.

Green was among the leaders thanking legislative staff for their work on campaigns in 1998 in a memo hand-delivered at the Capitol. The Nov. 5, 1998, memo thanks legislative staffers for entering "hundreds of thousands of records" into campaign databases, hand- addressing 20,000 envelopes and delivering campaign literature to "thousands of homes throughout the state."

The memo invited staffers to a party and to respond to the legislative office of Ladwig, who has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for using her office to run the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee. Green said his name was likely on the letter with the other Republican leaders only as a "courtesy" since all of his attention that year was focused on his own race for Congress.

A confidential memo said Graul was heavily involved in legislative races in 1996 while employed as Green's top legislative staffer.

The Feb. 17, 1997, memo from former ARC director Ray Carey described the taxpayer- funded agency's efforts in the 1996 campaigns, including the central role of Graul, who was named as one of the six regional coordinators overseeing races across Wisconsin that year. Graul said all of his campaign work took place on his free time or during leaves from his job at Green's legislative office. Records show he took a 50 percent leave that year, from Aug. 5 until Nov. 5.

However, the Carey memo said the duties of coordinators such as Graul "were primarily from April until after the September primary" - including roughly four months when Graul wasn't on leave. Carey singled out Graul as being "especially . . . very helpful" in recruiting candidates to run that year. Carey is scheduled to testify today in the Jensen trial.

Let the people decide?

Rich Eggleston complains that the fate of the constitutional amendment supporters call the Taxpayer Protection Amendment and opponents call Bride of TABOR may be decided by which side has the better marketing people -- or the most money. Just like we decide most things these days, by the way.

There is this, though: Amendment supporters use "Let the people decide" as a rallying cry. Eggleston notes:

WMC and AFP quote former Gov. Lee S. Dreyfus out of context. The slogan "Let the people decide" was Dreyfus' rallying cry against Bob Kasten, whom Dreyfus portrayed as the big money candidate in a primary that Dreyfus won. "Now WMC is reviving it as a slogan for the money," says Bill Kraus, a Common Cause activist who was the former governor's communications director. "How cruel."

Dreyfus hasn't spoken out publicly on the latest version of the amendment, but he strongly opposed the earlier version of TABOR when it was before the legislature in 2004. He even cut a radio commercial that said:

Our constitution gives the legislature all the power it needs to curb spending.

Amending the constitution is a terrible way to make public policy.

We just don't need the TABOR amendment.

We need legislators with the backbone to say no to wasteful spending.

Dreyfus doesn't own the "Let the people decide" slogan, of course, and certainly wasn't the first person ever to say it. But it's ironic that it has become the slogan to pass an amendment he probably would oppose.

It's also more than a little ironic that many of the same people who use that slogan oppose the effort to let citizens have a voice on the Iraq war in referenda on the ballot in about 20 Wisconsin communities next month. "The people" are paying for that war, too.

Keep your hands off my -- trash?

What's that saying?

"He who steals my purse steals trash ..."

But he who steals my trash could end up in the slammer.

Joel McNally has the story.

C-SPAN to air Prox service

C-SPAN will air the State Capitol memorial service for the late Sen. William Proxmire on Saturday at 8:20 and 11:20 p.m., as part of C-SPAN'S "American Perspectives" series.

The Feb. 10 service was broadcast by Wisconsin Public Television, which has provided C-SPAN with the tape.

Campaign finance reform pays

There must be something appealing to political donors about a candidate who keeps railing about how expensive campaigns are.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's "expose" on legislators raising a record $3.39-million last year, a non-election year, also contains this factoid:

The legislator sitting on the fattest warchest is none other than Mr. Campaign Finance Reform, the WDC's poster boy, State Sen. Michael Ellis, R-Neenah, with a cool $198,971.

Know the enemy

Who are the most vociferous backers of a state constitutional ban on gay marriages and civil unions? Meet the Wisconsin Marriage Defenders.

Jensen defense outs Jeff Wagner

the Scott Jensen trial gets better and better, and this is only the third day of a three-week circus.

The Associated Press story says the Republican Assembly caucus even did campaign work for Jeff Wagner, who lost the 1994 race for attorney general and as consolation prize calls his WTMJ radio show the "Department of Justice."

From the story, about the testimony of graphic artist Eric Grant, who testified he did almost nothing but campaign work on state time:

Jensen attorney Stephen Meyer tried to show during cross examination that caucus workers had been doing campaign work prior to 1997, when Jensen became the Assembly's top official.

Grant told Meyer that he found samples of game schedules for the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers that featured the names of some candidates. Caucus workers created them in 1994 for several campaigns, including then-Gov. Tommy Thompson, attorney general candidate Jeff Wagner and state Rep. Scott Gunderson. Grant said he used those designs to create new Packers and Badgers schedules for the campaigns of Rep. Rob Kreibich, Mary Ann Lippert and then-Rep. Mark Green, who is now running for the GOP nomination for governor.

Caucus web snares Green, Walker staffers

The plot thickens, the web gets a little more tangled, and Mark Green and Scott Walker go to new lengths to avoid talking to reporters.

We're talking, of course, about the caucus scandal, a subject on which Green and Walker have both taken "See no evil, hear no evil" approaches and claim they never suspected that illegal campaign activity was going on under their very noses -- or perhaps in their own offices.

Scott Jensen's decision to go to trial and drag it all out there is, despite denials from the right, already doing a lot more damage to Republicans than Democrats, simply because the case is focused on the Republican caucus, which Jensen ran. Mark Green was caucus chairman, but to hear him tell it that was some sort of honorary position and no one told him anything. (And he didn't ask.)

Today's Journal Sentinel story on the trial includes this:

Also Wednesday, the names of three senior aides or advisers to the two Republican candidates for governor - U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker - surfaced in court in connection with campaign materials prepared on state time. Only one of those three worked for a GOP candidate - Green - then, however.

"Everything I used was property of the (Assembly Republican) caucus - state materials" that included computers, printers, fax machines and other items in an office rented by taxpayers, said Eric Grant, who worked as an Assembly Republican designer from August 1995 until April 2000...

The aides or advisers to Green and Walker mentioned in court Thursday were:

• Chris Tuttle, who worked as media director for the Assembly Republican caucus in 1998. Grant said Tuttle regularly approved campaign materials the designer prepared. Tuttle, whose signature or initials were on campaign-related work orders shown to jurors Wednesday, is now Green's chief of staff in Washington, D.C.

Tuttle worked in Green's Assembly office after his stint with the Assembly Republican Caucus and joined Green's congressional office shortly after the congressman's first term started in 1999.

Tuttle was not in the office Wednesday because he is on paternity leave. He did not return calls to his home.

[Chris Tuttle? Where have I heard that name before? Oh, right!]

Green has denied any knowledge of campaigning on state time while he was a member of the Assembly. Wednesday marked the second day in a row that Green did not take calls about the matter, and spokesman Rob Vernon said Green was traveling both days.

Green said in a statement: "Chris Tuttle was not my employee when he worked at the Assembly Republican Caucus. . . . It was and is my office policy that any campaign work done by my legislative staff was done on their own time."

• Bruce Pfaff, on Jensen's staff during the 1998 elections and now Walker's campaign manager, was named on what Grant said was a work order for three campaign brochures.

On that work order were these notations: "Jensen wants to get these three (campaign) pieces out prior to our 9/28 poll" and "Bruce will pick up." Grant identified the "Bruce" as Pfaff.

Pfaff said Wednesday that he did not remember the incident, but that he did work on campaigns on weekends and evenings in 1998.

"Did I do things that somebody could construe as on-the-job campaigning? I don't know. Possibly," Pfaff said. "But I don't believe I did campaign work on state time."

Walker said he would review what was said in court.

Walker said that when he hired Pfaff as his campaign manager, he did not know that Pfaff had previously worked for Jensen. Walker and Jensen served in the Assembly together in the 1990s.

• Grant identified as campaign materials a list that included this notation: "Graul - 7/10 - Green stuff." That was a reference to Mark Graul, Green's campaign manager and a Green aide in the Legislature.

Green campaign spokesman Vernon said Graul was not available for comment Wednesday night.

But in his 1998 campaign for Congress, Green contracted with Grant to do design work, the campaign spokesman said. But Vernon said Green assumed that Grant "did everything on his own time," because the designer was still on the Assembly payroll.

Mark Green continues to be the only gubernatorial candidate in America who consistently cannot be reached by telephone.

His campaign manager, Mark Graul, isn't talking about this issue any more. A new campaign spokesman has taken on that terrible job.

Green says in a statement that his office policy was that staff should not do campaign work on state time. That's everybody's "policy." What is at issue is what the practice was.

And Walker's campaign manager, Bruce Pfaff, takes the sort-of denial, "but maybe someone could think I did something wrong" approach. He "doesn't believe" he did campaign work on state time.

Is this a big deal? Is it relevant to the governor's race?

It all depends. Republicans think it's relevant that Jim Doyle's campaign manager, Rich Judge, was Assembly caucus director long before he ever worked for Doyle. It's all the noise they've made about Judge that have caused people to look at whether Walker and Green live in glass houses. It looks like we are getting that question answered -- as if we didn't know.

Walker to Green: Run for Senate

From the WisPolitics report on Charlie Sykes' "Insight" show with GOP candidates for governor:

In terms of experience, Walker at one point suggested Green should run for U.S. Senate against Herb Kohl. because of his work on federal issues. ``The fact is executive experience is what matters as governor,'' Walker said.

Walker does, indeed, have executive experience,although he's made a mess of Milwaukee County government. But he can always serve as a bad example.

Too late for Green to run for Senate. He had $1.3-million in federal campaign money, mostly from special interests who would never give to a governor's race, but he converted it all to a state campaign fund. And the feds don't allow transfers in the other direction.

How to expand talk radio's audience

From all reports, there were some interesting, lively and sharp debates on Charlie Sykes' annual "Insight" show on Wednesday, featuring a lineup of prominent guests who duked it out on everything from prison policy to ethanol to school choice.

Isn't it a shame that only happens once a year?

Think of how interesting it might be to hear both sides every day. Might even be good for ratings. Imagine if there were that kind of free-wheeling give and take on the air all of the time.

What am I saying? How silly of me.

No one wants to hear the other side, do they?

And WTMJ radio no doubt has the market research to support its decision to broadcast one-sided radio 364 days a year, where Sykes talks only to his producer or screened callers who agree with him.

But I'll bet there was a much bigger audience than usual on Wednesday. If this is really all about ratings, a regular back-and-forth could expand the audience.

That's my gratuituous advice for the day.

Walker skips luxury suite plans

After too many bad questions were asked about plans to use a luxury suite at the Kohl Center as part of a political fundraiser, Scott Walker's campaign abandoned plans to use the suite. WKOW-TV in Madison reports:

Walker Ditches Luxury Suite

Wed 02/22/2006 -

Officials with Republican Scott Walker's campaign for Governor dropped plans to host political donors in a Kohl Center luxury suite during a Wisconsin men's basketball game after 27 News asked who was sponsoring the fundraising event.

"We did not use the suite for the event," campaign manager Bruce Pfaff told 27 News.

"It was an internal campaign decision," Pfaff said.

Pfaff denied the decision had anything to do with concerns raised over the possibility the halftime suite access at the Feb. 15 game amounted to an illegal, corporate campaign gift.

Records released to 27 News showed thirty five of the Kohl Center's thirty six luxury suites are leased to corporations.

Wisconsin election law prohibits corporations from making direct or indirect contributions to political candidates.

The whole story.

UPDATE: There goes Bruce Pfaff again, contradicting his candidate. To follow up on the WKOW report, Pfaff tells WKOW it was "an internal campaign decision" not to use the suite, but Scott Walker in his blog says that they were just having too much fun and didn't want to leave the action.

From the Walker blog:

Two supporters donated tickets and we had a fundraiser (tickets were face value and rest was donation to our campaign). Since the seats were so good and our supporters wanted to stay near the action, we never went to a suite (although I did buy a brat and a soda on the way in at one of the concession stands).

Willie Horton moves to Wisconsin

I thought it, but Carrie Lynch said it. Paul Bucher's campaign has brought Willie Horton to Wisconsin.

Heckuva job, Mikey!

The AP reports:

LOS ANGELES - Eight days after Hurricane Katrina hit, Michael Jackson announced he would release an all-star charity single within two weeks.

Nearly six months later, after questions about exactly who would be participating, the prince who has been hosting Jackson during his self-imposed exile in Bahrain says the song will come out by the end of this month.

With that kind of quick turnaround, there just might be a place for Michael Jackson in FEMA.

Dubya and Dubai

This is what would move George W. Bush to use his veto power for the first time? A plan to let Dubai take control of the port of New York (and a few others)?

That's the issue he'll go to the wall on, even when the Republican leaders in both houses of Congress express serious doubts?

What could this be about? Why do I suspect, when all of the facts come out, that it will be about some personal or business connection of the Bush family?

UPDATE: Bush aides have ties to Dubai firm.

I'll turn the rest over to the NY Times' Maureen Dowd:

GOP to W: You're Nuts!

It's enough to make you nostalgic for those gnarly union stevedores in "On the Waterfront," the ones who hung up rats on hooks and took away Marlon Brando's chance to be a contend-ah.

Maybe it's corporate racial profiling, but I don't want foreign companies, particularly ones with links to 9/11, running American ports.

What kind of empire are we if we have to outsource our coastline to a group of sheiks who don't recognize Israel, in a country where money was laundered for the 9/11 attacks? And that let A. Q. Kahn, the Pakistani nuclear scientist, smuggle nuclear components through its port to Libya, North Korea and Iran?

It's mind-boggling that President Bush ever agreed to let an alliance of seven emirs be in charge of six of our ports. Although, as usual, Incurious George didn't even know about it until after the fact. (Neither did Rummy, even though he heads one of the agencies that green-lighted the deal.)

Same old pattern: a stupid and counterproductive national security decision is made in secret, blowing off checks and balances, and the president's out of the loop.

Was W. too busy not calling Dick Cheney to find out why he shot a guy to not be involved in a critical decision about U.S. security? What is he waiting for — a presidential daily brief warning, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack U.S. Ports?"

Our ports are already nearly naked in terms of security. Only about 5 percent of the containers coming into the country are checked. And when the White House assures us that the Homeland Security Department will oversee security at the ports, is that supposed to make us sleep better? Not after the chuckleheaded Chertoff-and-Brownie show on Capitol Hill.

"Our borders are wide open," said Jan Gadiel of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. "We don't know who's in our country right now, not a clue. And now they're giving away our ports." The "trust us" routine of W. and Dick Cheney is threadbare.

The more W. warned that he would veto legislation stopping this deal, the more lawmakers held press conferences to oppose it — even conservatives who had loyally supported W. on Iraq, the Patriot Act, torture and warrantless snooping.

Mr. Bush is hoist on his own petard. For four years, the White House has accused anyone in Congress or the press who defended civil liberties or questioned anything about the Iraq war of being soft on terrorism. Now, as Congress and the press turn that accusation back on the White House, Mr. Bush acts mystified by the orgy of xenophobia.

Lawmakers, many up for re-election, have learned well from Karl Rove. Playing the terror card works.

A bristly Bush said yesterday that scotching the deal would send "a terrible signal" to a worthy ally. He equated the "Great British" with the U.A.E. Well, maybe Britain in the 12th century.

Besides, the American people can be forgiven if they're confused about what it means in the Arab world to be a U.S. ally. Is it a nation that helps us sometimes but also addicts us to oil and then jacks up the price, refuses to recognize Israel, denies women basic rights, tolerates radical anti-American clerics, looks the other way when its citizens burn down embassies and consulates over cartoons, and often turns a blind eye when it comes to hunting down terrorists in its midst?

In our past wars, America had specific countries to demonize. But now in the "global war on terror" — GWOT, as they call it — the enemy is a faceless commodity that the administration uses whenever it wants to win a political battle. When something like this happens, it's no wonder the public does its own face transplant.

One of the real problems here is that this administration has run up such huge trade and tax-cut-and-spend budget deficits that we're in hock to the Arabs and the Chinese to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. If they just converted their bonds into cash, they would own our ports and not have to merely rent them.

Just because the wealthy foreigners who own our debt can blackmail us with their economic leverage, does that mean we should expose our security assets to them as well?

As part of the lunatic White House defense, Dan Bartlett argued that "people are trying to drive wedges and make this to be a political issue." But as the New Republic editor Peter Beinart pointed out in a recent column, W. has made the war on terror "one vast wedge issue" to divide the country.

Now, however, the president has pulled us together. We all pretty much agree: mitts off our ports.

Beware 'solutions' from problem causers

Paul Soglin waxes eloquently on the false arguments offered by a consultant teying to sell the Bride of TABOR to Wisconsin.

Soglin says:

Wisconsin Neocons and their surrogates are advancing more deceptive and distorted arguments on behalf of the Bride of TABOR. Recall:

--the exterminator who offered you his services after letting a dozen mice into the house.

--the software manufacturer who offered you spam blockers after allowing the infection of your hard drive.

After destroying the fiscal integrity of Wisconsin over fifteen years, the Neocons, most of the influential Republicans in the legislature, are offering a fix that does not work.

Read the rest.

File under Promises Kept

The Associated Press reports:

Gov's plane use lower than predecessors'

By Ryan J. Foley
Associated Press

Gov. Jim Doyle has used state airplanes to travel far less than his predecessors during his first three years in office, records show.

Doyle, who during the 2002 campaign repeatedly criticized Gov. Scott McCallum's use of state planes, logged 28,900 miles in the year that ended June 30, 2005, according to records obtained by The Associated Press in an open records request.

That was slightly higher than Doyle's previous two years but less than the two Republicans who preceded him in the east wing, records show. McCallum flew almost twice as many miles in 2002, and Tommy Thompson traveled almost three times as much in 2000.

"I'm happy to see that's happening," Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, who has called for efficiencies in the state plane fleet, said of Doyle's reduced use...

Doyle wanted to limit plane use after criticizing McCallum on the issue, including McCallum's trip to take his son to a soccer tournament in Colorado, spokesman Dan Leistikow said...

Thompson and McCallum have defended their frequent flying.

"I viewed a large part of the job to represent people throughout the state," McCallum said. "It wasn't to be captive of what was going on inside the Capitol."

Leistikow said Doyle visits all parts of the state, but he has "spent a lot more time in the car and less time in the air."

Walker 'reforms' should be tested at home

Gov wannabe Scott Walker, the only member of the Assembly besides Mark Green who was shocked, shocked to hear that Republican staffers were illegal working on campaigns, has proposed a package of ethics reforms.

My favorite proposal is term limits for state officials. Talk about an idea whose time has come and gone. Even some of the Republicans who got elected to Congress as supporters of term limits decided, once they got their, that it was a bad idea.

A close second is a part-time legislature. Even if it were a good idea, what do you think the odds are that will ever happen?

Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, thinks we should have a part-time legislature but a full-time, 19-member County Board? (Actually, he wishes there were no county board and he could jujst rule by fiat, but he hasn't proposed that.)

Maybe he should give those ideas -- term limits and part-time legislators -- a test run at home before taking them statewide.

Of course, he knows those are proposals that will never go anywhere. But they might sound good to some voters, and serve as filler in his reform package.

But, clearly, as Bob Dylan would say, they ain't going nowhere.

Worst of the worst surveys

I used to think that the state convention straw polls were the worst indicators of how a primary would turn out.

But now there's an even worse one: a survey of county party chairs.

Based on responses from a whopping 20 of 72 Dem county chairs, it looks like AG Peg Lautenschlager has her primary wrapped up. Kathleen Falk should just quit now.

Likewise, 22 GOP chairs say they like Mark Green for gov and J. B. Van Hollen for AG.

Aside from the size of the sample, it should be noted that Milwaukee County and Florence County each have one vote in this survey.

But Scott Walker, Paul Bucher and Falk may just want to get out of the way of that county chair juggernaut. Or not. Or naught.

Quote, unquote

Like a laundry detergent that's advertised as "new and improved!" the failed Taxpayer Bill of Rights has been repackaged and given another name in the state Legislature.

But when you open the Taxpayer Protection Act and take a close look at it, you'll see that it has the same basic flaws as its earlier version.

New? Yeah. Improved? Some. But at its core, the proposed amendment to the state constitution remains an example of wrong-thinking government.

-- Appleton Post-Crescent editorial.

A modest proposal on poll workers

The City of Milwaukee is putting on a push to recruit 750 more poll workers, to be in place by September's primary.

It is no secret that there were many, many problems in the 2004 presidential election in Milwaukee. Not fraud, but bureaucracy run amok, with a shortage of trained poll workers compounding the problems caused by huge turnouts.

A Journal Sentinel editorial encourages people to volunteer, and that's good idea. (Call 286-3491.) The Election Commission is reaching out to ask businesses and organizations to encourage employees and members to work at the polls, and that's a good idea, too.

But why not go another step toward professionalizing the election system, by using people who already work for city government -- especially people in clerical or administrative jobs who are trained and efficient at handling paperwork.

Why not shut down city government on election day, or maintain a skeleton staff in most departments, and assign everyone else to a polling place?

City workers could get some training sessions during work hours, and you know they'd show up as scheduled on election day -- because that would be their jobs. Election day wouldn't be a holiday, just a day they worked at a different assignment.

Would this cost a little more in terms of lost time from work, versus the pittance the city pays poll workers as a stipend? Sure. But isn't running an efficient, fair election something the taxpayers should finance? It is the responsibility of city government, not the old lady down the street, to see that everyone eligible gets to vote and that our votes are properly counted.

Trying to anticipate the objections from the wingnuts: This should be a volunteer effort, 1000 Points of Light? Too many city workers are members of the public employees union, and probably Democrats? (The truth is that the right won't like anything that might shorten the lines or make it easier for people to vote in the city. Their goal is to lower turnout, not facilitate it.)

Worth a shot? After 2004, how could we do worse?

Bush's science fiction advisor

Now it's more understandable why President Bush doesn't think global warming is such a big deal. He doesn't have a science advisor. He has a science fiction advisor.

'I guess I have to say that I don't know how I do it'

A reader asks:

What’s with all the “I” talk coming from Scott Walker's campaign manager, Bruce Pfaff?

From Spivak & Bice:

Bruce Pfaff, Walker's campaign chief, said that until smart-aleck reporters called Wednesday, he didn't give the Saturday hunt, which Walker will attend, a second thought.

"I'm worried about getting money in the door and having enough to fund the game plan to defeat Mark Green and Jim Doyle," Pfaff said, referring to Walker's GOP primary opponent and the incumbent Democratic governor. "Humor doesn't come into it much in our days."

From the Capital Times:

Despite last weekend's hunting accident involving Vice President Dick Cheney, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker will go ahead with a $500-per-person pheasant hunt fundraiser on Saturday.

"I just can't cancel an event that's had invitations out for three weeks," said Walker's campaign manager Bruce Pfaff. "I need money in the bank, no matter whether I do it this weekend or a month from now."

Another Cap Times story:

Pfaff refused to confirm information about the event because "I am concerned about opponents learning details," he said.

He did say that Walker "usually" attends his fundraisers, and that the halftime event in a suite probably consisted of just stopping by to see a supporter.

Pfaff would not say who the supporter was or who leased that suite.

"My job is to raise money and report what I'm required to and beat my opponents," he said.

A very good question. When a campaign manager starts to talk about himself, instead of the campaign or the candidate, or even saying "we" instead of "I," it is usually a bad sign. Something bad is happening internally -- in the Walker campaign or in the manager's head.

Tommy's dog track take: $280,000 to $409,000

Stories always get better over time, at least in memory, I guess. After 16 years, my recollection was that Tommy Thompson had raised somewhere between a half-million and three-quarters of a million dollars from dog track interests in his 1990 campaign.

I stand corrected. The figure reported by the Milwaukee Journal in 1990 was "only" $280,000 from dog track interests.

The Tom Loftus campaign, which did its own research, set the amount at $409,000.

Whatever the number, it clearly is more than the Journal Sentinel reported on Sunday, when it claimed Thompson had received only $200,000 from gambling interests during 15 years as governor.

Here's the story, which features his young campaign manager, Scooter Jensen, defending Tommy:

Thompson has received $280,000 from donors linked to dog tracks

The Milwaukee Journal
September 16, 1990

By STEVE SCHULTZE and CRAIG GILBERT

The state's dog track industry has provided what appears to be the largest special-interest donations to any single state campaign in Wisconsin history, funneling more than $280,000 into Gov. Tommy G. Thompson's re-election treasury.

A review of Thompson's campaign finance reports, based on both public records and a computerized analysis of those records conducted by his opponent, Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus, shows contributions since 1987 from more than 200 racetrack owners, investors and others who stood to profit from the tracks.

Wisconsin's racing law, some of it shaped by Thompson's vetoes, gives the first-term Republican power to appoint members to the Racing Board and to appoint the board's executive director.

There is nothing illegal about the contributions. Until now, however, their full extent had not been measured. They form part of the $4.6 million Thompson has raised so far in his campaign against the Democrat from Sun Prairie.

To the governor, they suggest nothing improper, and are no more noteworthy than his opponent's acceptance of money from the state's powerful teachers union.

"I don't look at who sends in money. I never have. I couldn't tell you at all who the key financial supporters of Tommy Thompson are. I never look at the financial records, reports. There's no pressure whatsoever on people to send money to our campaign," the governor told a reporter recently.

But to Thompson's challenger, the infusion of tens of thousands of dollars in racetrack money represents a disturbing trend in the state's political scene.

"That is an amazing impact on Wisconsin politics," Loftus said. "And you can see that it won't take too many elections before they will be the major players, in the legislative races and governor's race.

