-By Dwane Powell via Slate.com

Maybe those phone calls aren't necessary

In my last post I suggested a reporter might want to start calling Republican Assembly offices to see how they voted in closed caucus on whether or not to bring SB1, an ethics reform bill, to the floor for a vote by the full Assembly. Turns out those calls might not be necessary.

Tom Sheehan of the Wisconsin State Journal is reporting today that word has leaked out that only two Republicans voted to bring the measure to the floor. If this is true, Rep. Sheryl Albers (R-Reedsburg) and Rep. Terri McCormick (R-Appleton) are the only ones then that can stand in front of their voters and tell them they want ethics reform without crossing their fingers behind their backs.

Process important to GOP if they don't want to get something done

Two issues that the GOP controlled state legislature dealt with in the last week illustrate that the legislative process is only important to them when they want to hide behind it. According to some in the GOP, ethics reformed didn't pass this session because the issue wasn't properly hashed out in hearings and debate. Amending the constitution, well, we don't need to have a full debate and legislative process for that.

When the GOP Assembly caucus voted not to send SB 1, an ethics reform bill, to the floor this session Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin) said this in a Wisconsin State Journal article:

"I truly believe that if this is going to be done, there needs to be a better process for putting it together. Like a commission or task force..."

How about a legislative committee holding hearings on the bill and getting input? Oh wait, that did happen.

However, when the Assembly Republicans wanted to pass something that looks like they are limiting government spending, process and debate was thrown out the window. The measure that ultimately passed the Assembly was not hashed out in public. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes what happened:

The measure did not go to committee for discussion. Not a single public hearing was held. But so desperate was Gard, a Republican from Peshtigo, to approve something, he ignored the public's interest and sent through a measure without appreciable public input.

In fact, it was passed in the middle of the night when few were watching at all.

The entire process for this amendment has been cloaked in secrecy. When Senator Glenn Grothman was setting up his version of an amendment to limit spending he included this line in the email invitation:

We do not plan on inviting the media, or members of the general public.

Every meeting that legislators have does not need to be a public hearing. But this meeting was one of numerous attempts to shield the legislators from having to listen to public comments about what they were doing and keep the press from asking too many questions. The attitude expressed by Grothman and others that it was ok to exclude the press and public from details about the constitutional amendment until the very end fed into the overall thinking that legislators could ultimately pass something that hasn't had one single public hearing.

Who has time for the open legislative process when you have campaign rhetoric to go home and write?

- By Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Constitution via Slate.com

Border crossings the other way

I'm guessing this story titled Mexico Set to Legalize Drugs will prompt some border crossings from the U.S. to Mexico.

You just can't make this stuff up

Just when you think the stories out of DC can't worse...they do. Now they are talking about actual prostitutes for Members of Congress. From the American Progress Action Fund:

ETHICS -- SIX CONGRESSMEN MAY BE IMPLICATED IN CUNNINGHAM PROSTITUTION SCANDAL: Federal investigators are now investigating whether two federal contractors -- Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade -- provided former Rep. Randy "Duke Cunningham (R-CA) "with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites." Wilkes, identified as a co-conspirator in the Cunningham case, rented several hospitality suites at the Watergate Hotel and the Westin Grand Hotel. Wade, who has pleaded guilty to bribing Cunningham, allegedly told federal prosecutors that a "limousine would pick up Cunningham and a prostitute and take them" to the hospitality suite. The San Diego Union-Tribune's Dean Calbreath suggested that "as many as a half a dozen other congressmen may have been involved in this" prostitution scandal. Ken Silverstein at Harper's writes that "those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence committees -- including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post." Wilkes also hosted parties and poker games, where "CIA officials as well as members of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees" were frequent guests. Cunningham attended the parties, as did Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, executive director at the CIA, the agency's third-highest position.

Gard trying to prove he can fit in with Republican Congress...

...and his caucus helped him proved it.

The Republican Congressional leaders in DC propably liked what they saw in Speaker John Gard yesterday. He sent a message to the the Republican Congress he wants to join that he is willing to do his part to kill ethics reform too by helping his caucus end any hope of ethics reform at the state level this year. The Republicans voted in closed caucus not to bring SB 1 to the floor. The bill would have merged the state Ethics and Elections boards and created a new board with more power to go after legislators.

But let's be clear, Gard didn't kill reform all by himself. If a majority of his caucus wanted reform, it would be hard to stop. Many Republican members will now try to claim that they wanted to see reform happen but those darn leaders just didn't let it happen. They will probably follow that up with a nauseating statement declaring that voters should send them back to the legislature so they can work to get it done.

The press should not let them get away with this and might want to start asking Republicans in the Assembly how they voted in caucus on bringing SB 1 to the floor. Add them up and see if there is a majority.

Is SB 1 the best solution for reform? I don't know. But Republicans shouldn't get away with saying they are for reform and then pointing at their leadership as the one that didn't let it happen. If they can't even debate the issue in the open, voters shouldn't allow the cover of closed caucus to let them claim any sort of high ground on the issue.

Nischke's version of sticking it to 'em

Rep. Ann Nischke (R-Waukesha) was one of the lonely 32 members of the Assembly that voted for the constitutional amendment put forth by Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue) that would have limited state and local governments. Many Republican and Democrat members of the Assembly voted against it because of how damaging it would be to local governments. But hey, what does she care? She's not the one that would have to run Waukesha under the limits if they had passed.

