Some possible Sullivan irony

State Senator Jim Sullivan was the lone State Senate Democrat to vote against the state budget. The budget passed anyway. If there wasn't already pressure on him because of the recall effort, would he have voted for the budget? And would that have made him easier to defeat next year?

We may never know.

I want to take a moment to respond to Bill Savage's complaints about my blog post and my newspaper column opposing the Sullivan recall.

I have no idea whether Savage “insisted” on getting a rebuttal published in the Waukesha Freeman as he said he would. Usually easier to just ask nicely.

I have since learned from Chris Kliesmet the reason given on the petitions is “Failing to protect Freedom, Liberties and Property Rights”. The phrase surely lacks both any sense of perspective as well as any specificity. I’m sure similar charges were used to send men to the guillotine during The Terror. The next time I’m in Savage’s drinking establishment I shall remember to raise a glass in a toast, “To liberty and totality!”

As I said before, too bad the recall petitioner is not required to state an actual reason for recall. It would be interesting to see with what Savage and CRG come up.

But let’s deal with his other criticisms. Savage says the smoking ban in Wauwatosa does not apply to taverns. The smoking ban does not exclude drinking establishments that earn more than 50% of their income from food purchases. That is why Hector’s, Biggs Roadhouse and Open Hearth had to apply for exemptions from the policy.

That said, was Savage only upset when his ox got gored? Because to most rational observers the difference of above and below the exemption line was hardly a matter of principle. The time for this lesson in freedom was when the aldermen (including Sullivan) passed this law locally if it is meant sincerely.

As for not listening to his constituents, since Sullivan was in favor of the ban as an alderman, and in favor of the ban when he was elected to the state senate, it hardly follows that he was not listening to his constituents since they knowingly voted for him anyway, both in spite of and because of his stand on smoking in public establishments. If Savage has a reasonable complaint it’s with his fellow citizens who elected Sullivan in the first place, not with the elected official that followed through on his stated beliefs.

(Note: Savage can correct me on this point but I do not believe he is actually a resident of the district, which means only that his representation failed to persuade Sullivan. If that is the case, the “failure to defend” would surely mean that representative or state senator’s recall.)

Whether or not so many of his constituents see this as a matter of freedom is debateable, and certainly the electoral evidence so far would convince even “deep thinkers” such as myself otherwise.

I would also doubt that there are truly “thousands” within his district that do not care about Sullivan’s party identification that have an opinion on the recall, either for or against. Savage’s assertion is either disingenuous or delusional.

My suggestion to Savage is to drop the recall. If he insists on going forward, I would suggest he manage his legislative time card well. He might be careful, too, not to issue his rebuttal on the legislative clock. After all, he’s already under one investigation.

The sound and fury of the Pridemore affair

State Representative Don Pridemore and his staff are in a little hot water because of a press release they issued attacking Tony Evers, candidate for state superintendent of public instruction. The press release was sent out using a state e-mail address and on the state assembly office letterhead, and it listed the representative’s toll-free state office phone number.

The press release read:

Madison- State Representative Don Pridemore(R-Hartford) issued the following statement regarding Tony Evers.

“One thing we can all agree on is that Wisconsin needs to change the way we educate our children. We need to continue programs that are working and re-evaluate or discontinue programs that are not. We need to have fresh ideas and a new outlook on what is important in our state’s educational system. We cannot continue to throw good money after bad and we need to offer more choices to parents and families in this state.

Tony Evers clearly represents four more years of the same failed policies that has our education system in Wisconsin wasting more and more taxpayer dollars, without any significant increase in the results. When former State Representative Sue Jeskewitz called for an audit of the SAGE program, Tony Evers was there to say NO WAY! The SAGE program is costing the taxpayers of Wisconsin just short of 224 million dollars per biennium. Imagine spending that kind of money without knowing where it is going or how effective the program has been in improving the education of our children.

Tony Evers is calling for the repeal of the qualified economic offer QEO that teachers now enjoy. The QEO simply states that if school districts offer less than a 3.8% increase in wages and benefits for teachers, the union can demand arbitration. Tony Evers supports removing the QEO and revenue limits, leaving school boards, taxpayers and teachers to fight over contracts each budget cycle, further alienating teachers from their communities. That is a short sighted approach that caters to the WEAC agenda and shows a lack of leadership and independence.