"By far, they are the largest player ever in the history of Wisconsin, in any race, for any post."

Loftus, who has raised $740,000 for his campaign, said his treasury would not include contributions from anyone who fell under his sweeping definition of dog track interests. Some $2,700 that was received has been or will be returned, he said.

The Racing Board licensed tracks on May 19, 1989, in Kenosha, Delavan, Wisconsin Dells, Kaukauna and Hudson. The tracks began opening this spring, and all but the Hudson track, scheduled to open in June 1991, are up and running.

Racing industry experts expect the tracks to be cash cows, producing huge profits for owners. Dairyland Greyhound Park at Kenosha, the largest of the state's five tracks, is expected to pull in $350 million in bets and $20 million in profits annually.

Dog track money is scattered over thousands of pages of individual contributions in Thompson's campaign finance reports.

A Journal examination earlier this year, reported Aug. 5, found $97,050 in dog track contributions to Thompson, chiefly from major investors in those five tracks.

A new examination by The Journal puts the figure at $286,000. That represents new contributions from investors as well as contributions from non-owners who have a large financial stake in the tracks, such as J.P. Cullen, president of the firm that is the prime contractor on the $35 million Hudson track. Cullen contributed $3,450.

About half of Thompson's racetrack money, $140,599, came from track owners and close family members. The rest included in The Journal analysis came from track developers and builders.

Figures Differ

Loftus' aides come up with a higher amount they say is linked to dog tracks: $409,676.

The Journal's estimate was lower because it excluded contributors without clear and substantial ties to the tracks, and firms who had done minor work for the tracks but might have had several other reasons for giving to Thompson.

For instance, The Journal list includes $3,000 in donations from Tommy Bartlett, owner of several tourist attractions at the Wisconsin Dells and a part owner of Wisconsin Dells Greyhound Park. Loftus' list included additional contributions from employes of Bartlett.

Scott Jensen, Thompson's campaign director, argued that Bartlett, while a part owner, should not be counted among dog track interests because he had been a consistent and longtime contributor to Thompson.

Loftus has been particularly critical of Thompson's receipt of racetrack money from out-of-state track investors. About 25% of Thompson's track contributions, or $71,986, came from out-of-state sources.

Thompson recently returned $2,000 of that amount to three of the four Alabama investors in Dairyland Greyhound Park who were accused by the Racing Board of fraud.

The largest chunks of out-of- state money to Thompson came from Florida investors in the St. Croix Meadows dog track in Hudson and Illinois investors in the Geneva Lakes Kennel Club at Delavan.

For example, the Antoniou family, which holds a major share of the Delavan track, gave 28,700. Florida partners in the Hudson track gave $16,500.

Loftus Cites Power

In Loftus' view, Thompson's power to appoint the state's racing regulators makes him a magnet for racetrack interests. Loftus goes so far as to refer to a "shakedown" for dog track money by the Thompson campaign, saying the governor's campaign methodically targeted dog track interests for contributions. To bolster his charge, Loftus points to his staff's analysis that shows contributions from various track interests cluster around dates of particular fund-raisers.

While Thompson declined to be interviewed specifically for this story, Jensen, the campaign director, said there was no systematic effort to collect track money for Thompson, although Jensen said he wasn't fully aware of all of the governor's fund-raising efforts.

It was only logical that a collection of racetrack investors should show up at certain fund-raisers, Jensen said. They probably wanted to attend along with other business people in a particular community, he said.

"We invited the entire business community when we held a fund- raiser in a particular area," he said.

Jensen also said it wasn't fair to include some of the money being counted as racetrack money because it was given by people with varied business interests, not just racetracks.

"I think there is a definitional problem here," Jensen said.

"If he {Loftus} says people are tainted the minute they make a dog track investment, that's just not fair to people who have been good corporate citizens for many, many years," Jensen said.

Teachers Donate More

The biggest formal special interest group spending in Wisconsin politics has been by the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union. WEAC gave $650,000 in 1987-'88, but it was divided among dozens of candidates. The figure comes from the State Elections Board's most recent biennial report.

Thus far, teachers have given $30,000 to Loftus for his gubernatorial race.

The board has not analyzed Thompson's money for dog track- related contributions, said Gail Shea, campaign finance administrator for the Elections Board.

Shea said she believed the method of analyzing Thompson's track money was legitimate. She warned, however, that "there is no fail-safe test that is going to completely define why people made a contribution."

. . .

Some Losing Firms Gave

Representatives of firms that lost bids for track licenses also gave to Thompson, Jensen said, arguing that showed that contributions to Thompson didn't matter when it came to awarding licenses.

Investors in a failed bid to win a license for a track in Beloit ruefully noted they made no contributions to Thompson and lost.

"They tried to be squeaky clean," a Legislative Audit Bureau investigative memo noted. The Beloit track investors told auditors "they suspect the principal owners of the Delavan {Geneva Lakes} track may have contributed to the Governor's Club," a fund-raising vehicle used by Thompson in which donors of $500 or more are given special access to and briefings by the
governor.

In fact, some Geneva Lakes investors gave many times the $500 it takes to get into Thompson's "Governor's Club." Andreas Antoniou gave $6,000, Anthony Antoniou gave $6,200 and three other Antoniou family members gave a total of $12,000.

Thompson campaign officials have argued that contributions made after the May 1989 track licenses were awarded couldn't possibly be construed as attempts to curry favor.

But Loftus said there were plenty of reasons. Thompson continues to play a key role in regulating tracks through his close working relationship with Racing Board Executive Director Terence Dunleavy, track licenses are subject to renewal, and those getting licenses have a vested interest in making sure nobody else receives one, Loftus said.

Investigator Aided Loftus

Along with the research Loftus campaign officials did on dog money, they also hired a private investigator from San Francisco to help them analyze racetrack records and make public records requests for them to the Racing Board.

Loftus consultant Michele Carrier said Saturday that the reason for having the investigator, David Fechheimer, make the records requests was that the Racing Board was not releasing all the documents it requested. Carrier said the campaign officials felt that if they were going to get cooperation from the board, the requests needed to come from someone who wasn't linked to Loftus.

State of the City: Too many guns

From Mayor Tom Barrett's State of the City speech today:

Our effort to reduce violence in Milwaukee starts with guns. Last week, within a twenty-four period, thugs with guns killed three people. One was a mother who got caught up in the crossfire resulting from an argument. Imagine if she was your mother.

A few weeks ago, an innocent nine year-old girl was shot and wounded on, of all places, a playground. The shot came from hundreds of feet away. A shot fired by a teenager in an argument - an 18 year-old with a gun. Imagine if she was your daughter.

I’m here to tell you that these Milwaukee residents are our mothers, they are our daughters, our sons and our fathers who are being murdered by people who have no business carrying and using guns. We must get illegal handguns and the criminals who use them off our streets!

In the last five years, police have confiscated over 11,000 guns. Despite a record number of guns taken off the streets, 95 people were killed by someone shooting a gun in Milwaukee last year. We need to do better.

Our state legislature needs to end its preoccupation with an NRA agenda that puts more guns on our streets and instead, enact laws to stem the flow of illegal guns into our neighborhoods.

Amen.

-- Lloyd Dangle, Troubletown, via Cagle.

Vets' money transfer on fast track

UPDATE: Off the fast track?The Assembly Veterans Committee chaired by Rep. Gabe Loeffelholz, R-Platteville, took no action Tuesday on a plan to transfer millions of dollars from the vets'nursing home in King. AB 1034 that would allow the transfer of money - up to $16 million - that could be invested for the future at the King Home to the trust fund account was suspended in freeze frame while GOP legislative leaders decide what to do about the measure. No executive action was taken and no amendments are pending.

-- By Gary Fisher:

A high-speed transfer of $16 million from the vets' nursing home at King in Waupaca County to the account of the Veterans Trust Fund is set for a committee vote Tuesday.

The executive session takes place Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in the Veterans Affairs Committee chaired by Rep. Terry Musser, R-Black River Falls.

Just introduced and fast-tracked, Assembly Bill 1034 would allow the transfer of money that could be invested for the future at the King Home to the trust fund account. The original draft of the bill stated an amount of $16 million to be transferred.

The measure would have to pass in both houses and then be signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs hasn't provided documents pertaining to the financial performance of King Home or the accounting reasons why the planned transfer of millions from the nursing home to the trust fund is such an urgent necessity. Nor has it provided documents to show why the King Home has a cash surplus to bail out the trust fund.

Whatever the reasons for the transfer, 23 senators and 89 representatives overwhelmingly support the legislation.

The bill would also exempt certain vets from UW System and technical college tuition and fees, ensure eligibility for reduced tuition fees for surviving spouses that haven't remarried, and the children of certain deceased veterans, and increase IT staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The committee is also set to act on SB 436, a college reenrollment and registration priority for those called into active military duty and AB 164 that would exempt a military death gratuity payment from taxation.

The Veterans Affairs Board meets Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the state Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Madison. On Tuesday it's Salute to the Legislature at Monona Terrace.

Meanwhile, board member holdout Kathy Marschman, whose term was over May 1, 2005, still blocks Rod Moen from succeeding her on the board, and Republican Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz hasn't scheduled action for a floor vote on Moen's confirmation. Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Moen last year to serve a six-year term, but Marschman has refused to resign even though her term ended, so Moen can't take the seat until the Republican State Senate confirms him, which it seems unwilling to do.

Board member Don Heiliger's term on the board also ended at the same time as Marschman's last year, however, the governor has yet to appoint a replacement
for him.

Burning issue for Bush, Walker, Green

Wisconsin wingnuts and Republican radio hosts have decided, for whatever reason, that ethanol, like light rail, is the work of the devil. And now it appears George W. Bush has gone over to the dark side, WisPolitics reports:

During his visit to Milwaukee today, President George W. Bush pushed for increased use of ethanol as a way to ease the country's "addiction" to oil. [Maybe that explains why Walker and Green were doing their best to ignore him in the photo above.-- Xoff.]

"The more ethanol we use, the less crude oil we consume, and using ethanol has the added benefit of supporting our farmers," Bush said.

Gov wannabes Scott Walker and Mark Green have different views. Walker thinks whatever Charlie Sykes and Mark Belling tell him to think. Green has a more slippery nuanced view.

WisPolitics on a recent joint appearance:

Walker said he would not support an ethanol mandate and not sign one if it got to his desk as guv. Instead, he advocated expanded incentives for ethanol production. Green said he would only support the bill on the condition that the business community would not be adversely affected. He lashed out at Doyle for not getting enough independent research to decide on the implications of ethanol for Wisconsin’s businesses.

One post at Badger Blogger already suggests that will hurt Green among conservatives.

Who woulda thought it? Will ethanol decide the GOP primary? (No.)

UPDATE: Doyle rubs it in.

Jeff Stone hates taxes, not spending

Rep. Jeff Stone, R-Greendale, is one of those anti-tax Republicans who's all for TABOR, Bride of TABOR, whatever. He hates taxes.

He doesn't hate spending quite as much, though, especially when it's someone else's money.

Stone has been aggressively lobbying for a sewer expansion for Franklin that would open what is now a largely rural area to development.

Franklin officials have pitched the $42.5-million project to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which would have to change its boundaries to take in the new area.

And Stone is beating the drums for it, even though he has been told that the project would push MMSD's capital budget increase into the 6% range -- about triple what would be allowed under Bride of TABOR. There's always the referendum option, of course, but it would be a very hard sell to get taxpayers in the rest of the district to pay for Franklin's growth.

When the issue came up at an MMSD committee meeting, Stone attended, although it is virtually unheard of for a legislator to show up to lobby on an issue. Stone did get up and express his support for the sewer expansion. Commissioners let him know that MMSD was going to pass a 2% budget increase, just as the Republicans in the legislature wanted, and that the Franklin project would put the budget well over that limit. Stone didn't offer any alternatives.

Jeannette Bell, West Allis mayor and MMSD commissioner:

"Generally, you create a TIF district or businesses pay for that," said Bell, whose community has used tax-incremental financing districts to fund West Allis' redevelopment. "I don't know if West Allis taxpayers will want to pay for a huge sewer out in Franklin when they've had to invest in their own economic development."

If a referendum won't fly, maybe Stone can get the legislature to amend Bride of TABOR to make an exception for pork supported by Republican lawmakers.

Dog tracks were sure bet for Tommy

Either the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a short institutional memory or it uses a very narrow definition of gambling, judging from its Sunday story about gambling-related contributors to candidates for governor.

Here's the sentence in question:

When Republican Tommy G. Thompson was governor from 1987 to 2001, he received about $200,000 in contributions from gambling interests.

Thompson got much more than that in one campaign cycle from would-be dog track owners, as he auctioned off the state's first dog track licenses in the late 1980s.

At the time, everyone believed having a dog track license was like having a license to print money. There were projections of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits every year for the lucky handful who were licensed.

Thompson's campaign systematically raised money from anyone with an interest in obtaining one of those licenses -- from the well-heeled, sometimes mob-connected, out-of-state investors, those who would build the tracks, the people who would blacktop the parking lots, practically down to the hot dog vendors.

The news media was oblivious, so, during the 1990 campaign for governor, Tom Loftus's campaign did the research, put it all together, and presented it to the Milwaukee Journal. It showed hundreds of thousands of dollars in dog track donations to Thompson. My recollection is that it was at least half a million and perhaps three-fourths of a million tied to dog track interests. [UPDATE: The total was $280,000 to $409,000.]

The newspaper, after checking the information and eliminating some donors Loftus had lifted, on the basis that they may have given for some other reason (a standard no longer in play), eventually ran a story about how much Thompson's shakedown of dog tracks had produced. It was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it was a one-day story, as I recall.

I don't know the exact number the paper used. I don't have the records or enough interest and ambition to look through microfilm to find it. But surely the clipping from 1990, although not online, is right in the newspaper's library/morgue for some enterprising reporter to find.

I say this not to employ the "everybody else did it" defense, but simply in hopes that someone might set the record straight, for historical purposes if nothing else.

The ironic postscript to the dog track story, of course, is that they didn't make any money but lost huge amounts once casinos came onto the Wisconsin scene. No one had anticipated that would happen. And now the battle is whether to convert a dog track into a casino. What would Tommy do? One thing we know for sure; he would raise a lot of money.

Quote, unquote

"When lawmakers promise painless tax freezes, watch out. Don't buy that snake oil."

-- Marshfield News-Herald, in an editorial on the Bride of TABOR, entitled, "Tax freeze act would bring ruin."

Sensenbrenner still wrong, heartless

Patrick McIlheran, the Journal Sentinel's rabid rightwing columnist (local variety), thinks F. Jim Sensenbrenner has been vindicated for his vote against aiding Katrina victims:

How unfortunate that U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. was right.

Suburban Milwaukee's Mr. Mean in Congress voted in September against providing $52 billion in quickie relief to people left homeless when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans. He said the program, which was on top of $10 billion in relief that hadn't yet been exhausted, was an invitation to fraud.

"Heartless," the Democratic Party said at the time. "A pig," said one of the stalks of the progressive grass roots posting in November at The Daily Kos, rubber room of the American left; another described Sensenbrenner as "a cheap piece of crap who doesn't care much for black folks."

That is: How dare Sensenbrenner suggest Congress, having already sent enough aid to amount to $6,400 per household in the hurricane zone, try putting some safeguards on the next $33,000 per household? These are victims, after all, not criminals.

Now, it's: How dare Sensenbrenner have been right?

One small problem with that analysis. Sensenbrenner said no such thing. He didn't offer any amendments or suggest any safeguards or oversight. He just voted no, knowing the bill would pass, and hoping he would be proven "right."

He is as reponsible as anyone for allowing the Bush administration to prove its incompetency.

If a majority of Congress had joined Sensenbrenner in voting "no," would things be better today in New Orelans? Or would misery and suffering have increased tenfold?

"Right" my ass.

I believe I was the first one to call Sensenbrenner heartless, along with uncaring and unfeeling. And I am still right.

Charlie Sykes keeps asking where Sensenbrenner should go to get his apology. I've got his apology. He should come and get it.

The No-Partisan-Cheapshot Zone

Too good not to share: Robola's rip on Charlie Sykes on Jimmy Carter's remarks at King funeral, which were entirely appropriate.

If Sykes thinks birthday parties and dinner parties are No Partisan Cheapshot Zones, it's a good thing we don't socialize (not that there's ever been any danger of that.) In liberal circles, it's no holds barred.

Carter, of course, didn't take a cheap shot. In doubt? Watch the video on Robola's post.

TABOR-ites try to ignore Colorado

Greg Stanford's Sunday column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says that TABOR backers who fail to learn from Colorado's bad experiences may be doomed to repeat them.

Supporters of the new constitutional amendment, Bride of TABOR, insist this one is nothing like Colorado's. Then they defend what happened in Colorado and say it all worked great.

Stanford says:

Colorado squeezed its state finances into a straitjacket called the taxpayer bill of rights in 1992. TABOR, a constitutional amendment limiting the growth in public revenue, worked even better than advertised. Government shrunk drastically.

There were side effects, however - fiscal and political. First, services - health care, roads and bridges, schools and universities - worsened. Next, for the first time in 30 years, the Republican Legislature turned Democratic.

TABOR die-hards pooh-pooh the link between revenue caps, a Republican signature, and the Democratic takeover. Yet a crowning achievement of the new Legislature was a voter-approved suspension of TABOR.

So what lessons have Wisconsin Republicans drawn from the Colorado debacle? Amazingly, enact TABOR or something like it.

Read the rest.

How cold was it?

Well, it was so cold in aught-six that they called off the Polar Plunge in Madison.

They are thinking of rescheduling it for summer, when it won't be so cold.

Slow government response to Hurricana Katrina continues.

Newsweek: New e-mails show administration in Katrina chaos

-- Graphic via T-shirt humor.com

Who really blinked on choice?

The right wing coverage of the school choice compromise declares it a big victory for the right wing (what a surprise), and is almost unanimous in saying Gov. Jim Doyle is the one who blinked.

Jay Bullock, a Milwaukee teacher and choice opponent who's been following the issue much more closely than I have, and who has written considerably more about it, says the idea that Doyle blinked is as phony as the manufactured "crisis" over the issue. Read it here.

Jensen gamble puts Republicans at risk

If State Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Brookfield, does what his lawyer insists he will do, and goes to trial on charges that he abused his public office by running campaigns at taxpayer expense, he'll be taking a big gamble.

The other four legislators charged in connection with the far-reaching caucus scandal all copped pleas as their trials approached.

But Jensen is the only one who's still in office. He's been reelected twice since his indictment, and continues to be a force in the Republican leadership's inner circle, although he did step down as Speaker.

He's managed to delay the trial for more than three years, trying every argument under the sun: "This was all part of my job. "Everybody else was doing it, too." "I can't get a fair trial here."

It's all fallen on the deaf ears of Judge Steven Ebert. With Ebert on the bench and a Dane County jury that Jensen claims will be full of Dane County Democrats who've read negative stories about him, it's hard to imagine Jensen thinks he will be acquitted. Maybe he is hoping that some of Ebert's decisions will be reversible on appeal. Or maybe he just wants to drag it out until his term ends at the end of the year.

It is no secret in the Capitol that legislative Republicans do not want a trial.

Republicans are already reeling nationally from the Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Jack Abramoff scandals. Despite the GOP's efforts to make those bi-partisan, the polls clearly show Republicans have been hurt and are looking at losses in this year's Congressional elections.

Jensen, too, will try to make his defense bipartisan, threatening to call Democrats like former Speaker Tom Loftus as a witness.

But the trial, which could last three weeks, will feature one Republican witness after another, testifying about Republican misconduct and abuse of the system. The fallout could touch many GOP campaigns.

For example, the campaign manager for Attorney General candidate JB Van Hollen, Darrin Schmitz, is listed as a witness for the prosecution. Apparently, Schmitz will be testifying about the systematic abuse of taxpayer resources by state legislative Republicans he witnessed as a caucus employee, legislative staffer and executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Mark Green's chief of staff, Chris Tuttle, couldn't have been pleased to see that both of his supervisors from his days in the Assembly Republican caucus, Ray Carey and Todd Rongstad, and his subordinates, Eric Grant and R. J. Pirlot, were on the original prosecution witness list. But Rongstad and Pirlot didn't make the final cut, which is probably some relief.

Seems odd that everyone in the organizational chart except Tuttle was campaigning on state time, but maybe that will be explained on the witness stand.

Speaker John Gard, who's running for Congress, is on the list. So is State GOP Chair Rick Graber and convicted ex-lawmakers Steve Foti and Bonnie Ladwig, Republicans all.

If this becomes a three-week expose of Republican sins, Scott Jensen, while arguing that his job was to win elections and build a Republican majority, could be guaranteeing that Republicans lose legislative seats in the fall.

Today's Wisconsin State Journal story.

Prosecution witness list.

Bush visiting hostile territory

President Bush narrowly lost Wisconsin in 2000 and 2004, but when he comes to visit Badgerland on Monday he will find the populace is nowhere near 50-50, the latest SurveyUSA poll says.

The Feb. 6 poll has his job approval rating at 38% positive and 59% negative, for a net of minus 21. Could be worse, though; in Rhode Island it's 25-72, a 47 point gap.

Wisconsin breakdown.

Gov. Jim Doyle's job approval rating is 45-47, or minus 2 -- about where Bush's vote ended up in the 2004 campaign here.

Who's sorry now?

-- Talking Points Memo.

-- Mike Lukovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution.

New anti-tax group features familiar face

Have you notice that the new campaign for Bride of TABOR features a new player, Americans for Prosperity?

They are sponsors, with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, of the patriotic pro-TABOR radio spot that's been running.

And it was their "expert," Colorado economist Barry Poulson, who testified at the first hearing on the proposed constitutional amendment to strangle government -- and who ducked the question when asked how much he was being paid for his testimony.

They call themselves a free market grassroots group, but the money doesn't come from the grassroots. Americans for Prosperity is funded by people who are already prosperous. The organization's affiliated tax-exempt foundation was created with funding from the heirs of Fred Koch, who made his fortune in oil and gas and was a founding member of the arch-conservative John Birch Society.

The Wisconsin branch's director is Mark Block, a longtime Republican operative best remembered for his role in the 1997 campaign of Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox, which resulted in the largest fines ever assessed against any campaign in the history of Wisconsin -- $60,000 in all. Block himself was fined $15,000 and barred from campaigns in Wisconsin for three years.

Wilcox himself paid a $10,000 fine, although denying any wrongdoing himself.

The Capital Times reported in 2001:

The Elections Board alleged that Wilcox's campaign illegally coordinated last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts with the supposedly independent Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation. State law bans any coordination or cooperation between independent groups like the coalition and a candidate or candidate's campaign organization.

Under the settlement, Wilcox's campaign manager Mark Block also agreed to pay a $15,000 fine and promised not to work as a consultant or volunteer on any campaign until 2004.

The coalition's co-founder, former Assembly Republican staffer Brent Pickens, agreed to pay a $35,000 fine and promised not to work on any campaigns for the next five years.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has more.

Reducing the scope of $5-billion question

I've been asking Republicans what $5-billion they would take out of the current state budget, to reflect how much smaller it would be if the state had adopted a spending amendment like TABOR 20 years ago. Some have said it's a phony question; others have tried to answer.

Now Paul Soglin, who knows something about municipal finances, brings the question down to a more manageable and understandable level.

I wish [Economist Barry] Paulson or one of these Republican Frankensteins who keep bringing TABOR back to life would once, just once, go through the exercise of deciding spending limits for one basic service, like the Fire Department in Milwaukee. Service levels are based on response time to every corner of the city, minimum staffing levels for on-duty firefighters, and a considerable number of related expenses, many of which are mandated by state government. Boys, don't forget those fire stations need heat and electricity!

They will either have to lower the quality of the service below safe guidelines, or

They will have to raise taxes above their beloved TABOR guidelines.

The right-wing controlled legislature is a sideshow carnival peddling a phony 'tax freeze' to the rubes, but it is a son-of-a-bitch when it comes to facing reality, which is what the voters of Colorado had to do after a couple of years of TABOR.

How about a fair discussion? Take the Madison or Milwaukee Fire Departments and tell us what you will cut and the consequences. Then we get five minutes of rebuttal.

Instead, in the Republican-controlled legislature, we get the old carnival "knock down the weighted milk bottles" game, with the giant stuffed animal prize of lower taxes and more "efficient" government just out of reach.

More from Soglin on the subject.

Want to stop spending? Just do it

Republicans say they want to stop spending so much money in state government. They have a big majority in both houses of the legislature, so why don't they just do it? That's what Carrie Lynch and the Wisconsin State Journal want to know.

Instead, it's Bride of TABOR, and "Stop me before I spend again."

Seth Zlotocha's analysis suggests the impact of Bride of TABOR would be much more severe than those pushing it will admit.

Safe? Economical? Who cares? More nukes!

State. Sen Tom Reynolds, R-Mars, wants nuclear power in Wisconsin, by gum, and he doesn't care whether it's safe or economical. Gretchen Schuldt reports on the StoryHill website:

State Sen. Tom Reynolds is supporting a bill that would eliminate the requirement that safe waste disposal sites for the state's high-level nuclear waste be found before a new nuclear power plant can be approved by the Public Service Commission.

The bill also would eliminate the requirement that the PSC must find that the proposed plant, in comparison with feasible alternatives, is economically advantageous to ratepayers.

Wisconsin's current law, passed about 25 years ago, was intended to make sure there would be a safe way to dispose of deadly, high-level nuclear waste before approving any plants that would produce more of it.