Now I know TPA is in trouble

My hometown newspaper, The Burlington Standard Press, has a story about how worried the local leaders are about the Taxpayer Protection Amendment (TPA) flavor of the day and what it may do to local budgets and growth. Burlington is not exactly a hotbed of progressive politics. In fact, I'm one of only a handful of Democrats to probably ever come out of that city. If TPA can't make it there, it can't make it anywhere in this state.

The city is already facing a deficit in the near future and the mayor is concerned about how the new legislation will handle TIF districts since they currently have a couple of them in Burlington. The mayor could call his state representatives with questions, but I'm sure they don't know how the new legislation will deal with TIFs either.

You can find the story here.

Waiting in the wings

Governor Doyle is doing what he can to keep Wisconsin a leader in stem-cell research. The extremists of the Republican Party attack him at every turn on this issue and like to boast about it. In Life News right now:

Gov. Jim Doyle is coming under fire from pro-life advocates for signing an executive order directing the Wisconsin Department of commerce to spend $5 million in taxpayer funds on attracting stem cell research companies to the state.

Other states love to see this. They are just waiting to pounce if our state fails to keep pace with the race to be the industry leader in stem-cells. You can find a story here about Florida putting up $15 million toward stem-cell research. And you can find a story here about our neighbor directly to the south looking to spend $15 million next year and $100 million over the next decade.

Lucky for Wisconsin we have a nice head start over these states and a governor committed to building our economy. However, without continued support, there are many other states waiting in the wings that would love to pull all of our scientists and jobs to their states.

Ethics reform congressional style

The bill congressional leaders are pushing in DC for ethics reform just keeps getting better and better. First it was reported that the bill bans trips paid for by private interests (lobbyist and such) only until right after the election. Now, the Members of Congress would have us believe that the staff that is making Congresspeople do unethical things. From the American Progress Action Fund:

ETHICS COURSES FOR MEMBERS: With the scandals reaching far into the halls of Congress, last December Hastert suggested new ethics training for lawmakers. "There is open concern that we not become complacent with regard to the rules that safeguard this place," said Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL). Evidently that concern was short-lived. Tomorrow's lobbying reform bill calls for mandatory ethics trainings for all congressional staff, but not for members.

Wonder when a journalist here might ask Rep. Green if he is going to support this sham plan.

Do as I say, not as I do

The press release from Republican Attorney General candidate Paul Bucher yesterday about the other Republican Attorney General candidate, J.B. Van Hollen, took hypocrisy to a whole new level. Van Hollen said yesterday that there are terrorists training in Wisconsin but refused to give more details. That prompted Bucher to put this line in a press release:

Scaring the people of Wisconsin in an attempt to gain political points is irresponsible and wrong.

Really? You mean like putting pictures of scary looking criminals on the internet and claiming one of your opponents would set them free? You may remember that not too long ago, Bucher put up a Willie Horton like website trying to scare people into voting for him. Or at least vote against the Democratic opponent he is scared to run against.

Bucher should not be surprised by Van Hollen's stunt since Bucher himself set this tone of scaring the voters to gain votes. My guess is he is not so much outraged as he is angry that he didn't come up with this idea himself.

Can't wait to see the stunts these two are going to pull in August and September.

Snow job

The Bush Administration has hired someone with the perfect last name as the mouthpiece for President Bush. The definition of "snow job" is: a long and elaborate misrepresentation. Expect many from the new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.

-By Tom Toles of the Washington Post

Give 'em time

I figure this is what the Wisconsin Constitution would look like if we gave the current legislators a few more cracks at it.

In a few hours, Rep. Frank Lasee (R-Bellevue) will introduce yet another version of TABOR. And while he is promising a version that is less complicated than what Sen. Glenn Grothman and Rep. Jeff Wood introduced, the version Lasee introduced in the 1999 session was about eight pages long.

This really has become a joke at this point. There is almost no way now the legislature can come out of this looking good or doing any good either. Is it wise to pass a constitutional amendment that is cobbled together at the last minute? Anyone up for election later this year should be suspect of any lengthy proposal that they can't explain fully to their voters.

If the legislators keep this up, their constituents might demand to be allowed to vote on pay raises for legislators again. Every time that went to the ballot it was shot down. Then the legislators got wise and decided they should set their own pay instead of letting the public decide if they were worthy of a raise. I'm guessing the current batch of legislators would be turned down for a raise if they asked.

At the rate they are going, many might be turned down on their request to be hired again in the fall.

One last time

Will Rep. Mark Green help his leaders in Congress look the other way one more time on ethics reform and support a bill that has the Washington Post saying:

If the Senate-passed measure was a disappointment, the House version is simply a joke

The bill wouldn't ban privately paid for trips. Just suspend them until after the election. Seriously. You can find the editorial here.

The Colorado playbook

The upcoming vote on the latest Republican version of TABOR here in Wisconsin makes an article that appeared in Governing worth a read by members of both parties. It is an in-depth look at what happened when Colorado had to live under TABOR and the stunning capture of the state legislature by the Democrats for the first time in thirty years.

The campaign that was waged to suspend TABOR was run by a coalition that the state has never seen before.