Furthermore, being in the pocket of WEAC the most powerful lobby group in the state (which by the way uses your tax dollars from teacher salaries to run ads against any candidate they don’t agree with) will assure us that Tony Evers will oppose every idea or program that does not increase WEAC’s monopoly on education. WEAC is a teachers union and that union represents the interests of school teachers and school teachers only. Despite WEAC’s million dollar advertizing blitz trying to claim “every kid deserves a great school”, WEAC has repeatedly rejected any idea that does not maintain their selfish interests.

These issues alone make Tony Evers a bad choice to lead Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction into the future.

Missing from the press release was any expressed advocacy that someone should vote for Evers’ opponent, Rose Fernandez. No mention was made of her at all, and the reader is left to make their own conclusions. While it may not have been the brightest thing in the world to do, I think it would be hard to call this illegal.

After all, if we were to send to little GAB prison every politician who took a pot shot at another politician in a press release, Governor Doyle would have to open the prison doors just so the Senate and the Assembly could have quorums.

There is a certain irony, of course, that draws our attention to the matter. It wasn’t that long ago that Representative Pridemore explored the idea of further tightening the restrictions on free speech in this state by requiring all organizations that engage in issue advocacy to identify their donors. This in turn prompted reaction by Wisconsin Right to Life, followed by the Pridemore paranoia that WRTL was going to recruit the Bucher Boogeyman to run against Pridemore in a primary. Perhaps after examination under the microscope of the GAB, Representative Pridemore will be that much more reluctant to see more state control of free speech in the future. One can only hope.

Interesting, too, who filed the complaint against Pridemore. I have learned it was filed by Democratic Attorney Mike Maistelman, the favorite Democratic go-to for this kind of work. Maistelman confirmed for me that he was hired by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin for this matter, even though it is a non-partisan race.

Well, non-partisan in the sense that the office is non-partisan. And the candidate not involved in this affair, Rose Fernandez, is certainly non-partisan, attracting support from independents, Democrats, Republicans, WEAC union members, and people of every background.

You may remember in the primary the Republican establishment candidate, Van Mobley, was easily trounced despite a large war chest and endorsements by several leading Republicans.

That leaves the Democrats, and if there was any doubt left as to who is beholden to the Democrats and the WEAC leadership, it was erased when the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed this complaint on behalf of Tony Evers. They are determined to drag this dog of a candidate across the finish line and continue their stranglehold over this government body.

One wonders how this worked. When WEAC decided not to get their hands dirty and told the Democrats, “Jump!” did Alec Loftus even ask, “How high?” Or did the Democrats just scurry over their keyboards and Blackberries to obey? I have this vision of hunch-backed half-witted gophers answering to the beck and call of the WEAC Dr. Frankenstein. “Yes, masters, we hear and obey.”

And putting Loftus out there to be shocked, shocked that politics might be going on in the Capitol Dome is a bit rich, given his father’s confessions in print of activity that would make Chuck Chvala blush.

At least it gives the liberal bloggers a chance to yell, “We found one! We found one!” Good thing the DPW was there to help. If only it were nearly as serious as the case the Democrats, the liberal bloggers and their friends in the media did not want to talk about.

But since my opinion on this matter was so eagerly desired (such enthusiasm from my fans), we're sure liberal bloggers one and all will read my words of wisdom and readily agree that the Democratic complaint really is sound and fury signifying nothing.

De-caf edition of Idiot Politician of the Week

With the introduction of the Friday afternoon cocktail, pinch-hitting for the Jo Egelhoff on Thursdays, and column writing on Tuesdays, we’re moving the Idiot Politician of the Week to Saturdays. Lucky for us, the move snagged us a last-minute entry this week. On any given week, the idiot politicians are thicker than mosquitoes in July. This week we seem to already be in summer re-runs, and we’re only in May.

Badger Blogger has been tracking the idiotic behavior of State Representative Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee). Fields, you may recall, was arrested not that long ago for driving under the influence. What made it ironic was Fields’ participation in the effort to get Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk to run against then-incumbent Peg Lautenschlager in the Democratic Primary for State Attorney General. Fields avoided the “Idiot Politician of the Week” prize by promising to accept the consequences of his actions.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and Fields has suddenly found Alan Eisenberg. Fields entered a plea of “not guilty” and then claimed it was a miscommunication with his attorney. Meanwhile, Fields found himself in sympathy with someone from the Hmong community who was stopped for drunk driving and then decided to resist arrest. As Bruce at Badger Blogger put it so well, Fields decided to side with someone who was seen on video resisting arrest over the police officers that protect his neighborhood. But Fields knows his natural constituency: ethnic drunk drivers.