The stuff is so toxic it needs to be kept out of the environment for 250,000 years. Despite assurances that a solution is just around the corner, 25 more years have passed with no solution to the waste problem.

Reynolds isn't alone in his zeal to start building nukes. Glenn Grothman, Scott Jensen and a number of prominent Repubs are also on the bill. If it ever passes, Gov. Jim Doyle will veto it.

Bush's Wisconsin schedule leaks out

This is a confidential, internal White House document, but what the hell?

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT -- SUBJECT TO CHANGE

POTUS SCHEDULE FOR VISIT TO WISCONSIN FEB. 20-21

MONDAY, FEB. 21:

-- Arrive Mitchell Field (named for General Billy Mitchell; joke about your military flying days). Greeted on tarmac by:

-- local officials

-- a couple of GOP candidates for governor [they'll be the ones elbowing each other for photo op position]

-- Sheriff David Clarke, the Republican in sheep's clothing you like so much. Tell the sheriff it would be great if he'd become a Republican, because we can always use more African Americans in the party. If he switched, there would be seven.

-- Speak at Johnson Controls. They make controls. (Maybe a joke about how many people in Wisconsin are named Johnson?)

-- Attend Mayor Tom Barrett's State of the City speech. He's a Democrat who used to be in Congress and he invited you. There will be plenty of empty chairs, his people say, and no tough questions for you.

-- Stay overnight at the Bradley Foundation. You know why. (Bring a bagman.)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21

-- Testify at political corruption trial of Scott Jensen, former Speaker of the Assembly. Your testimony that everybody campaigns on the taxpayer's dime should help his case tremendously. Be sure to mention that your political advisor, Karl Rove, and his political staff, work right in the White House on the government payroll. That should cinch it for Scooter (Jensen, not Libby. Jensen likes to be called that, so use his nickname if you get a chance.) NOTE: This stop could be scrapped if Jensen cops a plea.

-- Wheels up. Git outa town. Have a long, tall cool one on the plane. After spending that much time with those cheeseheads, you deserve it. One won't hurt.

McBride watch; because it's there

Why do I keep doing it? Because she makes it so damned easy.

Jessica McBride post:

...Eugene Kane's column wasn't in my Waukesha edition (I seem to remember it being in there before). Darn. (yeah, right). I hear it was pretty humorous. He actually thinks a white guy replacing a black guy on a black radio program is diversity but a white woman is not because she sounds like a white guy (never occurs to him the white guys might sound like the white woman).

So she wants us to believe she didn't read Kane online, which she pretty clearly did. She was posting her blog comment on the Internet, where one can easily find Kane's column. Think she might have sneaked a peek, or just relied on hearsay? For someone who claims not to have read it, she knows a lot about it.

It probably didn't occur to Kane that all of those white guys sound like her, instead of vice versa, since the white guys were already there and she is the one who was just hired. In an earlier post she suggested that brought "diversity" to the station.

No surprise; Feingold filibuster fails

The Senate has passed the Patriot Act renewal 96-3, despite a valiant effort by Sen. Russ Feingold to force more meaningful changes.

Only Jim Jeffords, the Independent, and Democrat Robert Byrd voted with him. It's a vote that will be remembered, and all three will be proud of, in years to come. When the Patriot Act first passed, Feingold cast the only vote against it.

AP reports.

Feingold will be on the season premiere of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher tonight at 10 p.m. CST. (Repeats on Monday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m.CST.). They've cover a variety of topics, including the PATRIOT Act.

UPDATE: The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison's conservative newspaper, editorializes:

... the Senate should listen to Wisconsin's Russ Feingold and amend the Patriot Act to rein in the authority of government agents to snoop through citizens' medical, library and business records, to break into homes and to use gag orders to keep such activities secret.

Quote, unquote

"... maybe the state Assembly, with its 99 members, is too large. Maybe there should be talk about downsizing state government." -- Waukesha Co. Board Chair Jim Dwyer on County Exec Dan Vrakas' proposal to trim the size of the board.

Notice he didn't say the State Senate, which at 33 members to represent the entire state already has fewer members than Waukesha's 35-member county board.

-- John Darkow, Columbia MO Daily Tribune, via Cagle. (Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Answering the $5-billion question

Owen Robinson, of Boots and Sabers blog, at home on a snow day with too much time on his hands, answers my question about what $5-billion he'd cut out of the state budget if Bride of TABOR had been in effect for the last 20 years.

(The conservatives have tried giving the bad idea a new name, TPA, but, as Scott Walker would say, that's applying lipstick to a pig. Most legislators are not ready to pucker up.)

Robinson doesn't prune or trim a budget. He uses an ax and a chain saw to lop of the $5-billion.

His cuts include $1-billion in health and family services (no compassionate conservative stuff here), $1.2-billion from Dept. of Public Instruction (public schools, in other words), and my favorite, all $1.8-billion in shared revenue.

At least he's not afraid to make tough decisions. But Robinson, of course, isn't running for office, unlike the last guy who tried to end shared revenue, somebody named McCallum.

Let's see if a legislator or candidate will take the challenge. Wanna bet? Here's Robinson's list and explanation.

Freshening up the story

There's the old journalism cliche about how to freshen up an old news story, ideally by getting "today" into the lede:

"Grass began growing today over the grave of Etaoin Shrdlu, who died on Jan. 22..."

The Lautenschlager campaign does it this way, in announcing the Wisconsin AFL-CIO's endorsement:

"At the most recent meeting of its Committee on Political Education, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO endorsed Peg Lautenschlager for re-election as Attorney General."

The release, posted today on WisPolitics, is dated Feb. 8. The "most recent" meeting was on Jan. 19, as reported here a few days later.

Selling us the Brooklyn Bridge

Brian Fraley says this is a great political ad, and maybe it is, about Hillary Clinton and the plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge.

But Bill Wineke wonders whether the guy really could have done the job with a blowtorch.

Are Bush and the Republicans selling us the bridge? Again?

The $5-billion question on TABOR

Do you remember the Wisconsin Public Television debate in the 2002 governor's race, when the Democratic candidates were asked to solve the state budget deficit and offer specific numbers that added up to $3.2-billion, or whatever the deficit was thought to be at the time? (It turned out to be much worse.)

OK, I didn't think you'd remember. I barely do, and I had to be there.

But what brought it to mind was the study by a UW professor on what the effects of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights amendment would have been if it had passed 20 years ago.

There would be $5-billion less in the state budget this year, he concluded.

While that might sound like great news to the anti-government crowd, it poses a real question that supporters of the new amendment, called Bride of TABOR, should be forced to answer -- now, and, if they vote for it, on the campaign trail in the fall.

It's a simple, logical question: If you support TABOR, tell us which $5-billion you would cut out of today's budget. Let's deal with the reality, not the abstract.

Republicans like to complain about taxes, but they also like to spend money on programs that voters like, ala Tommy Thompson. I'll bet you won't find one of them who will answer the question.

Here's a story on the study, and the analysis itself.

UPDATE: Owen Robinson offers an answer.

What's black and white and heard all over?

Sometimes I have to wonder whether it's an act or whether Jessica McBride is really that clueless.

Case in point:

Joel McNally*: Black radio host?

Is this like Bill Clinton being the first black president? Joel McNally is the first "black" man who actually deserves an asterisk. But he won't get one. I guess diversity to the Left is solely ideological. They have no problem with white guy Joel replacing a black man on a black radio program. I thought Joel supported affirmative action. Just not when it comes to himself, I guess.

Don Rosette (manager of WMCS, which targets a black audience) says McNally's race isn't an issue. "We believe in diversity here, too," he says. "I suspect that we're going to hear some different dialogue, and maybe in the early going, we're going to hear some that's disparaging. But I'm not worried about it."

Meanwhile, Lefty bloggers essentially give me an asterisk because, despite my gender, I don't count as diversifying WTMJ. And, apparently, they think Joel McNally is "blacker" than Mikel Holt and David Clarke. Because he thinks the way they want him to do.

Like I said: Many on the Left don't REALLY believe in the principles of diversity, even though they mouth off about it a lot. They believe in ideological-based diversity, and there is a big difference.

Actually, I have no problem with McNally's new show. The more the merrier. I just think the Liberal double standard is pretty darn funny.

Where to begin?

Does she really think that "affirmative action" means that a radio station with a black audience should only hire black talk shwo hosts? (The answer is probably yes, because then the hiring policies at WTMJ, which appeals to a white audience, would be affirmative action, too. They hire only white people as talk show hosts.)

Does she think McNally was hired to work on a "black radio program?" It's a station with a largely black audience. Some people call it a black station. The program is not a "black radio program," and it certainly isn't with McNally on it. [Let me say, before she does, that Eugene Kane asked in his column, "I mean, what kind of black radio show lets a white guy behind the microphone?" I still say it's not a black radio show any more, if it ever was. Would McBride say her show is a white radio show?]

Does she really think that hiring her, a conservative white woman, to join a bunch of conservative white male announcers, is a blow for diversity?

Does she think that having David Clarke or Mikel Holt on for 15 minutes occasionally is the same as having a black talk show host?

Your witness.

---

Eugene Kane thinks McNally will be a good fit. He adds:

The commitment to true racial diversity WMCS exhibited by hiring McNally is commendable, particularly compared to other radio stations in town who apparently think diversity means "integrating" the lineup of angry white males with a white female who sounds exactly like an angry white male.

Unlike other shows that bring in minority guests from time to time for window-dressing, McNally won't be a token voice on black radio. He'll be directing the conversation.

How suite it is; Walker in hot waterover tickets, suite use at Badger game

What is it about Scott Walker and free tickets?

He made headlines last summer by giving away $19,000 worth of free tickets to Milwaukee County attractions during a statewide motorcycle tour that looked very much like a gubernatorial campaign event.

Now, Walker and tickets are back in the news, as Madison's WKOW-TV reports:

Walker Ties Tickets To Campaign Cash

Republican candidate for Governor Scott Walker planned to attend the sold out, University of Wisconsin basketball game against Ohio State at the Kohl Center with seven donors to his campaign who were willing to pay at least $1,000 for a prime seat.

An invitation to the Walker fundraiser stated for a minimum $2,000 contribution, a donor could sit courtside.

The invitation also promised a donor would spent the game's halftime in a luxury suite with cocktails.

Walker campaign manager Bruce Pfaff told 27 News the fundraising event complied with all applicable state rules. Pfaff told 27 News, the game tickets were provided by donors and were not owned by corporations, but refused to identify who the donors were.

Wisconsin law prohibits corporations from making direct contributions to political candidates.

The Capital Times reported investment specialist Tim Reiland, who holds several corporate positions, including chairman of Madison-based Musicnotes.com, donated several tickets.

"What's discouraging here is that the campaign is being so secretive about who actually paid for these tickets originally," Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog group, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, told 27 News.

Pfaff told 27 News the value of the tickets and their donor will be disclosed in required state reports. The next such report is due with the State Elections Board in July.

Pfaff told 27 News Walker and his guests were simply going to drop by a Kohl Center luxury suite at the invitation of the suite's leaseholder.

But Elections Board Executive Director Kevin Kennedy told 27 News the invitation appears to imply the suite's availability is part of the benefit of making a campaign contribution and attending the fundraiser. "They are going to have to reconcile that," said Kennedy.

A list of Kohl Center suite holders obtained by 27 News showed thirty five corporations lease luxury suites. Robert McGinnis of Highland Park, Illinois is the only individual listed as leasing a suite.

27 News could not reach McGinnis to find out if he hosted Walker's halftime campaign fundraising event.

"It's tremendously problematic for the (Walker) campaign to be using a suite," said McCabe.

Kennedy said a corporate-leased luxury suite could be used to stage a campaign fundraising event if an individual hosted the affair and reimbursed the corporation for suite rental, food and beverage.

Jay Heck, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause, told 27 News Walker's Kohl Center political fundraiser is similar to past campaign fundraising events at sports venues in Wisconsin and appears to comply with election laws.

But Heck said Walker should go beyond minimum requirements for disclosure and immediately identify the source of the tickets and the luxury suite.

On February 11, Walker staged a fundraiser at Lambeau Field during the University of Wisconsin hockey game against Ohio State. That event's invitation stated a $1500 donation was required for luxury box tickets at center ice.

Link to video.

The Capital Times first broke the story:

A cool $2,000 gets you courtside for hoops, Walker fundraiser

By Anita Weier

The two biggest games in town - sports and politics - come together tonight when a candidate for governor has a high-priced fundraiser at the Wisconsin-Ohio State basketball game at the Kohl Center.

Two ticket holders donated eight center-court tickets to the Scott Walker campaign, which then offered seven of them for two different donations. Courtside seats were given for a $2,000-per-ticket donation and a $1,000 donation earned a ticket on the arena's second level. The tickets were offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

The candidate is expected to occupy the eighth center-court seat.

The evening will also feature a halftime gathering in a skybox suite with cocktails, according to a listing of campaign events on The Wheeler Report Web site.

Walker's campaign manager, Bruce Pfaff, was not willing to share details about the fundraiser. But Tim Reiland, who donated four of the tickets, said that all the seats were taken and that Walker would attend.

Reiland, a Shorewood resident who is chairman and chief financial officer of the Musicnotes company, said he donated his tickets to the campaign because he thinks Milwaukee County Executive Walker is "a terrific candidate."

"I live in Milwaukee County and I support Scott. He has great leadership qualities," Reiland said. "He is a very honest, straightforward person who is not afraid to take stands. He is a very atypical politician. That he is young and aggressive works for him. He is a little bit of an outsider."

Reiland said the donation was personal and had nothing to do with his company.

The other tickets were donated by Eric Peterson, apparently the prominent Republican Eric Peterson who formerly owned the Foxboro Golf Club in Oregon. He could not be reached for comment.

Single-game tickets retail for $24 and $22 for men's basketball, but are tough to get because the Badgers have sold out all their home games this season. Season tickets for 2005-2006 sold for $396 for lower- and middle-level seats for 18 games, with ticket-holders in preferred seating areas being required to pay an additional minimum donation of $150 or $100 per seat to guarantee a particular seat.

Notices about the ticket offer benefiting Walker pointedly said that no corporate checks or donations were allowed, in line with state law.

Pfaff refused to confirm information about the event because "I am concerned about opponents learning details," he said.

He did say that Walker "usually" attends his fundraisers, and that the halftime event in a suite probably consisted of just stopping by to see a supporter.

Pfaff would not say who the supporter was or who leased that suite.

"My job is to raise money and report what I'm required to and beat my opponents," he said.

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he didn't see anything wrong with the fundraiser if one or two supporters simply donated their tickets. Reselling tickets for more than their face value violates a Madison ordinance, but if the sale takes place elsewhere, there is no state law that restricts the practice.

McCabe did say, however, that the fundraising tactic "is an illustration of how the privileged class is front and center in our political campaigns."

Average folks have been pretty much priced out of good seats, McCabe said.

"With all the wining and dining that goes on, it's all part of the game, the way it's being played. A very select group of people are bankrolling these campaigns, a select group of people who have the opportunity to meet and socialize with these candidates," he added.

"It's all because the candidates have such an insatiable appetite for campaign money and are willing to go along."

-- Jen Sorensen, via Cagle. (Click on cartoon to enlarge.)

Like James Bond, a license to kill

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) is promoting a "license to kill" law, AKA "Shoot First"(and ask questions later.)

Wayne LaPierre says the NRA wants every state in the union to allow people to kill anyone that they think is a threat to them.

The law has already passed in in Florida and Colorado. LaPierre has boasted that the Florida law is a model for the nation to be exported to other states.

And they have begun trying to pass the "license to kill" law in New Hampshire, Alabama, Wyoming, Georgia and Alaska, among other states. [Wisconsin will have to wait; the NRA wants to passed the concealed weapons bill first, then move on to "license to kill."]

Already, a man was acquitted in Colorado for pursuing some people who beat him up in his house. The man was clearly well enough to grab a gun and run after them, so his life was not in danger. Then, as they were about to drive away, he shot and killed the driver. Under the "license to kill law," he was let off scot-free.

The victim's family is rightfully outraged. The very lawmaker who drafted the law for the NRA calls "license to kill" a "miscarriage of justice."

If you are in a traffic accident and get in an argument with the other driver, that person can legally shoot you under this law if they claim they felt endangered. It's that outrageous.

The Freedom States Alliance has started the campaign to stop what it calls the NRA's "License to Murder." Here's a link.

TV's in color, but radio's still black and white

Journal Sentinel radio-TV columnist Tim Cuprisin on WMCS-AM radio's hiring of Joel McNally:

Since the launch of Air America Radio nearly two years ago, there's been a regular flow of calls and e-mails asking when liberal talk radio would come to Milwaukee.

We're no closer to getting an Air America affiliate, but the decision by WMCS-AM (1290) to add the weekly Shepherd Express columnist and liberal media gadfly Joel McNally to its morning show does put an unabashed liberal in morning drive time.

"I've never denied that label," says McNally of the "L" word. "Clearly, I'm going to be who I am. And they've made it clear that's what they want."

But the controversy attached to McNally joining longtime "Morning Magazine" co-host Cassandra Cassandra on the show starting at 6 Thursday morning isn't necessarily about his political views.

"From the time we first sat down, we talked about whether it would be controversial, first of all, for a white guy to co-host the show," McNally says. "Don assured me from the beginning that that would never be a consideration. They were only interested in providing for the community the things that the other stations aren't providing."

That Don he's referring to is Don Rosette, general manager of the station, which focuses on an African-American audience.

"There's no change in direction, none whatsoever," Rosette says. "The way we address issues here is, obviously, from a black perspective."

Rosette says McNally's race isn't an issue.

"We believe in diversity here, too," he says. "I suspect that we're going to hear some different dialogue, and maybe in the early going, we're going to hear some that's disparaging. But I'm not worried about it."

In fact, Rosette says, it might bring some new dialogue to the call-in program.

"I'm hoping that people who have not called before will call and voice their opinions. And it doesn't have to be my opinion. It doesn't have to be lockstep with what we're thinking."

As for McNally, he says, "I honestly think that 'MCS is ahead of the curve.

"We are in this thing together, and we are in this community together, and while the right-wing stations don't make it seem that way, black and white is the future of Milwaukee."

Which raises an interesting question: Where are the black voices on Milwaukee's mainstream AM stations? Milwaukee's television stations integrated their broadcast teams long ago, but radio is a very different story.

WTMJ-AM probably thinks it has made great strides by hiring a white conservative woman to join their stable of white conservative men who dominate the airwaves.

No, having Sheriff David Clarke as a guest to expound his wingnut philosophy doesn't count, although he does break the race barrier. Quick: Other than Clarke, who's the last black person you heard on WTMJ? WISN?

If you could name one, you have a better memory than I do.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Sykes will probably say that he had Mikel Holt, editor of the Milwaukee Community Journal, on his show recently. Holt was Sykes' accomplice in producing the vile free commercials, linking Jim Doyle to George Wallace and Orville Faubus, that aired on Sykes's show. Holt is the exception that proves the rule.

You have a lawyer, so must be guilty

Remind me again why the public needs to know whether Jim Doyle has hired a lawyer. Is it because hiring a lawyer means you're guilty? You'd think so, from some of the right wing commentary. Has the governor hired an accountant to do his taxes? Does that mean he's been cheating the IRS?

While you're pondering those questions, take a moment to diagram this sentence from the ubiquitous Jessica McBride:

If Dick Cheney is obliged to tell the press sooner than 18 hours that he sprayed birdshot into a hunting friend on a personal hunting trip, isn't Gov. Jim Doyle obligated to tell the press whether he's hired an attorney to represent him in a federal investigation of his campaign contributions that's already resulted in a federal indictment against an administration official over a contract involving his campaign contributor? Where's David Gregory when you need him.

Where's an editor when you need one?

Republicans fail to make the grade

For all of their lip service about reaching out to bring in African American voters, Republicans continue to vote against their interests, a new NAACP report card shows. Talk is cheap; actions are what count.

The report, for the last session of Congress, shows that 98% of House Republicans and 51 of 55 Republican Senators GOP earned grades of F from the NAACP, which looked at votes on a wide range of issues.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., was one of 14 Senators cited as NAACP Quarterbacks for introducing legislation or amendments to advance the group's agenda. Feingold got a 95% rating and a grade of A; Herb Kohl was at 85% and a B.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin led the House delegation with a 100% record, and Gwen Moore had 96%, and both got As. Dave Obey got a B and Ron Kind a C to round out the Democratic delegation.

The Wisconsin GOP members all got Fs. Fat Jim Sensenbrenner was the worst of the worst at 22%. Paul Ryan got 26%, and Tom Petri and Mark Green both were at 30%.

This story on the Miilwaukee Courier website has more.

Sunday TV: Not John Fund again!

No, liberals, it's not your imagination. "Meet the Press" and the other Sunday political talk shows really have leaned more to the right in recent years. At Media Matters for America, we looked at every one of the 7,000 guests who appeared on the three major Sunday shows from 1997 through 2005—Bill Clinton's second term, George W. Bush's first term, and the last year. We found that the left has of late found itself outnumbered, in some ways substantially, on the television shows that define the Washington conventional wisdom. Liberals are already a disturbingly rare species among what Calvin Trillin refers to as the "Sabbath Gasbags." And in some debates—the war in Iraq, for example—they are in danger of becoming extinct.-- Paul Waldman in the Washington Monthly.

The breakdown shows a 58-42% advantage for conservatives over progressives in 2005.

If Media Matters for America were to take a look at the Sunday lineups on so-called local affairs shows in the Milwaukee TV market, it would probably be 85-15.

Fat Wednesday for Sensenbrenner

Doug Moe of The Capital Times discovers that Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner, who showed his compassion for New Orleans hurricane victims by voting against giving them any relief, is hosting a fat cat DC fundraiser with a Mardi Gras theme.

Moe reports:

But while Sensenbrenner voted against the Katrina relief, this week he will embrace the joie de vivre of New Orleans in his own special way.

The "calendar of events" on the Web site of the National Republican Congressional Committee includes the following posting for this Wednesday at 8 a.m.:

"You are invited to a Mardi Gras Breakfast with Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Charlie Palmer, 101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC. "$500 Personal $1,000 PAC."

It would appear Sensenbrenner is hosting a political fundraiser for himself with a Mardi Gras theme. Several phone messages left Monday with Sensenbrenner's Washington press secretary were not returned.

Sensenbrenner's fundraiser comes at a time when the city of New Orleans is worried about the viability of the real Mardi Gras, scheduled to begin Saturday and run through next week.

As Alan Sayre of the Associated Press recently wrote: "Mardi Gras, which always holds a bit of mystery for outsiders with its fun, frolic and debauchery, is a mystery itself this year for New Orleans. An estimated two-thirds of the city's half-million, pre-Katrina populace remains elsewhere."

There is also a question about the number of hotel rooms available for potential Mardi Gras revelers in New Orleans, since, as AP noted, "rooms remain filled with storm evacuees and recovery workers."

Sensenbrenner has solved the hotel room problem by holding his Mardi Gras party at one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in Washington.

Moe's column has more details.

Sensenbrenner due no apology

From Bryan Kennedy, Democrat running for Congress against F. Jim Sensenbrenner:

Perhaps you heard one of Milwaukee’s right-wing radio hosts talking this morning about how great Jim Sensenbrenner is for voting against the victims of Hurricane Katrina? The premise was that Jim Sensenbrenner was standing up for fiscal responsibly when nobody else would, and that the Democratic Party and news organizations owe the Congressman an apology. Unfortunately, we don’t have the right wing media to give us a bunch of free press to get the truth out, so we are counting on people throughout Wisconsin to make sure that their friends and collogues in the 5th Congressional District know the whole story.

Here is the truth:

1. Jim Sensenbrenner voted to spend a ton of money in Iraq, and we haven't heard him call for an investigation into the $8.8 billion of the missing money that went there.

2. He voted to give money to tsunami victims without hesitating over how the money was spent... does he trust foreign governments more than our own?

3. He offered no alternatives! If he really wanted to demand accountability, shouldn't he have drafted new legislation to deal with it, or shouldn't he have at least have tried to fix the system so it doesn't happen again?

Jim Sensenbrenner voted against the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and we do not owe him an apology for that. I will, however, apologize to the victims of Hurricane Katrina who are still without homes and who are separated from their families. I’m sorry that our Congressman has stood in your way time and time again while you are trying to rebuild your lives. I promise to do my part to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. I’m going to spread the message far and wide, and when I’m in Congress, I’ll support my fellow Americans when disaster hits.

I was as hard on Sensenbrenner as anyone when he turned his back on the victims of Katrina, and I stand by every word. -- Xoff.

An alternative on AM radio dial

Milwaukee radio listeners looking for an alternative to Republican talk radio may find a new home.

Columnist Tim Cuprisin reports that Joel McNally, progressive gadfly-about-town, will co-host "Milwaukee's Morning Magazine" on WMCS-AM (1290).

McNally's career has included stints as a Milwaukee Journal columnist, Shepherd-Express editor, and syndicated columnist. He's a frequent guest on pundit panels on radio and TV public affairs shows. He is an unabashed, unapologetic lefty. And one with a sense of humor.

He will co-host with Cassandra Cassandra. McNally replaces Keith Murphy, who is now doing a national satellite show.

McNally says:

We'll be news-driven with a heavy emphasis on politics and social justice, my passionate interests. As the community's largest and most socially responsible African American talk radio station, 1290, by hiring me to co-host with an African-American woman, obviously is making a pretty dramatic move to broaden its audience to include people of good will, black and white, who are looking for more thoughtful discussion of problems facing our community than they get from the angry, right-wing fringe that has taken over the rest of the AM radio dial.

