The gang knows him as "Two-Face Doyle"

This is taken from the latest Wisconsin Club for Growth newsletter.

The Many Faces of Governor Doyle

With Governor Doyle proposing $2.2 billion in new taxes over the next two years, it causes one to wonder: Has Doyle ever made a promise he actually intended to keep, or has he simply counted on a deadbeat media and misinformed electorate?

Here are just a few of Doyle's broken promises:

• When running for Governor, Doyle specifically supported eliminating the “Frankenstein Veto,” saying governors shouldn’t be able to write their own laws merely by making the budget into a word puzzle. As governor, Doyle flipped completely and said he believed this authority was a necessary power for the executive.

• As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, Doyle ripped Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk over her plan to release prisoners early, positioning himself as the “law and order” candidate. As governor, Doyle has proposed essentially what Falk sought to do - release nonviolent prisoners early to save money.

• Facing a budget deficit in 2003, Doyle strongly emphasized how important it was for the government not to raise taxes. His latest budget combined with the recently signed budget “repair” bill, raises taxes by $2.2 billion. Doyle also has repeatedly warned of the dangers of using budget tricks and one time money to balance the budget, then gone on and done exactly what he’s warned against in record numbers.

• As Attorney General, Doyle supported the ability of the Department of Natural Resources Board to pick the secretary of the DNR – now, as governor, he thinks the governor should pick the secretary.

• In past budgets, Doyle has proposed linking the quality of day care centers to the amount of state funds they receive. In this budget, however, he proposes regulating day care centers, but doesn’t include the financial incentives for the centers to improve.

Several of Doyle’s flip-flops have serious consequences. Raising taxes by $2.2 billion in a recession is cyanide for the economy. With unemployment soaring above 7.6% in the state, employers won’t have the funds on hand to continue to employ workers, which almost certainly will keep people out of their jobs for longer periods.

But even worse is Doyle’s proposal to let 2,500 criminals out of prison, a proposal Doyle roundly criticized when trying to with the governorship in 2002.

Last week Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke held a press conference where he discussed the danger inherent in Doyle’s early release plan.

Governor Jim Doyle wants to once again play Russian roulette with the safety and security of our seniors, women and children who are disproportionately the ones most affected by fear, violence and disorder. Statistically the people who will pay the highest price in the form of injury, death and emotional trauma in the form of fear will be Milwaukee’s minority community, because that is where the majority of these criminal perpetrators will return.

For them to propose this dangerous experiment shows how out-of-touch they are with the reality of criminal behavior. For the governor to make policy decisions on public safety, solely for budgetary purposes is reckless, irresponsible and an abdication of his most elementary responsibility--that being to secure the personal safety of citizens. Studies and research show that states with lenient sentencing and corrections policies have higher rates of recidivism. The numbers don’t lie. This budgetary proposal does...

I’m sick and tired of the word game being played by the governor and other criminal sympathizers where they use the term “non-violent” to refer to the prison population that he wants to release early. I’m here to tell you that there are very few “non-violent” people in the state prison system. It’s not where we send all law violators; it’s where we send the worst of the worst. U.S. Department of Justice figures show that well over half of those currently in prison are there for violent crimes, and many are repeat offenders and habitual felons.

Doyle’s budget has a lot not to like. But letting criminals out of prison, while finding $500 million for his buddies in the teachers’ union is simply unconsionable.

Falk opponent has speech reviewed by WMC agent

If there's a lesson here, it's double-check your Word documents before you send them out.

Later that same day, Mistele sent the text of her speech to media and others, as a word document, from her personal email.

If you save this word file to desktop and check "Properties," then "Summary," an interesting thing happens: The listed title of the document comes up as "PUGH."

Pugh who? Jim Pugh, the spokesman for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the "nonpartisan" big-business lobby that backs mainly Republican candidates?

That's the fact, Jack.

"Here's the situation," explains Mistele campaign manager Jon Horne. "When Nancy was drafting her announcement, she considered input from Jim Pugh, who is a personal friend of Nancy's and has no position in our campaign. Nancy writes her own speeches, and her announcement was no exception."

