Legislature full of boobs

Eating at your favorite local restaurant may be just a bit more eye-popping soon. The state senate is expected to take up the Topless Mom Act, a.k.a. the breast feeding everywhere bill.

The state Senate is expected to take up a bill Tuesday that bars anyone from bothering breast-feeding mothers.

The bill would protect mothers who breast-feed in public and private. Violators could faces fines of up to $200.

The bill has bipartisan support and looks like it has a good chance of getting through both the Senate and Assembly. Gov. Jim Doyle supports it.

We looked at the issue back in January in a column I wrote for the Waukesha Freeman about Facebook having the good taste not to allow the publishing of the bare-boobed mommas' bare boobs.

And speaking of restaurants, it wasn’t that long ago that women won the special right of being able to breast-feed publicly at Applebee’s when that restaurant chain backed down under threat of boycott. Of those women who are upset at the removal of their breast-feeding photos from Facebook, how many of them would be upset if someone took a photo of them breast-feeding their child at Applebee’s and posted it on a Web site?

I suspect they would be irate, and the public breast-feeding argument falls apart upon exposure.

Update! State Senate voted to let it all hang out. On to the state assembly.

When State Senators rob the charge of racism of any meaning

State Senator Bob Jauch is an argument for term limits, and proves it again when he compares Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce to the KKK.

To steal a line from Jim Rowen, people who carelessly throw around KKK labels or images are contemptable idiots. I'm sure Rowen would agree with me in describing Jauch's behavior as thuggish and unbecoming of an elected official.

Technorati Tags: Bob Jauch, Wisconsin State Senate, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Ku Klux Klan

How many members of the League of Women Voters does it take to create a permanent Democratic majority?

Christian Schneider over at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Blog catches the "reformers" of trying to give the Democrats an eight-seat head-start.

Translation: All districts have to be competitive, except for the ones that are majority-minority, which (rightfully) can't be touched. If you consider the six Assembly districts currently represented by minorities, then add in a couple more that could very easily be represented by minorities, you're essentially giving Assembly Democrats an eight-seat handicap going into every election. (Kessler's district probably should have a minority representative, but he was helped by his guest spot on rapper Jay-Z's last album.) The bill does nothing but rig elections to favor Democrats, pure and simple.

The first rule in studying any election system is see whom it benefits. There is no politically neutral election law.

Andrea Kaminsky at the League of Women Voters admits she doesn't understand golf, doesn't have a sense of humor, and questions Schneider's workload.

We had asked candidates if they would support and vote for legislative measures making electoral competitiveness a legal or constitutional standard for establishing state legislative and congressional district boundaries following the next census. We also asked them if they would support the creation of an independent commission to handle the task of redrawing districts after each census beginning in 2011. The alternative would be to continue to have our current legislative leaders negotiate behind closed doors, a process which ultimately costs us millions just to maintain safe districts for incumbents.

But never mind the second question, it was the question about competitive districts that grabbed Mr. Schneider’s attention. He said it was answered with the introduction of a constitutional amendment (AJR 63), which ironically none of our groups supported and which never even had a hearing. From there he concluded that the League of Women Voters does not support the Voting Rights Act, something we lobbied very hard for at the national, state and local levels. It’s confusing, but so is golf for me.

In a couple of weeks the League will again partner with Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Common Cause in Wisconsin to ask candidates to state their positions on issues that get at how to maintain a government that is honest, accountable, transparent and responsive to its citizens. We hope all candidates will respond to our questionnaire, so voters will know how where they stand on these issues and so Christian Schneider will have something to write about.

In other words, shut up until we tell the public how we're going to do this.

Christian Schneider responds by speaking slower so Kaminski understands,

...they don’t seem to make any point that refutes anything I said in the column. For the sake of clarity, let me boil it down:

When you make electoral competitiveness a standard for legislative redistricting, it is impossible to make inner-city districts competitive. Doing so would require diluting the African-American vote, a strategy of segregationists.