We'll be looking for guests with views and ideas that are not now represented on conservative talk radio. That shouldn't be hard since it includes most thoughtful, intelligent, interesting people.

The station's reach us nothing like WTMJ's "biggest stick in the state" power, so McSykes and Wagner will have a louder voice. WMCS mostly reaches Milwaukee County listeners, and the signal fades in the suburban ring of counties.

But it is good news for Milwaukee listeners. The Cassanda-McNally show will run from 6 to 10, in morning drive time, so the last 90 minutes will be opposite highly-paid Republican radio flack Charlie Sykes.

WMCS won't challenge Sykes's ratings, but the new show will be one more small way to try to keep him honest. McNally is a cinch to get under the skin of McSykes and Wagner. Should be fun.

WMCS also features an afternoon drive time show from 2 to 6 p.m. with Eric Von, who offers a mix of commentary, interviews, panels, and call-ins from listeners on a wide range of subjects, which is a great alternative to Mark Belling. He is well worth a listen, too.

McNally starts at 6 a.m. Thursday, which should change his sleeping patterns a bit. I suspect we won't see him at quite as many weeknight concerts.

Dems play it safe, push Hackett out

The Democratic Party, desperately in need of new blood, new candidates, and new ideas, has made sure it doesn't have to deal with any of those things in the Ohio Senate race, squeezing out a dynamic, outspoken Iraq veteran who threatened to shake things up a little. That leaves the good-old-boy seniority system safely in place. This short-term gain could be a long-term loss for Democrats.
The NY Times reports:

Paul Hackett, (pictured) an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.

But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.

"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."

Mr. Hackett was the first Iraq war veteran to seek national office, and the decision to steer him away from the Senate race has surprised those who see him as a symbol for Democrats who oppose the war but want to appear strong on national security.

"Alienating Hackett is not just a bad idea for the party, but it also sends a chill through the rest of the 56 or so veterans that we've worked to run for Congress," said Mike Lyon, executive director for the Band of Brothers, a group dedicated to electing Democratic veterans to national office. "Now is a time for Democrats to be courting, not blocking, veterans who want to run."

Hackett's statement:

Today I am announcing that I am withdrawing from the race for United States Senate. I made this decision reluctantly, only after repeated requests by party leaders, as well as behind the scenes machinations, that were intended to hurt my campaign.

"But there was no quid pro quo. I will not be running in the Second Congressional District nor for any other elective office. This decision is final, and not subject to reconsideration.

"I told the voters from the beginning that I am not a career politician and never aspired to be--that I was about leadership, service and commitment.

"Similarly, I told party officials that I had given my word to other good Democrats, who will take the fight to the Second District, that I would not run. In reliance on my word they entered the race. I said it. I meant it. I stand by it. At the end of the day, my word is my bond and I will take it to my grave.

"Thus ends my 11 month political career. Although it is an overused political cliche, I really will be spending more time with my family, something I wasn't able to do because my service to country in the political realm continued after my return from Iraq. Perhaps my wonderful wife Suzi said it best after we made this decision when she said 'Honey, welcome home.' I really did marry up.

"To my friends and supporters, I pledge that I will continue to fight and to speak out on the issues I believe in. As long as I have the microphone, I will serve as your voice.

"It is with my deepest respect and humility that I thank each and every one of you for the support you extended to our campaign to take back America, and personally to me and my family. Together we made a difference. We changed the debate on the Iraq War, we inspired countless veterans to continue their service by running for office as Democrats and we made people believe again. We must continue to believe.

"Remember, we must retool our party. We must do more than simply aspire to deliver greatness; we must have the commitment and will to fight for what is great about our party and our country; Peace, prosperity and the freedoms that define our democracy.

"Rock on.

"Paul Hackett."

The only legislative hearing scheduled so far is by invitation only.

But the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that provides education, research and advocacy for the well-being of children and families, has sponsored a series of public forums across the state to discuss TABOR, or the modified version that has become known as the Bride of TABOR.

Citizens have turned out to talk about the real impact the constitutional amendment would have on the people of Wisconsin. To hear or read the statements, you'll need to go to the website of WEAC, which co-sponsored the forums. Clicking on the cities here won't work.

TABOR A GOP GRAVEYARD? Meanwhile, conservative blogger "Dennis York" warns that passage of TABOR could mean the end of Republican dominance in state politics. Do you think that argument is just to try to get some Democrats to support it? (Kidding. Even I am not that cynical.)

No halos for GOP 'independent' campaigns

I've been called a jackass, I think, by Ragnar Mentaire, for suggesting that Assembly Republicans, including some current Mark Green staffers, engaged in illegal campaign activity on state time. He/she writes:

Republican staff, on the other hand, actually created groups to support the GOP cause independently and outside of the control of their leadership. Rongstad's Teddy Roosevelt Fund and its successors spent aggressively and were successful (as Bjork, Judge et al note in their testimony), but they did it all outside the line of the oversight, control, knowledge of Scott Jensen or anyone else. BECAUSE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN ILLEGAL TO DO IT ANY OTHER WAY!

Jensen wasn't charged with coordination, because he did not coordinate or control independent groups, as the John Doe testimony will show. But Doyle and Xoff's crowd, Gussert-Burnett-Bjork-Krug-Richards-Chvala-Judge and many others, ignored the coordination rules and ran their I.E. campaigns from the same taxpayer-supported offices from which they ran their targeted campaigns.

As the Journal Sentinel reporter on this story discovered, the Assembly Republicans are the clean ones in the independent expenditure business. Which is why there was no real story.

I am at a disadvantage, because I wasn't in the Capitol, as Ragnar apparently was, judging from his first-hand knowledge of how pure the Assembly GOP caucus was.

But how do you explain this 2001 Wisconsin State Journal story about a successor to the Teddy Roosevelt Fund?

One Caucus May Have Illegally Helped Group

A Former Employee Of An Assembly Legislative Caucus Says The Caucus Helped An Independent Organization Coordinate Ads Attacking Democratic Candidates.

A former legislative caucus staff member said she and other state workers secretly helped a private group coordinate attack ads against Assembly Democratic candidates last fall, in possible violation of state campaign finance laws.

Lyndee Wall, former executive assistant to the Assembly Republican Caucus, said she and at least two other caucus employees helped a group funded by the state Republican Party to produce, address and mail controversial campaign radio ads before the Nov. 7 election.

Much of the work took place in the caucus's state office at 17 S. Fairchild St.

The ads, run in 12 races statewide by the group Project Vote Informed, included one highlighting a candidate's past marital problems that was so controversial some radio stations refused to air it. The ad, directed against Rep. Lee Meyerhofer, D-Kaukauna, set off renewed calls to further regulate so-called "independent expenditure groups" such as Project Vote Informed.

If Wall's allegations are true, the implications could be "monumental," said Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, which advocates further restrictions on spending by independent political groups.

"This would demonstrate, at the very highest level of legislative leadership, collusion in violation of Wisconsin statutes," Heck said...

In the case of the Assembly Republican Caucus, Wall said staffers went even further by working directly with Project Vote Informed. Like other independent groups, Project Vote Informed was required to file an oath with the Elections Board that it would operate independently of any candidate in the races it targeted...

She said the two employees who enlisted her help with the Project Vote Informed ads -deputy director Mark Jefferson and media director Heather Smith - worked as key advisers in many races, acting "like overseers" across the state...

Wall said her involvement with Project Vote Informed began last October, when a fax arrived at the caucus office from Jensen's Capitol office. The material included an Outagamie County Circuit Court transcript and an Antigo Police Department report, parts of which later showed up in Project Vote Informed ads against Democratic Assembly candidates Meyerhofer and Sarah Waukau of Antigo.

Wall said that shortly after the material arrived, Smith and Jefferson asked her to deliver a sealed envelope from the caucus office to Project Vote Informed director Rongstad at his office at 10 E. Doty St.

She said she made the delivery at the request of Smith, who is Rongstad's ex-wife. Wall said she didn't look inside the bulky envelope, so she couldn't say whether it contained the faxes from Jensen's office. The information in the faxes eventually showed up in Project Vote Informed ads against the two Democratic candidates.

"Heather didn't want to be seen delivering anything to that office, and neither did Mark," Wall said, referring to Smith and Jefferson. "They thought I was a face no one would recognize."

After the delivery, Wall said, Smith spent two days producing a series of radio ads for Project Vote Informed at Abella Audio Productions Inc., 2302 W. Badger Road in Madison. The group's campaign spending report shows payments to Abella and several people who provided "radio voices" for the ads on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1...

After the ads were finished, Wall said Smith asked her to help address envelopes containing audiotapes to "30 or 40" radio stations in and around Wisconsin with the return address listed as Project Vote Informed. She said Jefferson provided the addresses, the cost of buying the radio airtime and instructions for running the spots.

Wall said Smith placed checks in each envelope written from a Project Vote Informed checkbook.

"The checks themselves - the payments - were written out of Todd's checkbook," Wall said. "I watched her (Smith) write them out."

Wall said Assembly Republican Caucus staffers used her personal cellular phone to call Rongstad and radio stations to avoid having those phone numbers show up on state telephone bills. She provided copies of her cell phone bills to the State Journal showing five phone calls to Rongstad's home and office in October and early November and four phone calls to radio stations that aired the radio ads.

Here's my theory on why the prosecutors made the charging decisions they did:

Although they turned up all sorts of illegal activity by legislators and staff, prosecutors focused on fund-raising. Those charged were those who did illegal fund-raising of one kind or another, even though the charges against them may have been for other violations.

With Chuck Chvala it was pay-for-play, including directing contributions to "independent" groups.

Brian Burke was accused of shaking down lobbyists in his Capitol office for campaign contributions.

Scott Jensen, Steve Foti, Bonnie Ladwig, and Sherry Schultz were charged with putting Schultz on the state payroll as a full-time political fundraiser for Republicans.

It's all about money. That's what the charges have in common.

Why weren't Assembly Dems and Senate Repubs charged? My guess is that because they were in the minority, they really did not have the leverage to squeeze money out the way Jensen and Chvala did. Krug and Panzer were in the minor leagues, even somewhat dependent on the help, or at least the acquiescence, of their majorities in the other houses to raise money.

There could have been endless charges against lawmakers and staff. Prosecutors decided, apparently, that taking down a few of the biggest offenders would send shock waves through the Capitol and frighten others into cleaning up their acts. The jury is still out on whether that has been successful. And Jensen and Schultz trial is still to come, unless there is a deal in the next seven days.

Clarke lets prisoners go without warrant check

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who likes to preach about efficiency in government, was cast in a prominent role -- and in a negative light -- in a recent WTMJ-TV investigative report.

The station found that Sheriff Clarke's jail is letting people go free who have outstanding arrest warrants from the city of Milwaukee for unpaid fines and tickets.

It would seem like an excellent opportunity to clean the slate and get everything paid off, but Clarke wants to do no such thing. Scott Friedman reports:

So why is the jail letting people some people wanted on warrants walk out the door? It turns out the jail does not check inmates for city of Milwaukee arrest warrants - before releasing them.

We asked Sheriff Clarke why. His response: "We have no way of knowing there are open municipal arrest warrants with the city of Milwaukee."

But that's not exactly right -- all they'd have to do is look on the internet. City warrants show up on the municipal court's website. We told the sheriff that.

"It's available on-line - your people could start doing this this afternoon just like we did to make sure people aren't being released with warrants."

His response: "And at what point does this become so labor intensive that it's not efficient anymore."

We press further. "A simple internet check would be too labor intensive?"

"Well yeah - who are we going to have check that internet source?" Sheriff Clarke says.

The sheriff blames the problem on the Milwaukee police - he says they should enter city warrants into the state's warrant database. But the police department says that would actually cost taxpayers more money. If warrants go statewide -- officers would have to drive all over the state to pick up people arrested on city tickets. The judges argue the sheriff should fix the problem - by just using the web.

To give you an idea what these unpaid tickets would cover: the $34 million would pay the salaries of every firefighter in Milwaukee for a year. Or you could train 200 police officers to fill the 200 vacant positions on the force.

Here's the complete story with video.

-- Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, via Cagle.

Who's winning in the Iraq war?

I noticed an item in the NY Times Sunday about profits being made by defense contractors, and intended to comment on it, but this excellent post by Johnny Cougar (who do I think that's not his name?) says it very well.

Cap Times gets it wrong on travel contract

UPDATE: The Spice Boys now say the Cap Times has not backed off from the entire story, just the part about search warrants.

Spiceblog says Cap Times is backing off its exclusive story about the Adelman travel contract investigation, which the right wing blogosphere has been hyping.

Spivak and Bice:

MONDAY, Feb. 13, 2006, 4:43 p.m.

Now you see it - now you don't

The first hint that The Capital Times' Saturday blockbuster might not be true came about mid-morning today. The exclusive, which said investigators "executed search warrants" in Gov. Jim Doyle's Department of Administration as part of their Travelgate probe, disappeared from the Madison daily's Web site shortly before noon.

Poof! Gone with the wind.

The only online evidence that the story ever existed were postings by some righty bloggers - including Charlie Sykes and Boots & Sabers - celebrating Doyle's mounting troubles.

By mid-afternoon, the printed version of the Cap Times shed some light on the now-invisible story when it - kinda, sorta - issued a correction, quoting DOA Secretary Steve Bablitch as saying, "There have been no search warrants issued to DOA."

The correction did not address the story's claim that one or more members of Doyle's election campaign team had been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. Editor Dave Zweifel told us today that nobody complained about that paragraph, a comment that left Doyle campaign flack Melanie Fonder fuming.

Said Fonder: "No one from the campaign has been served with a subpoena."

We can hardly wait to see tomorrow's paper.

WisPolitics adds:

A legal source said it would be illegal for a member of the prosecutorial team or court personnel, including grand jurors, to leak information about grand jury testimony or subpoenas. However, anyone who has been called as a witness is free to talk about a subpoena they may have received or to discuss their grand jury testimony.

Bride of TABOR still hard sell for GOP

Even the "new, improved" constitutional amendment, formerly known as TABOR, isn't going down easily with State Senate Republicans. Despite brave talk from the leadership, this is going to be a hard sell. Tom Sheehan of the LaCrosse Tribune has details, and Charlie Sykes, the highly-paid Republican radio mouthpiece, is already fuming about RINOs. Sometimes even party loyalty isn't enough to pass a really bad idea.

-- Monte Wolverton via Cagle. (Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Bailout sought for veterans' fund

If Gov. Jim Doyle proposed it, Republicans would no doubt call it a raid on the Veterans Home fund, but Gary Fisher reports there is legislation about to be introduced to transfer up to $16-million from the King Veterans Home to the state's veterans trust fund. There's no ready explanation, as yet, as to why the King home has such a big surplus, or whether it will wish it had that money some day in the future. Here's the WDVA memo on the bill.

Gary Fisher's report:

A significant transfer of cash -- up to $16 million in surplus funds -- from the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King (Waupaca County) to the Wisconsin Veterans Trust Fund is being proposed to keep the trust fund in the black, according to draft legislation in the works at the state Capitol.

Computations last year indicated the state fund that supports grant and loan programs for Wisconsin veterans and sustains the Wisconsin Veterans Museum would run out of money by mid-2007.

State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, Speaker John Gard and Reps. Terry Musser, Bob Turner and Gabe Loeffelholz, are seeking co-sponsors for LRB-4498/3 and LRB-4475/7, which includes the money transfer to help keep the trust fund solvent.

The Veterans Trust Fund, which also pays some of the state Department of Veterans Affairs' administrative costs, historically has been supported through interest payments made on a multiplicity of loans to veterans.

The "Veterans Spring Package" also addresses eligibility for the veterans' tuition reduction that is in the 2005-2007 state budget.

In addition, the legislation that's currently circulating in the Capitol would:

--Beef up the information technology staff at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

--Expand UW and technical college tuition discounts from 50 percent to 100 percent.

--Allow resident veterans who received their disability rating while processing out of the military to still qualify for a reduction in tuition. According to an interpretation of current law a veteran must receive the original disability rating notification from the federal VA at a Wisconsin residence.

"While it is not common, we are aware of situations where a veteran received his or her service-connected disability rating while processing out of the military at an out of state base, just prior to returning to Wisconsin. This provision would eliminate the requirement that the disability notification letter be addressed to the veteran in Wisconsin," the proposed legislation says.

--Allow the family of a veteran who died as a result of a service-connected disability to be eligible for tuition breaks.

The next meeting of the Veterans Affairs Board is Feb. 21-22 at the state Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters in Madison. Tuesday of that week it's Salute to the Legislature, a yearly event at Monona Terrace sponsored by veterans' groups.

Meanwhile, board member Kathy Marschman, whose term ended May 1, 2005, still stands in the way of Rod Moen stepping in to succeed her on the board. And it doesn't look like Republican Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz is scheduling a floor vote on Moen's confirmation any time soon Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Moen last year to serve a six-year term, but Marschman has refused to resign even though her term ended, so Moen can't take the seat until the Republican State Senate confirms him, which it seems unwilling to do.

UPDATE: Gary Fisher asked DVA, "please explain why there's a surplus in the King Home fund?" Replies Andrew (Andy) Schuster, WDVA Public Affairs Director: "This in regard to requests you made earlier today to departmental staff relative to King Home funds. The questions raised will need to be more specific in order to be able to provide a response."

Oh. Right.

Walker plans killer fund-raiser

Saturday, February 18
Fundraisers

Noon - 2 pm: Pheasant Hunt in support of Scott Walker,candidate for governor, Wern Valley Hunt Club, S36 W29657 Wern Way, Waukesha. Hosted by Mike Maxwell and
Jon Barber. Noon: Lunch. 12:45 pm: Hunt. Cost: $500 includes 10 birds, guide dog, lunch, and campaign contribution.

P.S. -- Don't tell Dick Cheney.

Bride of TABOR plans quiet coming-out

Carrie Lynch says supporters of the new Bride of TABOR consitutional amendment are taking no chances that the people will be allowed to voice their opinions:

Republicans have announced a 'hearing' for the Bride of Tabor but the only way you can attend is if you get an invitation! The bill that is so bad that they had to create an entire new committee of Senate Republicans in safe seats to get it out, is afraid to come out in public.

TABOR (Taxpayer Protection Amendment) Informational Hearing AssemblyWays and Means Committee (Joint with Senate Special Committee)***Invitation Only*** (public hearings to be held at a later date)Wednesday, 15 February 2006 @ 11:00am State Capitol, Room TBA

Tale of two David Clarkes -- 'Independent Dem' is lying Republican

First of all, thanks to Bob Dohnal of the Wisconsin Conservative Digest for lining up the sitting ducks for me in his article. I'll try to shoot better than Dick Cheney.

Dohnal's piece, entitled, "Bobot and Clarke; "A Tale of Two Cities," is wrong from the first sentence:

The upcoming Democrat primary race between former Municipal Judge Vince Bobot and present sheriff David Clarke will get as much ink in this area as the primaries for governor and AG.

Actually, it will be drowned out in coverage of the other two races and will get little media attention.

Dohnal is correct when he says mainstream Democrats want Clarke gone. There's a reason for that. Clarke "calls himself an independent Democrat," but he is really a right-wing Republican extremist.

Clarke writes about what makes a Republican, is feted at the White House, joins Republicans in supporting Bush's nominees, is listed as a member of a national Republican group, and raises his money from Republicans.

As evidence that Clarke is opposed by the "good old boy" network, Dohnal cites my opposition to Clarke:

Bill Christofferson, a former aide to John Norquist and campaign manager for many Democrats has been after Clarke for several years. Clarke still considers himself a Democrat but the liberal establishment doesn't approve of his stands on many issues.

Dohnal apparently isn't a regular Xoff Files reader, so a little review of my history with Clarke seems in order.

I was the campaign strategist and media consultant when Clarke was first elected sheriff in 2002. If I am "after Clarke" now, it is because he looked me in the eye and lied to me when he asked me to do that campaign.

I helped Clarke because I thought it was time to end the good-ol-boy operation in the sheriff's department. Clarke promised to be a breath of fresh air in a department that needed shaking up.

I introduced him to labor leaders and listened to him tell them about his vision and management style -- how he wanted to end the top-down, quasi-military approach and "empower" deputies to make decisions.

Who would have guessed that he would turn out to be an egomaniac who would run the department like Captain Queeg of the USS Caine, lashing out and punishing anyone who dares to disagree with him -- even retaliating against one deputy by assigning him to a one-man foot patrol in a dangerous inner city neighborhood.

Dohnal pulls out all the stops, saying Clarke opponents also oppose school choice. That's not entirely true, either. For example, I oppose Clarke, but I was one of the early supporters of school choice who helped elect a reform-minded Milwaukee school board in 1999 (something some Democrats still haven't forgiven me for.) The sheriff's race is not about school choice.

It is about electing a sheriff who's not afraid to tell the truth about his party affiliation, and one who can restore some workplace harmony and end Clarke's reign of terror. (No surprise that the deputies' union endorsed Bobot last weekend.)

Clarke's Democratic primary opponent is Vince Bobot, who's been a cop, a municipal judge, and an assistant city attorney. He's a real Democrat, and that could be a real problem for Clarke, who was helped in the 2002 primary by Republican crossovers.

This time, Republicans will vote in their own primary, for governor and attorney general, so Democrats will be choosing their own nominee for sheriff. That's why Clarke backers like Dohnal are nervous, and have started the disinformation campaign so early.

Clarke is running as a Dem because he knows he couldn't win in November's general election as a Republican. The real challenge for him is persuading Democrats they should vote for him when he opposes what they stand for and does everything he can to help elect Republicans. That could be a hard sell, if Bobot is able to introduce voters to the real David Clarke.

UPDATE: It must be serendipity. Today's mail brought an invitation to a Bobot for Sheriff event, with the outside of the invitation carrying a sketch of George Washington, several donkey logos, and the statement: "I cannot tell a lie, I am a DEMOCRAT!"

War game readies defense against bloggers

U.S. wraps up 'Cyber Storm' exercise testing Internet
defenses

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government concluded its ``Cyber Storm'' wargame Friday, its biggest-ever exercise to test how it would respond to devastating attacks over the Internet from anti-globalization ctivists, underground hackers and bloggers.

Bloggers?

Read the rest.

Hat tip: Joe Klein

Bubbas don't shoot Bubbas

Well, we've seen it all now. Dick Cheney shoots a hunting bubba and the owner of the land says that Cheney was the victim of the shooting incident because the the guy that he shot didn't follow quail hunting "protocol". She said he didn't announce his presence.

My goodness, in Wisconsin, our hunter safety courses teach muzzle control and that you have to know what's in front of your target and what's behind it. Of course, in Texas the rules are probably different. Either way, it seems strange that it took such a long time for the mainstream media to report the shooting of Cheney's bubba. Cheney's folks were probably busy faxing talking points to Republican talk radio to put his "shot" into context. I can't wait to hear it at the coffee shop tomorrow.

Why Cheney shot Harry

 
Dick Cheney shoots a 78-year-old hunting companion, Reuters reports.

Bob Geiger offers Cheney's top 10 excuses:

10. Sick and tired of Whittington’s “Hey, I’m having a heart attack” jokes

9. Pushed over edge by Dixie Chicks and Streisand blasting on pick-up truck stereo

8. Ongoing dispute over whether it’s acceptable to torture quail before shooting them

7. Thought he saw Michael Moore on other side of tree line

6. Bombed out of his gourd on Wild Turkey and Lone Star Beer

5. Companion’s ill-advised decision to wear Moveon.org sweatshirt

4. Thought perfect score on NRA’s heavy-artillery safety certification would keep this from happening

3. Whittington’s repeated ribbing that Bush is actually the “real president”

2. Targeting scope on rifle made by Halliburton

And the number one excuse given by Dick Cheney for almost blowing away hunting companion Harry Whittington…

1. Because he’s a wartime vice president, damn it

---

The Amtal Rule wants to know: Any others?

Heckuva job, Chertie

There is plenty of blame to go around for the Katrina SNAFU, a new Congressional report says, and Homeland Security Czar Michael Chertoff certainly has his share coming.

Brownie and Bushie do, too, of course.

New Orleans has kept its sense of humor through it all. The theme for first Mardis Gras parade: "C'est levee." From the krewe website:

New Orleans has learned a lot this past year. We’ve learned new meanings for “open house” and “waterfront property”. We’ve learned that there are nine different types of mold and they all smell worse than a Congressional appropriations committee. We’ve learned that sometimes you can’t help but sleep on the wet spot. We’ve learned that FEMA’s just another word for nothing left to lose. And all because the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t know the London Avenue dike from a Bourbon Street dyke.

Could it be time to bring back The Blame Game? Still available, with all proceeds to Katrina victims.

A rational look at political contributions

Well, whaddya know, as Michael Feldman would say. Someone -- as in Phil Brinkman of the Wisconsin State Journal -- has tried to give a rational explanation of how business execs contribute to political campaigns, and why.

There are a few things, as usual, I could take issue with, like Jim Klauser acting as a critic when he used to be state DOA secretary, signing the contracts, at the same time he was Tommy Thompson's campaign chairman. The pertinent part of the story:

Once contracts have been signed, information about who's doing business with the state is freely available on the Internet to anyone, including campaign fundraisers. But several current and former Capitol insiders balked at even using that information to raise money.

"For the most part, any campaign should stay away from that," said Jim Klauser, Bugher's predecessor at DOA for 10 years. "Whether it's technically legal or not, the appearance is not very good."

Klauser, of course, never needed to go to the internet. He already knew who was getting the contracts.