Fine in a Republican primary, not so good when running for Dane County executive.

(Ht: Critical Badger)

Tag-teaming Kathleen Falk

Dave Blaska notes that Verona mayor Jon Hochkammer may join Nancy Mistele in campaign to unseat Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk.

He is currently serving his second term as mayor of Verona, one of the fastest and smartest-growing communities in Dane County. He joined the Verona City Council in 1997. Just Monday night, he finished another municipal budget — cops, streets, infrastructure — the stuff the county execs do. He already has county government experience, but in Manitowoc, as a member of its county board from 1984 to 1991, ending as its chairman and de facto chief executive.

In the 1990s he was State Senate sergeant of arms under both Democrat(ic) and Republican regimes.

He is currently employed by the Wisconsin Counties Association. That is the only reason he has not already announced; he would have to take a leave of absence to make the plunge. So, there remains a chance he will not make the race. A small chance.

Blaska predicts the two candidates, Mistele and Hochkammer, will make a formidable combination against Falk.

The combination of Hochkammer and Mistele is the good cop/bad cop dynamic duo that will bring The Kathleen down. And good lord is she vulnerable. The hometown girl lost 2 to 1 to Peg Lautenschlager here in Dane County two years ago in the Democrat(ic) primary for attorney general. There is Falk fatigue — perhaps inevitable for anyone who has served 12 years.

As the mayor of Verona, it will be insteresting if Hochkammer can overcome the whole Capulet-Montague murder-suicide controversy.

Let me get this straight. Wasserman is worried he lost in an unfair election?

Is there no limit to the size of the Wasserman's ego that he can't let go even after he lost by 1,990 votes?

However, some Wasserman backers are raising questions about whether all ballots in Shorewood included the contest.

Shorewood Village Clerk Sherry Grant said today all the ballots were identical and there were no problems; Lisa Weiner Milwaukee Election Commission administrator, said the ballots were either all correct or all wrong.

Weiner said no official demand to check the ballots has been made.

You realize the Wasserman campaign has a problem. If they take this election to court, their candidate cannot take the stand as a credible witness.

I think it would be a real trick for Wasserman (or any Democrat) to overcome 1,990 votes. If he wants any future in politics, somebody on his team needs to tell him to concede now rather than end up looking like Kathleen Falk.

The Kathleen's troubles

As a conservative writer in Madison, Dave Blaska must be more lonely that the Maytag repair man. Dave is right on it this week tracking the falling fortunes of "The Kathleen" and speculates on the possible challengers to Dane County Executive Falk.

Against a backdrop of the degradation of our public spaces by chronic vagrancy, the murders of Joel Marino and Brittany Zimmermann -- in their homes! -- have taken the issue simultaneously to the ground zero of leftist downtown Madison and to the wider county government. People are getting a crash course in why Dane County government matters. They are also learning why the world's greatest park system and all the beautiful lakes and rain gardens are for naught if people don't feel safe.

Who dreamed that, caught up in the glare would be one Kathleen Falk. Jeff Mayers' WisPolitics stock report, published in the Sunday newspaper, has The Kathleen's political stock falling faster than a subprime mortgage derivative.

The question now is whether the controversy will be enough to scare up an opponent or two for her expected re-election campaign next year. Insiders also say her statewide future... is downright dark now. Think of the attack ad material from this case, they note.

Did someone say "attack ad"? You have come to the right place, my pretty. What time is it boys and girls? TIME TO GO NEGATIVE!

It's 3 a.m. The telephone rings. Another public safety crisis. A woman with a pageboy haircut picks up the phone. And hangs up. "Something about life and death," she yawns. "Not lakes and trees."

Yes, it is Kathleen's turn to face the voters in April 2009. She can point to doubling the amount of greenspace -- much of it marshland -- purchased in her 12 years in office for a pretty penny. But will anyone this side of Brett Hulsey really care? Not to diminish the political clout held by the enviros -- they remain the single strongest political force. More powerful than the unions or the Democrat(ic) party.

