Editorial Conflates Both Parties On Redistricting, But Without Evidence

[Originally posted 2:51 p.m., Sunday, 2/26]

 This line in Sunday's Journal Sentinel editorial on the GOP redistricting now before a three-judge panel should have been backed up with facts, edited or deleted:

For all the sanctimonious whining about the way the Republicans have operated, Democrats would have done everything in their power to ensure their success at the ballot box - just like the GOP did.

"Everything in their [Democrats'] power...just like the GOP did."

The line follows this unsubstantiated remark to the judges by assistant attorney general Maria Lazar, as the editorial recounts it after saying "poor Lazar" had to defend her GOP clients with a straight face:

Noting that the last time legislators and the governor approved maps, Democrats controlled the Capitol, she said: "Had the Democratic Party held the majority and the governor's office (last year), a similar legislative process would have been implemented, as it was in 1983."

C'mon - - toss Lazar or the GOP legislators a bone, but don't go so far overboard.

I got to the newspaper in 1983, and I'll acknowledge it if I am wrong, but I don't recall reporting or disclosures then about Democratic legislators who were made to sign confidentiality oaths at private attorney offices in order to see their district maps, or about records forced into public view by judges and court orders, etc., because so much of the GOP's recent effort was not just carried out in secret - - it was meant to stay that way.

One of the GOP legislators' attorneys last week was even required by the court to give a deposition about the redistricting process: what does that tell you about how far from business-as-usual this redistricting procedure had strayed?

The editorial correctly slaps the GOP for its scuzzy process - - as did the judges (see the chief judge's strong statement, here) - - so the point stands on its own.

In ordering GOP legislators to turn over documents to a group of Democrats, the judges (two of whom were appointed by Republican presidents) wrote:

"Without a doubt, the Legislature made a conscious choice to involve private lawyers in what gives every appearance of an attempt - albeit poorly disguised - to cloak the private machinations of Wisconsin's Republican legislators in the shroud of attorney-client privilege. What could have - indeed, should have - been accomplished publicly instead took place in private, in an all but shameful attempt to hide the redistricting process from public scrutiny."

And I'm not taking issue with the word "sanctimonious" aimed at the Dems: that's a fair perspective if you want to make that subjective judgement - - but there was no need to try and balance the editorial's criticism with a hypothetical, unsubstantiated assumption aimed the other way - - even if you want to argue, as does the editorial, that a neutral process is needed to replace the current partisan process.

A process to which the GOP objectively added unique debasement - - and again, look no further than what Judge J. P. Stadtmueller had to say in just one of his public remarks about what the GOP had done and was continuing in pre-trial activities:

...we have had enough of the charade and mischaracterization. I don't mean to impugn either you or anyone associated with this case, but as they say, the facts are the facts. What has occurred here is beyond the pale in terms of lack of transparency, secrecy, and at the end of the day, as the court has commented earlier, it may not have anything to do with the price of tea in China, but appearances are everything, and Wisconsin has prided itself for one generation after another on openness and fairness and doing the right thing. 

I appreciate the need for fairness and balance in reporting, and editorial writers are free to pile on all the adjectives they want - - after all, they are writing an opinion piece - - but editorials don't need to artificially create middle ground without facts to fill it in.

Dems Say No To Running Fake Candidates In Wisconsin

Mike Tate makes it clear, and I agree: no fake candidates. Let the Republicans corner the sleaze market.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SATURDAY, June 11, 2011
CONTACT: Gillian Morris, Press Secretary
(414) 975-0586, gillianm@wisdems.org

Statement of DPW Chairman Mike Tate on GOP Recall Election Dirty Tricks

MADISON -- The following is a statement from DPW Chairman Mike Tate on the GOP recall election dirty tricks.

"The unprecedented Republican manipulation of these recall elections has compelled a number of people to urge a level playing field by running fake candidates in GOP primaries.

"We cannot and will not stoop to the Republicans' level by encouraging candidates to lie about their party affiliation, or recommending that people try to deceive voters. We never have done that, and won’t start now. This is something that every single one of our six challengers has said they adamantly oppose. Fred Clark, Jess King, Shelly Moore, Nancy Nusbaum, Jen Shilling and Sandy Pasch -- along with Senator Miller -- all contacted the party over the last 24 hours to make it crystal clear this was absolutely the wrong tactic.

"At the same time, these phony GOP primary candidacies have in essence allowed the Republicans to seize the ability to call these elections at a date of their choosing. They can pick and choose which sham primaries to force. That's wrong. Selecting an election day is a responsibility that should fall to an independent, nonpartisan agency looking out for the people of Wisconsin -- not to a political party gaming the system for partisan gain. This transparent GOP conspiracy has cheated the people of protections against such dirty tricks.

"That is why we must guarantee these primary and general election dates move forward. The only way to do that in the face of these deplorable Republican tactics is by ensuring Democratic primaries with placeholders.

"This approach will keep the Republicans honest – an increasingly difficult task given the stunts they've pulled. It sends a clear statement that the GOP attempts to exploit the political process won't be tolerated.  It also ensures a much fairer process than what Republicans have concocted with their dirty tricks, as well as reduces confusion among voters about when recall elections will take place.

"No one likes where Republicans have taken this process.  The fight for Wisconsin is too important to have one hand tied behind our back."

###

Authorized and Paid for by The Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Michael J. Tate, Chair

GOP Legislators Trying Again To Embed Their Incumbency

That's a straight-forward headline.

The Wisconsin Assembly will pass a bill today, already approved in the Senate, to place limitations on the recall election process into the State Constitution. To become law, it would have to pass two  successive legislatures and then in a statewide referendum,.