In any case, Brinkman's effort is vastly better than the usual hysteria, whichi assumes there is something wrong with every contribution. Here it is:
Political donations aren't keys to the kingdom

Helen Thomas 384, Scott McClellan 0

I am indebted to Bob Geiger for highlighting this exchange between Helen Thomas and Scott McClellan during a White House press briefing:

Thomas: You -- this is supposed to be a war on terrorism, and by his own admission, the President has said there's been -- there was no link between Iraq and terrorists. So why are we still in Iraq killing and being killed?

McClellan: Well, I think the President talked about it earlier today. The stakes are high in Iraq. And he talked about where we are focused --

Thomas: -- why were they high --

McClellan: Well, Iraq is the central front in the war on terrorism. All you have to do is look at the letter that Zawahiri sent to Zarqawi. They recognize how high the stakes are. So do we. And we must continue to move forward on the plan we have for victory. That's why we're focused on --

Thomas: Why did you go into Iraq?

McClellan: Well, the President is --

Thomas: There were no terrorists.

McClellan: I'm not trying to relitigate what we've -- the decisions that were already made.

Thomas: I am.

McClellan: We've already spelled out the reasons why we went in there, and it was Saddam's --

Thomas: -- given has turned out to be wrong.

McClellan: It was Saddam Hussein's choice to make. He continued to defy the international community. And the President made the decision after September 11th that we were not going to wait for threats to fully materialize. We were going to confront them before it was too late. And as he said again today --

Thomas: It was Iraq, and they weren't there.

McClellan: Well, I think you ought to pay attention to what the President said in his remarks again today.

Thomas: I did.

McClellan: He talked about the importance of freedom overcoming terrorism and tyranny and the power of freedom to prevail. The Middle East is a dangerous region of the world. What we are trying to do --

Thomas: Why was Iraq attacked?

McClellan: What we are trying to do is help transform that troubled region of the world by providing a more hopeful future. That's what freedom does. Free societies are peaceful societies. And a free Iraq will help inspire the rest of the Middle East, as well.

Then another reporter tries to follow-up on Thomas’s attempt…

Q: Can I go to something on Iraq? Just following up on something Helen said. The President and you often say that it was Saddam Hussein's decision to make. What could he have done, given the fact that you haven't found weapons of mass destruction, to stop the invasion?

McClellan: Well, Martha, I don't think we need to go back and relitigate all this, but it was spelled out very clearly what he needed to do, and he continued to defy the international community -- 17-some resolutions. And it was a threat that we could not ignore. The world is better off with Saddam Hussein out of power. And we have clearly talked about that previously. Now --

-- M. e. Cohen via Cagle. Click on cartoon to enlarge.

An Olympic moment of hope for peace

Kudos to the organizers of the Turin Winter Olympics for having the courage to feature, in the opening ceremony, comments by Yoko Ono about the need for peace, and for having Peter Gariel sing these lyrics for a worldwide audience. On a night when North and South Korea's athletes marched in together, it offered a glimmer of hope.

Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.

-- John Lennon

Gard and Bush swap spouses after wild White House dinner.

2-4-6-8 Time for Gard to negotiate?

Compromise may be in the air over school choice. Cory Liebmann correctly points out that the increasing pressure over the school choice enrollment cap in Milwaukee has forced Speaker John Gard to the bargaining table, where Gov. Jim Doyle has been prepared to meet him for some time.

Gard will take extreme positions and try not to make a deal, because the GOP has been counting on using it as a fall campaign issue. The kids? The kids be damned. This is all about politics, as far as Gard is concerned. ACE Finally Drags Gard to the Negotiating Table

In your dreams, Scooter

From Scott Walker's weekly e-newsletter:

Walker: Executive Experience
"As a county executive, I'm a lot like the governor already," he said. "I'm the head of the executive branch. I have a budget, a cabinet, a veto, a 'buck-stopswith-me' type of mentality, and the issues I deal with are all the same - the environment, transportation, taxes, spending, health care, labor relations. I do all the things that a governor does on a day-in, day-out basis."

Never thought of that. Being county executive is JUST LIKE being governor, isn't it? Only different.

Especially noteworthy is his "buck stops with me" philosophy. That from a guy who has never, ever taken responsibility for anything that has gone wrong in his administration -- and there has been plenty. Walker blames someone else every time. He has no clue about what it means to be accountable and take responsibility for his actions.

Dumb and dumber

While the loyal opposition makes fun of President Bush's intellect and suggests he's a pretty dim bulb, a conservative columnist makes an interesting observation. The problem, he says, is that the American people are dumber than Bush:

Blind Ignorance

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information.

Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.

Despite the media's failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.

Consider the New York Times/CBS poll. Sixty-four percent of the respondents have concerns about losing civil liberties as a result of anti-terrorism measures put in place by President Bush. Yet, 53 percent approve of spying without obtaining court warrants "in order to reduce the threat of terrorism."

Why does any American think that spying without a warrant has any more effect in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Bush is disobeying, requires the executive to obtain from a secret panel of federal judges a warrant for spying on Americans. The purpose of the law is to prevent a president from spying for partisan political reasons. The law permits the president to spy first (for 72 hours) and then come to the court for permission. As the court meets in secret, spying without a warrant is no more effective in reducing the threat of terrorism than spying with a warrant.

Instead of explaining this basic truth, the media has played along with the Bush administration and formulated the question as a trade-off between civil liberties and protection from terrorists. This formulation is false and nonsensical. Why does the media enable the Bush administration to escape accountability for illegal behavior by putting false and misleading choices before the people?

The LA Times/Bloomberg poll has equally striking anomalies. Only 43 percent said they approved of Bush's performance as president. But a majority believe Bush's policies have made the US more secure.

It is extraordinary that anyone would think Americans are safer as a result of Bush invading two Muslim countries and constantly threatening two more with military attack. The invasions and threats have caused a dramatic swing in Muslim sentiment away from the US. Prior to Bush's invasion of Iraq, a large majority of Muslims had a favorable opinion of America. Now only about 5 percent do.

A number of US commanders in Iraq and many Middle East experts have told the American public that the three year-old war in Iraq is serving both to recruit and to train terrorists for al Qaeda, which has grown many times its former size. Moreover, the US military has concluded that al Qaeda has succeeded in having its members elected to the new Iraqi government.

We have seen similar developments both in Egypt and in Pakistan. In the recent Egyptian elections, the radical Muslim Brotherhood, despite being suppressed by the Egyptian government, won a large number of seats. In Pakistan elements friendly or neutral toward al Qaeda control about half of the government. In Iraq, Bush's invasion has replaced secular Sunnis with Islamist Shia allied with Iran.

And now with the triumph of Hamas in the Palestinian election, we see the total failure of Bush's Middle Eastern policy. Bush has succeeded in displacing secular moderates from Middle Eastern governments and replacing them with Islamic extremists. It boggles the mind that this disastrous result makes Americans feel safer!

What does it say for democracy that half of the American population is unable to draw a rational conclusion from unambiguous facts?

Americans share this disability with the Bush administration. According to news reports, the Bush administration is stunned by the election victory of the radical Islamist Hamas Party, which swept the US-financed Fatah Party from office. Why is the Bush administration astonished?

The Bush administration is astonished because it stupidly believes that hundreds of millions of Muslims should be grateful that the US has interfered in their internal affairs for 60 years, setting up colonies and puppet rulers to suppress their aspirations and to achieve, instead, purposes of the US government.

Americans need desperately to understand that 95 percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were created in the past three years by Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Americans need desperately to comprehend that if Bush attacks Iran and Syria, as he intends, terrorism will explode, and American civil liberties will disappear into a thirty year war that will bankrupt the United States.

The total lack of rationality and competence in the White House and the inability of half of the US population to acquire and understand information are far larger threats to Americans than terrorism.

America has become a rogue nation, flying blind, guided only by ignorance and hubris. A terrible catastrophe awaits.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Infomercial sells Iraq war

The Bush administration has launched a new one-hour infomercial to sell the Iraq war to the American public. Look for it soon on your local cable channel or read about it here.

Caption contest

Gov wannabe Mark Green ...

... shows up in wrong attire for the toga party.

... is guest speaker at a recent KKK rally

... didn't know it was a costume party.

Your captions welcome. First prize, a week in Cedarburg. Second prize, two weeks in Cedarburg.

Green's current chief of staff alsohad a role in Assembly caucus scandal

We may have done an injustice to Rep. Mark Green's staff by lavishing so much attention on Mark Graul, Green's former chief of staff and current campaign manager of his race for governor. We've neglected his current chief of staff, Chris Tuttle. But no longer.

Graul, you may recall, is the one who showed up in a series of e-mails from Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm about who would get free tickets to the Abramoff skybox. Over a period of weeks, Graul told a series of different stories about whether he had accepted any freebies and whether he had violated any ethics rules.

Graul's name first surfaced in October, but he bobbed and weaved until the story finally made the Journal Sentinel on Jan. 29, almost four months later.

When Green was asked about the activities of his chief of staff/campaign manager, he said he didn't know about them and hadn't even asked Graul. Green didn't want to know the truth.

More recently, Green was asked what he knew about the rampant, illegal campaign work being done by the Assembly Republican caucus while Green was caucus chair from 1995-98. He claims he knew nothing about any political work being done on state time, was never the beneficiary of any, had never "directed" anyone to do campaign work, and was certain his staff hadn't done any such thing.

Scott Jensen and David Prosser say everyone was doing it, but Green insists he was the only one who didn't know what was going on -- even though he held a top leadership position.

This is particularly relevant because Ray Carey, who was Assembly Republican caucus director from 1994 to 1999, said under oath that the primary duties of his government job were campaign-related. David Prosser said that as speaker in 1995 and 1996, campaigning ran rampant among Capitol staffers. Again, Green was caucus chair from 1995-1998, which overlaps the time Carey and Prosser are talking about.

Here are some of the things that were going on at the time:

Under Caucus Majority Chair Green ‘staff is required to volunteer for campaign work’ and leadership ‘should specifically instruct their staff’ to campaign. “Kratochwill said Ray Carey has confirmed to him that Carey provided to Foti, Jensen, and a third legislator a memo dated February 17, 1997, ‘Review of ’96 Campaign,’ that includes the following references: ‘Recommendation: Leadership should make it clear that staff is required to volunteer for campaign work, and that they should specifically instruct their staff to do so.’” [Source: Criminal Complaint, State of Wisconsin vs. Scott R. Jensen, Steven M. Foti, Sherry L. Schultz and Bonnie M. Ladwig, page 26, Link.]

Under Caucus Majority Chair Green, staff campaign work (SWARM) was created to ensure ‘staffer in the Capitol offices’ signed up ‘to do campaign work.’ “Kratochwill and Jensen discussed how to get Capitol legislative staffers out working on campaigns through SWARM (Staff Working For Assembly Republicans), which began in 1996. Jensen told Kratochwill that they needed ‘SWARM people,’ meaning staffers in the Capitol offices of Representatives, to sign up to do campaign work.” [Source: Criminal Complaint, State of Wisconsin vs. Scott R. Jensen, Steven M. Foti, Sherry L. Schultz and Bonnie M. Ladwig, page 28, Link.]

The Journal Sentinel reported this on its Capitol blog this week, but edited it from the story that appeared in print:

State campaign records list Mark Graul as the campaign treasurer in 1998 for the Teddy Roosevelt Fund, an independent group that sent mailers supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats. Graul, who is now running Green’s gubernatorial campaign, was a legislative aide to Green at the time.

Graul said he did not do any of the work for the Teddy Roosevelt Fund on state time, noting he took leaves of absence to do campaign work, such as when he ran Green’s first congressional campaign in 1998.

Graul said he had little involvement with the Teddy Roosevelt Fund, a claim backed up by Todd Rongstad. Rongstad, who worked for the Assembly Republican Caucus at the time and readily admits to campaigning on state time, said he formed the independent group to better compete with Democrats, but that all the work was done off of state time.

Rongstad said he originally planned to serve as the group’s treasurer, but then-Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Bonnie Ladwig (R-Racine) told him she did not want him listed as an officer with the group since he worked for the caucus.

Rongstad then sought out Christopher Tuttle, another Green aide, to be listed as treasurer. Graul later replaced Tuttle.

And Green knew nothing about his two staffers' involvement in an independent political group, aiding the GOP, at the same time he was on the ballot?

So, about Chris Tuttle:

He was media director of the Assembly GOP caucus from January 1995 to January 1997, during which time Green was caucus chair. Tuttle served under Director Ray Carey. Insiders claim that during that time, he essentially ran Rick Skindrud's Assembly re-election campaign on state time. He spent most of 1997 in Minnesota, but in early 1998, he returned to Wisconsin and was hired back by Ray Carey to be Assembly GOP caucus deputy director. In 1999, he was hired by Congressman-elect Mark Green, and moved to DC as press secretary. When Graul left to run the gov's race, Tuttle replaced him as chief of staff.

So, no mattter how much he pleads ignorance, Mark Green is running for governor with a campaign manager and a chief of staff who both have ties to the caucus scandal, as well as the Graul-Abramoff link.

Doesn't that make it just a little dicey for Republicans to be raising hell about what Jim Doyle's campaign manager may have done at a time when he wasn't even working for Doyle?

Mark Green's credibility as an outsider goes down a notch every time he plays dumb on these ethical questions.

There will be a lot more of those questions asked in the months ahead. Someone should advise him to start telling it straight, but something tells me that won't be Mark Graul's advice to his candidate.

-- From Working for Change. (Click on cartoon to enlarge.)

You've come a long way, Baby

The Wisconsin State Journal, that is. It has shed its Neanderthal outlook and entered at least the 20th Century, if not the 21st.

Thursday's editorial:

Marriage benefits should be for all

The cause of equal rights is at the heart of the debate over gay marriage and a powerful reason for legalizing it.

Under Wisconsin law, a married couple has nearly 200 legal benefits and protections; under federal law, an additional 1,138, according to a recent report by Action Wisconsin and the Human Rights Campaign.

For instance, married people can:

Receive the medical records of a spouse.

Seek worker's compensation claims if a spouse dies.

Avoid a state fee after transferring real estate between spouses.

Claim separate personal tax exemptions.

For eligible state employees, purchase long-term care insurance for a spouse.

The many benefits and protections married people enjoy extend to most facets of life. It is discriminatory and demeaning not to offer them to some of our citizens on the sole basis of sexuality.

Wisconsin should speak up for equality this November by opposing a constitutional amendment against gay marriage and civil unions if it makes it onto the ballot.

The proposed amendment defines marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. State law already limits marriage to a husband and wife. But amendment supporters want to ensure that the inequality of marriage rights is cemented into our society.

The state Senate in December passed the amendment, which is now before the Assembly. If passed, voters may have to decide in a statewide referendum.

The change would make it much tougher for gay marriage to become a reality in Wisconsin. And it would forbid civil unions, which are supported by a majority of state residents.

An unmarried couple, whether gay or straight, would not be able to gain "a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of a marriage," under the amendment.

Such a ban could even jeopardize domestic-partner benefits, which many Wisconsin employers offer to be fair and to help their bottom lines by attracting talented employees.

The government could conceivably sue companies for offering insurance coverage that gives a gay couple the same protection as a married couple.

The vehemence and finality in the amendment's exclusionary language is truly disheartening.

It tells the world that, in Wisconsin, some people's rights to health care, spousal support and tax relief don't matter.

And by including it in this state's constitution, the amendment would institutionalize inequality.

Wisconsin should not stand for that.

Heroin hits the suburbs

Heroin's in the suburbs! It's no doubt been there for awhile, but now it's official, because the newspaper knows.

It shouldn't be hard to crack down, though. If the authorities see anyone with a package like this, they'd certainly have probable cause, don't you think? The label gives it away.

Truth in advertising?

TABOR wouldn't sell. How about if we just call it what it is?

-- Joe Heller, Green Bay Press Gazette, via Cagle.

Feingold: No deal on Patriot Act

Bush and Company shouldn't pop the champagne cork just yet. Sen. Russ Feingold says the "compromise" on the Patriot Act consists of a few small changes, and he will do everything he can to defeat it as it stands.

Speaking of corrections ...

From: Bill Christofferson
To: Sykes, Charles
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 4:43 PM
Subject: Correction

Since we are all being so careful about accuracy, your report that I am a "paid hatchet man for Jim Doyle" is totally false.

I have not been paid a penny by Doyle or his campaign since January 2003.

I assume you will be as prompt at correcting this complete falsehood as I was in correcting my mistake about Jeff Wagner.

Thank you.

School choice for everyone? Really?

Gov. Jim Doyle blinked, and offered a higher cap on school choice enrollment than he had previously supported.

Speaker John Gard's response: No deal. My way or the highway. He doesn't want a negotiated settlement. He doesn't even want a Doyle surrender. He wants an issue for the November election.

Gard's statement includes this:

I support lifting caps entirely so that Milwaukee children and parents can choose their school. If we do not come to a resolution to lift the choice cap, thousands of students will not be able to go to the school of their choice and that would be a tragedy.

Lifting caps entirely? Income caps, too, so anyone can send their children to any school they wish at taxpayer expense?

Why just poor people? Why just Milwaukee? Are we ready for school choice in Peshtigo and Sun Prairie, the places Gard and his family hold dual citizenship?

Is that the ultimate goal?

If so, let's just say so. Then we can have the real debate.

No surprise

Jessica McBride on WTMJ, Republican Radio? A match made in heaven.

Several e-mailers have asked whether it is appropriate for her to host a political show, since her husband is a candidate for attorney general.

Let me assure you that it is not a problem. In 1994, when Jeff Wagner ran for AG against Jim Doyle, the station frequently used Wagner himself as a guest host for Sykes. They have no principles.

Like her no-comment blog, it's a safe venue. Her screener will eliminate anyone who disagrees with her, or who might make her look silly.

Just one question: Did they have to pay her?

UPDATE: Wagner says it's not true. An e-mail from Jeff Wagner:

Somebody has called my attention to your latest posting. Please be advised that your claim that I filled in for Charlie Sykes on WTMJ while I was running for Attorney General in 1994 is false. I did not start filling in as a talk show host until the summer of 1995 (and then it was at WISN, not WTMJ). I did not begin hosting a talk show on WTMJ until the summer of 1998 (when I did begin filling in for Charlie while he was writing a book). Since you were intimately involved in Doyle's campaign in 1994, I am surprised that you would make such a patently false assertion in an effort to attack WTMJ Radio. Please retract your false claim. Jeff

OK, I could be wrong. Maybe what I remember is defeated AG candidate Jeff Wagner filling in for Sykes in 1998, when Doyle was again running for AG, and bashing Doyle every day. That may be slightly more ethical, I guess, but it still stinks. (Note to Sykes: Every mistake isn't necessarily a "lie."

UPDATE: Sykes posted at 3:55 p.m. that I was wrong, and asked how long it would take me to correct it. I received an e-mail from Wagner at 3:56 p.m. and corrected it at 3:58. How long will it take for Sykes to acknowledge that?

Say it ain't so

This is a joke, right? House Repubs didn't just put Tom DeLay on a committee that oversees the Justice Department? Tell me The Amtal Rule is making this up.

Ragnar Mentaire has details.

Being lobbied is a full-time job

The results are in, and the lobbyists have won again.

The only surprise in the Ethics Board's report on lobbying activity in 2005 is that people -- well, corporations mostly -- are willing to waste such vast sums of money on a legislature that did almost nothing besides pass a state budget.

The number of hours spent on lobbying defies belief. Methinks there must have been some creative billing going on.

Consider that there are only 132 state legislators. And then look at the numbers:

-- 50,000 hours spent lobbying on the state budget. That's 378 hours per legislator.

-- 753 registered lobbyists. Each legislator can have five of his/her own.

-- $30.6-million spent on lobbying. That's $231,000 per legislator. Wouldn't it have been a lot cheaper just to pay them each $100,000?

-- 264,552 total hours spent on lobbying. That translates to just about 2,000 hours per legislator. Consider that someone who works 40 hours a week, with no vacation, will work 2080 hours a year. That's the equivalent of one full-time lobbyist for every lawmaker.

Of course, these numbers do not all reflect face-to-face lobbying with legislators. It's a good thing, or legislators would have no time left to do anything but be lobbied.

They're just numbers supplied to the Ethics Board, estimates in many cases, of how much time and money was spent to lobby. Those billable hours -- when a lobbyist is billing a client -- include every minute the lobbyist spends thinking, meeting, or talking about the bill, whether in meetings, on the phone, in the car, on the elevator, or on the toilet.

But the numbers are staggering nonetheless.

It's interesting that some of the items which were the most heavily lobbied did not become law.

The most-lobbied bill was the fight between papermakers and insurance companies over who should pay for the cleanup of contaminated Fox Valley-area waterways, which accounted for 5,404 hours on both sides.

The second most-lobbied issue, at 2,964 hours, was the concealed weapons bill, which passed but was vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle.

The third most-lobbied issue, with 2,916 reported hours, was a mandate that ethanol be sold at gas pumps statewide, a battle still going on in the State Senate.

If you think that failing to get a bill passed is bad news for the lobbyists involved, you don't understand the game. It simply means that you will be able to lobby on the same issue, and bill all of those hours, again in the next session. Losing -- unless you get the blame and are fired -- simply guarantees more work.

Years ago, when our firm's political clients included a U.S. Senator, the Assembly Speaker, the attorney general, and the mayors of Madison and Milwaukee, more than one person suggested my partner and I move from politics into lobbying. It no doubt could have been lucrative. But we both agreed there was not enough money in the world to make us spend our time sucking up to state legislators, currying favor, and making them feel even more important than they already do.

Fortunately, there are 753 others willing to fill the void.

It is not fair to lump public interest lobbyists, working for non-profit groups, in with contract lobbyists, the hired guns who will take on most any paying client. Both, of course, are included in these totals. But the numbers are still staggering.

The Dems next door

Speaking of the Democratic Difference ... In Minnesota, where it's still the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL, the party operates a blog that's worth a look.

The Prosser standard

I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought it unusual that a State Supreme Court justice has admitted to committing a felony.

But then I discovered Dave Zweifel's column in the Capital Times, in which he says:

What message does Prosser's testimony send to the judicial community over which he has a piece of ultimate supervision, if he's willing to testify that everyone in leadership positions was using taxpayers' money to hire campaign workers, thus suggesting that the practice is permissible?

It's a violation of the law, period. How can Prosser effectively function as a Supreme Court justice if he takes sides in this case? Sure, he can recuse himself should the Jensen case ever reach the high court, but then he puts his fellow justices in a position of having to rebuke him.

Whatever the outcome, Prosser's action is unprecedented and terribly ill advised.

Prosser is being praised by the right wing as a profile in courage. Actually, it is sad to see Prosser, who has been well-regarded by both Republicans and Democrats, turn into a partisan hack to try to rescue his friend.

A Supreme Court justice says "everybody did it" is a defense? If that is his standard, Prosser should resign.

Footnote: Scott Walker and Mark Green claim that "everyone" wasn't doing it, just "everybody but us." Whom should we believe?

UPDATE: Mike Basford's Spin City expressed similar sentiments before this post.

Defining the Democratic difference

Political campaigns are all about drawing distinctions, to give voters a reason to vote for one candidate over another. Too often, candidates forget that. People need a reason to vote for them. If they seem the same as the other candidate, why bother?

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has taken a giant step in the right direction by issuing a series of issue papers under the heading, The Democratic Difference.

It's an attempt to define what separates Democrats from Republicans in Wisconsin, from the war in Iraq to minimum wage, and a whole lot in between. It needs to be fleshed out, and will be in the months ahead.

But it's a good start for Dem Chair Joe Wineke and his crew. They are doing on a state level what is desperately needed at the national level, where Democrats continue to dance around the question of what their message should be. An exercise like Badger Dems have launched could be the model for the national party.

More detailed issue papers will be posted at the state party website.

Send a message on wiretapping

From Russ Feingold's Progressive Patriot site:

Hold the President Accountable on Illegal Wiretapping!

A week ago, in his State of the Union address, President Bush made no apologies for his illegal wiretapping program. We need to show him that the American people will not stand by as he authorizes the government to invade the privacy of law-abiding Americans by bypassing the laws of this country. We have a goal for 10,000 citizens to sign this petition. Please help us meet our goal.

Sign petition.

After you've signed, reward yourself by reading this Capital Times editorial: Feingold Pins Gonzalez.

Proxmire memorial Friday

A memorial service remembering U.S. Sen. William Proxmire will be at noon on Friday, in the Rotunda of the State Capitol. The service is open to the public.

The program for the memorial service will include words of remembrance by Reps. Dave Obey and Ron Kind; Sens. Herb Kohl, Russ Feingold, and Joe Biden; Proxmire friends John Finerty, Matt Flynn, and Leonard S. Zubrensky; former Gov. Pat Lucey, and Gov. Jim Doyle.

Following the speakers, a short film entitled, “One of a Kind," memorializing Prosmire's life, will be shown. The film will be introduced by Judge Richard D. Cudahy, of the U.S. Court of Appeals (and a onetime chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.)

A Book of Remembrance will be placed on the ground level of the State Capitol Rotunda for the public to write memories of Prox from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday and from 9 to 11 a.m. on Friday. Proxmire’s Capitol portrait and a video presentation of photos will be on display near the Book of Remembrance.

Others attending the service will include Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Reps. Tammy Baldwin and Mark Green, and former Wisconsin Govs. Tommy Thompson and Tony Earl. Other former and current statewide officials, Supreme Court justices, and legislators also will attend.

Governor Doyle will issue an Executive Order ordering the flags of the United States and of Wisconsin to fly at half staff at all buildings, grounds, and military installations in the state of Wisconsin on the day of the memorial service.