As a result, there are at least eight Assembly districts (and at least two Senate districts) that will be exempt from the competitiveness standard. This gives Democrats an eight-seat head start in legislative elections.

Ms. Kaminski reiterates her support for having an “independent” board drawing district lines, since the Legislature can’t be trusted to do so. In fact, the courts actually set the boundaries every decade. The Legislature generally writes their plan, then it goes to court, where judges eventually draw the lines. It has been this way in every redistricting since at least 1974.

I think Schneider got the best of the argument, even without his rebuttal. The questions Schneider didn't ask and I will, how does an unelected panel creating legislative districts an improvement over having elected representatives (you know, our voice in government) creating legislative districts? And given the volatile nature of the control of the two bodies, surely we are in an age of already competitive elections?

The governor's priorities

Does this mean that the governor's people are more afraid of losing the state senate than they are hopeful of gaining control of the state assembly?

Shouldn't the governor being mining for Republican legislators in the Assembly to create more vacancies there?

Hospital tax in intensive care

Bruce at Badger Blogger caught this. The proposed hospital tax is about to be dropped from the budget negotiations.

Democrats may be ready to jettison their demands for a proposed hospital tax, one of the key sticking points over a deal to fix the broken state budget, leaders said.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, one of the strongest supporters of the proposed tax, said Friday that it would be difficult to win over Assembly Republicans who adamantly oppose it.

"I don 't think they 're going to be able to go there, " Carrie Lynch said of GOP lawmakers. "We 're working to keep (the hospital tax) included but at the end of the day, I don 't think we can hold up the entire budget process for it either. "

The $416 million hospital tax, favored by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and Senate Democrats, lies at the heart of how to resolve a projected $527 million state budget shortfall. Decker has been critical of a decision by his predecessor, Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, to agree to drop the tax in order to reach an agreement with Republican lawmakers on the long-delayed state budget that was finally signed in October.

Decker's not finding things so easy at the top of the greasy pole. And his friend Chuck Chvala made it look so easy.

They really hate you

Brian Fraley found yet another left-wing Democrat that hates you, State Representative Fred "The Red" Kessler:

“I was extremely disappointed with the result of the election of the Supreme Court yesterday. It appears that special interests again were able to determine the outcome and focus the campaign on issues that had been distorted. Political campaigns for the Supreme Court appear now to not be run on the merits but instead at the behest of special interests with hidden agendas.”

I think the "hidden agenda" of the majority of the voters was a desire for the rule of law rather than the rule of an unaccountable state supreme court inventing the law.

The Constitutional Amendment provides that the Governor would appoint Supreme Court Justices, subject to a 10-year term with confirmation by the State Senate and automatic reappointment unless 21 Senators vote not to confirm.

Because state senators never have any hidden agendas, and the public is never to be trusted with holding public officials accountable at the ballot box.

We knew where he was all along

Headline:

Oldest Prehistoric Aquatic Reptile in North America Found

They found Fred Risser!

Prime cuts

The always informative Jo Egelhof at FoxPolitics.net has a list of suggested cuts for the state budget, and her readers chime in as well.

How about summer school? Non-essential summer school, that is. Offer classes only to seniors serious about getting their diploma, but missing critical credits.

As long as we’re talking about schools and being controversial, how about the SAGE program that provides for classes with no more than 15 students? Or simply allow a district not to have to offer SAGE everywhere – wouldn’t that make sense?

Ok, we’re on a roll. A reader suggested lowering the QEO – the maximum wage and benefit increases for school districts. Oh my. Heads will roll and the seas will part. But it’s a darn good suggestion and would have a significant impact on state and local budgets moving forward. (**See below.)

How about this? The Tomah Journal Sunday detailed the phasing out of retiree health benefits – for teachers hired for the 2007-08 year and beyond. (Most) any savings at the district level is a savings at the state level. Yeh!

Another reader suggestion: Eliminate the ethanol subsidy of $.20/gallon and the farm tax exemption. I don’t know anything about these programs, but am glad to throw them in.