Speaking of public drinkers, I’d pick on Senator Hillary Clinton for not being able to get coffee from a coffee machine, but until I have my first cup of the day I’m pretty helpless myself. Besides, remember the good old days when you could just get a cup of coffee? When your choices were black, cream, sugar? No, but we are going to pick on the Senator for choosing a product that clearly exploits the poor campesinos in a way that’s harmful to the environment. After being befuddled by a coffee maker, the Senator should have announced loudly, “There’s no Fair-Trade, environmentally friendly, high-tariff coffee option on this machine! I bet this stuff got into the country because of NAFTA, which my opponent secretly supports!”

Back to Wisconsin, State Representative Don Pridemore (R) once again demonstrates a skin thin enough to be translucent. Rather than let the matter drop, the state representative again lashes out at the McBride-Bucher-WRTL-Robinson cabal determined to challenge him in a primary election all because he might be opposed to anonymous political speech. You see, it’s the Democrats driving him to paranoia. Meanwhile, he knows that McBride and her husband have stolen the frozen strawberries and if he’s given just a little more time he can prove it. There’s a duplicate key to his office. He knows that because of the WRTL robocalls to his district. But he’s outsmarted them, you see. Even if they’re anonymously whispering behind his back. And please ignore the ball bearings in his hand.

The runner-up Idiot Politician of the Week is Racine Mayor Gary Becker. Becker found himself the featured speaker at the May 1st rally for illegal aliens sponsored by the dubious Voces De La Frontera. Becker is obviously not nearly as clever as the mayor of Racine’s northern neighbor. Mayor Barrett showed up, shook a few hands, and um, er, had a “previous engagement” to attend rather than be seen supporting calls for general amnesty for every illegal alien. Nope, Becker stuck it out among the sombreros, Mexican flags and Spanish chants. You know, all those great indicators of how even illegal immigrants are assimilating into our culture.

But this week’s Idiot Politician of the Week is Baltimore City Councilman James Kraft. Kraft took the prize when he declared that the choice between paper and plastic at the grocery store is the choice between freedom and The Holocaust. (ht: Fred Dooley)

A broad slate of environmental proposals that would ban plastic bags from city grocery stores and add a 10-cent deposit for all types of bottles purchased in Baltimore came under fire Thursday at a citywide hearing.

The measures, sponsored by City Councilman James Kraft, include banning plastic bags and Styrofoam cups, and adding a 10-cent deposit for plastic and glass bottles of soda and beer — all part of an aggressive green agenda touted by Kraft, solidifying his reputation as the council’s environmental crusader.

Painting the proposed laws in broad strokes, Kraft likened his efforts as similar to confronting the threat of Nazi Germany prior to World War II.

“We don’t want to be criticized by future generations for not doing enough now as were those who dealt with the Germans then,” Kraft said at a hearing in the headquarters of the Living Classrooms in Fells Point.

Perhaps the councilman might consider breathing into a paper bag rather than mandating them at the grocery store. His penchant for hyperventilating may have already led to hypoxia, the resulting brain damage causing him to become our Idiot Politician of the Week. His prize will be delivered after we finish invading Poland.

McBride clubs Pridemore one more time

Jessica McBride has the last word on State Rep. Don Pridemore's understanding of the First Amendment.

In response to the robocalls, Pridemore whipped out a press release that, in disclosure, mentioned my husband. Flailing at an imaginary electoral strawman, Pridemore raised speculation that my husband is going to run against him and speculated that it couldn’t be a coincidence that Wisconsin Right to Life was putting out robocalls. Huh? My first thought upon seeing it was: Paul’s running? (Just kidding).

The speculation derived from a blogger who admits she was completely making it up. The best line came from Freeman columnist James Wigderson, who opined that he’d like to see my husband in the state Assembly because “after the first meeting he’d probably demand mandatory Breathalyzer checks for his colleagues.“

Good grief, now Pridemore’s really going to be engaged in conspiracy theories. “His wife wrote a column about me!” the next press release will say. It’s called freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, my husband, who has not considered running for state Assembly (but, thanks, Representative Pridemore for the idea), was working on some legal case blissfully unaware of it all.