Right now, the recall process is a tool for the electorate to correct what at least 25% of voters in an election felt was made, but the GOP, outraged at the recall aimed at Walker, and that last year took down two sitting Republican Senators, want to make the recall process more like impeachment - - for specific causes - - rather than as a political exercise of voter judgement using rights that have been on the books for a long time.

The Assembly is also to debate a bill today to remove from state law a requirement that voter registration be offered in high schools.

This is part of the GOP's broader voting suppression strategy, including approving the rigid Voter ID law and more limits on registration to trim the vote in low-income and student communities -- where Democratic voters live in large numbers.

An expert recently said the law may block more than 200,000 Wisconsin citizens from voting.

Legal push back to this fundamental attack on voting has begun with a lawsuit against the Voter ID law, and a Dane County judge ruled yesterday that the suit can move forward.

And in a separate lawsuit, a three-judge panel in US District Court in Milwaukee is reviewing the most recent Wisconsin redistricting plan, where legislative district maps were drawn up by Republicans in secret and large numbers of residents were moved to new districts where the voting power of minorities is alleged to have been illegally diluted, and where thousands of voters would miss a regularly-scheduled State Senate election.

The more they abuse the process, the faster the GOP ensures their defeat and irrelevancy.

10 reasons why WI Democrats think Walker, GOP are cheats

[Updated from 12/3] It is not surprising that GOP Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his allies are suing to stop the legal recount of votes in the Presidential election, and also are sure to rewrite state law to further restrict access to the recount process, as Walker and his party have co-opted, bent or broken Wisconsin voting and redistricting laws, and obstructed public access to the ballot box with restrictions later ruled unconstitutional.

Little wonder that Walker and GOP reactions to the ongoing recount look self-serving, even shady, given their long-running pattern of gratuitous abuse of the democratic process, including at least these ten eleven twelve (thanks to a sharp-eyed reader with a sharper memory) documented actions and events that date all the way back to his scandal-ridden, failed 1988 Marquette University student government campaign:

*  When he was Milwaukee County Executive, running for Governor and no doubt prepping for his 2015 run for President, Walker used public funds to underwrite self-promotional motorcycle tours that took him, and his name and image, far from Milwaukee.

*  At the same time, Walker secretly used public staff, Milwaukee county office space and other taxpayer-provided resources to raise his profile, organize partisan events and raise money for his gubernatorial campaign, and other GOP candidates - - moves which eventually led to convictions of six Walker staffers, associates and campaign donors in what became known as John Doe I. 

Walker won the gubernatorial election.

*  As Governor, Walker and his party pushed through a very restrictive voter ID law with known partisan overtones and with admittedly partisan objectives aimed at suppressing voting in minority and college communities which vote heavily Democratic.

*  Forced into a recall election in 2012, Walker raised and received millions of dollars in campaign funds routed through a third party advocacy group at his direction which led to another prosecutorial investigation into known as John Doe II.

Like the events which led to John Doe I, Walker and his funding and organizing methods were an additional weight in his favor on the scales. Walker won the recall election.

* Walker has since signed a bill into law written by his party which ended the use of John Doe investigations into allegations of political corruption.

*  During the 2012 recall elections, the Republican Party openly ran Republican candidates as fake Democrats in Democratic primaries to monkey-wrench the electoral process. 

*  [Update] - - GOP State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, an enthusiastic supporter of the GOP's 2012 fake Democrat candidacies maneuver, this spring wrote a bill which Walker signed into law to help protect the GOP's majority from an election challenge by a popular Democratic office-holder.

The bill prohibited sitting Wisconsin county executives from serving simultaneously in the legislature. It was a maneuver to discourage Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, a Democrat, from running for an open Senate seat.

Harris ran for the State Senate seat, and lost.

*  Walker signed into law several restrictions to early voting in Wisconsin that were so partisan and undemocratic that a Federal judge had to void them.

*  Separately, another Federal judge determined that the Republicans' redistricting of the Legislature drafted in secret using state employees and public computer equipment inserted out-of-sight into private law firms, and which has for years helped Walker and the GOP to expand their majorities and push through their agendas, was knowingly and illegally crafted to disenfranchise Democrats.

*  Wisconsin GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel, a close Walker and Republican legislative ally, sent election monitors during the November, 2016 elections disproportionally into Democratic-leaning precincts.

*  Schimel's actions echoed the intimidating posting of billboards paid for by a GOP financier and major Walker donor in minority neighborhoods warning against election fraud - - though there had been no record in those neighborhoods of voting fraud in those areas.

All of which makes Walker's talking point of having made it "easier to vote and harder to cheat" in Wisconsin elections - - undermined by these illustrative examples and testimonials and the ten points above - - a disturbing, self-serving lie.

Walker Recall Push Could Bring Down More Republican Legislators

With an evolving recall movement now about to enter a new year, Democrats can be feeling better and thinking bigger, given that they are reporting Monday night that volunteers jave collected more than 55% of the signatures needed to force a recall election on Scott Walker early next year, with the first two successful state senate recalls earlier this year having helped move the process to where it is today.

The likelihood - - the apparent certainty  - that Scott Walker is going to end up on a recall ballot due to the success of the accelerating petition signature drive is bad news for four GOP state senators who are the subject of local recall efforts underway as we speak, simultaneously with Walker's, and who could be the newest dominos.

For the four in jeopardy, standing with Walker may be more easily said than done. Just ask Randy Hopper and Dan Kapanke, this summer's duo of recalled, full-fledged Senate GOP dominos.