It was waged by an improbable coalition that included not only teachers and labor unions but chambers of commerce, technology entrepreneurs, real estate developers and, perhaps most important, Republican Governor Bill Owens, who was an original sponsor of TABOR in the early 1990s and had long touted it as his proudest achievement.

The affects of TABOR combined with a Republican legislature that had stopped working on the issues that voters really care about also created a lot of problems for the Republican Party in Colorado among part of their base. What people were saying about the legislature sounds an awful lot like what folks have been saying about the legislature here in Wisconsin.

By 2004, leaders at the Chamber of Commerce including some long active in the state Republican Party were grumbling audibly about a legislature that spent too much of its time talking about "God, gays and guns."

One particular segment of the business community was taking conspicuous offense: the high-tech industry. Generally liberal on social issues and closely aligned with the University of Colorado, wealthy IT interests had begun pulling away from the conservative Republicans early in the decade. By 2004, they financed a Democratic legislative takeover.

Wisconsin Republicans have tried to put up numerous road blocks to the new economy here. In fact, Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) had a recent editorial complaining a hallway between the two areas of the proposed Discovery Center for the UW is just not enough for folks like him to be assured that scientists will not be using state tax dollars for research on new stem-cells lines. The UW has been working under the rules set by the Bush Administration on this for a while now so there is no reason to think the new building will need more regulation just to please the "God" crowd of the Republican Party.

Will the suburbs of Milwaukee, a gold mine of votes for Wisconsin Republicans, continue to accept moves like this that steer the direction of their party away from investing in the future of state? The history of the Colorado election says they may not:

Equally important, though, was the fact that the issues stressed most heavily by the TABOR reform coalition health, education and transportation gridlock topped the list of suburban concerns.

On Election Day, the returns from the suburbs were striking: The reform initiative carried both Jefferson and Arapahoe counties, whose general affluence and combined population of more than a million have made them the core of Republican strength in statewide elections.

There are lessons for both parties of our state in this article and I'm sure many Republicans here would agree with one Colorado Republican:

The interesting question is whether a little laminar politics might produce similar results for struggling Democrats elsewhere in the country. "I would hope that in other states the Democrats don't get up to speed as quickly," admits Joe Stengel, the Republican leader in the Colorado House. "I hope they don't figure out how well it worked here."

It would be better for our economy if they do.

Your money well spent?

From Harper's Index:

Total projected cost of the war per U.S. household, based on a January estimate: $19,600

The silly season starts

The number of Republicans putting out press releases calling on their own leadership to schedule bills on issues that are important to their constituents is getting ridiculous. Every day it seems like there is a new one out calling for action on something. It must be time to go home and run for re-election.

It's hard to decide which is worse - Republicans waiting until the last week of session to pretend they want to bring up important issues, Republicans pretending their own leaders are people they never talk to and have to send out press releases in the hopes the leaders will talk to them, or the press actually falling for this like the Wisconsin State Journal did with Rep. Steve Freese's 'call for action' on campaign finance reform and writing a positive story for Freese.

And before you think Rep. Steve Freese is the only Republican in a leadership position acting like he is not part of the leadership team that failed to bring up legislation on a slew of issues important to their constituents, you should read this:

Senator Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire) in a letter today called on Republican Leadership and members of his own party to support gas- price reduction efforts. He requested a vote on his bill that reduces the minimum markup on gasoline along with a bill that requires ethanol in gasoline.

So did Senator Zien send a copy of the letter to himself? After all, if you go the Senate home webpage you will see him listed as one of the leaders. And if you look in the Blue Book, you see a big full-color photo of Senator Zien listed on the Senate officers page.

The same goes for Rep. Steve freese at the Assembly home webpage and the Blue Book page for Assembly officers. He is right next to a giant photo of Speaker Gard and yet Freese would have us believe that he has to send press release to communicate with Gard.

These press releases are nothing more than attempts at political cover for the upcoming election. If Senator Zien had spent even a fraction of the time on the issues he now claims to want action on as he did on concealed carry, he could have had real results to take home to his constituents instead of press releases of campaign posturing.

The looming meltdown

Hold onto your hats. There may be yet another version of TABOR/TPA coming out this week. The vote on a constitutional amendment designed to limit government spending is only a few days away but some are suggesting the Assembly could produce more versions.

In a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article today, Rep. Mark Gottlieb discusses the two competing proposals to amend the constitution and mentions this:

"Where will we be at the end of the day?" Gottlieb said. "Maybe somewhat of a melding of the two."

All of these attempts to do something as serious as amending the constitution in the manner of a college student pulling an all-nighter to get a term paper done because it was put off until the last minute may have consequences for those calling the plays in the Capitol.

As the Journal Sentinel points out, the legislature finds itself in exactly the same place it was two years ago. The end result of that was the Senate Majority Leader losing her job. When you combine the lack of leadership with this:

It may be a record: 109 special-interest groups have told the state Ethics Board they are lobbying on a proposal that would amend the Wisconsin Constitution to put limits on state and local government spending.

And 81 of them - including local governments, unions, health care providers, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference and AARP -are trying to kill what Republican legislators call the Taxpayer Protection Amendment.

Only five groups are registered in favor of the amendment..."

You may have the ingredients necessary for some dramatic changes.