The memorial service will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television at 8:30 p.m. CST on Friday. The service will also be webcast live at: www.wpt.org. Tapes of the memorial service will be available for purchase and will cost $25. Those interested should contact Evey Fleming, Wisconsin Public Television, at 608-263-4575.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, memorials should be sent to the following organizations:

The Wisconsin Historical Foundation
Attn: Peter Gottlieb
816 State Street
Madison, WI 53706

The Copper Ridge Institute
Attn: Cindy Yingling and Kathleen Curry
710 Obrecht Road
Sykesville, MD 20817

What Jensen did wasn't business as usual

From The Xoff Files archives. Posted on June 24, 2005, and just as true today, after seven and a half months of delay, posturing, and huffing and puffing by Scott Jensen and his allies:

Jensen didn't invent system,
but took it to new heights

Charlie Sykes has big news. Scott Jensen was not the first Assembly speaker to do political work or use his caucus staff to help in campaigns. Tom Loftus, a Democrat, did it too, Sykes reports in excruciating detail on his blog, Sykes Writes.

He accuses me of having a selective memory, of pretending Tom Loftus or Wally Kunicki or Shirley Krug or others in the Democratic leadership never did political work or used their staffs for campaign help.

I don't dispute that. It was an open secret for years, to anyone working in or covering the Capitol for the news media, that the caucuses did political work, especially at campaign time.

So, Charlie asks, what is the big deal now all of a sudden?

The caucus scandal became a scandal because the leadership in both houses took it to the extreme.

There is a difference between shaking down lobbyists, as some legislators are accused of, and helping some candidate in the hinterlands run for office.

And there is a huge difference between a legislator raising money, or a caucus staffer helping plan a fundraiser or prepare a list for the legislator to call, and putting someone on the state payroll to the tune of $65,000 a year to do nothing but raise political money full-time. That's what Scott Jensen, Steve Foti, and Sherry Schultz are accused of. They don't even deny it; they just say that was part of their jobs.

I can tell the difference between that and whatever Tom Loftus did.

If he levels with himself, Sykes can, too.

Jensen didn't invent the system, but he took it to new heights.

Here's my earlier (june 22, 2005) post on the subject, which set Sykes off:

Just doing our jobs, Jensen & Co. say;
raising money full-time on taxpayers' tab

You have to give them credit for trying, I guess, and for doing exhaustive research and making creative arguments.

But the latest claim by lawyers for Scott Jensen, Steve Foti, and Sherry Schultz , the Republicans charged with felonies in the caucus scandal -- that the three were just doing their jobs -- is simply incredible.

Jensen was the Assembly speaker, Foti the GOP majority leader, and Schultz an Assembly staffer. They were indicted in 2002, and have been trying to postpone the inevitable ever since. So far that has worked pretty well. October 18 will be the three-year anniversary of their indictments, and a trial is nowhere in sight.

Foti has left the legislature, and Schultz is off the state payroll. But Jensen continues on his merry way, as a key member of the Joint Finance Committee that put the state budget together.

Jensen simply has no shame. The latest argument from his lawyer goes something like this: "Jensen, Foti, and Schultz were just doing what they were supposed to be doing -- that part of their jobs was to elect more Republicans to office. So of course they were doing some campaign work in their Capitol offices. What's your point, prosecutor?"

The basis for that claim is a 1986 report prepared for Common Cause in Wisconsin by Gail Shea, a former employee of the State Elections Board. Shea's report says that "Legislative campaign committees hire consultants for a variety of purposes . . . In some cases the consultants are nationally known political experts, but most often they are politically active individuals from Wisconsin or legislative staffers, either currently on the state payroll or on leave from their legislative jobs."

"It is important to keep in mind that the legislative campaign committees claim they fill a role very similar to a political party," Shea's report says. "Their purpose is to elect partisans to their respective house of the Legislature."

Jensen's lawyer claims that means there are no limits on what an elected official can do at taxpayer expense, apparently.

Lest we forget, one of the felony charges against Jensen, Foti, and Schultz is that Schultz worked full-time, on the state payroll, paid $65,000 a year by taxpayers, and her full-time job was to raise money for Republicans. Jensen hired her and stashed her in the Republican caucus office, on Foti's payroll.

That arrangement went on for almost four years, so taxpayers paid Schultz $250,000 in salary, plus a great benefit package probably worth another $50,000 over that period. That is not penny ante corner-cutting. That is grand larceny.

It is quite a leap from Shea's memo to the conclusion that it would be legal to operate a full-time political fundraising operation in your Capitol office, at taxpayer expense. If that is legal, why on earth does any campaign or political party pay anyone? They could all be state employees, merrily working to elect their bosses or others in their party. That's their job, right -- elect more Rs or Ds.

Jensen, Foti and Schultz made much the same argument in a brief filed in December 2002 -- and failed. Story. The only thing that has changed since then is that someone dug up the Shea memo in the Legislative Reference Bureau.

But if attorney general opinions don't have the force of law, it doesn't seem like a Common Cause memo will either.

I am beginning to wonder whether any of the caucus defendants -- Jensen, Foti, Schultz, ex-State Rep. Bonnie Ladwig, or ex-State Sens. Chuck Chvala and Brian Burke will come to trial in my lifetime -- or in theirs. The public has mostly forgotten what they were ever charged with to begin with. Presumably, although the wheels of justice grind excruciatingly slowly, they will turn some day.

They say that justice delayed is justice denied. In the caucus scandal, it is the defendants who delay, delay and delay. In Jensen's case, it is the public, and his constituents, who are being denied the opportunity to find out whether they reelected a felon to the Assembly in 2002 and 2004.

To refresh our memories, here is the original criminal complaint.

Pros, cons of park privatization

Seth Zlotocha goes far beyond my one-liner about Juneau Park v. Central Park and offers a thoughtful look at what has happened with privatization of New York City's crown jewel. Well worth a read.

-- Stuart Carlson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

'It's not illegal because he doesn't think it is'

In case the wiretap hearings have been too long, complicated and boring for you to follow, Bob Geiger offers a simpler version:

If you want to know what it went like yesterday when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to defend the legality of the Bush administration’s domestic spying program, I can sum it up with a hypothetical scenario.

Let’s say my little boy desperately wants a bag of Skittles. (This not an uncommon request for him.) My wife, being the healthy-food Mom that she is, counters with an offer of a bunch of broccoli and my son steals a bag of candy from our corner store – and is caught.

Store Owner: You son’s a thief.

Bob’s Wife: No, he’s not.

Store Owner: But he stole a bag of candy.

Bob’s Wife: He’s eight years old and loves candy. That’s gives him a reason.

Store Owner: But it’s illegal.

Bob’s Wife: He doesn’t think it’s illegal if you really want Skittles and don’t like the law against stealing candy. So it’s OK.

That pretty much gives you the gist of Gonzales’s entire testimony yesterday. The main reason that President Bush had thousands of Americans spied on without the required warrants? He’s the president and he wanted to. Oh, and he didn’t like the prevailing law either.

Dealing in the dark

When you're on the Republican leadership team in the legislature, it is just one tough decision after another.

The latest: Should we help people who can't afford to heat their homes, or should we go to Washington DC for some fundraisers?

In case you can't guess it, Carrie Lynch has the answer., and Mark Pocan has more.

The Republican position on this is interesting: Gov. Doyle wants to spend too much money on this. We would support some smaller amount. We'd like to negotiate a compromise with him. And we want to do it in the back room, without ever coming into session until the deal goes down.

What ever happened to the legislative process where bills were introduced, hearings were held, amendments were offered, debated and voted on -- while negotiations took place -- and a bill was passed and sent to the governor?

Far too many deals are being made in the dark, without public scrutiny. This shouldn't be another.

Can't see the billboards for the trees

Have you heard any complaints from Wisconsin motorists lately that there's too much scenic beauty getting in the way of their enjoyment of roadside billboards?

I didn't think so.

It's one of those issues with a miniscule constituency -- the billboard builders --that has somehow found its way onto the fast track in the legislature. Could it have anything to do with lobbyists or campaign contributions? I'd like to blame the Repubs, but there are sponsors from both parties.

It sounds almost too ludicruous to say it, but an Assembly committee will hold a hearing Thursday on a bill to let the billboard industry cut down more trees for a better view of roadside billboards.

Assembly Bill 967 would allow clearing trees and shrubs for a distance of up to 600 feet along the highway for each billboard. Current distance in the Department of Transportation rules is 350 feet.

It also would let the billboard folks, rather than the DOT, do the trimming themselves. Left to their own devices, you can bet we'll see some tree-free zones.

This bill is scheduled in a public hearing before the Assembly Transportation Committee at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9, in room 417 North of the Capitol.

Citizens for a Scenic Wisconsin, as you might expect from a group with that name, opposes the bill. Among its comments:

This bill ... provides benefits for owners and operators of billboards, but it neglects the interests of the general public.

We must manage our trees and shrubs in the public “right of way” along roads carefully. Billboards detract from scenic beauty, while trees and shrubs provide an attractive setting for our roads, a setting that people enjoy and that is attractive to tourists and good for business.

Trees and shrubs in the strip of public land beside our roads are a great benefit, providing not only scenic beauty, but erosion control, light screens, noise barriers and snow containment. Trees and shrubs should not be cut down for the purpose of providing a better view of billboards without regard to these benefits. Our roads are constructed for the purpose of transportation and are not meant to be advertising corridors.

The bill subordinates the rights of owners of adjacent property. Viewing zones will often extend along neighboring property. Neighbors often want trees and shrubs between them and the road.

The DOT follows a Natural Roadsides policy, a policy which allows new trees and shrubs to grow naturally from seeds of nearby trees & shrubs and allows cutting and mowing only where necessary for safety reasons. This policy results in the most attractive outgrowth of mostly native species at practically no cost.

Present regulations for managing vegetation along highways are reasonable. The DOT needs to make sure that they respond promptly to requests from billboard owners or operators and do the requested work in a satisfactory and timely way, but there is no need to alter the regulations.

Doyle has 'modest lead' in latest poll

Another week, another public poll. I offer this spin-free report, since it is hard to gauge the reliability of one-night polls with robo-calls, even though Rasmussen claims it is the most reliable of all.

Wisconsin Governor: Doyle (D) with Modest Lead

February 7, 2006--In Wisconsin, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle leads two Republicans challenging his reelection bid by single digits.

Doyle leads Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker 47% to 40%. In early December, a Rasmussen Reports election poll showed him leading Walker 48% to 37%.

Doyle leads Congressman Mark Green 48% to 41%, a similar result to our December poll. Then, he led Green 45% to 39%.

Results.

Time to cap all civil suits, or just Orville's?

Is Orville Seymer, the Citizens for Republican, er, Responsible Government guy, out of line in suing Milwaukee County for $1-million? Bruce Murphy, editor of Milwaukee Magazine, thinks so.

Seymer is upset because County Board Chair Lee Holloway had him thrown out of a meeting for lipping off. He says his First Amendment rights were violated. Maybe, maybe not. But Seymer has gotten about 100 times the attention he would have gotten if Holloway had let him speak, so I'd be inclined to call it even.

What worries me is that if Seymer is successful and wins his $1-million lawsuit, Wisconsin will be flooded with First Amendment lawyers from all over the country, filing lawsuits on behalf of anyone who's ever been told to shut up.

You know, kind of like we've seen those caravans of trial lawyers coming here because there is no cap on medical malpractice awards.

Maybe there should be a cap on all lawsuits. Murphy thinks $50 would be about right for Orville. That may be a little high, but I could live with it. Of course, the lawyer would get half of it, and that would just encourage them to file more suits. Maybe the cleanest, most efficient solution is to simply shut down the court system for civil suits and just use it for criminal cases.

(Before the right wing blogosphere seconds the motion, I was just kidding. OK?)

If body language could speak ...

Bush's posture speaks volumes, as Robola points out.

Perhaps it was the standing ovation that Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery received when he said:

We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. [Standing Ovation] But Coretta knew and we know that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.

Doyle's courage on gun issues recognized

Just in from The Gun Guys:

Governor Doyle Wins “Wings of Justice” Award

Well, it’s not official until tomorrow, but we got an early message from Buzzflash.com that they’ll be giving their “Wings of Justice” award this week to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, whose veto of the concealed weapons bill was previously upheld, keeping concealed weapons out of Wisconsin, and Wisconsinites safe. [UPDATE: Here's the official word.]

You shouldn’t have to be a hero for taking action to protect police officers and residents of your state, but Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is.

The NRA has been targeting Wisconsin as one of only four states left that don’t allow people to run around packing hidden handguns — and the police in Wisconsin want to keep their state safe from the gun lobby.

With the overwhelming support of the law enforcement community in the Badger State, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle vetoed a carried concealed handgun law passed by legislators under heat from the gun lobby. One sponsor of the gun bill even threatened that the NRA would come in and pour in money to defeat anyone that got in their way. It makes you wonder what the NRA has against our law enforcement officers.

But Governor Doyle doesn’t need a handgun to stand up to the NRA. He just used his veto power — and for the second year in a row the state assembly failed to override his courage.

Here’s what the Governor said when he vetoed the NRA’s bill, a bill that the majority of Wisconsin’s citizens were opposed to.

“The bill does not create a single job, help a single Wisconsin citizen afford health care or improve schools for a single Wisconsin child,” Doyle said in a statement. “The Legislature should spend more time trying to get jobs into our communities instead of more guns.”

And he was exactly right. The police there opposed the bill (loudly and repeatedly), the people opposed it, and Governor Doyle was right to give it the old heave-ho. We join Wings of Justice in thanking him for his part in keeping the men and women of the Wisconsin Police force safe from the tyranny of concealed weapons.

And Pat Robertson would have a lot of 'splainin to do!

-- pabloONpolitics

Green, like Walker, was deaf and blind while serving in the state legislature

Give me a break.

While a chorus ranging from Supreme Court Justice David Prosser to the right wing blogosphere insists that everyone in Madison knew there was widespread abuse of the legislative caucuses, and that legislative staffers were campaigning on state time, Mark Green says he never knew a thing.

This at a time when Jessica McBride is insisting that even the news media knew what was going on.

Green was Assembly Republican CAUCUS CHAIRMAN from 1995-1998, while campaigning by state employees was rampant. But he was unaware?

The Journal Sentinel obviously swallowed his story, because it didn't even make the paper, but showed up on the newspaper's Capitol blog:

Green says he never knew of campaign activity

Like Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, U.S. Rep. Mark Green says he was not aware legislative aides were campaigning on state time when he was in the Assembly in the 1990s.

In court filings last week, Supreme Court Justice David Prosser said campaigning on state time was routine when he was speaker of the Assembly in 1995 and 1996 and when he was Assembly minority leader from 1989 to 1994. Rep. Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) wanted Prosser to testify on his behalf in his trial later this month on felony charges of campaigning on state time, but Dane County Circuit Judge Steven Ebert ruled Friday former leaders could not tell jurors about how they ran the Legislature.

Green and Walker, the two Republicans seeking Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s job, were both in the Assembly during much of the time Prosser led the Assembly Republicans.

Walker said last week that he was unaware of any campaigning on state time because he was not in leadership. Green, who couldn’t be reached last week, said Monday he did not know what campaign work staffers for the Assembly Republican Caucus were doing either.

“I just didn’t have that sort of involvement,” Green said.

Green, of Green Bay, was in leadership at the time, serving as caucus chairman for the Assembly Republicans. In that capacity, he ran meetings of Republican representatives, but he did not supervise the caucus staff.

Green said as a leader he was not informed of campaign work by the caucus employees. Those employees did not campaign on his behalf because he never had an opponent, even when he first ran for office in 1992.

“First of all, we had a very strict rule,” he said. “Nobody who worked for me in any way shape or form campaigned on state time. And secondly, I didn’t have races.”

State campaign records list Mark Graul as the campaign treasurer in 1998 for the Teddy Roosevelt Fund, an independent group that sent mailers supporting Republicans and opposing Democrats. Graul, who is now running Green’s gubernatorial campaign, was a legislative aide to Green at the time.

Graul said he did not do any of the work for the Teddy Roosevelt Fund on state time, noting he took leaves of absence to do campaign work, such as when he ran Green’s first congressional campaign in 1998.

Graul said he had little involvement with the Teddy Roosevelt Fund, a claim backed up by Todd Rongstad. Rongstad, who worked for the Assembly Republican Caucus at the time and readily admits to campaigning on state time, said he formed the independent group to better compete with Democrats, but that all the work was done off of state time.

Rongstad said he originally planned to serve as the group’s treasurer, but then-Assembly Assistant Majority Leader Bonnie Ladwig (R-Racine) told him she did not want him listed as an officer with the group since he worked for the caucus.

Rongstad then sought out Christopher Tuttle, another Green aide, to be listed as treasurer. Graul later replaced Tuttle.

In late December 2005, Ladwig pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor ethics violation for directing aides to campaign on state time.

Investigative reports filed in the Jensen case recently show that Rich Judge admitted to rampant campaigning on state time among Assembly Democrats in the 1998 and 2000 election cycle. Judge, who is now Doyle’s campaign manager, served as deputy director and director of the Assembly Democratic Caucus during that time.

-- By Patrick Marley

Is there a reporter in the house?

Is there a newspaper in the state?

Anybody wanna buy a bridge?

UPDATE: This story was promoted from the blog to a spot on the bottom of page B3, so at least it's on the record for comparison when the truth comes out.

Quote, unquote

When [Atty. Gen. Alberto]Gonzales argues that the Constitution gives the president undisputable powers to conduct warrantless surveillance despite a statute aimed at requiring him to seek court approval, such an interpretation "is not sound. . . He's smoking Dutch Cleanser."

-- Sen. Arlen Specter, in a WashPost interview.

Watch the new MoveOn ad.

Don't let the people decide

Dennis York, my favorite conservative blogger (a dubious honor), warns of the perils of letting the people decide, the battle cry of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in supporting the constitutional amendment formerly known as Prince, er TABOR.

Says York:

"At WMC, we say: 'Let the people decide!'"

Oh really?

Well then, let's throw it open to a public vote and let the people decide on the following:

Universal Health Care

Withdrawing Troops from Iraq

Capping Gas Prices

Legalizing Abortion (assuming Roe v. Wade is overturned)*

Capping CEO Pay

And the list goes on and on. All of these, of course, would pass, and each would be disastrous. In every case, the discretion of our lawmakers serves as a goalie to thwart public opinion. It works the other way, too. Think carrying concealed weapons would pass a public vote? I'll put it on the board right now - what gets the higher percentage - concealed carry or whoever runs against Herb Kohl?

Actually, I would be quite happy to let the people decide all of those issues. But let's not forget that the legislature was created to thwart the will of the people.

Repubs at the trough

Just wondering if anyone else noticed that 16 of the top 20 collectors of per diem in the Assembly were Republicans. The party of small government has become the party of incumbent perquisites. Looking at the list of beneficiaries reminds me of the arrogant old warhorses who used to run the permanent Democrat majority in the State Assembly. Congratulations guys, you've really made it to the big time.

-- I Am the Force.

Will lattes float the county's sinking ship?

Voters of Wisconsin, meet Innovator Scott Walker, the Man Who Thinks Outside The Box.

Looking at an $80-million hole in the Milwaukee County budget for 2007, Walker proposes -- a new coffee shop in Juneau Park.

Who knew there was that kind of money in lattes?

Going boldly where no others have dared, Walked declared in his State of the County speech:

"If it takes a coffee shop in every park to keep them open, then I'm all for it," Walker said. "If it works in Central Park, we should do it here."

There's a little more traffic in New York's Central Park than in Juneau Park, but you gotta think big, I guess.

To be fair, Walker also proposed some bigger ticket items, among them, to "turn back" mandated programs - such as courts - to state government unless they are fully funded by the state.

That should be easy, don't you think? The state government is rolling in dough, and would no doubt be eager to pay for the court system. Why didn't anyone think of that before?

Of course, if Scott Walker is governor in 2007 -- which is about as likely as me being the new county executive -- there could be a little problem getting that done.

You see, Walker has already promised that he would freeze taxes and hold the line on spending. That doesn't leave a lot of room to be taking back any programs. If he were governor, he'd just tell the new county executive to suck it up and think about opening a custard stand in the courthouse.

Walker's real goal -- besides successfully taking the focus off how big a financial mess his administration is in -- is to just get past the fall election before Milwaukee County goes into receivership. If he's governor, it'll be someone else's problem. And if he's still the county exec (which he is certain to be), he can always blame Tom Ament.

UPDATE: Great Minds Think Alike Department: Cory Liebmann opines on the subject. Dan Cody of Left on the Lake chimes in, too.

UPDATE TOO: Seth Zlotocha points out that Walker also proposed expanding his Harley ride freebies.

Hey, Big Spender!

Bush proposes a $2.7 trillion budget:

• Federal spending has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Clinton.

• Federal spending has increased by 33% since 2001, from $1,863 billion to $2,472 billion.

• In 2005, inflation-adjusted federal spending neared $22,000 per household, the highest level since World War II.

• For 2005, the federal government spent $21,878 per household, overall, taxed $19,062 per household, and ran a budget deficit of $2,816 per household.

And Rep. Mark Green has voted for it again and again and again.

Hey, Big Spender!

-- Hat tip: Sykes Writes.

Hooded Doyle bashes innocent children

"In 1964, a racist governor from Georgia named Lester Maddox wielded an axe handle to chase away African-Americans who wanted to order fried chicken at his segregated restaurant.

"Now, in 2006, a governor from Wisconsin named Jim Doyle is threatening to bash in the heads of innocent African-American schoolchildren to prevent them from attending choice schools in Milwaukee.

"Tell Gov. Doyle to stop dressing up in a hooded bed sheet and burning fiery crosses on the playgrounds of private schools. Tell the governor that, unlike those lousy public schools, private schools should get unlimited piles of tax funds without any public accountability."

Joel McNally on the school choice ads running in Milwaukee.

Apparently, things are often apparent

Apparently, someone has a lot more time on his hands, and a lot more interest in Jessica McBride, than I do.

But since the research is already done, it seems a shame to waste it. Here's what was in my inbox when I got home from my little hiatus last week:

‘APPARENTLY’ JESSICA MCBRIDE MAY HAVE LEGALLY ENDANGERED THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

“If you’ve got to use the word ‘apparently’ in the lead, it means you don’t have the goods. And if you don’t have the goods, it's highly unfair to write a lead like this. I know this trick; I worked at this newspaper. You don’t stick the word ‘apparently’ in a lead unless you aren’t quite sure what you are saying is true, or you know you can't quite prove it. So you want to imply it as heavily as you can, but you soften it. If you aren’t quite sure what you are saying is true, it’s highly unfair to hang a big story on it in such a dramatic fashion.” [Source: McBride Media Matters weblog, 1/26/06, http://mcbridemediamatters.blogspot.com/2006/01/if-you-have-to-use-word-apparently.html]

A Lexis-Nexis search of Jessica McBride’s reporting at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel using the word “apparently” results in 149 hits. This includes nine uses of “apparently” in the lead paragraph alone and dozens of other examples where she is reporting about people committing alleged criminal activities. This begs the question: Is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel now in legal jeopardy for Jessica McBride’s reporting of criminal accusations about individuals in a method she herself calls “highly unfair” and a means “If you aren’t quite sure what you are saying is true…”?

Suspect’s release is defended; Man committed suicide, fatally shot his wife, authorities say.

BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: It is not unusual for police to release a sexual abuse suspect prior to charges being filed, just as Brookfield police did hours before a man apparently murdered his wife and committed suicide, District Attorney Paul Bucher said Wednesday.