There are more, but it does show that cuts can be made. It'll just take more willpower than what the legislature on both sides of the aisle have shown so far.

WisOpinion: A month

The state leadership of both parties expect to have the budget reconciled in less than a month. What can only happen at the speed of the Fall of France? Was last year's stout budget defense the Republican version of the Maginot line?

Whatever optimism I have for the Assembly Republicans this November is tempered by the presence of Vichy within their ranks. Look for the hospital tax to pass and health care premiums to go up across the state for everyone.


I think Fraley is right in this respect: if Kreuser runs for Kenosha County Executive, it means he's done the numbers and the assembly will remain in Republican hands. If he stays in the assembly it's because he expects to be Assembly Speaker.

The return of the idiots

Yep, it’s that time. Okay, I forgot to post last week’s, which was written but never posted. So by default, that makes me last week’s political idiot of the week.

We have plenty of candidates again this week. Is it Barack Obama’s (now ex) foreign policy advisor Samantha Power who called Senator Clinton “a monster” and then asked the newspaper to put it off the record? D’oh! That’s up there, but not a winner.

Was it the Obama economic policy advisor, Austan Goolsbee, who told the Canadians that the NAFTA rhetoric was just politics and don’t take anything Obama says seriously? No, but it’s a goodie.

Samantha Power becomes the first idiot to earn a re-nomination in the same week with her remarks to the BBC that Obama also doesn’t mean what he says when he claims he’ll pull the troops out of Iraq in 16 months, and that would only happen in “a best case scenario”. However, accidentally telling the truth in an interview does not make you “idiot of the week”, it just means you could never be a Clinton spokesman.

Of course, Senator Barack “Fear Bomb” Obama earns a nomination just for having these idiots on his campaign team and taking their advice seriously. But even the “Fear Bomb of Hope” himself does not make the number one slot.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was running away with idiot of the week when he complained about custom paint jobs on guns from an obscure dealer nowhere near his violent city, worrying that “Hello Kitty” Glocks might encourage sixteen-year-olds to try armed carjacking. While having Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer hunting rifle may seem a little silly, I don’t think there’s a demonstrated demand for pink Saturday Night Specials among the members of the Latin Kings. I can’t imagine a member of the "3rd Street Posse" deciding he can’t pull a drive-by assassination because he’s still waiting on his Yosemite Sam AK-47. The Milwaukee Mayor was running away with the prize this week until…

Republicans held a press conference this week to protest the lack of action by the State Senate on the proposed constitutional amendment to require a photo id when voting. While all of the Democrats look like idiots after the Milwaukee Police leaked a report detailing the amount of voter fraud the flatfoots were able to find in Milwaukee, two Democrats stand out for their idiocy. State Senator Spencer Coggs and State Senator Russ Decker actually confronted the Republicans holding the press conference, ensuring coverage of the issue despite the entire state’s attention focused on the retirement of Brett Favre. For that remarkable display of idiocy, Coggs and Decker win the prize as the Idiot Politicians Of the Week for the week ending March 8th.

(Send your nomination for the "Idiot Politician of the Week" to Jamesmdw@yahoo.com. The idiots will be identified every Sunday for the previous week.)

Yes, it has flaws

Dean takes a thoughtful look at the Great Lakes Compact and finds it flawed but ultimately necessary.

Meanwhile, the Spring City Chronicle takes on Mayor Larry Nelson for conspiring with Democrats to behave like Democrats. He also asks the not-so-fun question, what if?

The problem is, what if works both ways. If the pact fails, then we still have any governor can veto any diversion for any reason.

I understand all of the opposition to the pact and the desire for development. And yes, I'm afraid of skyrocketing water bills, although I think that will happen anyway. After all, any plan to return the water back to Lake Michigan is going to be expensive. But someone is going to have a hard time convincing me that going back to the drawing board is going to make things better.