A conservative defense of fiscal irresponsibility

Owen over at the Boots and Saber blog has a post that will give you some idea of the compromises and mental gymnastics that are going to be necessary for conservatives to support Rep. Mark Green for governor. The post is really quite something. The overall point of the post seems to be that while Rep. Green didn't display any sort of fiscal responsibility when he was in the Wisconsin State Legislature or Congress, this time he has pinky swore to do it if he is elected governor.

Owen starts out by laying out the problem conservatives probably have with Rep. Green.

Mark Green served in both a state legislature and a federal legislature that took spending to new levels of obscenity.

That' a pretty strong statement. However, Owen then launches into a long defense of Rep. Green's poor spending habits that can be summed up by saying - everyone else was doing it so how could Mark Green not go along with it if he wanted to get other conservative stuff done? Keep in mind, the everyone else we are talking about here is Mark Green's own party, but I guess Rep. Green had to go along with the out of control spending so the Republicans wouldn't make him vote for abortion rights.

Then Owen argues that it's the nature of the legislature that made Rep. Green spend wildly during his tenure in both bodies because:

As a legislator, it is necessary to make deals in order to get things done. So, if Green expects support for his bills, he will have to play ball on bills that he might not otherwise support.

Now I know that Republicans have stood by while President Bush tries to make the federal executive branch all powerful and Congress completely useless, but does Owen really think the governor does not have to work with the legislature in order to get things done?

The post then descends into total falsehoods to try to defend Rep. Green's fiscal irresponsibility.

He is not one of those politicians who promises one thing on the stump and governs differently.

Really? So when he said this in 2000:

"We’ve achieved monumental successes in reducing the debt that has plagued America for far too long," Green said. "It’s been tough, but we’ve fought the good fight and we’ve finally brought spending under control and reintroduced fiscal responsibility to Washington. I’m proud to say today that the work we’ve done will enable us to pass on a debt-free nation to the next generation of Americans."

but turned around right after that and voted to pile up the biggest debt our nation has ever seen, that was not telling his constituents one thing and governing differently? Rep. Green has never campaign on lower spending and fiscal responsibility?

One of the funniest lines of his post has to be this:

The key is not to look at Mark Green’s record as compared to what we would like it to be.

Translation: Check your firmly held principles at the door when you go to vote.

Religion and the UW-Madison

Once again, I have to say that I am very impressed with the UW-Madison campus newspapers. This time it is a story in The Daily Cardinal about Rep. Mark Green sending a letter to Chancellor John Wiley asking him to stop 'discriminating' against a Catholic group on campus that is seeking student fees for part of its funding. The story in The Daily Cardinal gives a much more complete view of the controversy than the one in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Rep. Mark Green seems to think that a Supreme Court case that stated segregated student fees must be awarded in a viewpoint-neutral manner means that the UW-Madison should give all the funding the Roman Catholic Foundation requested from the UW-Madison. Never mind that some of the things the group requested funding for was printing Lenten booklets and running an evangelical ministry. In other words, promoting religion. And never mind that the words "religion" and "viewpoint" are hardly synonymous.

The Daily Cardinal brings up a couple of points that the Wisconsin State Journal missed. One is that the Green himself is a Catholic. This makes you wonder if Green would be working this hard to fight for a group that wanted to hand out pamphlets recruiting students to Islam, Buddhism or Kabala. Somehow, I think not.

The other more important point The Daily Cardinal brings up goes to the fact that there is another problem with the request from the Roman Catholic Foundation that has nothing to do with what the group promotes. The university does not give out funding for maintenance, improvements or overhead for buildings not owned, leased or otherwise controlled by the university. The Roman Catholic Foundation's funding request asked for $35,462 for electricity, gas and water.

Green doesn't seem to care that the funding request for utilities would have been denied for any group. All he wanted was a press story to show the religious right during his bid for governor.

Parental consent not good enough for religious right

Just how far will the religious extremists of the Republican Party go when it comes to trying to impose their wishes onto other people's doctor appointments? Pretty far. Read on:

An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend to one of Indiana's Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a "crisis pregnancy center" run by an anti-abortion group.

The group took down the girl's confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their "other office" (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby).

When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there — the "crisis pregnancy center" had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.

The "crisis pregnancy center" staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl's home and calling her father's workplace. They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.

If this were the other way around and Planned Parenthood was setting up fake clinics, the religious right would be burning down the buildings. Since it's the other way around, these groups are receiving tax dollars to do their 'work.'

These attempts by anti-abortion groups to pretend they are Planned Parenthood is nothing short of outrageous, but likely a future state tax dollar supported item if Rep. Mark Green gets elected here.

Putting their money where their mouths are

The people in this country that are unhappy with the way things are going are willing to open up their wallets to see change happen. Senator Feingold's call for censuring the president didn't scare them off, it inspired them to write checks. From the Capital Times:

Feingold's leadership PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund, pulled in $282,000 last month, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission Thursday. That compares with $105,000 the PAC raised in February.

The rest of the story is here.

Depends on what your definition of leak is

The CIA has fired an officer for leaking information to the press about U.S. secret prisons in Eastern Europe. The reporter recently won a Pulitzer Prize for the stories.

So to recap, a CIA officer that leaks information is shown the door. President Bush authorizes leaks of information about a CIA officer and shows others in his administration the door for getting caught doing it for him.

You can find the story about the firing here.

Easy Earth Day activity

For anyone looking to do something for easy for Earth Day, I highly recommend buying a farm share in a Community Support Agriculture farm. It's good for you, good for the environment, and good for the local economy. It also helps keep small family farms in your area.