…Brookfield police have said Bonow, 74, was arrested, booked and released, on allegations that he sexually molested three children. Just hours after his release, he apparently shot his wife, Betty Bonow, 69, and himself to death at their home on Fiebrantz Drive.…Bucher said that when deciding whether to release a suspect, authorities generally consider whether the person is a flight risk or a threat to the community.Mr. Bonow apparently had no criminal record. [MJS, 1/18/96 (with Dan Parks)]

Ex-boyfriend sought in shooting; 17-year-old girl found fatally wounded on sofa in living room, authorities say.
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: A 17-year-old girl was shot in the head and killed, apparently by her ex-boyfriend, on Wednesday morning as she sat on her living room sofa, authorities said. [Source: MJS, 11/27/97]

Executive sought details in August.
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: County Executive F. Thomas Ament apparently knew details of his sweetened pension at least by August -- two months earlier than he has previously acknowledged. [MJS, 1/18/02 (with Steve Schultze)]

Handal may have stabbed himself; He reportedly wrote helter skelter' on shower wall with his own blood
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: Eduardo Handal wrote the words “helter skelter” and “CIA” in his own blood on a jail shower stall after apparently stabbing himself in the abdomen with a razor blade Sunday, according to the inmate who cleaned up the area. [MJS, 11/21/95]

Officer’s gun taken from unlocked police vehicle; 2 officers allegedly fired upon when pursuing man
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: A police wagon was moved from an assistant police chief's parking space in the Police Administration Building and left unlocked outside by a parking attendant, apparently enabling a mental patient to grab a pistol from the vehicle and fire at pursuing officers. [MJS, 1/17/979]

Speeding car kills woman, infant on south side
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: A car apparently drag-racing on W. Lapham St. on Monday night plowed into a woman pushing a baby stroller down a sidewalk, killing the woman and infant and critically injuring another child walking next to them, police said. [MJS, 8/20/96 (with Dan Parks)]
Parents saw shooting; Woman killed while she tended bar had served estranged husband with divorce papersBYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDEBODY: The parents of a woman killed allegedly by her estranged husband while she tended bar at a south side tavern apparently were among witnesses to their daughter's death, according to a neighbor. [MJS, 12/7/96 (with Georgia Pabst)]

Another woman abandoned? Eschweiler's supervisor says he misled massage therapist
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
BODY: Waukesha County building contractor Michael Eschweiler, now back in custody in Wisconsin, apparently added another broken heart to his string while a fugitive misleading, then leaving another woman. [MJS, 1/27/96 (with Betsy Thatcher, Tom Heinen, Christine Nielsen)]

3 arrested in sexual torture; Police say doctor saw wounds, brought end to man's 3-week ordeal
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
…Police had not yet determined a motive in the kidnapping and assault but said “pent-up anger” and rage apparently were factors. [MJS, 11/23/96]

Vandal falls to death while spray-painting building; He steps into hole in roof of vacant Valley property
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
A graffiti vandal who was spray-painting an abandoned industrial building near the 35th St. viaduct in the dark stepped through a hole in the roof early Wednesday and plummeted to his death, police said.Paul Gazo, 22, of the 2700 block of N. Hackett Ave., apparently had used a ladder to scale a 10-foot fence topped with barbed wire, then climbed on the roof of an old railroad building owned by CMC Heartland Partners, a Chicago-based firm that is considering developing the Menomonee Valley property, said police and a CMC spokesman. [MJS, 10/2/97]

Visitor to city killed in car theft; Carjacker ran over Tennessee woman in getaway, police say
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
A Tennessee woman who decided on the spur of the moment to visit Milwaukee as part of a cross-country road trip was run over and killed by a carjacker late Tuesday night in the parking lot of a drug store on the city's far south side, police said Wednesday.The carjacker and his wife who were apparently working as a team were arrested a short time after the incident, which occurred outside a Walgreens near Mitchell International Airport, on Milwaukee's border with Oak Creek, Greenfield and Franklin. [MJS, 8/14/97]

George signatures fall short; Petitions with 231 invalid entries could knock him off ballot.
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
…Ge Xiong, executive director of the Hmong Educational Advancement Association in Milwaukee, said he was concerned about the apparently false signatures because "being involved in the political process is very new to the Hmong community. . . . Very few candidates have come out to meet with the Hmong like Gary George and Jim Doyle have done. They do take that as a gesture of understanding and good will." [MJS, 7/28/02]

Local teen accused of dumping newborn; Baby found in trash in St. Louis, where girl was
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
A newborn boy was in good condition at a St. Louis hospital Tuesday after his mother, a Milwaukee teenager, allegedly stuffed the infant into a plastic bag and left him inside a garbage container.The 17-year-old Milwaukee girl, Ewura Amonoo, was in St. Louis with her mother visiting cousins when she apparently gave birth Monday morning in the basement of the relatives' home, said Richard Wilks, spokesman for the St. Louis police. [MJS, 5/28/97]

Deputy fire chief fired after drunken driving arrest; He says dismissal was for his failure to take drug test
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
A deputy chief with almost 20 years on the Milwaukee Fire Department has been fired after being arrested for drunken driving and refusing a departmental order that he take a drug test.Deputy Chief Ronald T. Johnson one of the department's nine deputy chiefs confirmed Tuesday that his refusal to take the drug test triggered his dismissal, which apparently also came while he was under surveillance by police following an allegation that he was visiting drug houses. [MJS, 5/14/97]

County's automatic raises never end; Unusual plan lets supervisors avoid having to vote.
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
…Although state law apparently does not prohibit such never-ending increases for elected officials, two state lawmakers who are considering a bid to replace Ament questioned the practice. [MJS, 2/17/02 (with Steve Schultze)]

Student, 17, accused of threat to kill.
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
…Police said they were told the boy, who had just been suspended, had threatened to go home and get a gun and kill an assistant principal. It was not clear why the boy was suspended, although it was apparently for some kind of argument with a teacher. [MJS, 4/11/98]

HONORABLE MENTION I: ‘Apparently’ used in first person column
Can't they seewhat's wrong with gang life?
BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE
As a police reporter, I observe the aftermath of violent death almost daily.But few scenes have left their imprint on me as much as the disturbing memorial gathering I observed Monday while reporting on the slaying of gang member Bobby “Boogie” Moore.Friends and family members gathered the day after Moore's death at the very spot where he had been gunned down, apparently by members of a rival gang, in what amounted to a surreal pep rally for the Latin Kings, a public flaunting and glorification of gang life. It was like a twisted Packers celebration, only the colors this time were black and gold and the slogans and freshly made memorial clothes touted a criminal lifestyle. [MJS, 4/26/98]

HONORABLE MENTION: ‘Apparently’ used twice in third graph.
Police seek suspect in north side slaying; 21-year-old man was shot to death on visit to house in search of his friend

BYLINE: JESSICA MCBRIDE Police Thursday were seeking a 19-year-old suspect and were sorting through accounts from witnesses and others in the killing of Derrick A. Lipsey, 21, the city's sixth homicide victim of the year.Lipsey was shot outside a residence in the 2800 block of N. 11th St. about 12:40 p.m. Wednesday and died later that evening, said Sgt. Anna Ruzinski, public information officer.Ruzinski said Lipsey and a friend apparently had gone to a house in the neighborhood to look for a friend who was not there. She said that a witness told police several men came out of the house and a man Lipsey did not know apparently approached Lipsey. [MJS, 1/24/97]

-- Working for Change. (Click on cartoon to enlarge.)

Read all about it! Xoff unmasked!

Republican radio's Charlie Sykes has a real scoop today for readers of his blog:

Bill Christofferson is Xoff.

His post combines Sunday's Spivak and Bice column with today's potshot from Ed Garvey, the last angry man, about my relationship with the Greater Wisconsin Committee, an issue advocacy group that supports progressive policies.

I've been quite public about that for about a year and a half now, so it's not too big a scoop.

Sykes concludes by intimating there's something wrong going on:

All of this becomes triply interesting given Xoff’s penchant for invoking campaign finance laws against people with whom he disagrees; his beagle-like water-carrying for Doyle; and the apparently unlimited time he has to devote to “opposition research” on folks like Scott Walker and Mark Green.

Ever wonder who's paying for that?

Making an accusation, Charlie? File a complaint.

'Immigration bill deserves deportation'

A New York Daily News editorial on Rep. F. Jim Sensenebrenner's immigration bill tells it like it is:

Immig bill deserves deportation

'We hear claims that immigrants are somehow bad for the economy - even though this economy could not function without them," said President Bush in his State of the Union address. Let me repeat: "... this economy could not function without them."

Yet the rabid anti-immigrant crowd from the President's own party - the economy be damned - are doing all they can to have this truth ignored.

"Keeping America competitive requires an immigration system that upholds our laws, reflects our values and serves the interests of our economy," the President also said.

This, of course, was not what the House of Representatives had in mind when, on Dec. 16, it overwhelmingly approved the so-called Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act.

Drafted by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and New York's own Peter King (R), its most outrageous provision is the building of a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico - which, under President Vicente Fox, is one of U.S.' strongest allies in Latin America.

The Senate will discuss the bill this month, and hopefully smarter, cooler heads will prevail and reject it. This is an unbelievably bad piece of legislation that, despite the hype, does nothing to make the country safer or to fix the broken immigration system.

"We have come to a point where we allowed fear and suspicion to overwhelm our judgment of what is moral and what is immoral," said Rabbi Daniel Brenner on Thursday. "Our policies should have compassion for those who come here to escape the crushing indignity of extreme poverty or persecution."

Obviously compassion was not in the minds of those who drafted and sponsored this bill.

If the Sensenbrenner-King bill ever becomes law, not only would immigrants not have any opportunity to come out of the shadows and legalize their status, but it would institutionalize their dehumanization and create a police state atmosphere that undermines America's most basic values.

This bill would turn any relative, employer, co-worker or friend of an undocumented immigrant into an "alien smuggler" and a criminal. For example, a person who drives a neighbor to the grocery store, a church group that provides assistance to community members, and a counselor who helps victims of domestic violence and their children all would become criminals under this outrageous law.

Talk about compassion.

But that's not all. This bill also would make criminals of all undocumented immigrants. While illegal immigrants are now in violation of immigration law and subject to deportation, if the extremists have their way, unlawful status would become a federal crime.

TO TOP IT ALL off, it also would become much harder for law-abiding permanent residents to become citizens, and would turn local police into surrogate immigration agents - an idea so bad that scores of police departments all over the country oppose it.

The Senate has the chance to stop this shameful legislation that uses national security as an excuse to carry on a prejudiced, anti-immigrant agenda.

As Rabbi Brenner said, "Sens. Schumer and Clinton should fight to make sure our immigration laws reflect the values of compassion and human dignity."

Values that are nowhere to be found in the shameful Sensenbrenner-King bill.

A few questions that need answers

OK, I've been gone and haven't had a chance to read everything, but this Journal Sentinel story raised some questions for me:

Jensen's attorney, Stephen Meyer, on Thursday filed a summary of testimony from Prosser, who was prepared to say on the witness stand that campaigning on state time was routine during his tenure.

When Prosser served as speaker in 1995 and 1996, current Republican candidates for governor Mark Green and Scott Walker were in the Assembly.

Walker is now the Milwaukee County executive, and Green is in the U.S. House. The two are seeking the Republican nomination to run against Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Green was the caucus chairman of the Assembly Republicans at the time. Mark Graul, Green's campaign manager, said Green never directed employees to campaign on state time, but he did not know whether Green was aware of political activity by state workers.

Graul said he did not know if aides ever raised funds for Green on state time or created campaign literature for him. Graul said he did not believe they did, because Green never had an opponent, even when he first ran for an open seat in 1992.

"Mark Green is about as squeaky clean and ethical a guy as they come," Graul said. "He certainly never directed the activities of staffers and political campaigns or anything of that nature."

Green was traveling in northern Wisconsin Friday afternoon and his cell phone was out of signal range, said Graul, who was an aide to Green during part of his time in the Assembly.

Couple that with this from a Wis. State Journal story:

In the criminal complaint against Jensen, former ARC director Ray Carey said that during his tenure from 1994 to 1999, the primary duties of his government job were campaign-related. As speaker in 1995 and 1996, Prosser headed the ARC and was Carey's direct supervisor.

Green was Assembly Republican caucus chair from 1995 to 1998.

A few questions:

So are we to believe that Green, as caucus chair, didn't know that the guy who was the caucus director was mainly doing campaign work?

Do you believe that?

Are we going to take Mark Graul's word for that?

Is a reporter ever going to confront Mark Green directly?

Have you ever heard of a campaign for governor where a candidate is completely out of touch and can't be reached at his next stop, even if he is beyond cell phone range?

More later.

Conspiracy theory has some loose ends

Paranoia and conspiracy theories in the final weeks of the campaign cost Ed Garvey a U.S. Senate seat in 1986.

Twenty years later, the conspiracy theories and distrust/hatred of consultants are still in full bloom, as evidenced by today's Fighting Ed post.

It's not exactly a secret that I am a consultant to the Greater Wisconsin Committee, a non-profit issue advocacy group which has taken on issues like TABOR, lead paint, the minimum wage, the state budget, and -- just last week -- concealed weapons.

In fact, when I write for the Shepherd Express, I am always identified as a consultant to the Greater Wisconsin Committee.

Like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Coalition for America's Families, and a host of conservative groups, Greater Wisconsin buys advertising as a way to influence public policy and generate grassroots support. I produce their radio and television.

Not much of a conspiracy, is it? Unless you make the WisPolitics connection, which is an indication of the fact that Garvey has a loose wire. WisOpinion hosts my blog and Melanie Fonder, who works for the Doyle campaign, used to work for WisPolitics. Soooooooo.... You'll have to ask Fighting Ed to explain. I am not smart enough to figure it out.

Ivins, battling cancer, feisty as ever

This may be old news to others, since the story apparently ran a week ago, but I've just learned that the indefatigable Molly Ivins is battling cancer for the third time. The Austin American-Statesman reports:

By W. Gardner Selby
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Molly Ivins, battling breast cancer afresh, sounds as feisty as ever.

The South Austin resident continues writing her left-of-center column, raising money for the journal where she forged her tart take on politics and, of course, cheerfully gigging Republicans such as the well-coifed governor of Texas.

'Actually, I feel pretty good,' syndicated columnist Molly Ivins said Wednesday at her Travis Heights home. For a third time, she's battling breast cancer.

Ivins, 61, tongue-in-cheeked that Gov. Rick Perry's trip to Iraq this week will slow anti-American insurgents. "The mere sight of his hair will do a world of good," she said.

She chatted with two visitors to her home office in Travis Heights without donning her wig of reddish-blond locks; her pate was nearly bald.

The California native, who grew up in the tony River Oaks section of Houston, fielded her latest (and third) cancer diagnosis around Thanksgiving. Surely she could be excused for feeling sorry for herself or slowing down.

"Actually," she said, "I feel pretty good." Renewed chemotherapy appears to be helping.

Ivins has all but forbidden gifts of food and other items. She was overwhelmed with well-intended advice and goodies after she wrote of her initial diagnosis of breast cancer in 1999. The outpouring kept her from telling readers of the recurrences in 2003 and two months ago, her assistant, Betsy Moon, said.

Lately, Ivins has urged friends and fans to give instead to The Texas Observer, a liberal biweekly of politics and literature run on a shoestring for 51 years. Ivins, co-editor with Kaye Northcott from 1970 to 1976, even let the magazine put her face on a $10 gourmet chocolate bar available online and at the magazine's ramshackle Austin office.

At a recent Observer fundraiser, Ivins prankishly yanked off a hat to reveal her nearly hairless dome. She pleaded guilty to "shameless exploitation of sympathy for cancer. We might as well do something useful because God knows I don't need another casserole."

Ever a quipster (once trading opinionated barbs weekly on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes"), Ivins remains a spring of saucy invective on behalf of the oft-defeated left wing of American politics. She persists, too, in provoking conservatives who sometimes dismiss her as an ill-informed critic who still (goldang it) writes well.

Little has deterred the former cub reporter for the Houston Chronicle. A graduate of Smith College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she also reported for the Minneapolis Tribune, the Observer and The New York Times before becoming a columnist starting in the early 1980s at the (now-defunct) Dallas Times Herald.

Nearly 400 newspapers, including the Austin American-Statesman subscribe to her twice-weekly column. Ivins isn't giving in.

"Maybe this is false bravado," she said. "In some ways for me, this is like having a manageable disease. It's like diabetes. It doesn't mean it's not going to come get me in the end."

Ivins, never married, said she's divided charitable bequests in her will between the American Civil Liberties Union, which she credits with defending the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights, and her cherished Observer.

In her career, she said, she's watched daily newspapers excel and expand thanks to head-to-head competition and then, after many folded, leash spending on hard-to-get stories and shrink, becoming less vital. But she has hope for the Internet as a venue for investigative reporting.

Publications like the Observer are pivotal, she said. "Unless we keep these little independents alive, we're going to lose the whole thing, the whole idea of public-interest journalism."

Lest anyone think she's slacked off or mellowed because of the illness, here's her latest column, Bush v. Reality.

Exercise in democracy "embarrassing?'

Wisconsin residents in 20-plus communities will have a chance on April 4 to express their opinions on the war in Iraq, which may set the stage for similar activity in other states.

It's an exercise in democracy, and not unprecedented in Wisconsin.

In 1982, Wisconsin became the first state in the union to pass a statewide referendum calling for a nuclear weapons freeze. It passed here by a 3-1 margin, kindling similar efforts in other states.

Ideally, the whole state would be voting on the Iraq question. But that would require approval by the Republican-controlled legislature, and that will not be happening.

The referendum questions, hopefully, will spark some local debate on the Iraq war. Antiwar activists got it on the ballot, but supporters of the war say they will use it to show support for the President and the war. The Journal Sentinel reports:

"We're going to turn it into a positive," said Chris Muller, chairman of the La Crosse County Republican Party, whose leadership sees the referendum as an attempt to put partisan politics above national security in the U.S. war on terrorism.

"We want to send a very strong message to the troops," Muller said.

Although the referendum idea was borrowed from Vermont after anti-war proposals were passed at town hall meetings there, Wisconsin is believed to be the only state where activists in significant numbers have gained access to the ballot box.

"I think it's kind of embarrassing, quite honestly," said Rick Wiley, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Embarrassing? That the people want to express themselves on a war they are paying for, in which their sons and daughters are risking their lives?

What's embarrassing is that someone who purports to speak for Wisconsin Republicans doesn't get it. At all.

Back in the world

Hello out there.

I'm back, but this may be a gradual re-entry as I get my bearings and see if my work ethic ever returns.

It looks like it was a lively week on The Xoff Files. Thanks to all of those friends who went above and beyond my expectations in posting material. Those guest bloggers managed to be pretty provocative at times, judging from some of the comments. A couple of people even said they missed me, in the spirit of the old country song, "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away?"

After the dust settles, we'll explore whether some of them want to remain as contributors to this blog or perhaps branch out and launch their own. The odds are that one or two of them became addicted during the past week.

I was unplugged from the Internet, television and even newspapers for a week, in a place where no one has ever heard of WTMJ, the Journal Sentinel, or even The Xoff Files. (A few had not even heard of Jessica McBride. Omigod!)

As usual, I returned to find that little had changed. It's kind of like when you don't watch your favorite soap opera for a month. When you tune back in, the story line has moved a little bit, but things are still pretty much the same.

George Bush is still the War President.

Jim Doyle is still the governor.

Scott Jensen still hasn't been convicted and forced out of office.

Concealed weapons are still illegal in Wisconsin.

Mark Graul is still telling whoppers.

And Scott Walker is pretending he wasn't even in the legislature when illegal things were going on.

It appears there is plenty of fodder for a political blog in Wisconsin. Now if I can just get my ambition back, we'll be in business.

This is Harris Kane signing off...

This is Harris Kane signing off... it has been a hoot and maybe I'll be back, maybe I won't, only time will tell.

Thanks to Xoff for the opportunity to share my thoughts and observations, they are mine and only mine, my gift to you.

For those of you wondering what I look like, here's a pic.

Good night and good luck...


UPDATE: Just as I sign off, the shameless, self-promoting, right wing-nut blogger Jessica McBride takes issue with 2 of my posts this week. She used something I have offered here- the opportunity to comment- something she doesn't. McBucher has taken issue with the fact that I said her husband, Paul, didn't "prosecute" the Chmura case. She says he did "prosecute" the case, he just lost and didn't get any conviction. I guess in her world it's the jury's fault that Chmura walked and not Bucher's. Anyway you cut it I thnk the Spice Boyz out it best when they described Bucher's "prosecution" of the Chmura case as a "a humiliating courtroom defeat in the national spotlight." So when Paul Bucher talks about "prosecuting" cases in his campaign, be careful, he's not talking about cases he won, he also talking about cases he lost--where someone charged with a crime got off, walked, like Chmura.

We now return you to you regularly scheduled programming

Xoff, you picked a slow week to be away. Nothing much really happened. Welcome back. I'll be sending you an invoice next week. As I recall, you were paying me by the word, right?

What's Worse?

Jessica McBride has spent the entire week defending Scooter Jensen against the felonies he is charged with and on Friday said she was "disappointed" that his "selective prosecution" defense didn't work and she asks herself in her blog, "What would it take to prove selective prosecution?"

She wishes she could get Brian Blanchard on the stand and pretend she's Ally McBeal and ask him why he hasn't charged other people. "I'd love to see him have to answer that," McBride says.

Here's some unsolicited advice for McBride- Stick to your day job of prentending your a UWM Professor of Journalism.

And then next time you feel the urge to complain or comment about some other legal case or prosecution ask yourself these questions:

What's worse? The fact that the Milwaukee DA prosecuted the tire slashing case with four misdemeanors and $5,317.45 in restitution or the fact that Paul (Your husband who wants to be the state's top cop) didn't prosecute Mark Chmura with anything for enticing a 17-year-old girl into the bathroom and sexually assaulting her at a post-prom party.

What's worse? The fact that the Dane County DA charged and will prosecute Scooter for his offences or the fact that Paul failed to prosecute Mark Chmura with anything - zero, zip, nada - dogs run free.

I would love to see her have to answer that.

You won't have Xoff to kick around ...

Wait, don't get too gleeful. It's just for a week. Like Tricky Dick, I'll be back.

But I will be at a secure, undisclosed location until Feb. 4, far from the Internet and the telephone. (No, not Baghdad. And if I see Dick Cheney where I'm going, I'll be surprised -- and disappointed.)

In my absence, I've asked a few friends to share their opinions and innermost thoughts with you. It's not on any schedule. We are not that organized. We are Democrats. They will post if and when they feel like it. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. Maybe naught.

Some will use their names, but others will use nom de blogs.

Enjoy the change of pace. I know I will.

---

This notice will stay up while I'm gone. New posts start below.

Green meet Greenfield

Mark Green wants to make Jessica Greenfield's suffering a central part of his campaign for Governor.

Bring it on.

Greenfield, had a botched surgery that left her inner organs paralyzed. Her nerves were severed during the procedure, which involved wrapping the top of the stomach around her esophagus to prevent heartburn.

Greenfield argued that a surgeon at a Madison hospital was negligent in performing the surgery. A jury of her peers agreed, finding the surgeon and Dean Health System negligent.

The jury awarded her $8.4 million for her suffering as a victim of the medical malpractice case. The jury awarded Greenfield $4.13 million for economic damages such as medical expenses and lost wages. It also included $4.25 million for pain and suffering and $82,000 to Greenfield's son for loss of companionship with his mother.

Mark Green thinks that's too much and that she should have only received $445,000 for her pain and suffering.

On this case and any other Green will stand on the side of Insurance companies and not victims.

Greenfield, who has used a feeding tube since the 2000 surgery left her stomach and intestines unable to function and who returns to the hospital every month to empty her stomach, had this to say,

"My life has been hell and unfortunately money doesn't change any of that. I can't eat anything. I live on machines 12 hours a day. And that's just the beginning."

Mark Green meet Jessica Greenfield.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: Mark Green would call Jessica Greenfield's medical malpractice case a "frivolous lawsuit." He will be talking a lot about supposed "frivolous lawsuits" this campaign year.

What would he call this?

Right wing-nuts "selective prosecution"

So Scooter's lame "selective prosecution" defense fell down. It was really just the sort of sleazy, scorched earth attack that we have all grown to expect from Jensen.

But it will all be coming to a crashing end for the Harvard educated boy named Scooter as it seems likely that he will take off the tough guy costume and make a deal that will probably result in a felony conviction. Then it's all over for Scooter living off the taxpayer dole, as he has nearly his whole life. Welcome to the real world.

In their hysterical zeal to defend Scooter, the RWB (Right wing blogsphere) and Milwaukee talk radio have set a standard that only they can make sure doesn't become one of those "double standards" that they are always talking about.

The McSykes crowd will have everyone believe that if someone was interviewed by investigators in the Caucus Scandal; if you cooperated with the investigation; and if you were charged with no wrong doing--You are guilty.

As it was with their coordinated attack on Rich Judge, the McSykes crowd set a standard for themselves in suggesting that the Doyle campaign should not have hired him as their campaign manager since he was asked and answered investigators questions.

The right wing-nuts suggest that if you were a part of the caucus scandal, even as a cooperating witness who was charged with no wrong doing, you have no place working on campaigns.

O.K., let the games begin. Let's test their standard.

William Cosh is an Assembly staffer for Rep. Dan Meyer. Cosh was interviewed by investigators in the Caucus Scandal and his testimony shows he engaged in campaigning on state time. His testimony also implicates Jensen in what he has been charged with.

This is from the complaint charging Jensen.

"Cosh worked at the ARC from March 27, 2000 to April 2, 2001. Sherry Schultz used a personal laptop computer and was secretive about what she printed out at the ARC. Schultz worked with legislators to help them coordinate fundraisers,including working on invitations, event sponsors, and donor lists. On about 5-10 occasions, when he worked at the ARC, Cosh assisted Schultz in making calls from the ARC to persons on donor lists. Cosh described these as follow-up calls to potential donors who had received written solicitations. Schultz provided Cosh with the donor list and the written solicitation. Cosh then made the calls, approximately 30-40 a night, and reported back to Schultz on the results of the calls.

Cosh also assisted Schultz with fundraising mailings at the ARC office. It was Schultz's responsibility to get materials together, make sure the items were printed out correctly, and then stuffed and mailed out. Cosh also assisted Schultz in setting up fundraising events. Schultz told Cosh that she called legislators and requested that they donate certain amounts from their campaign funds to the campaign funds of other legislators who were in greater need. Cosh is unaware of any policy or legislation areas Schultz worked on during the time she was located at the ARC. Schultz told Cosh that Schultz attended Assembly leadership meetings involving fundraising, fundraising goals and specific races.

Schultz told Cosh that Jensen wanted her to make fundraising calls, raise money for specific races, and call lobbyists and legislators for specific races or candidates. Schultz also told Cosh that she discussed specific contribution checks received involving unusual amounts with Jensen. At the end of the 2000 election cycle, Schultz told Cosh that when lobbyists submitted contribution checks for a specific dollar amount but with no payee, Schultz and Jensen would decide who the payee would be and write in that campaign's name on a given check."

In the 2004 election cycle, while he was working for Rep. Meyer in the capitol, Cosh was running Rep. Mary Williams campaign. I assume he took an unpaid "leave" to do so but we'll get to that in little bit.

According to Campaign Finance Reports filed with the State Elections Board. Rep. Williams campaign made payments to Cosh for work on her campaign over a four month period-- September to December 2004.