 Those lined up, and against whom signatures are also being collected, are:

• Scott Fitzgerald recall, Wisconsin State Senate (2012)
•  
• Van Wanggaard recall, Wisconsin State Senate (2012)
•  
• Terry Moulton recall, Wisconsin State Senate (2012)
•  
• Pam Galloway recall, Wisconsin State Senate (2012)  

Republicans know that recall sentiment is running against them, so they are rushing to the State Supreme Court - - where they have a sympathetic majority - - to ask that the redistricting plan that Republican legislators just wrote - - with all their partisan advantages, and state-paid lawyers, too - - go into effect early, and just in time for recalls.

That would allow the four Senators perhaps facing recall elections to run in districts just redrawn to boost the number of GOP voters - - but which Republicans had scheduled in the redistricting law to take effect for election purposes in November, 2012.

It's the latest Republican machination to stack the deck against Democrats, including fielding fake Democrats in the last round of recall elections to confuse voters, force primaries and extend Republican fund-raising time, and also hamstringing registration and election-day voting in the new Voter ID plan.

I predict all these schemes will back-fire, as people do not like their laws and rights chipped at or taken away - - and that includes the sneak attack on collective bargaining processes that Walker and his legislature unleashed after the 2010 election sneak  that triggered recall fever.

Assembly's Toxic GOP Majority Undermines Wisconsin's Credibility

If creating legislation is like making sausage, the shamelessly pro-industry mining bill served up last week by State Assembly Republicans on a party-line vote was made with extra helpings of contaminated offal and fatal levels of salmonella.

Thousands of hours of everyday peoples' time, and of taxpayer-paid state employees, all at incalculable cost, were willfully wasted by GOP Assembly members just to curry favor with business interests and stick it to environmentalists and Native Americans whom those legislators disrespect.

*  The bill was written by Assembly members behind closed doors - - but opened to company officials with a vested interest in digging a 22-mile long open pit iron ore mine on pristine lands near Ashland that are perilously close to the headwaters of the Bad River.

Pete Rasmussen photo

*  Once the tawdry legislative drafting process was finished, the Assembly held a poorly-planned hearing on the bill in Milwaukee County, hours away from northern Wisconsin residents whose waters and lifestyles would be most affected by the bill.

*  Then, after much criticism, the Assembly grudgingly set up a second hearing in Hurley, but that hearing was an overt and arrogant charade because the bill's basic tenets enabling the mine, minimizing permit review times and blocking rights to public participation in the process had been pre-arranged and locked in.

* So its approval in the Assembly - - with its pre-ordained give aways of public land, water, treaty rights and other legal provisions - - with all Republicans voting "Aye," and all Democrats voting "No," was a foregone conclusion.

This bill could have easily been coughed up behind the Kremlin walls in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union.

It was clear from the beginning of this bad but real-life theater that the Assembly bill was meant more to serve political agendas and less to dig a mine in Northern Wisconsin.

That fakery included helping the low-wattage, preposterous US Senate bid by Republican Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, and letting Assembly Republicans tout their dependability on de-regulation and privatization to business groups and conservative financiers - - but all of them knew the bill would be ash-canned in the slightly less-radical State Senate.


There the GOP has only a one-vote majority, with Republicans having lost two seats last year in recall elections successfully run against GOP arrogance.

And where four more GOP senators are facing likely recall elections this spring, along with Gov. Walker and Lt. Gov. Kleefisch - - so watch the special State Senate mining committee chaired by the occasionally moderate Neal Kedzie, of Elkhorn, put on its hazmat gear and dump the Assembly's toxic bill, and try something different.

Even delaying its bill-writing, and bill reconciliation processes with the Assembly until the onrushing recall wave has broken.

A couple of additional observations:

The Assembly did its crude, exclusionary handiwork literally in the face of the public rebellion against the Walker administration's secretive ways.

The Assembly was willing to ignore public health and legislate a giveaway of state waters and lands, as well as long-standing Ojibwe treaty rights, to a special corporate interest even in the face of the paradigm-shifting awareness raised by The Occupy Movement - - and much of that came in response to the effects of special treatment handed by lawmakers to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class in the Wall Street bailouts.

Even Newt Gingrich sees a political opportunity there at Mitt Romney's expense, but the Assembly plowed on. You cannot get more tone-deaf than that.

A self-interested GOP majority in the State Assembly that hears only its own voice, and that of talk radio and right-wing advocacy groups, has played into the hands of the Wisconsin grassroots recall movement.

It is propelled by motivated people stung and marginalized by secretive policy-making on behalf of the 1%.

And those people are pushing back, and hard, with success in sight.

Amicable breakup? So who plugged up the toilet and keyed your car?

In Wisconsin, election-losers fairly facing a power loss

hope to squirrel away spoils which they can access only through insiders' brute-force.

This vindictive abandonment of democratic tradition that Wisconsin GOP pols are openly engineering after Gov. Walker's Nov. 6th rejection at the polls by Tony Evers would be like the Milwaukee Brewers, having lost last month's decisive playoff game at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers, then used the Miller Park master keys to slip into the Dodgers locker room before they left town, spread lice in their uniforms and drilled cracks in their bats.

Or it would like you had lived for some years with a partner named Scott, and had a break-up you thought would be amicable.

Then you hear he's sending his pals to the house you had shared to vandalize the furnishings, plug up the toilets and poison the dog. 

And work on rigging the selection of one of the top judges who might someday hear any case you might bring. 

You find Scott's maneuvering doubly troubling because you remember that Scott was an Eagle Scout, and had once looked up what that meant:

From the Eagle Scout ceremony:

The foremost responsibility of an Eagle Scout is to live with honor. To an Eagle Scout, honor is the foundation of all character. He knows that 'a Scout is trustworthy' is the very first point of the Scout Law for a good reason. An Eagle Scout lives honorably, not only because honor is important to him, but because of the vital significance of the example he sets for other scouts. Living honorably reflects credit on his home, his church, his troop, and his community. 