I have had a share in a CSA farm for the last three years and will sign up again this year. The produce is fantastic. You will not believe the difference between the CSA produce that is usually picked the day you get it and the stuff you get at the grocery store.

If you want to find a CSA in your area, go to this website and enter your zip code.

-By Tom Toles of the Washington Post

Mocking Gaylord Nelson

Just in time to celebrate Earth Day, Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford) and the rest of the Republicans on the Assembly Natural Resources Committee tanked a bill to help stem the flow of out of state garbage into Wisconsin. I don't think that's what Senator Gaylord Nelson had in mind when he challenged people to do things to celebrate Earth Day.

Perhaps Gunderson and his colleagues thought the best way to celebrate Earth Day was to help other states keep their chunk of the earth clean by dumping their garbage here so they don't have to deal with the smell, the runoff and possible groundwater contamination. Yes, why do what we can to keep our state beautiful to attract the tourists from Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Illinois when we can just take their garbage.

Those surrounding states are taking advantage of our ridiculously low tipping fees at landfills big time. They sent 2.2 million tons of garbage here in 2004 and that figure is 46 percent higher than what they sent here in 2003.

Gunderson hails from an area that is probably very aware of the increased amount of garbage coming into our state. Waterford is not far from the Illinois border so his constituents have probably seen the increased garbage truck traffic. Senator Shelia Harsdorf (R-River Falls), another legislator from a border area, has been listening to her constituents complain about the amount of garbage coming to their area from the Twin Cities and is on the right side of this issue. Why is Gunderson turning a deaf ear to the public support for this bill?

Fun with constituent mail

Ok, this is not in Wisconsin but I'm betting every single person that has written constituent letters for some politician is laughing about this story. It's about a letter from a Congresswoman to a constituent that ends with "I think you're an a**hole."

No end in sight

This must be part of Rep. Mark Green's definition of fiscally responsible.

From the American Progress Action Fund:

Annual war spending in Iraq is set to double since the U.S. invasion, having risen from $48 billion in 2003 to $59 billion in 2004 to $81 billion in 2005 to an anticipated $94 billion in 2006. The administration is now spending nearly $10 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from $8.2 billion a year ago.

In the basement

Even Fox news can't spin President Bush's plummeting poll numbers. They give a half-hearted try by saying people like Secretary Rice, but that's about it.

Can and will Rep. Mark Green move to the center on women's reproductive rights?

Rep. Mark Green has staked out some pretty extreme territory when it comes to women's reproductive health and abortion rights. His position is so extreme it is likely to hurt him in his bid to move into the governor's mansion. Now that he doesn't have a primary challenge, will he try to move to the center on this issue?

In primary elections a politician often needs the extreme branch of their party to come out in full force in order to win. That means they pander to the wishes of the party extremists up until the primary and then usually move back toward the middle after the primary to capture the independent voters that aren't as likely to agree with the party extremists on either side of the political spectrum.

There are some long-term statistics staring Rep. Mark Green in the face on the abortion issue. A recent article in USA Today highlighted some of them:

The USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll in January found that Americans backed it [Roe v Wade] by 66%-25%. In the survey, 53% said they considered themselves "pro-choice" and 42% said they were "pro-life," a breakdown that has stayed about the same for a decade.

There is another set of statistics within those that should scare Rep. Mark Green too.

There wasn't much difference on that issue by gender or age, but there was by political party. A ban that would permit abortions only to save the life of the mother was supported by 54% of Republicans but opposed by 66% of Democrats and 70% of independents.

Those coveted independent voters that Rep. Mark Green will absolutely need to win the election are even more opposed to extreme positions on abortion than the Democrats.

It will be difficult for Rep. Mark Green to move to the center on this issue. Earlier this month a Wisconsin State Journal article had Rep. Mark Green placing himself firmly in support of the exact type of law those 70% of independent voters oppose. He said he wants to revive Wisconsin's criminal abortion statute. The law is so extreme it bans all abortions except those to save the life of the mother and give doctors who perform abortions prison time.

Rep. Mark Green has a long voting history on the topic as well. It may have worked for his somewhat conservative assembly and congressional districts, but it does not fit the entire electorate of the state that he is now seeking to govern.

The moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Milwaukee alone will be hard to convince that they should vote for a governor that wants to control women's reproductive rights at every level. Rep. Mark Green wants to dictate how women get access to reproductive health care from criminalizing abortions again to making it ok for pharmacists to not fill a legal prescription for birth control. That's hard to sell to moderate Republicans and independent voters.

We'll see very soon if he tries to sell this package or something different this fall.

For the sake of consistency

I've redrafted a press release Sen. Stepp put out in early April accusing Democrats of having no ideas because they are calling for problems to be address by the next legislature to fit the current Repubulican retreat on the Taxpayer Protection Amendment. One of the many new drafts being debated simply calls for future legislatures to attack this problem.

I had to change surpringly few words (they are in italics) to make it fit the current melt down on TABOR and it's offspring. I'm sure Sen. Stepp will put out this version right away.