For an opposing view,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Senator Ted Kanavas
March 6, 2008 (608) 266-9174
Kanavas Statement:
Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson Endorses Plan
That May Exclude Waukesha From Receiving Fresh Water
(Madison)…“This is not how we do things in Waukesha County.” said Senator Ted Kanavas (RBrookfield) after he learned about secret, closed door dealings between the Mayor of Waukesha and Senate Democrats who are trying to enact a version of the Great Lakes Water Compact that does very little to ensure that communities in Waukesha County will have access to drinking water in the future.

With a long tradition of broad cooperation on important issues facing Waukesha County, Waukesha County state legislators were frustrated by Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson’s lack of sound judgment after he kept legislators from Waukesha County out of the loop on private negotiations he had with Democrats in the Wisconsin State Senate.

“The Mayor made an incredibly important, non-partisan issue partisan,” said Senator Kanavas. “He decided to exclude Waukesha County legislators and negotiate with Senate Democrats, the Department of Natural Resources and Governor Doyle, to the detriment of everyone else in Waukesha County.

“The Mayor did not stop there. Before he even saw the final version of the bill, Mayor Nelson issued a statement endorsing a bill that fails to ensure the City of Waukesha will have long term access to fresh water. Democratic state senators waved the Mayor’s statement in the air during the Senate’s floor debate, using it as ammunition against Waukesha County legislators who were fighting for their constituents.

“The bill that Mayor Nelson endorsed will have a substantial impact on Waukesha County and the State of Wisconsin for the next two hundred years. Decisions about the future of Waukesha County should not be made behind closed doors, during private meetings, or during one day of debate on the floor of the State Senate, without even seeing the final version of the legislation.

“Protecting the Great Lakes is far too important to be given such short shrift. A decision of this magnitude should not be rushed through the State Senate without proper consideration. Mayor Nelson should be ashamed of himself for collaborating with the Senate Democrats to the detriment of his constituents and every other resident of Waukesha County.”

Blocking the virtual school house door

Yesterday's column in the Waukesha Freeman was definitely worth the fifty cents as I took at the state senate Democrats' shameful performance on Tuesday when they put the interests of WEAC ahead of good education for children.

On Tuesday the state Senate took up the compromise legislation to keep virtual schools operating. Despite the bipartisan compromise, the Democrats in the Senate made an attempt to amend the legislation to include the governor’s caps. It failed 17-16. The only two Democrats to support virtual schools were Jon Erpenbach (Middleton) and Tim Carpenter (Milwaukee).

Then the Democrats brought up the governor’s proposed amendment again. In front of a gallery full of virtual school supporters, Carpenter changed his vote and the amendment passed 17-16.

Liberal author and radio personality Garrison Keillor recently wrote in an op-ed for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "Face it, the schools are not run by Republican oligarchs in top hats and spats but by perfectly nice, caring, sharing people.

"Nice people are failing these kids, but when they are called on it, they get very huffy."

I’m not sure whether the leadership of WEAC and Governor Doyle quite qualifies as Keillor’s "nice people," but they certainly get very "huffy" when it looks like they might lose. Unfortunately, when they win, kids lose.

meanwhile, the state assembly is going to propose a new bill which will include the governor's audit request but will not include the cap on enrollment. They are going to have a hearing on Monday that will focus on why Democrats are trying to lock out students seeking an alternative form of education that works. Once the assembly passes the compromise bill with the audit, the state senate will have another opportunity to pass a bill without the caps.

Tim Carpenter and Jim Doyle decide that not every kid deserves a great school

While Wisconsin was distracted by the presidential primary on Tuesday, the Democratic-controlled state senate voted 17-16 to cap enrollment in Wisconsin's virtual schools until the effectiveness of virtual schools can be "studied". The vote was originally 17-16 against the cap, but Democratic State Senator Tim Carpenter flipped his vote, and a gallery full of virtual school students and supporters watched as Senate Democrats decided not every child deserves a great school. Children only deserve WEAC-approved schools.

It was only yesterday that Governor Doyle decided the carefully worked-out compromise between Democrats and Republicans wasn't good enough. Answering the WEAC hotline, Doyle announced that he wanted a cap on enrollment.

