Recall backers' claim not serious

I was cc'ed on the following announcement by Vince Schmuki from WIN, the group behind the failed effort to recall Governor Doyle:

TO THE W.I.N. MEMBERSHIP/ RECALL DOYLE TEAM and Media:

If the news as reported in today's Journal Sentinel turns out to be true, give all of yourselves a collective pat on the back. You, through all of your tireless efforts, helped to bring down one of the most well entrenched governors in history!

I always new that it was a possiblity that we could intimidate Jim Doyle into retiring from WI politics and we may never know how large or small a role we played in his final decision but I guarantee you that our latest P.I.E. strategy was the cherry on the sundae. This guy had skeletons in his closet that he didn't want anyone to ever see and we were about to bring them out for the whole world to see.

My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of you, including those no longer active with us, for your citizen activist role in making this happen. Ordinary people, such as the 6000 of you from our Recall Doyle effort, do make the difference! TODAY YOU SHINE!

Sincerely,
Vince
Vince Schmuki/ Representing WIN-Wisconsinites Interest Now For the Recall Doyle Team

Let's be serious for a moment here. Unless I hear differently from the governor himself, there is no reason to believe that the failed recall effort that did not even get to the signature-gathering stage had any impact on Governor Doyle's decision to not seek re-election. If anything, their failure to capture the attention of the state would have been a thumb on the scale in favor of running again. It would be as if Churchill claimed the attack on Gallipoli forced the Turks to surrender.

The recall was a mistaken effort with nothing to show for it except for some frustrated volunteers and lost productive time. Perhaps before someone listens to CRG and considers recalling a public official, they should consider this debacle - and the Sullivan debacle - first. Or they could just read my columns and blog posts on when a recall is appropriate.

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.

Kessler leads his governor back into school choice fight

State Representative Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee) is no friend of the Milwaukee school choice program and proved it again with a purely gratuitous move to reduce the enrollment cap for school choice students from 22,500 to 19,500. Readers will remember the fight to set the cap at 22,500, and how much heat Governor Doyle took. Now the question is, will Doyle be willing to take the heat again to throw 3,000 students out of the choice program?

Besides putting Doyle on the spot, if the provision passes the Assembly it will put State Senator Jeff Plale and State Senator Jim Sullivan on record, too. Especially with Sullivan, this is not the fight the Democrats want.

Even liberal blogger and MPS teacher Jay Bullock recognizes this was a bad political move by Kessler. I suspect that if it makes to Governor Doyle's desk, he'll veto the cap reduction.

Republicans can win on education issues, and moves like Kessler's are just more ammunition for an education reform agenda.

Sullivan doesn't merit a recall

My column in today's Waukesha Freeman:

Sullivan recall not best option

Ousting official over smoking ban misuses voters’ choice

Belly up to the bar and sign a petition. At least that’s what some bar owners and the Citizens for Responsible Government Network are hoping. On Tuesday, they launched an effort to recall state Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa. They only need 18,000 signatures, a number well within reach.

I wish the law had been changed in Wisconsin to require recall organizers to state the reason for the recall when they’re collecting petition signatures. The reason given on these petitions would be really interesting.

The press release from CRG states, “We will not tolerate one more tax, one more anti-business policy and most of all; we will not lose one more freedom to special interest groups with a hidden agenda.” The freedom, unmentioned in the press release, is the ability to smoke tobacco products in restaurants and bars.

I’m sympathetic to the argument. I don’t like the idea of a statewide smoking ban, either. It is one more needless intrusion of government into the lives of the citizens of our state, kind of like Waukesha’s ban on outdoor fire pits after midnight.

Sullivan voted for the statewide smoking ban that finally passed this year. Sullivan’s vote is hardly a surprise to his district. He is a supporter of the smoking ban, of which his constituents were aware when they voted him into office.

The municipality that takes up the largest portion of Sullivan’s district, Wauwatosa, has had a smoking ban already in place for nearly three years. No elected officials in city government faced a recall for their support of the smoking ban. Hardly a surprise when their representative in Madison also supports a smoking ban.

Much of the opposition to the smoking ban this year dissipated when it appeared likely the ban would be included in the state budget. Lawmakers moved to pass separate legislation instead, allowing for the exemptions for places like Nice Ash in Waukesha, and to delay implementation until July 5, 2010.

The law was inevitable, and Sullivan’s vote was hardly decisive. It passed the Senate 25-8.

Unfortunately for Sullivan, at least one tavern owner, Bill Savage, didn’t like Sullivan’s vote, and that tavern owner happens to be staff for a Republican Assembly member, Don Pridemore.

Sullivan also has the misfortune of being at the top of the list of Democrats targeted by the state Republican Party. The Democrats hold an 18-15 majority in the state senate. A two-seat switch would give Republicans a majority in that chamber, putting an end to oneparty rule in Madison. Sullivan’s district is considered to be Republican-leaning, and Sullivan is a vulnerable rookie.

As you can see, if the recall organizers had to give a real reason for the recall, it would be a little harder to explain than “voted for the smoking ban.”