Sen. Stepp: Legislative Republicans Surrender in the War of Ideas 4/20/2006 CONTACT: Cathy Stepp(608) 266-1832

[Madison]… State Senator Cathy Stepp (R-Racine) announced today that a recent proposal introduced by legislative Republicans signals the majority party’s full and unconditional surrender in the war of ideas. The proposal, a simply worded constitutional amendment that would tie future state and local spending to the growth in personal income and leave it up to future Legislatures and governors to implement that change, does not contain any actual proposals to fix the fiscal policy, it only calls for unspecified changes.

“TABOR, TPA, and the new yet to be named proposal make a trifecta of Republican non-solutions on fiscal policy and property taxes,” said Stepp. “Everyone agrees we must have serious discussions regarding fiscal policy in Wisconsin. Legislative Republicans are more interested in rhetoric, grandstanding and fighting their governor instead of offering real ideas.”

Republicans gave hints they were out of ideas earlier this session when they introduced yet another version of TABOR that cannot pass the legislature. They claim it will lower taxes and reduce spending. When asked which items Republicans want to cut from the state budget, they change the subject.

The so-called TABOR and all the new versions released call for tomorrow’s legislature to solve today’s problems. Their proposal orders the 2007-2008 legislature to come up with a magical plan assuring the budget will be balanced and all the cuts in spending will be made. True to form, the Republicans do not offer any actual ideas on how to achieve these goals either.

“These non-plans put forth by the Republicans are election gimmicks pure and simple,” said Stepp. “This summer, Republicans statewide will claim they had grand plans to fix the spending and taxes formula and lower property taxes but the citizens got in their way. The people of Wisconsin should know that their plans aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.”

Next time Republicans promise you tax relief

You better make sure you are a millionaire first.

The LA Times has a good article on what happens when you flatten out the federal tax code. Many Republicans like to promote a "flat tax" as better for everyone. Turns out, it's better for millionaires and that's about it. The LA Times reports:

But as millions of Americans face the deadline for filing their federal tax returns, they are operating in something very close to the world Forbes and other flat-tax visionaries proposed. Without any fanfare or philosophical debate, millionaires and middle-class Americans now pay taxes at almost the same rates.

And has this has been a big bonus for the middle-class right?

Has leveling out federal income tax rates produced a cornucopia of financial benefits? The answer is probably yes — if you're a millionaire. And probably no — if you're almost anyone else. Flattened, and thus lower, tax rates have contributed to huge increases in the wealth of the wealthy, but so far most people haven't seen significant economic improvement.

But surely the fiscal policies of the Republicans have produced big tax cuts and higher incomes for most people in this country so we are all moving toward those top income brackets right?

Though most pay at least somewhat less in taxes than they did a few years ago, the Federal Reserve Board, in its latest three-year examination of family finances, found that average family income fell by 2% between 2001 and 2004 after adjusting for inflation. In the previous three-year period, average family income grew by 17%.

Thanks to more credit card debt and borrowing against their homes, the 25% of Americans at the bottom of the wealth scale had negative net worth in 2004. On average, these families owed $1,400 more than their possessions were worth.

How scary is that? If the bottom 25% of the wealth scale for America sold every single thing they own, they wouldn't have enough to pay for their debts.

In summary, when Rep. Mark Green tells you he voted for large tax cuts for you when he was in Congress, check your last income tax return and if your income didn't add up to at least a million, tell him he is at the wrong house asking for a vote.

You can find the whole article here.

Good point

From Talking Points Memo:

Okay, this is pretty funny. Fox is reporting that Fox's own Tony Snow may be Scott McClellan's replacement as White House press secretary. Isn't that more like an interdepartmental transfer than a job change? -- Josh Marshall

The baggage Rep. Green brings to the Republican ticket this fall

-By John Deering of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette via Slate.com

Go on take the money and run

Yesterday the governor had to veto yet another Republican attack on the SAGE program to reduce class sizes. The legislature actually passed a bill that would let schools take funding to reduce class sizes and then not reduce class sizes.

I've lost count of the number of times the Republicans have attacked this successful education program. There is a lot of evidence that reducing class sizes in the lower grades the way the SAGE program does produces real results and they stay with kids throughout their school career. The program also helps Wisconsin comply with the No Child Left Behind Act from the federal government because it helps close the achievement gap.

Some of the research that you can find at the websites of those responsible for the ongoing evaluation of the Wisconsin SAGE program shows that states that have been reducing class sizes longer than our state has have seen dramatic results. In Tennessee they found:

--Long-term exposure to small classes (in the early grades) had generated substantially higher levels of achievement; and
--The extra gains associated with long-term exposure to small classes in the early grades) were greater the longer students were exposed to those classes.
-- The extra gains found for long-term attendance in small classes in the early grades) continued to appear when students were returned to standard classes in the upper grades;

In Indiana they found:

We begin with a trial program in Indiana that is known today as "Project Prime Time." This effort began in 1981 when the Indiana legislature allocated $300,000 for a two-year study of the effects of reducing class size in the early grades within a sample of 24 public schools. But after two semesters the results of this initial study were so impressive that additional funds were allocated to reduce class sizes in all state schools beginning with first-grade classes in the 1984-85 school year, and the program was gradually extended so as to involve grades K-3 by 1987-88.

And the Tennessee study also points to why SAGE will help us close the achievement gap and comply with No Child Left Behind.

Although all types of students experienced extra gains from long-term exposure to small classes (in the early grades), those gains were greater for students who are traditionally disadvantaged in education.

