This blog has moved

This blog is now located at http://above-belt.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://above-belt.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Kreibich, Kreitlow or Crybaby

The election has kept me too busy to blog lately, but this story about Democratic State Senate candidate Pat Kreitlow was just too good to pass up.

Kreitlow is threatening legal action against the Chippewa County Republican Party for sending out this mailer announcing that former News TV-13 Anchor Rob Kriebich has endorsed State Senator Dave Zien for re-election.

The Democrat says the mailer is intended to confuse voters into thinking that Kreitlow, who is also a former TV-13 news anchor, is himself endorsing Zien rather than Kreibich, and he believes the following statute may apply to what he called an effort to suppress voters.

Wisconsin State Statute 12.05 - False representations affecting elections. No person may knowingly make or publish, or cause to be made or published, a false representation pertaining to a candidate or referendum which is intended or tends to affect voting at an election.

But nothing in the GOP flyer is false. Robin Kreibich is endorsing Dave Zien and he is a former Channel 13 TV anchor. The fact that Kreitlow and Kreibich were once both anchors and their last names both begin with KR does not obligate Republicans to mention Kreitlow's name in the endorsement to mitigate any confusion those similarities may cause.

The last minute GOP trick appears to have worked because Kreitlow spent all day Saturday trying to get press coverage of the flyer and posting on his blog when he should have been knocking on doors.

For the record, the only media outlet stupid enough to show up at Kreitlow's emergency press conference was his former employer, WEAU TV 13.

A Couple of Questions for Senator Miller

In response to revelations that the State Senate Democratic Campaign plan was found earlier this year on a copier in the State Capitol, Mark Miller issued the following statement claiming the document had been stolen from the coatroom by a Republican staffer.

Earlier this year, in my rush to get out of a meeting outside the State Capitol and return to work in the building, I inadvertently grabbed a binder belonging to Matt Swenkofske, director of SSDC. His binder was identical to my own.

It was brought to my attention this binder wasn’t mine and it was promptly returned to Mr. Swendkofske and exchanged for my own.

When I arrive at work at the Capitol daily, I routinely place my coat, hat, and bags in a commonly shared room that includes a coat rack and copy machine. I have reason to believe this binder along with other personal belongings may have been in that room for at least some period of time. This room is accessible to both employees of the Capitol building and the public.

That raises serious questions regarding how these private materials came into the possession of the Republican Party. It is truly disappointing to think someone, possibly a state employee, may have dug through the personal belongings of a State Senator.

Anyone familiar with me knows that I demand high personal integrity from myself and my staff. That is why there is no merit to these Republican allegations. I have been very careful to keep campaign politics out of the capital. I have never used state resources for political campaign purposes.


Questions for Senator Miller:

* If you returned the binder promptly how long was it actually in the cloak room?

* How do you suppose the GOP spy who copied the SSDC document knew to look in your belongings on the very same day you accidentally switched binders with the SSDC Director?

* Have you or your staff somehow been implicated in “copier-gate” or is there some other reason you are accusing the phantom GOP staffer of theft with this ridiculous and completely implausible story?

* Do you think anyone really gives a rip that you or your staff had a campaign document in the State Capital?

* Do you endorse SSDC’s cozy relationship with Progressive Majority, given that the group is run by former Chvala staffer Doug Burnette who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in the caucus scandal in order to avoid a felony conviction?

Sleazy Doyle Pal Gets Indicted

Today Federal prosecutors added another name to the growing list of Doyle friends who are either under indictment or investigation.

Tony Rezko of Wilmette, Illinois was indicted for trying to shake down investment firms hoping to be business with the state of Illinois.

Rezko was one the people who attended a Packer/Bear Game with Jim Doyle at Solider’s Field in September of 2003. The group also included Nick Hurtgen, Marc Marotta and Susan Goodwin.

The State Ethics Board is investigating whether Governor Doyle and his staff properly reimbursed two companies for their sky box tickets to the game.