Rep. Williams campaign payments to Cosh

9/6/04
William A. Cosh - parade giveaway materials $201.87
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

9/21/04
William A. Cosh - reimbursement for postage $138.00
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

9/22/04
William A. Cosh - postage $80.50
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

10/8/04
William A. Cosh - postage & radio buy $247.25
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

10/25/04
William A. Cosh - postage, fuel & lodging $272.46
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

10/27/04
William A. Cosh - reimbursement postage $38.33
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

10/29/04
William A. Cosh - Quick Print reimbursement $63.83
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

11/1/04
William A. Cosh - reimbursement for travel $105.12
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

11/8/04
William A. Cosh - reimbursement for mileage $1,500.00
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

12/27/04
William A. Cosh - reimbursement for mileage $500.00
509 N. Lake St. Apt. 202
Madison WI 53703

You will notice there were no payments for salary made by the Williams campaign to Cosh. Again, I assume he wasn't being paid by Rep. Meyer with taxpayer funds. So how does a lowly Assembly staffer make a living when he takes a "leave."

Well, the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW) started making "payroll" disbursements to Cosh in September and every 2 weeks throughout the 2004 election cycle he received his campaign paycheck, as did a large number of other Assembly staffers who were part of the caucus investigation, who were working on campaigns in 2004, and who may have been "on leave" from their capitol jobs. The Williams campaign would then make payments to the RPW to cover for Cosh's "staff salary."

Payments from RPW to Cosh

09/15/2004
William A Cosh,509 N Lake St Apt 202,Madison,WI,53703,Payroll,"$1,182.96 "

9/15/2004
William A Cosh,509 N Lake St Apt 202,Madison,WI,53703,Payroll,"$1,540.18

Williams campaign payments to RPW

11/1/04
Republican Party of Wisconsin -- Staff Salaries $10,000.00
PO Box 31
Madison WI 53701

12/30/04
Republican Party of Wisconsin -- Staff Salaries $6,218.18
PO Box 31
Madison WI 53701

To take a page out McSykes playbook. Did Rep. Williams know that Cosh had previously admitted to campaigning on state time? Did she know that he was questioned by investigators about his and Rep. Jensen's role in the caucus scandal? The above mentioned, public complaint was widely available 2 years before she ran for office and had Cosh working on her campaign. Didn't she read the complaint?

Was the effort to place Assembly staffers on the RPW payroll really all about trying to hide the fact that Capitol staffers, who were involved in the caucus scandal, were continuing to play paid roles in 2004 GOP Assembly campaigns?

And perhaps the biggest question for the McSykes crowd, and in particular for Paul Bucher. Who was paying for the health insurance of these Assembly staffers while they were "on leave" from their capitol jobs and working on campaigns?

The William's campaign wasn't paying for any health care coverage. Was the RPW paying for the health care of all these Capitol staffers "on leave." Or were Wisconsin taxpayers paying for the health care coverage of GOP campaign workers?

Let's see if the RWB and Milwaukee talk radio has been spending the last week selectively prosecuting Rich Judge and there is a double standard, or will they hold there own to the same standards.

If you placed any bets on the Super Bowl, this is a much better bet.

Walker CRG Ally Wants $1 million of County Money

My, my: How the CRG worm turns.

Remember how the good folks at Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) righteously tossed out Milwaukee County Exec Tom Ament in 2002 for squandering the public treasury and replaced him with Scott Walker?

Blogger and conservative commentator Jessica McBride summed up the CRG-Walker bonding this way in her recent "Milwaukee Insight" WisPolitics.com online column (the quotation marks are mine, to separate the quoted material from the rest of this posting):

"This is the crowd that scares the pants off Gov. Jim Doyle.

"Despite -- or maybe because of -- the mainstream media bashing he gets, Republican Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker remains a folk hero in this blue-collar, formerly reliable Democratic-labor union turf.

"That was clear on Jan. 14, when the taxpayer revolt group that helped propel Walker into office gathered in a packed hall for its fourth anniversary rally at Serb Hall on Milwaukee's South Side. "

Now we learn that Orville Seymer, CRG kingpin cum taxpayers' revolt field director, wants a $1 million - - from county taxpayers - - because County Board Chairman Lee Holloway tossed Seymer from a hearing lasat October.

Holloway and Seymer have a testy history, and Holloway probably overreacted, but should Seymer be playing a million-dollar victim card? With county taxpayers' money?

Consider Seymer's grab for a million bucks of taxpayer money in light of this line from the CRG's constitution (again, quotation marks added):

"CRG Network exists to represent the interests of Taxpayers in the State of Wisconsin."

We'll see if Scott Walker is strong enough to rein Seymer in or does that typical Walker 'not-my-problem' avoidance dance, indicating that the CRG scares his pants off.

Jensen loses, again

Unsurprisingly, Scott Jensen failed in his bid to argue "selective prosecution" in the caucus scandal. This would be Very Bad News for Scooter.

Beyond the realm of the trial itself though, the decision has broader political implications. Most significantly, it means that Jensen's trial will be filled with days of testimony about the illegal campaign activity of Assembly Republicans, and nobody else. Just as numerous Assembly Dems got named in the investigative files released this week, Jensen's trial will be filled with testimony about how various Assembly GOP caucus staff did campaign work for Republican legislators.

The difference is that while the Dem information came from paper files, the GOP information will come from live testimony from Mickey Foti, Bonnie Ladwig, former caucus director Jason Kratochwill (pictured at left), et al. Which do you think will make for better TV and leave a more lasting impact?

Oh, and that sound you hear? That would be the collective sphincter-tightening of Mark Green and Scott Walker, both former Assembly GOP legislators when the caucus system was in its ascendance.

Shooting Your Cause in the Foot

Concealed carry is dead for another year or so as the Assembly upheld Gov. Jim Doyle's veto.

The proponents of concealed carry didn't do themselves any favors when Rep. John Steinbrink, (D-Pleasant Prairie), said his family received threatening calls at home after his key, swing vote helped kill the measure.

Pro-carry forces say government should trust them to be safe, trained, thinking gun carriers - - but threatening calls by one or more pro-gun hotheads sorta suggests the opposite.

Giving Away Tax Fairness

Many people blame government for high property taxes. They're understandably confused about who to blame. The Legislature wants them to blame local government. That's not close to fair, considering it's the Legislature that makes the rules of what kinds of property can be taxed, and what kinds can't.

Maybe I'm a hopeless cynic. Maybe that's what you get standing on the sidelines watching state government for 35 years and seeing the Legislature's antics -- I mean performance.

Of course, the Legislature has a hard enough time balancing the need to placate special interests with the need to convince voters that lawmakers of one political party or another (never both) are doing the public's work.

Maybe that's why the list of property tax exemptions in the state statutes (Sec. 70.11) is five pages long. Property tax exemptions have been ill-defined because the Legislature saw no pressing need to define them precisely. It wasn't their tax revenue that they were eroding.

At the same time, local officials are seldom anxious to fight tax-exemption grabs. Everybody who claims a tax exemption also claims to be a good guy.

Nowhere has the leak of tax revenue been greater than in tax exemptions for so-called benevolent organizations. Most notably, so-called benevolent organizations have claimed tax exemptions for the housing they provide to pretty wealthy individuals, particularly senior citizens.

As is the wont of special interests, they care not for the citizens who are not under their benevolent umbrella: poor people and middle-income homeowners and renters who don't live in "benevolent" housing.

The Legislature has a bill, AB 573, to correct some of the inequities of current law. It's been amended until the cows come home. It now satisfies everybody but a narrow special interest that is concerned about something called the "rent-own" provision of the bill, likely for their own selfish interests.

The amended bill protects homeowners and local governments by ending the unfair shift of the property tax burden onto homeowners that occurs under current law because high-end senior housing claimis tax-exempt status.

It maintains property tax exemptions for housing for the poor and disabled. But it eliminates a loophole that drives up property taxes for the rest of us.

Great idea for everybody exccept a narrow special interest.

So, behold, Sen. Dan Kapanke and Rep. Leah Vukmir have come to the defense of this narrow special interest, whatever it is, with LRB 4284/1. Stay tuned.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" bump

Okay, exhibit #1 that I am new to this: I have been working on a draft post about Spencer Black's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" incident intermittently for a couple of days, but when I post it, it's buried under all the newer stuff.

So go see it, down there...

Next Jensen Step: Plea Deal

So Rep. Scott Jensen's (R-Town of Brookfield) goofy, last-ditch legal motion - - seeking dismissal of charges he's facing because 'all the other kids were doing it , too' - - has been tossed out of Dane County Circuit Court.

As predicted.

Several Madison judges (and when they were sentencing Democrats, no one called the judges "activists" ) decided that the corruption cases would go forward, and, not surprisingly, guilty pleas and reduced sentences piled up.

Now Jensen has to choose: A trial, and a huge role of the dice, or a plea, with damages and costs that are at least managed?

Does he want to be the last one standing before the fall, or does he want to be the smartest guy in the room, and cut his losses?

It may go down to the wire, and it will probably force his resignation, but look for Jensen to make a deal, too. A potential guilty verdict on three felonies at trial has a pretty steep downside.

Green's Vote Cost Boehner over $30,000

As you can see John Boehner has been good to Mark Green, giving him $31,280, and today Boehner got Green's vote to replace Tom Delay as Majority Leader.

Based on the in-kind contributions to Green,Boehner has obviously done a number of fundraisers for Green in Washington D.C.

Was there really any doubt who Green would vote for?

As I noted in a previous post, Boehner took over $32,000 from Indian Tribes represented by Jack Abramoff and now we know Green has taken over $31,000 from Boehner.

This is all federal poltical action committee money that Green transfered to his state accout and is now using to run for Governor.

NOTE: Green didn't mention these contributions in his press release today.

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
09/04/02 $51.00
In-kind Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
09/04/02 $233.00
In-kind Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
03/20/02 $5,000.00
Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
06/27/01 $5,000.00
Contribution:

FRIENDS OF JOHN BOEHNER
$996.00 - 03/29/00
In-kind Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
12/28/99 $5,000.00
Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
06/15/99 $5,000.00
Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
06/24/98 $5,000.00
Contribution:

Freedom Project (Rep John Boehner, R-OH)
09/28/98 $5,000.00
Contribution:

FLASH: Scooter claims "selective prosecution"

*****BREAKING*****

This just in...

Taking a page out Scooter Jensen's defense playbook, Scooter Libby is now claiming "selective prosecution" in his case too.

Libby's lawyers will argue that he should not be charged for having lied to a grand jury because Karl Rove leaked Valarie Plame's name to reporters too...

Mark Green on Leadership

What does Mark Green look for in a leader? How does Green spell "reform?"

The answer is John Boehner. Green voted for Boehner on two ballots today to replace his friend Tom Delay as Majority Leader. Boehner will fill Delay's shoes nicely and pick up right where Delay left off.

Boehner Defends Lobbying, Says Ethics Rules are Sufficient. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Boehner stated that ".[I]f you look at the abuses alleged, all of them involve violations of current federal law and/or House rules.Adding more rules isn't the answer." Boehner defended his links to lobbyists, saying lobbying is a reasonable way for the public to interact with lawmakers. [Dayton Daily News, 1/9/06]

Boehner Passed Out Checks from Tobacco PACs to Members on the House Floor. In 1995, Boehner distributed six checks from tobacco PACs to members on the House floor. When asked why he did it, a staffer responded, "The floor is where the members meet with each other." [New York Times, 5/10/96]

Boehner Donated to Abramoff Crony Tom DeLay and Representative #1, Bob Ney. Days after DeLay was indicted, Boehner's leadership PAC, The Freedom Project, gave $5000 to DeLay's legal defense fund. The PAC also donated $20,000 to Representative Bob Ney, who has been identified as Representative #1 in court documents relating to the Abramoff case. [Freedom Project FEC Report; www.tray.com]

You remember Ney, he is the guy Green chose to come here and lecture us about campaign ethics at the end of last year.

Boehner took over $32,000 from Jack Abramoff. The Cincinnati Post reports that Boehner received $32,500 from Jack Abramoff and his tribal clients.

Boehner refused to return donations he got from American Indian tribes represented Abramoff, the money went to Boehner's PAC.

And where did the money go? More on that later...

This vote is going to haunt Green.

Flush Hard Waukesha, it's a Long Way to Lake Michigan

I believe that today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial, "Tapping in to Lake Michigan," is earnest attempt by the newspaper to help find a solution to Waukesha's water problems. I hate to disagree with people who promote regional cooperation on issues, but let's take a look at the following excerpt from the editorial:

"The region must work together to solve Waukesha's problem, because it's a good idea and because it's what the people of the region want. In the end, that may mean piping Lake Michigan water to Waukesha, although we still like the idea that the water should be pumped back into the lake."

Sounds reasonable, right? But what's going to happen to Waukesha's wastewater when there's a heavy rain storm? That's the part of the story the newspaper never explains.

When it rains heavy enough, Waukesha's separate sewage would overflow through Milwaukee's harbor into Lake Michigan. Whenever the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) does this, the newspaper calls it RAW SEWAGE DUMPING. Whenever Waukesha dumps raw sewage into the Fox River, city streets, and ditches, the newspaper never seems to get around to writing about it. Funny how regional cooperation works, huh?

With all of the scientists, engineers and water experts we have in the region, I have to believe there's a solution to Waukesha's water problems that won't result in it's sewage overflowing into Lake Michigan. And I think that the newspaper is right to suggest that maybe paying for such a solution should become a regional responsibility.

But let's not jump to the conclusion that diverting water out of the basin is the most cost effective solution when there are many alternatives that have yet to be considered.

McBucher has Hillary on her mind at 4:33 am?

Poor Paul Bucher.

His wife is up at 4:33 AM blogging about Hillary Clinton?

Should I laugh or cry? I guess I was wrong, I really thought they were connected at the head.

Don't know about you but if I'm thinking about Hillary Clinton at 4:33 AM that is a message that there is something seriously wrong with my love life.
------------------------

State of the Union

Pretty tacky of Hillary to stand up and clap when the President mentioned that Congress didn't pass his social security plan.

posted by Jessica McBride at 4:33:00 AM

Walker loses governor's race....to Parks Director Sue Black!

Parks fans in Milwaukee County have been rallying around Parks Director Sue Black
since Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker threatened to fire her if she can't correct a $2.3 million deficit. The reasons for the deficit aren't yet clear, and Walker and the County Board saddled her with an unrealistic budget to begin with, but Walker would never let those things get in the way of dodging his share of responsibility. At this point, anyway, it looks like dismissing Black could actually hurt Walker's run for governor. He needs to win in Milwaukee County, and Black's biggest fans are among those who pay attention to the issues and vote. They would not take kindly to having Sue Black scapegoated by Scott Walker. They live all over the county, and have a very good communications network. The park deficit already is a negative in the campaign for Walker, and firing Black could be even a bigger one. This issue is a pure loser for Walker.

Cover-up Kid

On top of the Bush administration's failure to be forthcoming and turn over information on it's mismanagement of the hurricane Katrina disaster and it's connections to indicted DC lobbyist Jack Abramoff, our Cover-upper in Chief is now refusing to turn over to Congress information on it's secret domestic spying on Americans without warrants from a court of law.

In essence, the Cover-up Kid is saying to Congress were not going to tell about our not telling the Judicial branch that we have been illegally spying on Americans.

The New York Times reports,

"Some senior officials at the Justice Department were voicing concerns about the program's legal foundation and refusing to sign off on its reauthorization."

Imagine that, Bush doesn't want Congress to know about the fact that some in the top law enforcement agency in the country had "concerns" about illegal, warrantless, domestic spying on Americans.

Of course, AG Gonzales will clear everything up next week at congressional hearings when he will explain that we now have only one branch of government, not three, and that it is his job to put the President above the law.

Jensen's Cliched Defense

Republican State Representative Scott Jensen's 'everyone else was doing it' defense is not far removed from telling your teacher "my dog ate my homework."

It's a cliche, period, and 180 degrees away from what would be a better choice for Jensen because it's relevant and a favorite of conservative politicians - - taking responsibility.

I'm not an attorney, but I can't imagine that a legal defense based on leaked records about innocent people is a winning tactic, either in reaching a plea bargain before trial or after being found guilty.

The courts have ruled time and time again in the Capitol Corruption Scandal that charges have been valid for people in both political parties and that trials were to proceed. And guilty pleas are mounting up.

Now it's Jensen's turn. It's all about who has been charged, not who wasn't.

I'd say a deal is still Jensen's best way through a bad situation, but he probably can't afford too many more pre-trial slaps at the prosecutor before making a bad situation worse.

Endorsement Brings More Bad News to Peg's Troubled Campaign

Bad news on top of more bad news hit Peg Lautenschlager's troubled re-election bid for Attorney General this week.

First, newly published finance reports show Lautenschlager trailing Falk even though Falk's delayed entry into the race gave her far less time to raise money. These numbers paint an alarming picture.

Lautenschlager Campaign
Total raised in 2005: $321,605
Cash on hand: $161,542

Falk Campaign
Total raised in 2005: $345,252
Cash on hand: $432,000

But something happened to Lautenschlager today that will prove to be far more damaging to her campaign than her inability to keep up with Falk's fundraising.

Why is the decision by the Republicans in charge of the Wisconsin Realtors Association to endorse Peg bad news? Because it shows how desperately the Republicans want her to stay in the race. Peg Lautenschager gives them the best chance to take back the A.G.'s Office. That's reason enough to endorse someone they "hate" as much as Falk as an official with the realtors told me months ago.

"You know, we're going to try help Peg get past the primary to help our party's chances come November," more than one Republican lobbyist has confided in me between winks and snickers. I guess they feel free telling a Democrat all this because they assume everyone is going to see through this scheme.

Or maybe they expect that people will read the last sentence of today's Wisconsin Realtors Association "Statement Regarding Lautenschlager Endorsement:"

"Our association will review the outcome of the primary election and make a separate endorsement decision in the general election."

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice": Spencer Black might want to re-think that primary challenge to Doyle

Rep. Spencer Black has been taking up space in the 77th Assembly District since 1984, waiting for octogenarian Sen. Fred Risser to retire or otherwise ... vacate his seat.

Black is an ardent liberal and has not hesitated to repeatedly and publicly criticize Gov. Doyle for his lack of left-wing purity. He has even gone so far as to repeatedly float the idea that he might run against Doyle. For this, he has earned the adoration of the Ed Garvey crowd.

But Garvey, et al might want to re-think things after reading from pg. 34 of the Jensen document dump on Assembly Dem Caucus campaign activity. To whit:

"In the middle of May 2001, just after the leadership change in the Assembly [from Krug to Black], [Rich] Judge briefed Black for a trip to Washington, DC to meet with Josh White and Kevin Mack, DLCC leader. One topic of conversation during this briefing was the Wisconsin Voter Education Fund (WVEF) that they had set up in the 2000 cycle. Black wanted to know how the money moved with the DLCC; how Wisconsin Democrats could get money back to Wisconsin from DLCC. Senator Chuck Chvala went to D.C. to attend this meeting with Black. Around the Wisconsin Capitol this trip came to be referred to as "the Sorcerer's Apprentice Trip", that is Black was to learn how Chvala operated ... Josh White said that Black did not understand that the only reason Chvala caused Black to be leader of the Assembly Democrats was because Chvala and Krug had a fight over redistricting issues."

Now what would Ed Garvey think about THAT?

Delaporte's grammar lesson

IAMTHEFORCE had a well-informed item recently about the curious job-swap between Rob Delaporte and Christine Mangi, writing in part:

Was it really necessary to foist slacker Bob on the poor souls at RPW? Couldn't you guys have just found some safe freshman somewhere who could just leave Delaporte to surf the web and hopefully do no harm?

While one suspects some score-settling here, the lead from today's RPW press release gives some credence to his concerns:

According to a new poll, Jim Doyle is going to need every tainted dime of campaign cash to save his job according to the Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Rick Graber.

I challenge you to diagram that sentence.

Revival of caucus scandal has implications for Gard and Walker too

The GOP and their blog allies are shooting for Rich Judge and Jim Doyle with their revival of the caucus scandal, but they could end up hitting John Gard and Scott Walker instead.

We have yet to see the interview files from the Assembly GOP investigation. But given what we've seen in the Assembly Dem files, there is no reason at all to doubt that numerous Assembly Repubs will be implicated in a variety of activities. Chief among them will likely be John Gard, who as the former co-chair of Joint Finance played a central role on Jensen's leadership team, especially when it came to raising money for RACC and other entities. If I were John Gard right now, I'd be sweating bullets about when that shoe is going to drop. You can bet that folks like Jason Kratochwill weren't shy about dishing on Gard and all sorts of other members (including then-Rep. Joe Leibham).

Scott Walker faces similar problems. Although he never reached the lofty ranks of Gard, he nevertheless was a long-time committee chair (Corrections) and by all accounts was an active member of the caucus.

Think about it this way: Jim Doyle didn't get his campaign lit pieces done in the caucuses. Gard and Walker almost certainly did, and much more besides. They have far more to lose than Doyle if the Caucus Scandal gains any currency in this cycle.

P.S. As to the "selective prosecution" argument: were I a member of the Senate GOP right now, I'd be really, really nervous about where that is going to lead. Panzer may be gone, but if the Assembly Dem files are any indication, there are sure to be other names that get named in those investigative files as well.

P.P.S. Mark Green/Graul isn't out of the woods on this either. The John Doe investigation talked to lots of people going back well before the 2000 cycle ... time will tell (sooner than later).

Syke's inspiration "stands in schoolhouse door"

Last week before he left, Xoff asked;

"Was Sykes voucher "spot" really the idea of the Coalition for America's Families to begin with?"

This Oct. 25 item from Sykes and a post from John Galt on the Coalition's website suggest that it was.

Xoff went on to ask;

"Who is the mysterious blogger who signs himself John Galt (the Ayn Rand character), but who appears to be the brains behind the Charlie Sykes school choice ad equating Gov. Jim Doyle with some of the most notorious racists and segregationists of the 20th Century?"

Well here's the answer.

Sykes ad comes either from a fictional character, John Galt, or a DC lawyer, take your pick. John Galt is the hero of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, and also the blog name of a DC lawyer.

But who is the anonymous blogger that inspired the Sykes ad?

The answer is someone who isn't anonymous to Syke's and someone who ironically enough has his own experience "standing in the schoolhouse door."

The anonymous blogger, who goes by the name of John Galt is none other than DC voucher activist/lawyer Clint Bolick.

The same Clint Bolick that drafted legislation that would have ended affirmative action on a federal level and the lawyer who has made at least a quarter of a million dollars off the voucher program.

Bolick gave himself the name John Galt because he is a big fan of Ayn Rand, in fact Atlas Shrugged is his all-time favorite book.

"I recommend five books that can form the cornerstone of a freedom library. The reason I suggest these books is because I consult them constantly and consistently for insights and pithy quotes.

My all-time favorite book, my Bible (with apologies to Rand for the metaphor) since college, is Atlas Shrugged. This book turned me into a revolutionary. It made me realize that standing up for one's beliefs is the highest possible calling, and that choosing expediency over principle is disastrous to both. What's more, the characters and their motivations depicted by Rand in 1957 are timeless; no book ever written is keener in its insight into the quest for and consequences of excessive government power."

"Bolick is what one might call the right wing's legal counsel, defending vouchers and attacking affirmative action in various states across the country. Much of the money to carry on this campaign comes from the Bradley and Olin foundations. Bolick, by the way, was an assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when Clarence Thomas was chairman. They got close enough that Bolick asked Thomas to be godfather to his youngest son.

...Earlier in his career, Bolick led the defense for the first Wisconsin voucher law, while working for the Landmark Legal Foundation (LLF). The LLF received $310,000 from the Bradley Foundation between 1990 and 1992."

Sorry Charlie it's time to give credit where credit is due. Your "spot" is really the product of a DC voucher attorney who blogs anonymously for the the group that bought your ad.

It was fun while it lasted but now you are exposed as the fraud you are everyday on our airwaves.

Where's Fraley's take?

Question for McSykes?

Why hasn't fellow wing-nut blogger Brian Fraley joined you in drumming up Jensen's 11th hour defense?

Any "insight?"

Maybe as part of Jensen's "selective prosecution" theory he is using selective defense. After all, the state Senate GOP wasn't charged with anything Ssowhy hasn't Jensen leaked to sympathtic bloggers and the media any official investigative reports that pertain to the state Senate GOP?

Maybe Fraley can blog about what went on in the state Senate GOP and help Jensen out.

Come on Brian, why so quiet?

TP'ing Wisconsin government

Well, sponsors of the latest version of TABOR have decided that TABOR carries too many negative connotations, so they're changing its name. Now it's the TP amendment, or the Taxpayer's Protection Amendment.

We know that Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce employed its considerable marketing skills on behalf of TABOR supporters to rename TABOR, but couldn't they have come up with a better acronym than TP?

When one concerned citizen called Sen. Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) to oppose TABOR, he was told TABOR was dead and legislators were now working on the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, which he was told was different. Really?

Actually, the TP amendment has a nice ring to it, and suggests a kinder, gentler legislative attitude toward local government, schools and programs for the needy. Instead of being TABORized, we're now merely going to be
TP'd.

It turns out that states across the country are fleeing from the acronym TABOR, if not the concept. In Arizona, Republicans still like the idea of a TABOR-like creature, they just don't like the negative connotations that TABOR has aroused, among thinking citizens everywhere, not just in Colorado.

So state Sen. Dean Martin of Phoenix is singing a different tune.

"This really is a different animal," Martin, who prefers that the measure he's helping sponsor be known as the Budget Stabilization Act, told the Arizona Republic. Of course, that acronym is BS...