Indiana is a traditionally Republican state so this issue is not solely a "Democrat issue" or Democrats doing the bidding of WEAC as some would like to say. It's about investing in an education program that has proven results.

But here, the Republicans do everything they can to attack the SAGE program that has produced good results and has accountability measures built into it and turn around and cheer and promote a program like the Choice program that has no standards and no proof that it is doing any good. Wisconsin Republicans would be wise to follow the lead of their colleagues in other states that are leading the way on class size reduction.

General disregard for other opinions

-By Tony Auth via Slate.com

On the Al Franken show today, Retired General Tony Zinni talked about the differences between the Secretaries of Defense of the past versus current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He talked about when Richard Cohen was the Secretary under President Clinton, Secretary Cohen brought General Zinni to see President Clinton so he could tell the president that he did not agree with a plan they were going to implement and give the reasons why he didn't agree. General Zinni said under Secretary Rumsfeld that would never happen.

Perhaps that's why so many retired generals are starting to speak up about the problems at the Pentagon. You can read a 60 Minutes interview with General Zinni here if you want to learn more about why he is speaking out.

Republican interests

Brian Fraley over at the DailyTakes blog has a post saying that the big bad interests groups are going to beat up poor Rep. Mark Green. Right, only groups that lean Democratic are going to be flush with cash this year and running ads near the election since Republican leaning groups never ever run ads attacking Democrats near the election.

And that ad running on the radio now bashing Governor Doyle about tort reform would be what, a public service message? It's only April and the Republican groups are already bashing Doyle.

I guess Spivak and Bice from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel just made this story up in 2004 about an ad with an older lady afraid she was going to lose her home because State Senator Bob Wirch (D-Kenosha) was going to take it away.

Forget about what the candidates are spending in the state Senate race in Kenosha -- the real action is taking place outside of the two candidates' campaigns.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the Madison-based business lobby, and the Wisconsin Realtors Association are spending from $200,000 to $250,000 on radio and TV spots blasting Democratic Sen. Bob Wirch, who is being challenged by Republican lawyer Reince Priebus.

That sum far surpasses the amounts raised and spent by either candidate in this highly contested seat.

"Milwaukee media is expensive," WMC spokesman Jim Pugh explained.

Pugh predicted that a number of other special interests would soon enter the fray on behalf of Wirch, who is running for his third term in the Senate. But none has done so thus far.

WMC's radio ads use the voice of a little old lady who's about to lose her house to rip Wirch for voting against the GOP proposal to limit property taxes. The group is running similar radio ads against Democratic Sen. Roger Breske and radio and TV spots in support of an Kapanke, a Republican running for an open Senate seat in the La Crosse area.

Almost half a million dollars on ads for one state senate race to bash a Democrat, but I'm sure they won't even bother with a minor race like the one for governor.

Free passes all around

Xoff notes today that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't bother to mention that Rep. Mark Green, Republican candidate for governor, has a horrible record on spending and deficits while they were covering his press conference on spending limits for state government. The Wisconsin State Journal didn't bother to mention it either.

To be fair, the paper did not write a glowing puff piece about Rep. Green either. The article comes off more like a fight between Governor Doyle and Rep. Green. The author also didn't Rep. Green a pass on the fact that he is calling for spending limits but didn't mention a single cut he would make if the spending limits were in place.

But why is the press looking the other way while Rep. Green tries to make people believe he is for less spending? Rep. Green and his Republican colleagues controlling Congress have spent more money in the last couple of years than Democrats could have dreamed of spending. Yes, some of it was important new spending on anti-terrorism measures but let's not wrap the flag around this stuff listed by Citizens Against Government Waste in their Congressional Pig Book.

Not only has Rep. Mark Green stood by while the cost of pork in the federal budget went up about thirty percent, he has been unwilling to question when companies like Haliburton walk away with billions of dollars without giving the taxpayers a single service or product. They can't account for billions of dollars and Rep. Mark Green doesn't seem to think that is a big enough problem to demand accountability. Is that someone we want in charge of our state tax dollars?

There is a long way to go in the campaign for governor. I'm hopeful Rep. Green's record will get a complete vetting in the press. The voters deserve no less.

Quotable

"Until you know what you are talking about, keep your mouth shut."
-Lester Pines, attorney for Paul Barrows about the Wisconsin State Legilature

This comment was made after a faculty committee at the UW-Madison said Paul Barrow demotion by the university was unjustified. I don't know enough about the details of the case to know if they are correct in that assessment, but I found the quote hilarious because I'm guessing there are a lot of people that would love to say that to the group of people running the legislature these days.

For example, local elected officials that are tired of being lectured at on spending by legislators that deficit spend all the time, women that want to get birth control prescriptions filled without letting the legislature make them jump through ten hoops to do it, and university officials that are trying to take Wisconsin's economy into the future without the legislature throwing up roadblocks every time they turn around...the list could go on and on even though the party controlling the legislature is supposedly the party of small government.

The Wisconsin State Journal gets spun

The Sunday Wisconsin State Journal had an editorial praising Rep. Steve Freese for calling on his leaders to have a vote on ethics and campaign finance reform as if he is some sort of hero. This is exactly what Rep. Freese was hoping would happen and the Wisconsin State Journal fell for it.

The newspaper gave Rep. Freese the clipping he needs to run around his district with and put in campaign literature so he looks like someone fighting for campaign finance reform. Problem is, he really isn't.

