On the Jensen Verdict
I was among the thousands of you who kept clicking on WisPolitics' Courtwatch Blog over the the last week for the latest developments on the Jensen trial.
When the verdict was announced I was stunned.
Then I was saddened for the sake of Scott and his family. Obviously, I was more than just a casual observer during these past few years. Like hundreds of folks now working at jobs like lobbyist, staffer, campaign manager, legislator even reform advocate, I spent time working in a caucus. In fact, I served in both GOP caucuses during my nearly 10 year legislative career; including as Senate GOP caucus director. I had applied to be Assembly caucus director a few years before taking the Senate job.
Jensen didn't hire me. At the time, to put it mildly, I was ticked.
But unlike some consultants and other party insiders who may have had some unfavorable outcomes with dealings with Jensen over the years, I felt no need to pile on or revel in his ordeal.
Scott did a hell of a lot of good for the State of Wisconsin. His impact on policy runs deeper than most will ever know. He was a master strategist as well. Some of these same detractors regularly benefited from Jensen's hard work and insight and I find their hypocrisy disgusting.
Some of his Democrat detractors and some of the so-called reformers are also hypocrites as well.
Many of them benefited from the now defunct caucus system and are now looking down from their high horse to use this mess to further their own personal political interests.
Over the past few weeks I often wondered how I would have reacted had my decisions and those of the prosecutors put me in Jensen's position. One thing is certain. There is no way I could have reacted with more dignity and grace than Scott has.
Reading press accounts, it does seem to me that the judge appeared to hinder Jensen's ability to mount a vigorous defense. I don't know if the case is over; I don't know if he will appeal. I do know that his legislative career is over; he has resigned his seat.
I also know that it will be a travesty if history lumps Jensen in with Chuck Chvala. The legislative leaders were not the same and the caucuses and their staffs were not identical. For example, Jensen was never accused of trading his position on issues for financial contributions. To me, at least, that is a major difference.
Now, I know this post will open me up to countless anonymous (gutless?) comments accusing me and those I know of countless improprieties. This further proves my point. While Jensen has been graceful throughout, his detractors have shown they are incapable of such behavior.
8 Comments:
You are exactly correct!!
I find this whole mess to be a sad commentary on the state of the State.
Fraley,
As one of those who tried to cover this whole mess up, I would assume you would continue to attempt to spin even when the evidence is clear. Based on what Foti said under oath, Pay for Play was part of the game. The charges against Jensen stuck. A Pay for Play would have been harder to prove and Chvala was never convicted of Pay for Play and continues to deny he ever participated in Pay for Play. Jensen belongs in the same cell as Chvala. Jensen is now convicted of far more than Chvala pleaded guilty to. He rolled the dice in an attempt to beat the system so like any other common convicted felon he should do more time than those who chose not to put the state through this expense.
I think Senator Ellis is the only Republican to be honest regarding what both Jensen and Chvala did. Too bad more Republicans are not cleansing themselves by acknowledging the mistakes of the past and moving on.
The Scott Jensen affair -- and the Chuck Chvala affair, and so on -- all demonstrate what happens when basically good people get caught up in group activities that they wouldn't have become involved in as individuals.
I've known all the players in this cheesehead version of Greek tragedy, and I feel empathy and sorrow for all of them.
I even feel a little responsible, because as a reporter for many years at the Capitol, I didn't uncover the tawdry acts of the powerful before they got so far out of hand.
I knew Sherry Schultz for years, and I always wondered what exactly she did in her fourth-floor cubbyhole under the dome. I went to see her when I wanted to take the political pulse of an upcoming Assembly race., but I didn't realize she was pumping the blood through the arteries of the GOP campaign machine.
But the real responsibility lies not with outsiders like me, but with all the insiders who kept their dirty little secrets from the public.
If they'd come clean before a prosecutor and a reporter forced them to, they would have saved Scott Jensen, Chuck Chvala, Brian Burke, Mickey Foti, Bonnie Ladwig and their families a huge amount of grief.
