No Doubt, Grothman Can Fill Bachmann's Shoes

Now that he's won the primary, I reprise what I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2014

Glenn Grothman Could Be The Next Michele Bachmann

Wisconsin GOP State Senator and Michele Bachmann understudy Glenn Grothman has been speaking falsely about his fund-raising strength as he campaigns for a Congressional seat.

Hardly shocking, given how Grothman rolls. One item of explanation from this blog, among many is here; reports about the desultory Congressional race to replace the retiring/forced-out-by-the-Tea Party Tom Petri, (R), here and, here.

The Aug. 12th primary winner from among three safely-gerrymandered Wisconsin right-wing GOP state legislators is basically anointed the next member of Congress in a safely-gerrymandered GOP district - - at Big Government pay nearly quadruple Wisconsin's paltry offering.

$174,000 per year and perk-filled goody bags bigger than what Oscar nominees lug home will buy a lot of tea, Right?

So "US Congressman Glenn Grothman" is a real possibility, preposterous as that sounds, though since the US House of Representatives is so deeply devalued and dysfunctional, Grothman would fit Right in and feel Right at home.

As Charlie Sykes says, Grothman is a "warrior" for conservative issues, with unmatched "depths."

And with Bachmann departing, Grothman could fill her shoes, inherit her go-to Fox News slot and be a one-two Punch-and-Judy letter "G" tea partying voting bloc with Texas fringemeister Louis Gohmert.

Don't laugh: Gohmert and Grothman have plenty in common.

Take, for example, Gohmert's interest in certain lizards and insects, along with Grothman's obsession with snakes.

Vipers, too - - though as he did with the fund-raising example in our morning lede, above, Grothman got that one wrong and spoke falsely about it, too - - so people of the 6th Congressional District:

You've been warned.

One potential downside to a Grothman ascension to real power: Bridge repairs nationwide would take a budget hit if Caulk-Happy Glenn gets a seat on the House Transportation Committee.

Grothman again stars in 'WI Sends Its Worst.'

Another day, another cringe-worthy display by one of Wisconsin's worst - and it's not Ron Johnson this time - whom BadgerLand voters sent from a gerrymandered-safe GOP Congressional seat so he could prove there's more than one way to attack the US Capitol.

Today's repulsive and not random display of rotten Republicanism is courtesy of the overpaid and under-qualified US Cong. Glenn Grothman, who shamed our state on the floor of the US House today with another of his reflexive relapses into open bigotry.

H/T to Vox media's Aaron Rupar Twitter account:

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar

·

2h

Glenn Grothman brings up Black Lives Matter and then says, "I know it's a group that doesn't like the old fashioned family." 

@StaceyPlaskett, (D-VI) correctly put Grothman in his place:

"We have been able to keep our families alive for over 400 years ... how dare you say that we are not interested in families?" 

But why should the public, and especially African-Americans, have to put up with this of openly racist crap?

Remember that Grothman has said things like this before - note here his related attacks on single mothers and 'gals' allegedly reaping public assistance windfalls - yet, or perhaps that's why Wisconsin Republican voters keep re-electing and promoting him.

Here is one blog post linking to just some of Grothman's earlier base-stirring rants - the focus is about his obsession with Kwanzaa::

Here's a reminder from this blog posted in 2017 that dates to 2012:

...it's hard to chalk up the reported rant against Kwanzaa by State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), to anything other than gross ignorance and intolerance:  

Calling it a holiday that "almost no black people today care about," state Sen. Glenn Grothman is characterizing Kwanzaa as a false holiday conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" the Republican lawmaker from West Bend asked in a press release. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?" 

Here's a fuller account: 

Senator Glenn Grothman calls for Kwanzaa to be “slapped down”

Grothman, a Republican lawmaker from West Bend issued the press release during the week of Kwanzaa, calling it a "supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year's..."Dr. Karenga is a racist separatist who wanted to destroy the country in 1966." 

In 2014, while making his successful run for US Congress, a reporter asked Grothman how he knew that few black people cared about Kwanzaa. 

 His response:

"Of course, almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa," he said. "Just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people’s throats in an effort to divide Americans.”