A quick look back at his history shows that Rep. Freese is not serious about enacting campaign finance reform and he has a long history of showy moves like this one calling for a vote to cover for the fact that he is one of the main reasons we don't have comprehensive reform today. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said this about Freese when they gave him a Nero Award in 2003 for doing the most to stop campaign finance reform:

Comprehensive reform legislation was introduced and referred to his committee in March 2001. For over 11 months, he did not permit his committee to vote on any comprehensive reform proposals.

When they finally did get a bill going:

The bill (AB 843) was then rushed to the floor of the Assembly with just over two weeks remaining in the Legislature's regular session. Freese voted for the bill, but then voted twice within two days to block the formation of a conference committee to work out the differences between AB 843 and the Senate-passed SB 104. When minority party members forced a third vote on convening a conference committee, Freese offered an amendment that created a parliamentary condition on the formation of a conference that even the Legislature's own legal counsel said was unnecessary. With Freese's amendment attached, the Assembly passed the conference committee resolution. The practical effect of the amendment was to continue to block the final negotiations needed to reach agreement on campaign reform, but give Assembly Republicans a phony roll call vote enabling them to claim they had voted to form a conference committee.

All the while Rep. Freese was participating in press conferences acting like he really wanted to get this done. He should be held accountable for his actual actions instead of his press releases, but will that happen since the Wisconsin State Journal gave Rep. Freese the cover he needs to get through another campaign season? We'll see.

Capping the rhetoric

-By Tom Toles of the Washington Post

Rep. Mark Green had a press rally today about tax day. His press release has the usual stats that Republicans like to state about the tax burden in Wisconsin as if it magically appeared and they had nothing to do with it. Rep. Green also says he wants this:

"A future where Wisconsin is no longer listed among the top taxing states. A future where government spending is finally in line with our families' ability to pay," said Green in emphasizing his vision for Wisconsin's future fiscal policy. "And, by slowing the growth of government spending and limiting taxes, our children and grandchildren will be more likely to stay here, earn a good living here and raise their family here. As a dad with young kids, I want that more than anything else."

That's hard to believe when you consider that Rep. Green is one of the people that dug the hole pictured above in the Toles' cartoon.

As Jon Stewart would say, it's like they think we are stupid. Does Rep. Green think he can hold a rally denouncing spending and taxes and no one will look at his record? And record is the key word because Rep. Green was part of piling up a record federal deficit that his children and grandchildren will be paying off for a long time.

Eye on Wisconsin points out that Rep. Green's record wasn't any better during his years in the state legislature since our state's tax burden was highest in the years Rep. Mark Green was in the legislature.

I guess Rep. Green just forgot to mention that at his press rally today.

5th grade marriage plans

A bill was signed into law last week to that would require schools to teach 'marriage principles' in every sex ed class. The proposal stemmed from a Beloit school that decided the original law passed on this subject did not require marriage principles to be taught in grades five and six when kids are learning about the changes in their body in human growth and development classes.

Marriage in fifth and sixth grade? This is a law we needed?

So the state legislature wants third graders to be able to carry loaded weapons and to be talking about marriage by the time they hit fifth grade.

Being a kid sounds kind of tough these days.

Schools have to teach kids about the changes the human body is going through in fifth and sixth grade because that's when it starts to happen, but wrapping that up in a discussion about marriage being the ideal goal for all of these changes to be channeled into is almost bizarre for that age. Anyone thinking that this proposal is going to reduce pregnancy outside of marriage is living in a fantasy world.

Marriage is so far down the road for fifth graders that you might as well tell them that you have to retire to have sex too. It would have about the same meaning to them.

We should do what we can with education programs to prevent teen pregnancy, but the discussions need to be age appropriate for them to be effective.

Bush Team thinks military retirees should pay more

Yet another example of the Bush Team taking our troops for granted. From the American Progress Action Fund:

Six senators have signed onto a bipartisan bill to curb the Pentagon's plans to increase out-of-pocket healthcare costs on military retirees. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said, "Especially in a time of war, it is unthinkable that the administration would even consider dramatically increasing healthcare costs for those who have sacrificed for our country."

You can find a news article on the issue here.

Early endorsement for Doyle from WSJ?

The Wisconsin State Journal seems to believe that it will be Governor Doyle working with the state legislature next year on health care reform. An editorial in today's paper has this:

Therefore, we call on Gov. Jim Doyle and state lawmakers to adopt a plan by this time next year to extend health care coverage to the 500,000 state residents who now lack insurance.

Here's to hoping that both come true.

Think you're getting a nice tax refund?

Well check out the refund IBM is getting according to an article at Slate.com.

IBM, for example, is banking a $2.8 billion refund—well, better to call it a "tax savings"—because instead of paying the normal corporate tax rate of 35 percent on $9.5 billion in profits it earned overseas, the company paid only 5.25 percent. That's the magic of the American Jobs Creation Act

That act was passed under the guise of creating jobs in America. So corporations were supposed to take this gift of lower taxes and use that money to create jobs here. IBM must have been confused. They are employing four times as many people in India as they were a couple of years ago, but shedding office space in the U.S. like there is no tomorrow.

Hilarous website name

Check out the name of this website: www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com/

There is also a book out by that name that is getting good reviews.

-By Tom Toles at the Washington Post