And triply-troubling as you try to explain his scheming to your friends and family because you remember that one of the things you had noticed about Scott when he was approaching his biggest public service win yet that he had a publicly-declared code of ethics based on this principle:

""The culture of government has destroyed the integrity and the idea of public service," said Walker. "My plan seeks to restore the public trust, and instill the confidence that our elected leaders are working for the people," Walker added."

Then you come to your senses, remembering this isn't the first time that Walker and his partisan allies, when feeling the sting of rejection, had shamelessly embedded advantage into the system, as noted in 2011:

On top of efforts to hamstring legitimate recall petition circulation, having run fake Democrats in this summer's Senate recall elections, having added voting and registration barriers in the unneeded Voter ID bill and changed the 2012 primary to a date obstructing college voters, hasn't election tampering by the GOP and Walkerites gone far enough?

MONDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2011

Wisconsin Republicans AGAIN Want Quick Rule/Law Changes To Preserve Their Majorities

In case you missed it:

(originally posted, Saturday, 10/29, 10:30 p.m.) Wisconsin Republican legislators continue to manipulate the electoral process into an un-American, one-sided game where the playing field is permanently tilted because they have the power to make, undo and change the rules to ensure they win.

Did they swap their oath to obey the law and protect the State Constitution for a secret handshake with Scott Walker and a pledge of allegiance to Americans for Prosperity?

Imagine that the Cardinals or Yankees got to adjust the rules in the eighth inning, at will, to give themselves four strikes to make an out, or to score a double as a three-run homer.

How often can these serial cheaters reporting to Scott Walker and the Fitzgeralds be allowed to rig the system? What happened to Scott Walker, Eagle Scout?

[Update: They're at it again]

Consider their machinations just this year, framing 2012 as its Year of the Stealathon:

*  They ran phony slates of Democrats in the Senate recall elections to confuse the electorate and game the calender for scheduling and fund-raising advantages.

*  They are moving to add burdensome notarization requirements to help make Scott Walker's recall more difficult - - even though Walker benefited from a traditional, unfettered, Constitutionally-guaranteed recall system in 2002 to become Milwaukee County Executive prior to his successful run for Governor last year.

*  Now the Republicanss are rushing forward with a plan by New Berlin Senator Mary Lazich - - no surprise there - - to undo part of a just-passed GOP-crafted redistricting plan because they see a fresher way to adjust election schedules, again in their favor, to hang on to a one-vote Senate majority. 

Some months ago, I wrote that no one likes a cheater in politics, and I believe the GOP will get what's coming to it when these manipulations - - and don't forget the exclusionary goals of the Voter ID law take effect next year, too - - help the Recall Walker Movement gets its signatures:

Partisan politics is one thing, but repeated twisting of the rules, the legislative process and the essential need for fair play in a just society to cement office-holding by the group that happens to be in office - - and also with Walker being elected by just 52% of the voters who turned out - - should backfire, and is, the polling suggests.

Kanye West's WI 'campaign' echos fake recall candidates GOP ran as Dems

So Republicans and their donor class are supplying key personel to Kanye West's 2020 Wisconsin 'presidential' campaign, presumably to siphon away possible Democratic votes from Joe Biden in November, Dan Bice reports.

Don't forget that fielding fake candidates whose 'campaigns' mocked and distorted the electoral process is in the WI Republican official playbook, as this April 5, 2012 story lays out.

GOP's fake Democrats for recall primaries named

The state GOP has lined up six fake Democrats to run in upcoming recall elections targeting Gov. Scott Walker and five other Republicans. 

Then-and-still GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald - back in the news as he runs for Congress and against masks

defended the GOP fakery which forced multiple Democratic primaries.

Wis. GOP Senate Leader: There’s Nothing Cynical About Running Fake Candidates

Though the Wisconsin State Journal - Madison's conservative daily paper - had said in an editorial that the scheme was "openly flouting reality and having candidates claiming to be something they clearly are not..."

The tactic even earned Republicans a rebuke from Milwaukee-based right-wing radio talk show host Mark Belling, as I noted at the time:

Belling is right to believe that people and voters will rebel against such an obvious and obnoxious effort to manipulate the election process.

[Web link and quotes, here.] 

The more things change, the more they remain the same. 

Wisconsin GOP Playbook's First Rule: Never Apologize, Admit Error, Take Responsibility

Republican Strategy in 2012 has one essential, all-purpose rule:

Never admit error, apologize or take responsibility - - Arrogance in motion. Examples:

*  Redraft legislative maps that were drawn up by Republican leaders in secret, as suggested twice in two days by a panel of three Federal Appeals Court judges?

Nope, said the GOP, we'll take our chances with a trial - - before the same judicial panel that has repeatedly admonished (one sample) the GOP and its lawyers for pre-trial tactics.

*  Reconsider the Assembly's "rancid" mining bill - - that adjective was the pro-mining reform Journal Sentinel's Saturday editorial term for the Assembly measure - - in favor of a bi-partisan compromise drafted by two State Senators?

Nope, said Assembly Republican leader Jeff Fitzgerald, sparing his brother Scott, the Senate GOP leader, the possibility of having to concede that the Assembly bill was indeed "rancid," as well as the trouble of working with two Senators - - Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), and Robert Jauch, (D-Poplar) - -  who were trying to introduce some civility, respect for Native American treaty rights, open-legislating and core Wisconsin water protection tradition (and law) into the process.

* Apologize for dropping the bomb, which is how Scott Walker described his en-collective-bargaining plan and bill to the fake Koch brother in a taped phone call (transcript and audio, here)?