Perhaps Republicans should announce caps on enrollment in other forms of public education until some study shows that they work. Unlike virtual schools, there would be plenty of brick-and-mortar schools that would never open their doors again if they were held to any functional standard.

The students, parents and teachers that have chosen public virtual education have found schools that work for them. Will the Democrats get out of the virtual school house door?

Citizens blocking the ethanol mandate

Good read at Charlie Sykes' blog on the sudden decision by State Senator Luthor Olsen to drop his sponsorship of the ethanol mandate. Seems Olsen's constituents got a little cranky when they heard about the Senator's family connections to the ethanol industry. Interesting, the e-mail from Olsen's chief of staff to Olsen's brother also indicates the bill is pretty much dead in the Assembly, even if the Senate passes it. We may finally have turned the corner on this issue - until the next crazy ethanol idea comes along.

The Big 7 for 2007

The Big 7 for 2007

The seven events of 2007 shaping Wisconsin

1. The State Senate Democrats overreach with Healthy Wisconsin, a plan to double state taxes to provide “universal” health care coverage. The plan fails to receive the endorsement of Democratic Governor Jim Doyle and Assembly Republicans and causes state budget negotiations to collapse. Eventually Healthy Wisconsin fails and State Senate Leader Judy Robson is overthrown. Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch emerges from Jensen/Gard shadow demonstrating ability to hold caucus together under pressure to negotiate with the Governor.
2. Stem cell researchers, including UW-Madison’s James Thomson, discover a method of programming non-embryonic stem cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, further vindicating the pro-life position of limiting embryonic stem cell research and beginning the end of stem cells as a political weapon.
3. Judge Annette Ziegler wins election to state Supreme Court under ethical cloud, preserving near-even division of the court. Despite Ziegler’s margin of victory and that the ethical questions were all raised prior to the election, left-wing activists still seek to overturn election.
4. State GOP leaders fail to recruit top-tier candidate to challenge State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler. This follows Republican failures to attract top candidates to challenge Senator Feingold in 2004 and Senator Kohl in 2006.
5. Tyler Peterson kills six people in Crandon, WI. Slow release of details by local authorities and State Attorney General JB Van Hollen, plus Van Hollen’s suggestion to the Crandon community to stop talking to the media, cause more questions to be asked about JB Van Hollen. The Crandon murders follow a series of opinions issued by Van Hollen that causes his political base some discomfort. Previously talked about as a candidate for governor, Van Hollen announced that he would seek re-election for SAG in 2010 and wait on running for governor.
6. Tommy Thompson for President frenzy reaches its peak, debates reveal Thompson’s shortcomings, and then Thompson’s campaign fizzles with the Ames, IA Straw Poll. Nobody noticed he endorsed Mayor Rudy Giuliani.*
7. Georgia Thompson has her conviction overturned. Van Hollen declines to pursue investigations against Governor Doyle, effectively ending scandals as issue.

* Originally and incorrectly wrote "endorsed Senator John McCain". Endorsement so inconsequential Waukesha Freeman columnist James Wigderson was quoted as saying, "Who endorsed whom?"

I bet on the Washington Generals too

Each year I make a set of predictions, some tongue in cheek, and every year I prove to only be slightly better than sportswriters predicting the outcomes of NFL games. A quick glance at this year’s scorecard will show I made better predictions than in the past. Comments in italics.

