Former WI GOP Governor Tommy Thompson says that state government/UW collaboration is the key to the Wisconsin Idea and crucial to the state's success:
Details, here.
Walker tried to kill the Wisconsin Idea by distorting it through the budget, lied about it being a "drafting error," but has figured out how to destroy the agency piecemeal by a) using the DNR to sever science ties and data, before b) completely destroying the agency by breaking it into pieces and scattering the remaining staffers he hasn't already removed through position cuts across a down-sized and intentionally ineffective state government.
Fine that Tommy has posted a high-minded essay and made a speech: let's see him really get his hands dirty and take on the anti-environment caucus which he helped enable within his own party when he killed the Office of the Public Intervenor and set government against the people and a clean environment to please his big business backers.
Wisconsin has a well-earned national reputation for public policy innovation, due in large part to the cooperation and genuine partnerships between government officials and university scholars...I believe strongly that this collaborative approach remains the most effective way to solve them and ensure prosperity and health for the people of our state.Is he aware that GOP Gov. Scott Walker's "chamber of commerce mentality" Department of Natural Resources just scrubbed climate science off its climate change page, took down a teaching unit in climate change and ended its collaboration with UW scientists at the system's highly-respected Wisconsin Initiative for Climate Change Impacts?
Details, here.
Walker tried to kill the Wisconsin Idea by distorting it through the budget, lied about it being a "drafting error," but has figured out how to destroy the agency piecemeal by a) using the DNR to sever science ties and data, before b) completely destroying the agency by breaking it into pieces and scattering the remaining staffers he hasn't already removed through position cuts across a down-sized and intentionally ineffective state government.
Fine that Tommy has posted a high-minded essay and made a speech: let's see him really get his hands dirty and take on the anti-environment caucus which he helped enable within his own party when he killed the Office of the Public Intervenor and set government against the people and a clean environment to please his big business backers.
Please (but you are spot-on when you say, "let's see him really get his hands dirty and take on the anti-environment caucus".
ReplyDeleteTommy was (and still is) a koch/American Legislative Exchange Counsel guy and there is a recording of him admitting that he came home from koch/alec events with their "model legislation", changed them a little bit, and got them enacted by law. Here's another striking parallel between Walker and Thompson -- pumped up across the state by massive propaganda.
Milwaukee Sentinel (pre-merger) would always include the tagline after mentioning Gov. Tommy Thompson, "Wisconsin is known for its clean politics" and then often direct comparisons to Illinois as if that was some type of meaningful benchmark.
The "boy from Elroy" that the media tagged him with was always a lie. By the time he became governor he had spent his life in Madison while making a career of bashing it in every other community across the state. Geee... Who does that sound like (Hint: Replace "Madison" with "Milwaukee" and the think of who campaigns saying, "We don't want the rest of the state to look like..."
Oh... Tommy Thompson also said stick it to Milwaukee even going to far as to specifically call it a "no brainer" (Miller Park fiasco). The worker that was killed there died so that Tommy Thompson could have a presser even though it was too windy to be up on that crane.
Tommy Thompson was the prototype for Scott Walker. If Walker seems more extreme, that is only because Koch/alec has moved even further to the extreme right. If Tommy was governor today, you would probably see the same Koch/alec agenda.
Perhaps if people tried to hold Thompson accountable for being a moderate, there is merit in this dialog, but no one on the left should put Thompson up on a pedestal either.
I am not saying your post is -- you do close with a call to see him take action. I am concerned, however, that the opposition to Walker (and not Trump) needs to be careful to avoid misunderstandings as to who actually has any integrity.
Back when Tommy was governor, a large group of teachers witnessed him screaming at a woman teacher who asked him to come up north and visit her school's Summer Program. It was ridiculous. Then, the State Journal headlined the story as "Teacher Confronts Governor". Many teachers I know, including myself, called the WSJ and told them that they had the story all wrong. We were given the same answer: "Who are we going to believe, you or the governor's press secretary?"
ReplyDeleteWhat happened back then was Thompson could do whatever he wanted because the news media kissed his butt.Thompson was a dishonest person who was a puppet to ALEC, just like Walker. Heck, he got away with having affairs and the media left him alone. He was a stupid dirtbag. Then along came Walker, Tommy on steroids.
OOOPS!
ReplyDeleteMy comment above should be AND NOW TRUMP (instead of not Trump). We have our hands full now at the state and federal level -- and many communities need to fight the extremism locally as well.
"The 'boy from Elroy' that the media tagged him with was always a lie."
ReplyDeleteThis statement is a lie or the person who wrote it is ignorant. For most of the time he spent in the Legislature, the salary was in the $8000-9000 range per year. He spend most of his time practicing law as a small-town lawyer. In a small town, the lawyer does much of his or her work either gratis or at a very low hourly rate because you can't sell more justice than people can afford to pay.
Tommy Thompson selling justice!
ReplyDeleteBwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I have never seen anyone suggest that he was a victim, standing up for the little man at his own expense because the system he is complicit with hurts the common man.
He sells something, but it is more like snake oil and favoritism. Please do not confuse having a small office in Elroy as being any indication that he did not spend his time in Madison partying and being a man-about-town!