But her Hillary Clinton-like knifing of Peg Lautenschlager in the A.G.'s race still rankles the Ed Garvey/Hugo Chavez wing of the party. And what does she have to show for it? J.B. Van Hollen.

God bless America!

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.

These idiots are all wet

It’s been a rough week out there for politicians. I thought that maybe I would spare the usual suspects some embarrassment this week because of Easter. But then the fools came out of the woodwork fast and furious.

Can we start with Senator Barack Obama? Obama’s long time close relationship with the worst embarrassment of a minister since… wowzers. I know the Left has been pointing to some doozies on the Right, but then we’ve heard it all before, haven’t we? How do they like it when we turn it around? Oh, not very much.

It’s not the close relationship with Reverend “God Damn America” Wright that gets the junior senator from the flatlands in trouble. No, it’s the claim he sat there for 20 years in the pews and only heard the good stuff, and then he threw grandma under the bus.

The moral of the story, Grandmas, don’t let your babies grow up to be senators.

Then there was State Representative Jason Fields (Democrat-Milwaukee). Fields was one of ten members of the state legislature who stabbed then-Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager in the back by urging Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk to run for the Democratic nomination. Lautenschlager was consider vulnerable due to a drunk driving conviction in a state car that led to all sorts of questions about her use of state vehicles.

How did that work out, Fields?

This week Fields was himself busted for DUI. Can you say, “irony?” I knew you could.

Fields avoids being the winner by not being stupid even when he was being stupid. He didn’t pull a DYKWIA, and he didn’t claim he was on his way to Madison on official business and therefore should be let go. Warning to legislators, when getting busted for DUI those attempted evasions will move you immediately to the top of the idiots list.

It’s a bi-partisan “idiot politician of the week” this week with State Senator Mary Lazich making a late entry into the contest. In the Small Business Times she claimed eighteen months on a committee studying the issue as credentials as an expert on the proposed Great Lakes Compact, but then turned around and complained the State Senate acted too hastily in passing it and that she didn’t know what the amendments did even two weeks later.

Mary Lazich is apparently not an Evelyn Woods graduate.

Wait a second, it’s a non-partisan contestant for first place! Falling just short is Judge Michael Gableman. If he loses the Supreme Court election to Justice Louis Butler, Gableman can point the finger of blame at an ad attacking Butler for defending a sex offender who then went on and offended again. Missing from the ad was the dull part of the story where Butler was unsuccessful in defending the criminal, the criminal went to jail, served his time, was released, and then decided to re-offend.

The Gableman campaign had to know the ad was going to be controversial and compared to the Willie Horton ad (it was). The campaign could’ve weathered that. But they omitted the most important details from the story that made it clear nothing that happened was Butler’s fault. Not surprisingly, Gableman got clubbed like a baby seal by both the left and the right. He then compounded the problem by getting into a dispute over releasing his e-mails with the Associated Press. It was not a good week for the judge.

But there’s something in the whitewater of Whitewater, WI, home to Police Chief James Coan and City Manager Kevin Brunner, that’s really detrimental to the collective IQ. Coan, with Brunner’s backing, is using taxpayer resources and the power of the police to pursue pseudonymous blogger John Adams, author of FreeWhitewater.com. In another community, Brunner and Coan would be thrown out of office for such behavior. That there isn’t a recall effort yet shows the need for more people in Whitewater to speak out and defend free speech. So while they may cling to their little fiefdom, Brunner and Coan have become laughingstocks in the rest of the state and this week’s Idiot Politicians of the Week.

Rep. Jason Fields arrested for DUI

Rep. Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee) was arrested for DUI.

MILWAUKEE (AP) - State Rep. Jason Fields says he's been arrested for drunken driving.

The Milwaukee Democrat says he was arrested Tuesday night.

He didn't say in a statement where he was arrested. He didn't return a message seeking comment at his office on Wednesday.

But Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is planning to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the arrest of a state official. He hasn't said who was arrested or why.