Nope. All Walker has said that the call was a stupid thing to have done (and gotten caught at), and that he didn't lay a proper foundation for the plan - - political responses, not apologies from the heart.

* Accept responsibility for your staff after they've been charged will illegal activities that benefited him, or the GOP? Let what is called "the deck" on a newspaper story - - that's the bold-faced line under a headline - - in this Journal Sentinel posting inform you of Scott Walker's approach:

Governor says actions of ex-staffers not his fault

Being a GOP leader, legislator or contractor these days means never having to say you were sorry.

Which is an honest approach, because they are not sorry.

What's the recourse? The recall process.

Scott Walker/Fitzgerald Have Courted Their Recalls

[Originally posted, Wednesday, 8:05 p.m.]  Scott Walker and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, (R-Juneau) - - both having sworn oaths to uphold the law - - have been forced by citizen petition signatures into historic recall elections in June. And into other legal proceedings, too.

Things have gotten so dicey that holding a fund-raising celebrity tennis tournament is off the table because certain people might misinterpret the meaning of their "court time."

Let's peek at some of their achievements and the reviews they've been getting to see how they treated the law like an Etch-a-Sketch and helped move along their own recall process from protests to petitions to possible defeat.

* Six former Walker Milwaukee County aids or campaign donors to date have charged with a total of 15 criminal offenses in the unfolding John Doe probe.

* The Governor has established a legal defense fund and hired two criminal lawyers.

* A secret political email system was revealed by John Doe prosecutors to have been running on public time less than 25 feet from then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's courthouse office.

* Secret redistricting work was managed off the Capitol premises by state GOP legislative leaders including Fitzgerald, with details and records about the scheme being forced into public view through orders from Federal judges in Milwaukee.

* Two assembly district boundaries were declared by those judges to have been drawn in violation of the US Voting Rights act - - then were finally recast legally by the judges Wednesday after the GOP had declined to bring the Legislature back into session or work with Democrats to draw acceptable district lines.

*  Legal challenges to admittedly fake recall candidacies promoted officially by Scott Fitzgerald and the GOP are working their way before the Government Accountability Board and District Attorneys, too.

* The controversial state Voter ID law pushed by GOP leaders and signed by Walker has been enjoined from implementation by separate Dane County District Courts.

This slimy tactic dates to 2011 - -   

Fitzgerald embraces idea of running fake Democrats in recall elections.

* Portions of the infamous Walker initiative that ended virtually all public union collective bargaining practices were ruled unconstitutional in Federal Court in Madison.

Courtly behavior?

Oh: There's this little pesky, court-of-public opinion PolitiFact problem, too.

Q: Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

A. Is a third of the time OK?

Scott Walker's file:

Walker's statements by ruling

Click on the ruling to see all of Walker's statements for that ruling.

• True6(6)
• Mostly True4(4)
• Half True6(6)
• Mostly False7(7)
• False18(18)
• Pants on Fire4(4)

Fearing loss of control, WI GOP & far-right goes Cruzing

It's been astonishing to watch the far-right GOP establishment in Wisconsin led by AM talk radio and embodied by Gov. Scott Walker embrace the unapologetically extremist Ted Cruz - - he who supports making the Middle East glow from carpet bombing and wants to set up police states in "Muslim neighborhoods" in America  - - because the far right establishment in Wisconsin says that Donald Trump is too extreme.

Talk about short memories and contradiction.

The GOP establishment in Wisconsin was ever so happy to embrace some very far-right people and tendencies when party regulars needed that people-power and energy to save Walker - - he who called himself the "original Tea Party in Wisconsin - - and also, by extension to save themselves and their partisan privilege, too.

Remember when the GOP came to Racine County for the Save Walker Recall Rallies of all Rallies? The Racine Journal Times was there: 

'On Tuesday we save Wisconsin,' Ryan tells huge Racine TEA Party rally

Speaker after speaker stated and restated the national interest in, and importance of, Tuesday’s recall elections during a 2-hour Racine TEA Party PAC rally on Saturday morning at Gorney Park, 8201 Nicholson Road. The event drew an estimated 4,000 people, one speaker said, and featured a series of major Republican politicians and conservative commentators... 

Their accompanying, repeated message was: Get out as many like-minded voters as you can to rebuff Tuesday’s attempted recall of Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine. The latter two spoke during the rally.

Walker amped-up the right-wing by dog-whistling loudly in Waukesha County during the same campaign that his re-election was the only thing preventing Wisconsin from resembling that urban area just down the highway.

People do not want to see Wisconsin "become another Milwaukee," Walker said.

And who amplified that same message in the 2014 campaign when he labeled public assistance recipients as lazy, X-Box couch potatoes who needed to be drug-tested before getting food stamps which he also cut back.

But look what's happened since.

Walker fell flat on the presidential stage because the angry far-right prefers the billionaire celebrity outsider Trump to careerist insiders like Walker and Ryan and elite DC power brokers like Priebus. 

Which explains the establishment talk radio freakout here of late over Trump's seizure of the GOP nomination process which Priebus set up but which played right into Trump's hands - - and that loss of control has come to threaten the sweet deal which party insiders and funders have made for themselves in Wisconsin over the last few years that has guaranteed:

*  Self-serving, favor-dispensing, gerry-mandering majorities in both houses of the Legislature;

*  Self-serving, favor-dispensing rulings by State Supreme Court;

*  Self-serving, favor-dispensing hands on the profitable levers of power at key regulatory agencies like the now-weakened Government Accountability Board, and the chamber of commerce-mentalty Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the un-apologetically pro-corporate Wisconsin Public Service Commission, the Attorney General's Office and others.

