My bosses want Adelman

U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic introduced explosive evidence and testimony in the first day of the Georgia Thompson trial.

In his opening remarks, Biskupic told jurors how Thompson reacted to the news that other members of the RFP panel favored Omega Travel over Adelman.

"The evidence you'll hear is she said, 'My bosses want Adelman. They don't want to hear it was anyone but Adelman winning the contract,' Biskupic said, adding Thompson failed her duty as a civil servant to keep politics out of state procurement.

State travel consultant Ian Thomas testified that Georgia Thompson tried to get members of the panel to change their scores.

"My recollection is that Georgia then said (something) to the effect of, 'You can't do that,' or 'we can't do that' or 'that can't be done,' " Thomas said, referring to giving the contract to Omega, adding "she referenced in some way her superiors and political issues."

"We went around the room," but none of the six would reconsider the scores, Thomas said.

Despite repeated denials by Governor Doyle and Thompson's superiors at DOA, Biskupic presented evidence that Adelman Travel officials met with Governor Jim Doyle and DOA Secretary Marc Marrotta to discuss the travel contract months before the contract was bid.

U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic said in his opening statement that Adelman officials began their push to win the contract by meeting with Doyle in April 2004. Doyle's official schedule shows that the meeting was about the travel contract, Biskupic said, and notes from the meeting say that Adelman officials pushed for a master contract to be "enforced from the top."

Adelman officials then wrote to Marotta, who ran the agency for which Thompson worked, and even suggested a "request for proposals" that could be used to solicit bids for the contract, Biskupic added. Marotta met with Adelman officials on June 18 - six months before the request for proposals was issued.

But here's what Marrotta said earlier this year.

[Patrick] Farley reports to the secretary, who is considered the right hand of the governor. At the time, that was Marotta, who left last fall to head Doyle's re-election campaign. But Marotta said the [Adelman] contract was "very, very small" and never registered on the radar of anyone in upper management.

"Nobody at that level would have ever thought about it," Marotta said.

Wisconsin State Journal, January 25, 2006

Marotta insisted critics are way off, saying the contract - potentially worth $750,000 - was "very, very small" and never registered on the radar of anyone in upper management.

Wisconsin State Journal, June 4, 2006

Can you say, liar, liar pants on fire?