The 34-year-old Fields was first elected to the Assembly in 2004 and re-elected two years later.

He says he accepts full responsibility for his actions and will not contest the citations.

Here is Fields' statement of apology. So far, he's not denying it and he's not trying to dodge responsibility. If the police say he was cooperative, how interested are we in the story?

Will Kathleen Falk count on Fields as a supporter in the future given her new cause of temperance? Is Fields guilty of hypocrisy given he was one of the state legislators who asked Falk to run against then-Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager?

Will any reporter ask him about it?

What's a motto with you?

James Rowen notes the Cap Times Mike Ivey's attempts to find a brand image for Wisconsin ("ash tray of the midwest", "the state that doesn't care about the Great Lakes") and suggests a motto he claims is inspired by WMAC, "Wisconsin. You Won't Like It Here."

Hahahaha.

Problem is, Dane County Executive and general scold Kathleen Falk did Rowen one better, and she wasn't kidding, “No state is worse than we are.”

I'm ready to put it on my license plate with a picture of a bottle of brandy.

After all, what Wisconsinites really like about our state only brings out a snobbish sneer from people like, well, Mike Ivey: "But instead of playing up the state's scenic beauty, progressive political tradition or world class research university, they put cows, corn and a barn on the flip side of the 25-cent piece. Go figure."

I'm beginning to think the Left doesn't like Wisconsin anymore.

Van Hollen on the inactive list

What does it say about a potential Republican candidate for governor when his biggest defender is Democratic political consultant Bill Christofferson?

J.B. Van Hollen, who took office in January, has come under fire for failing to prosecute -- or at least dirty up --the Democratic governor, Jim Doyle. The wingnuts are also unhappy about opinions he's issued on abortion and affirmative action issues.

Christofferson then points to an editorial by Madison's other liberal newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, as more evidence of Van Hollen's "even-handedness":

Sometimes you can tell that a politician is doing his job because he's not in the headlines very often.

Such is the case with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, whose low-key, by-the-book approach so far is a welcome change from the turbulent tenure of his predecessor, Peg Lautenschlager.

Van Hollen, a Republican, has made a string of wise decisions since taking office in January. He also has shown he's not the far-right ideologue or partisan opportunist that some had feared.

That he is not in the headlines as much as his predecessor Peg Lautenschlager probably stems from a rational decision not to swerve into a ditch with a state car while driving drunk.

It's understandable why the Wisconsin State Journal and Bill Christofferson might like the new JB Van Hollen.

After all, Van Hollen could've decided that the change in make-up in the US Supreme Court meant that there's a reasonable probability Wisconsin's ban on partial birth abortions would stand. Or he could have simply said the courts were wrong in this matter, but that it was unlikely the courts would agree with him in the short term. Either answer would have shown more intellectual vigor than Van Hollen has demonstrated so far.

The same answers could have been given in the question of racial preferences being used for admission to UW System universities. One could argue, as WISN's Mark Belling did, that Van Hollen was even behind current case law in the matter given a Supreme Court case ruling this last term.

If Van Hollen is unwilling to challenge the legal status quo, he'll have yielded the courts to the political left as much as if he had decided to not challenge Democrat Kathleen Falk in the general election.

As for Christofferson's pet project, protecting Governor Jim Doyle, Van Hollen never showed much interest in pursuing government corruption cases when he was the federal prosecutor for Western Wisconsin. Why should he start now? Christofferson can actually bet on Van Hollen being less interested in possible public corruption than his predecessor, Peg Lautenschlager.

Republicans should have already noted by now the broken campaign promises of JB Van Hollen: asking for an increase in his budget, similar harassment of business and farms, no initiatives yet on illegal immigration. Unfortunately, he gives his party little hope for improvement.

But he does give the Democrats hope they can re-claim his office while keeping the governor's mansion in 2010. Meanwhile Van Hollen can accumulate a nice scrap book.

Wineke plans on sticking around

Dan Cody is reporting that any rumor that Joe Wineke is stepping down as DPW chairman to be replaced by Kathleen Falk is untrue.

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