And others across all of state government now more politically-managed than ever through Act 10 and a deliberately politicized and weakened civil service.

No wonder that GOP elites and their friends on the AM radio airwaves are "all in" for Cruz, as Walker put it Tuesday, to stop Trump - - he figured out how to co-opt the same far-right constituencies which the GOP and the talkers nurtured as theirs to manipulate while revealing the cynicism behind the establishment's control.

Which means that the farthest right-wingers in grassroots Wisconsin want Trump and the even greater chaos than the havoc Walker pledged to wreak in Washington.

Leaving it to a self-serving, back-in-the-game Walker and his allies to set up the anti-Trump barricades.

When the havocwreakers pose as the guardians of order, carpet bombs, official anti-Muslim street patrols, self-serving favoritism and crushing ironies are part of the bargain. 

It's all head-shaking and deeply ironic, but saying that doesn't feel adequate.

Business Leader Slaps GOP, Mining Company Over Process Blunders

As Assembly Republicans rush their flawed mining bill to a premature vote, a prominent business executive writes that the hole being dug through an unfair process to produce an open pit mine near Ashland just might swallow the mine's supporters instead.

John Torinus, a SE Wisconsin business leader with a blog, says the state needs mining jobs but not the company and Assembly's one-sided process to grease the skids with fast-tracked legislation and permit approvals.

So, the politics surrounding this mine pivot around two deeply important priorities in Wisconsin: the need to rebuild the state’s damaged job base and its citizens’ reverence for precious lands and waters. Given the passion and complexity surrounding the proposed mine in the Penokee Range, an orderly and transparent political process should be paramount if consensus is to be reached.

The process so far has been anything but orderly and transparent.
Not surprisingly then, the bill lacks anything resembling consensus...

• The bill was put together behind closed doors by Republican assemblymen, some anonymous, with input from Gogebic and WMC. Democrats, Bad River native Americans and environmentalists had no voice in the draft. That one-sided process led to their outright opposition to the bill as proposed.

• A pre-draft hearing was held in Hurley, where signs around town read:
“Mining – Our History
Mining – Our Culture
Mining – Our Future”

A single post-introduction hearing was held in West Allis, a process blunder that infuriated locals on both sides of the mining issue in Iron and Ashland Counties. Pressure from two northern Democrats in the minority, who called their own hearing, prompted the Republicans to hurriedly call a much-needed second committee hearing in Hurley.

• Republicans, who, for now, control both houses of the legislature and governorship, plan to push the bill quickly to passage prior to almost-certain recall elections this spring.

That fast-track process may prove to be shortsighted. Building a mine is an elongated, multi-year project, and it is entirely possible that the GOP will not be in control of both houses and/or the governor’s chair come this fall. GTAC could run into many hurdles down the road raised by today’s opponents who have been shunted out of the process.

Wisconsin GOP Leaders Have Loved The Recall Process

I assume that perennial GOP fringe candidate Mark Neumann - - his latest election miscalculation is grasping after the current Republican US Senate primary - - is no real friend to Scott Walker, as Neumann lost a contentious gubernatorial primary to Walker in 2010.

But just in case Neumann sidles up to Walker with a sympathetic complaint about the current recall campaign, let's not forget that Neumann signed and spoke in favor of recall petitions in 1997 circulated unsuccessfully by abortion foes against US Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, as the Chicago Tribune reported.

2 Senators Face Recall Effort

In the Midwest.

April 22, 1997|By From Tribune News Services.

CEDARBURG, WISCONSIN — U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann has signed a petition to recall both of Wisconsin's senators, including one whom he likely will challenge in next year's election.

Speaking at the state Lutherans for Life Convention here on the weekend, the Janesville Republican urged the audience of about 140 to sign petitions to recall Democratic U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl. Neumann indicated he and his wife have signed a petition.

A separate report also says Walker received money from the group after its failed effort.

And, of course, Walker walked into the County Executive office in Milwaukee after a successful recall of then-incumbent Tom Ament, and even made a glitzy spot about that "extraordinary thing" for his gubernatorial campaign.

See and copy it, here, before it disappears.

What Happened To Scott Walker, Eagle Scout?

Q & A:

Q. How does this person, Scott Walker  - - 

"I know that throughout my career - first in the Legislature, then as county executive and now for the last 10 months as governor - I live by the standards I got from my parents," said Walker, whose father was a Baptist minister. "Certainly, they got me to the rank of Eagle Scout, and I continue to have that kind of integrity."

Q. Square with this person just a few years later   - -

His sophomore year, Walker ran for president of the Associated Students of Marquette University (ASMU, the former title for Marquette Student Government). He was accused of violating campaign guidelines on multiple occasions.

The Tribune reported then that he was found guilty of illegal campaigning two weeks before his candidacy became official. Later, a Walker campaign worker was seen placing brochures under doors at the YMCA. Door-to-door campaigning was strictly prohibited.

Walker initially denied this but later admitted to the violation, which resulted in lost campaign privileges at the YMCA.

Q. To a reluctant Congressional witness forced to speak truthfully, under oath, before Congress - - Video here.

Q. And who now sports this track-record - -

"PolitiFact" has given Walker "mostly false" ratings. or worse, in 66%, or 24 of 36 statements vetted - - an ugly track record and the most such negatives for a Wisconsin figure this year.

He even earned a "false" rating twice in three days about that claim to have openly campaigned on his plan to go after collective bargaining - - here and here - - and, consider this:

Walker is without a PolitiFact "True," or "Mostly True"-rated statement since May 8th - - that's for just a fer days short of half a calendar year, and more than half the time he has served as Governor.