A reporter had asked Grothman to back up his views: 

In response to questions about his authority on the matter, he told me that he had "polled 20 black people at random" at airports in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

 

Glenn Grothman Could Be The Next Michele Bachmann

Wisconsin GOP State Senator and Michele Bachmann understudy Glenn Grothman has been speaking falsely about his fund-raising strength as he campaigns for a Congressional seat.

Hardly shocking, given how Grothman rolls. One item of explanation from this blog, among many is here; reports about the desultory Congressional race to replace the retiring/forced-out-by-the-Tea Party Tom Petri, (R), here and, here.

The Aug. 12th primary winner from among three safely-gerrymandered Wisconsin right-wing GOP state legislators is basically anointed the next member of Congress in a safely-gerrymandered GOP district - - at Big Government pay nearly quadruple Wisconsin's paltry offering.

$174,000 per year and perk-filled goody bags bigger than what Oscar nominees lug home will buy a lot of tea, Right?

So "US Congressman Glenn Grothman" is a real possibility, preposterous as that sounds, though since the US House of Representatives is so deeply devalued and dysfunctional, Grothman would fit Right in and feel Right at home.

As Charlie Sykes says, Grothman is a "warrior" for conservative issues, with unmatched "depths."

And with Bachmann departing, Grothman could fill her shoes, inherit her go-to Fox News slot and be a one-two Punch-and-Judy letter "G" tea partying voting bloc with Texas fringemeister Louis Gohmert.

Don't laugh: Gohmert and Grothman have plenty in common.

Take, for example, Gohmert's interest in certain lizards and insects, along with Grothman's obsession with snakes.

Vipers, too - - though as he did with the fund-raising example in our morning lede, above, Grothman got that one wrong and spoke falsely about it, too - - so people of the 6th Congressional District:

You've been warned.

One potential downside to a Grothman ascension to real power: Bridge repairs nationwide would take a budget hit if Caulk-Happy Glenn gets a seat on the House Transportation Committee.

Again, WI Cong. Glenn Grothman, (R-Town of Dog Whistle)

US Congressman Glenn Grothman (I know, deep dissonance there) represents Wisconsin's 6th District, which is 93.6 white and 1.6% Black.

Maybe that explains why, as he's running for re-election, that Grothman would opine out-of-context that the Rev. Al Sharpton was a frequent White House guest of President Obama - - earning an unvarnished "true" rating from PolitiFact because there is no rating category for 'true, but so what, and your dog whistle is defeaning.'

This isn't the first time that Grothman has offered up some unprompted race-baiting. 

In his press release, [then State Sen.] Grothman says "almost no black people today care about Kwanzaa -- just white left-wingers who try to shove this down black people's throats in an effort to divide Americans," and called for the holiday to be "slapped down."

Another example, here.

To be fair, Grothman has managed to broadly smear women without regard to race, so credit where credit is due: 

Wisconsin Senator Who Introduced Anti-Single Parent Bill Says Women ‘Trained’ To Lie About Planned Pregnancies

[Talk show host Alan] Colmes: You think women want to have homes without fathers? You think women look to the opportunity to have to raise kids and not be able to get work because they have to stay home and take care of the kids. Women want to do this? 

Grothman: I think a lot of women are adopting the single motherhood lifestyle because the government creates a situation in which it is almost preferred.  

No wonder the comedian John Oliver calls Grothman an example of a politician who "managed to get elected."

Which helps explain why Grothman's seat could be in play, perhaps with the ironic assistance of a national group led by President Obama's colleague and former Attorney General.

Exit Michele Bachmann, enter Glenn Grothman, cue the train wreck

[Updated, 12:28 a.m. Tuesday] The devaluation and devolution of the US Congress - - remember that giants like Abraham Lincoln, John Quincy Adams, Thaddeus Stevens, Shirley Chisholm, Mickey Leland served there, as does John Lewis, yet - - continues downward with the arrival of Wisconsin's cartoonish Glenn Grothman's.

This blog has often taken note of Grothman's buffoonish self-promotion - - or here, among many posts, and yes, it's working - - look where he's headed - - while PolitiFact gathers up a few of Grothman's remarks into a top five list.