If the recall petition drive is successful in the next 58 days, a special election would be called and Sullivan would have to defend his seat.

Among the possible Republican candidates is State Rep. Leah Vukmir. Vukmir is a conservative and an energetic politician. She’s a reformer who started in politics because of education issues, and takes a hard line on taxes. She would make a great state senator.

In a normal election Vukmir would give Sullivan a tough fight. In a special election, with the attention of the entire state on the race, she would be the odds-on favorite to win. It would also be a “free shot” for her because she would not have to give up her Assembly seat to run, unlike in the general election in 2010.

But as much as I love the idea of “state Sen. Leah Vukmir” I loathe recalling a politician just because of one vote on one issue. Recalls should be when there is demonstrable misconduct in office. In this case, Sullivan has not committed any misconduct, nor can his opponents point to any.

This is a policy difference, not an incident that puts into doubt our trust of our public representatives. The recall effort should make us uncomfortable with its partisan origins and opportunism. Sullivan’s constituents can wait until 2010 to vote him out of office, an effort I will wholeheartedly support.

(James Wigderson is a blogger publishing at http://wigdersonlibrarypub.blogspot.com and a Waukesha resident. His column runs Thursdays in The Freeman.)

CRG files to start recall of Jim Sullivan

State Senator Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) is facing a recall effort in his district because he was one vote in the 25-8 majority that passed a state-wide smoking ban. Unfortunately for Sullivan, he's at the top of the GOP target list and one of the tavern owners in his district happens to be a staff member for Republican State Representative Don Pridemore.

Ironically, the city he represents has had a smoking ban for three years, so it's hardly shocking that their State Senator might support a smoking ban, too. (I believe the number of recalls in Wauwatosa because of the ban is still zero.)

I hate the idea of a smoking ban. I hate the idea of a recall of a state legislator over one vote on one issue even more.

Look for more on this topic in my Waukesha Freeman column this Thursday. Just a couple of the big shiny coins in your pocket is all it costs.

Can he walk and practice law at the same time?

The Associated Press infamously asked, what comes after Senator Kennedy? Apparently Massachusetts State Senator James Marzilli is looking to become an honorary Kennedy.

Marzilli, 50, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six charges that he tried to grope one woman and harass another in Lowell Tuesday. He was released on $1,500 bail and is due back in court next month for a pretrial hearing.

Just last month, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said there was not enough evidence to charge Marzilli with inappropriately touching a woman he drove home from a fund-raiser in Arlington in April.

Leone said authorities are investigating allegations against the senator of inappropriate sexual contact with a woman in Brighton two years ago and in Arlington last year. Lowell police said that they are investigating reports from three other women who said Marzilli accosted them in Lowell Tuesday.

This is the second time the senator has been accused. But can we safely call Marzilli an idiot for hiring a lawyer named Kennedy for this type of case?

How about a collection of idiots in nearby New York? How about the whole United Nations General Assembly who managed to find an actual Commie to lead them?

The General Assembly of the United Nations voted this week to elect Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann as its new president. Readers with a long memory will recall Father D'Escoto (he's a Catholic priest) as Nicaragua's foreign minister during the Sandinista regime of the 1980s. He's also the winner of the 1985 Lenin Prize. Only at the U.N. does that count as a recommendation.

The U.N. also voted to name the government of Burma – which otherwise has been busy preventing humanitarian assistance from reaching hundreds of thousands of its own needy victims of last month's devastating cyclone – as one of the Assembly's vice presidents. Only at the U.N. is this not considered an embarrassment.

"Father" d'Escoto is already in full United Nations mode:

He also called for the U.N. to take a stand against "acts of aggression, such as those occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan." That would be American aggression, not the Taliban's, the Mahdi Army's or al Qaeda's.

Oh Heck, why not make a Commie head of the UN? Doesn't it confirm what most of us thought of the organization? Too bad Kurt Waldheim's dead. They could dig him up and go for the offensive totalitarian and fulfill the UN's mission of hating Israel at the same time.

Not too far away from here a similar-sized body, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, found former comedian* Al Franken suitable to be a US Senator. He may have questionable finances. He may be offensive. But gosh darn it, the Democrats like him. In the end, not a dissenting voice was heard.

One voice we wish would just go away to Plains, GA, is former President Jimmy Carter. During an interview with the Guardian:

I ask whether he detects an in-the-gut conversion to the path of peace in the Hamas leaders he met: "I do, but I may be naive and I may be mistaken."

That should be his epitaph.

But we're looking for a prize winner, and we find the prize idiot a little closer to our village. State Senator Jim Sullivan (Duh-Wauwatosa) actually picked a fight with a high school girl (15:35 in) about her school project and she out-debated him on vote fraud. While he's harrassing high school students and lying to them about his record, he's forgetting to mail in the paperwork to keep his law license in good standing. (ht: Badger Blogger) His clients may be wondering if their right to competent council has been compromised, and Jim Sullivan earns our idiot politician of the week award. As soon as he sends in the proper paperwork, we'll send him his prize.

* former, because he hasn't been funny for years.