Bruce Pfaff, now involved with one of the candidates for governor, once worked for Rep. Judy Klusman, R-Oshkosh, a dairy farmer who was a fine and principled legislator.
I remember him telling me one time when I was trying to bend his ear about bovine growth hormone or some other arcane agricultural issue, "Rich, I don't care about policy, I care about politics."
Judy Klusman is out of politics, and politics is the worse for her leaving. And I'm out of journalism. But at least I've handed over my torch to a new generation of reporters that includes the likes of Dee J. Hall of the Wisconsin State Journal, who told us all what was going on.
“Scott is the brightest, most knowledgeable, most able politician of his generation, a man whose integrity and commitment to public service are respected on both sides of the aisle. A sitting Supreme Court justice, circuit court judge, and a senior legislative Democrat all testified to his honesty at the trial. He is admired by almost everyone who has ever worked him.” Charlie Sykes
Reality check, please. Some guys just think too much. "Reason," that grand and uniquely human power, is limited in reach and scope. It may be that the most difficult task for human reason is to comprehend its own limitations.
Such limitations imply that on life's most important questions - particularly those of a moral or ethical nature -- reason alone can produce chilling consequences. Without adequate or any moral illumination, reason alone, when pushed to its limits, can produce consequences, which stand dramatically opposed to moral demands.
Scott Jensen is The Myth Of Daedalus & Icarus personified. Daedalus conceived to escape from the Labyrinth with Icarus from Crete by constructing wings and then flying to safety. He built the wings from feathers and wax, and before the two set off he warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet, and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea. Daedalus escaped to Sicily and Icarus' body was carried ashore by the current to an island then without a name.
No joy in any of it…only shame. Shame on everyone who knew what was going on and cast a blind eye.
Regarding Ellis, before anybody goes too ga-ga over this "reformer," let's not forget the role he played with the caucuses.
He was the the Majority Leader in the Senate for part of the 90s when . . . GASP! . . . Senate Republican Caucus staffers engaged in the SAME campainig behavior as other party caucus staffers.
That's just a niggling little fact that all-too-often gets overlooked.
I'm just struck by the one-dimensionality, the narrow partisan non-thinking in this post. Jensen, good. Chvala bad. GOP criminals are saints, Dems are evil.
Let's face facts: everyone playing in the Capitol has mud on their shoes and Blanchard decided to charge leaders who had power at the time they were abusing it.
Chvala and Burke have kids, too. No one is wailing about their fate.
That's because their dads, all of them, were responsible for the problems those families now have. Not the system, not the DA, not the trial court. No one but their powerful, and now falled fathers.
The last comment hit, in part, on why this prosecution was such b.s. Yes, this is the way the Capitol was run (for the past 30 years). And everybody, from members of the media, to Elections Board and Ethics Board staff, to rank-and-file members, to the two chief clerks knew it.
When the Elections Board and the Ethics Board, working with legislative leaders, decided it was time to declare it to be a new day, they did so and didn't attempt to hang out to dry legislative leaders overseeing the system. And it did change. New work rules regarding time reporting were implemented. What was permissible and what wasn't were clarified (though, there still are some gray areas, if you ask me).
The reason why this prosecution was such b.s. is for two reasons. One, NOT everybody was hung out to dry; Assembly Democrat leaders like Shirley Krug and Spencer Black HAD the power to change the way THEIR caucuses did business, yet they didn't and STILL escaped prosecution. Two, the prosecutor, Brian Blanchard, used the SAME system to get elected in the first place. His involvement with the Senate Democrat Caucus went far, far beyond using their graphic designers. Yet, hypocritically, he prosecutes some for overseeing the type of behavior from which he benefited.
The only people who get to be saints are (1) former-SDC staffer Jay Heck who admits to soliciting campaign funds in the building, yet has a white hat assigned by the media and (2) those who, thanks to Blanchard ignoring THEIR acts and THEIR caucuses over which they indeed had control, get to be above the law.
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