Grothman will be to the Wisconsin political scene what Kim Kardashian is to Instagram:

Someone willing to do or say most anything through traditional and social media for self-advancement, laughing all the way to the bank, or in Grothman's case, the ballot box, regardless of how weird is the celebrity being reinforced.

What I find especially interesting is that Grothman is one of those anti-government Tea Party ideologues who says he wants less federal government and reduced spending but jumped at the chance to more than triple his taxpayer-paid salary and haul in a bigger goody bag of perks, including a more generous pension, free round-trip airfares and a host of Capitol Hill, members-only discounts.

Grothman will hitch a ride in the clown car and join the Louis Gohmert of Texas circus - - but start the countdown now to the inevitable humiliation that will slop onto the state when DC and its pressures and especially its media temptations will prove Grothman unable to handle the environment.

About Kwanzaa, had GOP's Grossman Googled GOP's Grothman?

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank roasts the GOP for its "new breed of Republican for the Trump era."

Regrettably, Milbank can point to a lot examples, such as current New Jersey GOP Congressional candidate Seth Grossman who, among many gross remarks, called the African-American celebration Kwanzaa a “phony holiday” created by “black racists.”

About Kwanzaa - - Seth Grossman - - meet Wisconsin's Glenn Grothman. 
 
Here's a reminder from this blog posted in 2017 that dates to 2012:

...it's hard to chalk up the reported rant against Kwanzaa by State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), to anything other than gross ignorance and intolerance:  

Calling it a holiday that "almost no black people today care about," state Sen. Glenn Grothman is characterizing Kwanzaa as a false holiday conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" the Republican lawmaker from West Bend asked in a press release. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?" 

Here's a fuller account: 

Senator Glenn Grothman calls for Kwanzaa to be “slapped down”

...he declares that Kwanzaa is a false holiday he says was conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals. 

Grothman, a Republican lawmaker from West Bend issued the press release during the week of Kwanzaa, calling it a "supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year's..."Dr. Karenga is a racist separatist who wanted to destroy the country in 1966." 

In 2014, while making his successful run for US Congress, a reporter asked Grothman how he knew that few black people cared about Kwanzaa. 

...he [Grothman] told me that he had "polled 20 black people at random" at airports in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Glenn Grothman's selective embrace of diversity, religious tolerance

Glenn Grothman - - 

- - had a lot to say in a constituent newsletter emailed Saturday about diversity and religious tolerance.

I'll post some excerpts below, and while I am not challenging his sincerity, I do find it undermined by his earlier public disparagement of Kwanzaa, excerpted here.

Here's a reminder from this blog posted in 2017 that dates to 2012:

...it's hard to chalk up the reported rant against Kwanzaa by State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), to anything other than gross ignorance and intolerance:  

Calling it a holiday that "almost no black people today care about," state Sen. Glenn Grothman is characterizing Kwanzaa as a false holiday conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" the Republican lawmaker from West Bend asked in a press release. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?" 

Here's a fuller account: 

Senator Glenn Grothman calls for Kwanzaa to be “slapped down”

Grothman, a Republican lawmaker from West Bend issued the press release during the week of Kwanzaa, calling it a "supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year's..."Dr. Karenga is a racist separatist who wanted to destroy the country in 1966." 

In 2014, while making his successful run for US Congress, a reporter asked Grothman how he knew that few black people cared about Kwanzaa. 

...he [Grothman] told me that he had "polled 20 black people at random" at airports in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

So with that in mind, you can take in some of his newsletter's text:

