Waukesha has granted annual contracts to an arm of the Barbour enterprise to help win water supply federal funding - - a quick review of the water utility's web pages finds a January 2007 contract approval for $63,000, and references to prior contracts back to 2004, and a December 2008 action for a current renewal, for the same sum, at item 11 here.
And the firm is where our own Tommy Thompson - - (a former aide is a big wheel in Barbour's world) - - will kick off fundraising for a possible run for US Senate, according to WisPolitics.com.
Suggested donation: $1,000, with host and sponsorship fees up to $5k.
Sounds like a grassroots effort to me.
When this contract came up for approval at the regular meeting of the Water Utility Commission, it was cause for a sanctimonious speech from 21-year Commissioner/President Daniel Warren about how he "really hates the idea of having to do this," but is forced to embrace this kind of un-Republican begging in DC by the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteThe fake conservatism of the Water Utility Commission is always an occasion for schaedenfreude when it pops up.
Over the five years I have been attending Commission meetings (I checked the minutes and found that I have attended many more meetings than does the press)it has struck me that these ciphers are left completely un-exposed. Aside from a wimpy profile on their staffperson, Duchniak, (he coaches kids' teams) their thinking, philosophy of government, their opinions has never been touched by the newspapers.
I'd bet that you couldn't find two persons among all the "soundoff" yappers and letters column experts in the Waukesha Freeman who even know who the Commissioners are.
This has been--among other things--a grotesque failure on the part of the press.