1. Governor Doyle will get one or two Assembly Republicans to join his administration. Okay, I blew this one. Maybe now that the budget is over.
2. The QEO will be lifted. If there is one trend, I seriously underestimated the resolve of the Assembly Republicans.
3. Revenue caps on schools and local governments will be loosened, but not eliminated. And if you have any loose change left, they’ll take that, too.
4. Shared revenue will be cut further, except for counties. Depends where you are. However, not enough for me to count this as correct.
5. The ethanol mandate will pass. Ethanol less hip and trendy.
6. The State Assembly will not pass a conservative budget with tax cuts to challenge the Democrats. How about a tax freeze? Huebsch successfully isolated the State Senate and fought Doyle to a standstill. Nurse Robson sent packing. Not a bad job. Who’da thunk it?
7. Charlie Sykes will make up his mind on the Gay Marriage Ban. Charlie? Charlie?
8. Republicans will attempt to feed more misinformation to bloggers and get caught and called on it. I’ll have to check Boots and Sabers.
9. I will lose weight. I would do the Polar Bear plunge but I’m afraid of being rolled back out to sea.
10. Senator Feingold will support a Bush nominee that will get little support from the rest of the Democrats in the US Senate. I guess not. Must be someone else’s turn to be a maverick.
11. Senator Kohl will ask a coherent question at a nomination hearing. He will even read it like he wrote it rather than sound like he's just reading what a staffer puts in front of him. Always next year.
12. Milk at Senator Kohl's milk barn at the state fair will not go up in price. Lines are longer. What could Feingold give away?
13. Senator Feingold will call for the President to either be censured or impeached. Nothing will come of it. Sun rose, sun set.
14. Congressman Steve Kagen will again say something completely insulting to a minority group; it will be ignored by the media. No such luck. He just insults our intelligence.
15. Taxes will go up. Yup.
16. Governor Tommy Thompson will drop out of the race for president. If Huckabee wins the nomination, I’m going to take back anything I ever said bad about Tommy Thompson. Well, not everything.
17. WISN's Mark Belling will give credit to a blogger by name - once. What’s a blahg? I think he did a couple of times, more than that if you count Victor Davis Hanson.
18. A serious scandal will involve the Doyle Administration, but no link will be found to Doyle directly. It’s been a quiet year in the state contracts department, but Dennis Troha fits the bill.
19. Former Waukesha District Attorney Paul Bucher will appear on at least one local Sunday morning talk show. Close, Sunday evening with Jessica McBride.
20. The Wigderson Library & Pub will serve free drinks one evening for no reason. Look, if you missed it, it ain’t our fault.
21. The New Berlin School Board will remain in the hands of conservatives. I’m still waiting for MacArthur military academy.
22. County Executive Dan Vrakas will easily win re-election. Pretty much what you want in a County Executive. Quiet, efficient, low maintenance costs, possible candidate for governor (whoops!)…
23. There will be serious violence at a local festival in the city of Milwaukee. I plan on going to Juneteenth Day in 2008 – for breakfast.
24. There will be loud demands for Milwaukee Police Chief Nan Haggerty's resignation. Quitter.
25. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will set records for fundraising for a mayoral race. Compared to his opponents…
26. Annette Ziegler will win the race for state supreme court. And the Left has been trying to undo the election ever since.

27. The state legislature will raise the tax on cigarettes with bipartisan support. If only tobacco could be converted to fuel.

Are you not entertained?

I wasn't aware of the changing mission of the UW System. Apparently the new mission of UW-Madison is to provide free entertainment for the rest of the state.

In a letter sent to the co-chairs of the Joint Audit Committee last week, Reps. David Travis, D-Madison, Frank Boyle, D-Superior, and Mary Hubler, D-Rice Lake, asked for an audit of the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics at the UW-Madison.

Specifically, the trio asked auditors to examine the division's revenues and expenditures as well as a request to "specifically enumerate the amount of revenue the division has or will receive from any agreements involving the broadcast of sporting events on the Big Ten Network."

The three lawmakers said that their request stemmed from constituents' complaints over not being able to watch the Nov. 3 UW-Ohio State football game.

The Big Ten Network is operated under an agreement between Big Ten universities and the Fox Sports network. The universities have agreed to allow the channel exclusive broadcast rights for certain games -- including some UW football games and a number of Badger basketball games -- in exchange for revenues from the new network. (Ht: Dad29)

While I have found Dave Travis' antics to be highly entertaining, I'm not sure he's qualified to chair the entertainment committee for the entire state. Rather than worry about whether we can create a Public Television version of ESPN perhaps the state senators should be more interested in how much of a big business NCAA football has become. It might shatter some of senators' illusions, and lead to better compensation for the atheletes. Surely that's far more interesting than whether a few constituents can get their football fix for free. Who knows? It might even be entertaining.