Q. All the way to the present-day Walker, with his GOP thumb on the scales, as an election of his own making looms:

*  They [Republicans] ran phony slates of Democrats in the Senate recall elections to confuse the electorate and game the calender for scheduling and fund-raising advantages.

*  They are moving to add burdensome notarization requirements to help make Scott Walker's recall more difficult - - even though Walker benefited from a traditional, unfettered, Constitutionally-guaranteed recall system in 2002 to become Milwaukee County Executive prior to his successful run for Governor last year.

*  Now the Republicans are rushing forward with a plan by New Berlin Senator Mary Lazich - - no surprise there - - to undo part of a just-passed GOP-crafted redistricting plan because they see a fresher way to adjust election schedules, again in their favor, to hang on to a one-vote Senate majority.

Some months ago, I wrote that no one likes a cheater in politics, and I believe the GOP will get what's coming to it when these manipulations - - and don't forget the exclusionary goals of the Voter ID law take effect next year, too - - help the Recall Walker Movement gets its signatures.

Q. In other words, what happened to this guy - - The Boy Scout-turned Eagle Scout turned self-described deeply religious and devout Christian who, every day, as he told the Christian Businessmen's Connection in a 2009 talk about his faith, is motivated by his Christian values - - audio here.

Q. How can that person be responsible for actions, and deceptions that sparked even news about the poor and least among us, like this - - 

Budget trims tax credit for working poor

Critics say proposal amounts to tax increase for some families

By Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel

March 6, 2011

Madison — Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget would reduce a tax credit program for many of the working poor by $41.3 million over two years - a change that critics say violates his pledge not to raise any taxes...

Walker's proposal also would stop the adjustment for inflation of the homestead tax credit, a change that would cost low-and moderate-income workers $8.1 million over two years.

"He is increasing taxes on the working poor," said Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. "Where is the shared sacrifice? The wealthy, as always, are coming out ahead."

Q. Should we have a Governor that much at war with himself?

A. The contradiction, and downsides, are too great.

The recall process beginning 11/15 is Wisconsin's Constitutional way to fix it.

The Case For Recalling Scott Walker, Restoring Wisconsin Democracy

With recall petitions eligible for signing later this week - - and certainly in full swing statewide by the 15th - - (information, here and here) - - let's begin to refine the case for cutting Gov. Walker's term to time served.

[Friday update: And if the GOP is any way behind this early filing that gives Walker a jump-start to unlimited fund-raising, add it to my case below.]

I've limited my argument to key actions by Walker that he also abetted and made worse with the heavy-handed use of state power, or through false statements or spin concocted to confuse the public and evade responsibility for his words and deeds, and their consequences.

Recall by the electorate - - a State Constitutional right and duty in perilous times - - should present little fear of the unknown to Walker, as it is the very procedure that paved his path to the Governor's Mansion after succeeding the recalled and discredited Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament into that office in 2002.

But is Walker, the Eagle Scout, up to the challenge and willing to play fair and square?

Nope: Walker and his lieutenants are trying at this very moment to put in place laws, like petition notarization, designed to delay and gum up the recall procedure just as the game reaches the crucial inning.

So add manipulating the recall process itself for his personal advantage and political survival to the case for Walker's retirement.

Let's start at the beginning:

* He imperiously stripped away in the early days of his Governorship - - with only a 52% electoral, first-term 'mandate' - - a half-century of public employee collective bargaining and threw the state and tens of thousands of middle-class working families into turmoil.

Worse, he had hidden his intention from voters, camouflaged it in a "budget repair" bill, lied about it and got caught, refused to negotiate with unions that immediately acceded to his financial demands, falsely claimed he had openly campaigned on eliminating collective bargaining for public employees and conceded he had not so campaigned only when questioned about it under oath at a Congressional hearing (video, here).

That was The Big Lie - - a classically-deceptive move from a person ill-equipped and undeserving to govern - - that framed his national reputation as lead union-basher, and continues to frame the case for his removal.

* Add this question to the recall case against Walker:

If he is comfortable with his performance and agenda, why is Walker so often unable or unwilling to discuss them honestly?

"PolitiFact" has given Walker "mostly false" ratings. or worse, in 66%, or 24 of 36 statements vetted - - an ugly track record and the most such negatives for a Wisconsin figure this year.

[12/16/11 update: 27 of 39.]

He even earned a "false" rating twice in three days about that claim to have openly campaigned on his plan to go after collective bargaining - - here and here.

How is that possible?

Would you go to a lawyer, doctor, pastor, banker, auto mechanic or local pizza carryout joint with that history?

How can the Chief Executive of any operation be so unfamiliar with straight talk and true facts, or be trusted with substantial responsibilities for a state's credibility, its public resources and other people's lives?

It's evidence of a fundamental lack of moral authority, and illustrates why Walker should not hold the highest office in our state.

And there's more since:

[4/16/2012 update: A fresh "false" brings the ratio to 29-16 false-true. Here's the record:

• True6(6)
• Mostly True4(4)
• Half True6(6)
• Mostly False7(7)
• False18(18)
• Pants on Fire4(4)

The frame for Walker's recall is wider:

* He promoted and signed a power-grabbing Voter ID law allegedly to fight [non-existent] voting fraud, when, in fact,  the law - - a basic tool of democracy - - is being turned against the people and their electoral process by restricting registration and voting in areas where he and his Republican legislative allies are weak - - cities and college campuses.

* Walker moved, again through legislation to severely cripple 224 years of public trust management of rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands in Wisconsin in favor of private ownership, intrusion and controls - - again (remember his "modest proposal" in the "budget repair bill" that wiped out nearly all public sector collective bargaining) distorting the intent of the legislation by mislabeling it - - this time as a job-creating measure.