Discover Wisconsin --- You're Among Friends.

In recent weeks, Doyle's campaign has been forced to use paid advertising to respond to allegations about corruption in his Administration. Now Doyle is playing defense on the issue of illegal immigration in both the paid and earned media.

Today Doyle's campaign issued a statement blaming Congressman Mark Green for not single-handedly securing the U.S. borders from illegal immigrants:

"For eight years, Congressman Green has been in Congress, and for eight years, he has failed to secure our borders,” said Anson Kaye, Communications Director for the Doyle campaign. “But as usual, Congressman Green won’t accept responsibility for his failures, and is instead pointing the finger at everyone but himself in a desperate attempt to trick voters and deflect attention from his own failings. Of course, that refusal to take responsibility is exactly what’s wrong with Washington politicians like Congressman Green, and a big reason why they’ve proven incapable of solving pressing problems like securing our borders.”

One of 435 members of Congress and he couldn’t secure the borders?

Meanwhile Doyle, Wisconsin’s only Governor, vetoed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to receive taxpayer funded social services, proposed giving tuition breaks to illegal immigrants and allowed the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority to give low interest home loans to illegal immigrants.

Doyle blames Green for not keeping illegal immigrants out of the country, but does everything he can to make Wisconsin a magnet for illegal immigrants once they cross over. Welcome back to the welfare state.

Doyle's motto on illegal immigration: Discover Wisconsin --- You're Among Friends.

Kasieta Abandons Elections Board Motion ---Rushes to Scene of Accident

Personal injury lawyer Bob Kasieta stunned fellow board members Wednesday when he abruptly left a closed door session to pursue new business for his firm.

SEB Executive Director, Kevin Kennedy told reporters, “We were being briefed by the Department of Justice attorney regarding Kasieta’s motion to take another $750,000 from Mark Green’s campaign when Bob’s police scanner went off.”

According to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s office, a multiple vehicle accident was reported on I-94 and Highway 83 in Delafield just 15 miles west of Brookfield where the Election’s Board met.

“In all my years with the board, I’ve never seen a Democrat move that fast,” Kennedy remarked.

When asked about his sudden departure, Kasieta said, “Forcing Mark Green to divest of all that campaign money is important for Governor Doyle’s re-election, but it’s not like any of that cash was going to end up in my pocket. Besides, we already took half a million away from Green in August and that’s on top of over a million lawyers have given directly to Doyle’s campaign.”

Kasieta said he hopes to see Doyle re-elected because the Governor would continue to veto any effort to limit punitive damages in medical malpractice and product liability suits, but he added, “Governors come and go. The payoff from a really bad accident can last a lifetime.”

More Lawyers, More Lies

Jim Doyle's campaign whipped out another lawyer today and with him came another pack of lies. But don't expect the media to sit up and take notice. The Governor, his Administration and his campaign lost all credibility months ago.

For most candidates, a loss of credibility is devastating. Everything you say gets dissected and put under a microscope, but for Jim Doyle and top aides Susan Goodwin, Marc Marotta, and Sean Dilweg, the loss of credibility has been liberating.

Nobody expects team Doyle to tell the truth or to provide accurate and timely information, and the mainstream media is either too lazy or too fatigued to care anymore, so they're free to say anything they please without repercussion.

Doyle’s latest dirty lawyer trick was an encore to one he pulled this summer. Call for television stations to pull an ad because you don’t like it, and then send out a press release claiming the ad has already been pulled when one station is reviewing the request. Some media outlets will unwittingly report the story as told by the campaign and by the time the truth comes out, its yesterday’s news.

Doyle’s campaign has twice succeeded in forcing advocacy groups to spend money defending their advertising, but in each instance the ads were deemed accurate and stayed on the air.

The question is how many times Doyle will use this intimidation tactic and whether groups like All Children Matter will back down.

It looks like the answer to the second part of the question is no!