Take me to your leader

I don't get it. If the budget stalemate and the resulting compromise were so bad for Republicans, why are State Senate Democrats dumping their leader?

The vote came the day after Robson, and the other 17 Senate Democrats, pushed a controversial state budget through the Senate. All 15 Republicans voted against it.

Decker said Democrats decided they needed a "stronger message" as they approach elections next year. Democrats control the Senate, 18-15.

Decker also told reporters he thought that he and other Senate Democrats should have played a stronger role in final negotiations with Republicans, who control the state Assembly. Instead, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) said he was told to negotiate directly with Doyle and his aides, instead of Robson.

Of course they were irrelevant, and it's their own fault. They could have been relevant to the budget debate had they passed the education budget the state assembly passed and then the haggling would have been over the other details. More importantly, by defending Doyle's extensive veto power, any deal brokered between the two chambers is meaningless without the involvement of the governor. Don't like being irrelevant? Ask the different Republican assembly speakers who served with Governor Tommy Thompson and Chuck Chvala as senate majority leader how they felt.

Here's the fun part.

Decker said Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) will remain as assistant majority leader. Decker said he will announce new committee appointments - including co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee, which he gave up when he became majority leader - next week.

Other Democratic senators declined comment as they left a 2 1/2-hour closed-door meeting in the Capitol.

Let's see how the thirty pieces of silver were doled out. And making friends everywhere he goes, "Doyle backed Robson in the power struggle that erupted last night."

Some notes on the impending state budget

By the numbers
If the state budget passes on Tuesday, the budget will be 114 days “late”. Even if we take the Doyle budget instead of the Democratic state senate’s budget, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the budget will be $400 million less than what the governor wanted. That works out to $3.5 million per day the budget was delayed.

The final budget is still an 8% increase over the previous budget, a sharp increase in spending and a dramatic departure for a governor who had previously boasted about not raising taxes.

The 2006 estimated population of Wisconsin is 5,556,506 people. The budget is expected to be $58 billion. That works out to the state spending $10,438 for every man, woman and child.

The budget delay enabled Republicans to rid the budget of “Healthy Wisconsin” ($15.2 billion), additional taxes on oil companies ($233 million) and hospitals ($418 million), the KRM car rental fee increase ($4.9 million annually), and reduced the cigarette tax.

Doyle's budget would have increased taxes over $1.3 billion. Add the Democrats’ “Healthy Wisconsin” and taxpayers were looking at $16.5 billion in tax increases. The “delay” in passing the budget saved taxpayers approximately $145 million per day. Taking out “Healthy Wisconsin” and taxpayers saved approximately $11.4 million per day the budget was “delayed.”

With friends like these
Republicans who supported Dean Kaufert over Mike Huebsch for Assembly Speaker out of fear Huebsch would not be conservative enough might want to pay attention to this little bit from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Thursday: A handful of Assembly Republicans met with Huebsch to discuss ways to come to an "endgame."

"Without giving away the house or anything, we needed to get something done," said Kaufert, who was one of those who met with Huebsch to say lawmakers were feeling the pressure to stop December property tax bills from going up unnecessarily.

"People will be mad as hell, and I told them, 'I'm not taking that shot,' " Kaufert said.

In the same article, Kaufert was quoted as saying,

"When (Doyle) found out that we were truly going to stick together for lower taxes, less spending, the thermometer just really went up and everybody said, 'We're going to get it done this week,' " he said.

Stick together, stick it to leadership - close enough for Kaufert.

What else are they doing?
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the budget includes "$21 million in additional school aid for low-income districts - $17 million of which would go Milwaukee Public Schools. MPS would have to use the money to partially offset property taxes it levies for the school choice program. It would also give MPS $10 million for math and science classes." $10 million to teach math and science? Isn't that (along with reading and writing) their core function? If it isn't, then why are they receiving any state education aid at all?