Pridemore also took off after Wisconsin Right to Life, stating the group should be “ashamed” of itself. Pridemore insisted that he’s 100 percent pro life. That’s not the point. The group’s upset that there’s evidence he’s not 100 percent for free speech. Under fire, he tried to recast his actions as an attempt to assure voters “retain their rights” if Democrats try to appoint judges.

The way to assure voters retain their rights is to vote against Democratic attempts to appoint judges.

He continued: “The Democrats clearly cannot face the simple fact that their bought-and-paid-for WEAC candidate Louis Butler was defeated in this past election.”

That’s true. So why was Pridemore acting upset too?

Pridemore also stated, “I have told Wisconsin Right to Life that I have no intention of going forward with a bill that would require third party advocacy groups to list their donors, yet in today’s press release they insinuate exact (sic) that.”

Actually, it was an earlier press release from Don Pridemore that insinuated exactly that, one it took him a long time to publicly correct.

It announced: “State Representative Don Pridemore has called for interest group and third-party donor records to be made available to the public. ‘I’ve been considering this legislation for quite some time now, but in the wake of the judicial elections on April 1, it has become even more imperative.’”

Why was it so imperative if the bought-and-paid for WEAC candidate lost?

On Friday, Pridemore whipped out yet another press release, insisting that any reference to third-party donors has been removed from draft legislation, which he called “flexible.”

To me the funniest part of the story is that Paul Bucher was completely unaware that all of this was going on.

By the way, what does anyone think the over-under on the Breathalyzer failure rate is?

It must be true. I read it on the internet.

Controversies come, controversies go. And I'm rather skeptical about most of what I read. Here was this morning's controversy:

April 17, 2008 - Yale senior, Aliza Shvarts ,artificially inseminated herself several times in order to have multiple abortions for her "art" project.

The April 17th edition of Yale Daily News reports that senior Aliza Shvarts' "art" show is slated to begin next Tuesday, on April 29th. It features a documentation of a nine-month process in which Shvarts artificially inseminated herself multiple times and used abortifacients to induce multiple abortions while filming the process. The exhibit will display the videos of her abortions as well as blood samples from the process. According to Shvarts, the goal of her art exhibit is to "spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body."

Pretty horrific. However, the truth shall be known, and I find myself in full agreement with the statement from Yale regarding the questions raised had the story been true:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

This is why I'm a slow blogger sometimes. It's a lesson politicians can learn, too.

State Representative Don Pridemore found himself the target of some criticism today from Wisconsin Right to Life and others for supporting a law that would require political independent expenditure groups to fully disclose their donors. No word yet on when Pridemore will introduce a bill to ban The Federalist Papers from public libraries.

Coincidentally, this happened the same day Cindy Kilkenny had hypoxic visions in a vacuum of former Waukesha DA Paul Bucher challenging Don Pridemore in the September primary. Pridemore, in a rather thin-skinned response to Wisconsin Right to Life, indulges his paranoia as well.

The timing of this attack coincides with increased speculation that Paul Bucher may run for the 99th District Assembly seat this fall. Is this really a coincidence, though? We must remember that this is the same Paul Bucher who was visibly upset when Representative Pridemore chose not to endorse Bill Gleisner’s candidacy for the Court of Appeals—a candidacy which in many ways depended upon publicizing Gleisner’s pro-life record and contributions.

Of course, a little time and patience would have revealed that Bucher had no intention of taking on Pridemore. Maybe a little embarrassment from his temper tantrum will teach Pridemore not to speculate without knowing anything, too.

Um, no, not likely

Put any prediction of Paul Bucher taking on State Representative Don Pridemore in the primary at the very low end of probabilities.

However, the thought of Paul Bucher sitting in the Republican Assembly Caucus does strike me as pretty funny. After the first meeting he'd probably demand mandatory breathalyzer checks for his colleagues.

And considering Pridemore's support of legislation that would curtail our first amendment freedoms, maybe he should have a primary opponent. But we can safely bet that it wouldn't be Paul Bucher.

Since Cindy Kilkenny* admits she made it up from thin air, we'll just move on to the next bit of blog rumor fun.


* They killed Kenny!