Wisconsin Officials: Free WI Voter ID Not Issued Free Is Not Not Wrong

Wisconsin Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb is just the latest Republican official - - from George Bush-to-Dick Cheney-to-Donald Rumsfeld-to-Scott Fitzgerald-to-Scott Walker - - to adhere to the party's first principle: no apologies, no backing down, regardless of how badly you've screwed up or how flat-out wrong you are.

Gottlieb endorsed his party's love affair with "no" defending Steven Krieser, a former DMV manager recently elevated to senior management, who had told line workers in writing to withhold from citizen customers applying for the new state voter ID that the ID is free, reports the Capital Times, the paper that found Krieser's Don't-Tell-Unless-They-Ask written directive last week.

To jam himself into the requisite Republican negative template, however, Gottleib's tied himself in nots with the rare quintuple negative.  Few have jumped through that many hoops to validate something so loopy:

The fact that not all IDs are issued for free does not mean that effective notice is not being provided or that anyone who is entitled to a free ID is being denied that product," writes Gottlieb, a former Republican lawmaker recently tapped by Walker to head the department.

"Not all customers require a new or additional ID for voting purposes, and therefore, not all customers are eligible for a free ID under the statute," Gottlieb adds.

But that's what you have to do to justify a sneaky policy and keeps its essential voter suppression goal in place.

Look also at Krieser's public policy knots - - both in his original directive and again after his subsequent, attaboy promotion to the DOT's #3 position, that of Executive Assistant, which traditionally is the political liaison position between a cabinet office and the Governor's office - - as reported by the Cap Times:

...Krieser defends the directive he gave employees, saying in an interview Tuesday that when the law was written, it did not contain language that requires Division of Motor Vehicles employees to specifically ask those requesting a photo ID if they would be using it to vote or for another purpose.

"If the person initiates that direction, then certainly, we will help them. We will not be coy," Krieser says. "But we still are not going to be selling it at the counter as a free ID.

Again - - no apologies, no backing down. And in this case, no being upfront with taxpayers.

Does it look like he's the right guy to help the Governor's office avoid transportation potholes, or that Gottlieb has a new #3 guy with the good political antennae?

Not.

So what are we left with here?

Bad, hare-brained policy and self-destructive politics, as litigation is being planned at this very moment arguing that the Voter ID law creates a poll tax that adds to its fundamental illegality and unconstitutionality.

Gottlieb and Krieser are not doing anything to not help the ligitation along.