If you repeat the lie often enough
"For the first time in a long time, Wisconsin has a budget." - Governor Jim Doyle

Of course, Wisconsin has had a budget all along, the last budget. But the media has not understood that from the beginning, which explains why they breathlessly reported Doyle's promise to partially shut down the state government rather than question why it was necessary.

We'll never know what the budget will really cost
Actually, we will two budget cycles from now when Doyle's Wisconsin Covenant plan either gets funded or killed.

Finally...
Both sides laid out a clear legislative agenda during the impasse.

The Assembly Republicans in opposition were even better than the Assembly Republicans in creating their own budgets. Some team discipline was needed in the beginning. But the Assembly Republicans did much to restore their reputation as the party of lower taxes after the TABOR debacle.

Speaking of TABOR, just imagine how much easier the budget process would have been had the Republicans lived up to their principles and passed TABOR when they had the chance.

The Senate Democrats have been exposed as Old Democrat tax-and-spend liberals. Universal health care, near-unlimited spending goals and endless taxpayer-funded wish lists. They're great for holding together the Old Democrat coalition together, but that is not a long-term majority formula. Ask Bill Clinton.

As for Governor Doyle, the constant lies and low tactics demeaned the office he holds. His rants about "extreme Republicans" ignored (for cheap partisan gain) how many of the positions held by the opposition were actually his own positions just one year ago. He is truly a loathsome character. However, at last his true tax-and-spend agenda has now been exposed. Too bad it's one year too late. We'll see how he stands for re-election next time. Ironically, $1.3 billion in tax increases proved to be the "moderate" position within his own party.

Find classic movies at Amazon.com

Governor Doyle and the Extremes

Governor Doyle's constituency groups are whining, and Doyle responded by lashing out at "extreme Republicans" in the legislature.

“Whenever both sides are close to an agreement, extreme voices in the Republican caucus let out a howl and the leaders shy away.” Governor Doyle said. “If the Legislature has not come to an agreement by Monday, then I expect both houses to pass this compromise bill – because Wisconsin families cannot afford to wait any longer. Every additional day that the Republican leaders play politics and ignore their responsibility, real people suffer. It is time Speaker Huebsch and extreme Republicans put partisan interests aside and do what’s best for Wisconsin.”

Excuse me? Who are the extremists?

That's the question I take up in this week's column for the Waukesha Freeman (always worth the 50 cents).

Gov. Jim Doyle blames the "extreme Republicans," the "right wingers," for preventing a state budget agreement. Wow, they must be really extreme. They must be outrageous. Because the last I checked, many of the Republican positions are those that the governor has taken in the past or is currently adopting,
Republicans don’t want a tax increase. Until this year neither did Governor Doyle. As recently as his State of the State address in 2006, Governor Doyle bragged about not raising the sales tax, the income tax and excise taxes. "All together, I have signed into law tax cuts worth more than $660 million. That’s right, more than half a billion dollars in tax cuts."

Then Doyle was re-elected and proposed $1.7 billion in new taxes.

Just how far to extremes are the governor's minions willing to go to try to put pressure on Republicans? They're even willing to raid the personal files of college kids just to find a few props for Doyle's "extreme Republicans" rant.

Let’s talk about some real extremism, and decide whether it’s a vice. After all, most of us would find it pretty extreme to have private records invaded to find potential "victims" of the budget impasse.

Allies of the Democrats did just that when they dug through the financial aid files at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looking for students whose financial aid requests were delayed because the state budget has not passed. The students were then "invited" via e-mail to attend Governor Doyle’s rally Tuesday at the Memorial Union where Governor Doyle complained of Republican extremism.

Who exactly ordered the file dive is still a mystery, although university spokesman John Lucas told Wispolitics.com "the university followed the guidelines of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to protect student privacy." We might question if Lucas’ statement that the students’ privacy remained inviolate is extremely disingenuous.

Local politicians would be recalled if they tried this. Pewaukee's mayor was recalled for less. For Doyle's people, it's just one more petty act of extremism.

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