Look at the unfolding mess in Oak Creek, where the DNR in 2008 allowed We Energies to build on a bluff where coal ash had been buried, and now the bluff, vehicles, debris and coal ash are in Lake Michigan. Do we want even less regulation in the public interest where public waters are concerned?

* Even as unemployment rises in Wisconsin, the unimaginative and special-interest driven Walker killed job-creation in clean, green industries.

He served real estate and fossil-fuel business interests' with outlandish rules and restrictions on siting wind turbines, thus blocking hundreds of millions of dollars of wind farm projects in this emerging industry that were ready for installation, yet claiming repeatedly that the state is open for business.

And he forfeited the paid-for $810 million-Milwaukee-Madison Amtrak line. and future connections to a regional high-speed system, thus wiping out years of railroad construction and related employment...then turned around and asked for a big piece of the funding to be returned...then blasted the Obama administration for not sending back the money - - big money, tens of millions and more  - which Walker had had in hand mere weeks earlier. This was an amazing shift of responsibility and a patently duplicitous effort to have it both ways.

* Walker claimed he submitted a no-tax-increase budget, though it raised taxes on some lower-income working households by changing the fine print defining a tax credit for the working poor.

* His budget and subsequent actions heightened class disparities among residents, which is hardly the way a democracy is supposed to work. Walker has given high-earners and businesses in our "broke" state fresh tax breaks...and special services by a revamped Cabinet-level Commerce Department with substantial private-sector involvement...and plans to operate the Department of Natural Resources as a "chamber of commerce"-type agency, too - - but cut programs for lower-income citizens in areas as varied as medical care to school lunches to alcohol-and-drug counseling for students.

* Walker promoted and signed a pointless bill that endangers public safety by allowing the carrying of concealed weapons - - even in the politically-overheated State Capitol. It's a law that panders to the gun lobby, and with rising unemployment, is little more than government by distraction - - 'solving' a problem that doesn't exist while others fester, often through Walker's inattention or sole-proprietorship.

To sum it up: Walker has squandered a year expending considerable amounts of Wisconsin's credibility, quality of life, legal authority, and taxpayer dollars to reward himself with political protections and lavish fresh benefits on the most privileged residents and powerful lobbies in the state, thereby embedding his party power running the Big Government they claim to hate.

And while penalizing everyday families with lesser means and influence.

Three more years of Walker will disable the state. We can't afford it.

Case closed.

Carpenter Says Special Session Mining Deal Still Possible, But...

Here is the video with remarks by State Sen. Tim Carpenter, (D-Milwaukee), on WISN-TV Channel 12's Sunday "Upfront" program with Mike Gousha.

Carpenter was said to be the swing vote who backed away at the last moment from siding with 16 Republicans, sending the mining bill to a 17-16 defeat, but Carpenter said on the program his was a vote against secrecy and process.

And the entire process was toxified by secrecy and bad process - - from the Assembly's closed-door-no-sponsor-industry-crafted bill drafting to Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald's 11th-hour disbanding of his own special mining committee established as the antidote to the Assembly's ugly process - - and then his full embrace of the Assembly bill for the hurried and botched floor vote that failed. 

“We didn’t vote against mining; we voted against the Joint Finance version,” said Carpenter, who also criticized Gov. Walker for staying on the sidelines.

So point well taken about process and secrecy and bad leadership- - but are these remarks now that the Legislature is out of session a trial balloon for a new mining bill or Partisan Politics 101?

It's not clear if Carpenter really believes a special session and amended bill is a serious possibility (GOP Senator Pam Galloway's sudden resignation last weekend means the GOP/mining bloc would need to find another Democrat to join Carpenter) or if he used the appearance on "Upfront" to criticize Fitzgerald and Walker's leadership - - as both Republicans facing recall elections.

If Carpenter wins the April 3rd election for Milwaukee City Treasurer, he's basically done with the issue, so maybe his "Upfront" appearance was his State Senate media swansong - - a pox on Scott Walker, Scott Fitzgerald and the dysfunction that is today's GOP-run State Capitol.

Republicans Forget That No One Likes A Cheater

Scott Walker and Republican legislators are seeing their poll numbers drop into the anathema zone.

Read the full University of Wisconsin Badger Poll. 

Surprising?

Not really.

Walker used his power as a new Governor to drop the bomb on state workers - - his choice of words - - to strip them, without warning or negotiations, of their collective bargaining rights and union workplace protections.

Basic fairness, openness - - and then honesty, as Walker repeatedly and falsely claimed he'd campaigned on that strategy - - all missing from the equation, until Walker was under oath before Congress and had to tell the truth.

Hardly the Wisconsin way.

Then the GOP, nervous about months of overreach, and facing Senate recall challenges permitted under the State Constitution, openly ran fake Democrats to create delay and fundraising advantages through primary elections - - at public expense - - and are further protecting those imperiled Senators and other vulnerable Republican incumbents with grossly-partisan, quickly-drafted redistricting maps.

And are rushing the vote prior to the August recall elections they delayed to make sure any successful Democratic recall challengers can't vote to block the redistricting scheme.

I think non-ideological voters and Republican moderates are going to express their contempt for these bullying tactics - - first in the recall elections then in this winter's recall effort against Walker, because he is the one who set this entire uproar in Wisconsin into motion.

Partisan politics is one thing, but repeated twisting of the rules and the legislative process and the essential need for fair play in a just society to cement office-holding by the group that happens to be in office - - and also with Walker being elected by just 52% of the voters who turned out - - should backfire, and is, the polling suggests.

I expect Walker to try and show something of a more moderate face the rest of the year, but the die is cast by the GOP's hand, and his recall is coming.