Religious Freedom  Over 230 years ago on January 16, the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, passed the Virginia General Assembly. For this reason, since 1993, every President of the United States has issued a proclamation to designate January 16 as Religious Freedom Day. Religious Freedom Day not only commemorates the passage of the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, but calls our nation to forever protect the unalienable right to religious freedom for all people. Many of America's first settlers came to the United States to flee religious persecution. That is why our Founding Fathers sought to create a nation in which individuals and families could practice their chosen religion freely, without government interference. Like our Founding Fathers, I believe it is vital to ensure that all Americans enjoy the right to exercise their chosen religion. Tragically, those that would prefer an America where prayers are only spoken in private, school children grow up ignorant of the basic facts of various religions and militant special interest groups can force individuals to violate their conscience in the name of false tolerance, are gaining strength in our society. Still, there is hope for the preservation of religious freedom in the United States. In honor of Religious Freedom Day 2020, nine federal agencies under President Donald Trump's leadership enacted rules to safeguard the constitutional rights of religious organizations. These rules will provide for the undue defense of First Amendment freedoms, the removal of regulatory burdens on faith-based institutions and the establishment of programs that ensure religious organizations are treated fairly in all circumstances. There are also provisions to ensure that religious and non-religious organizations receive equal consideration when applying for federal grants. With these rules, preserving the right to religious liberty in Wisconsin's Sixth District and throughout our great nation is more than possible. I am thankful that the Trump Administration continues to work to maintain the integrity of our Constitution’s guarantee of religious liberty for you and your family. Likewise, I will always fight to protect your right to religious freedom in Congress. Ultimately, it is my hope that the religious freedom that our country was founded on endures for every generation to come.... Knights of Columbus While many people claim we live in a society that embraces diversity and tolerance, prejudice and bigotry remain towards certain groups of people. For example, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI), at the end of 2018, used their official roles to try to bring down a judicial nominee for being a member of the Knights of Columbus. Likewise, similar statements attacking the Knights have arose [Sic] from my fellow Members of Congress....

New Wisconsin Motto: 'Block The Vote'

[5/5/19 Update - - Some continuing efforts to block the vote barred by the courts. Grothman, meanwhile, has been promoted to Congress.] 

You may remember as the 2012 recall election campaign wound down that Republican Scott Walker told partisans in Waukesha County's Oconomowoc Lake that his re-election would prevent Wisconsin from becoming "another Milwaukee."

Snicker.

But wait, there's a new twist.

Walker's allies in the State Legislature, including State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), want the entire state to have nothing to do with Milwaukee-style rules that allow voter registration and early, in-person absentee voting on weekends prior to elections.

Those are popular options in Milwaukee and some other communities where local officials listened to working parents, seniors with limited transportation and students with classes and/or jobs who said that Monday-Friday-only voter registration and absentee voting hours presented unnecessary and unwanted obstacles.

You'd think a democracy likes ours would choose to serve the customer - - in this case, the voter - - and use governmental resources to make voting easier, not harder, especially since traditional Tuesday elections are already workday events that present restrictions on voters' ballot box access. 

But Grothman, carrying Walker's water, is using government to make everyday people's lives and the voting process more complicated and cumbersome. It's not the first time that Grothman has veered to the fringe.

Grothman had made the absurd claim that voting has broken out  "anytime, anywhere" in cities like Milwaukee to the disadvantage of smaller communities without money to support for longer municipal clerk office hours.

So he's championed a bill to ban pre-election weekend absentee voting hours, thereby also killing voter registration drives that often take place with some churches' cooperation, and to limit the number of hours in-person absentee voting can take place in the two weeks before an election.

In the name of bogus, local-control crushing uniformity. 

His bill passed the Senate Wednesday morning with his entire caucus voting "Yes" - - with the exception of outgoing GOP party conscience State Sen. Dale Schultz, (Richland Center) - - and is guaranteed a Walker, mission-accomplished signature.

Though it passed by one vote - - a ridiculously small margin for such a major and consequential policy shift.

Grothman also wants to end the 30-year practice statewide of allowing new voters to register and cast their ballots on election day. He claims that same day registration makes voting lines longer, though at every polling place I've seen the registrations take place in a separate line.

Grothman's bill to limit early registration and in-person absentee voting will only make election day polling places more crowded and slow-paced, which is part of the plan: gum up the works and people will be discouraged from registering and voting, especially in urban wards with large numbers of eligible (read:Democratic) voters.

Like the voter ID law now tied up in court - - and which Walker so badly wants tweaked and approved as the state's Number One Priority before he's on the ballot again this November - - Grothman's goal is a reduced Democratic turnout to give Republicans a better chance of winning elections which their ideology and policies make difficult.

How better to turn Wisconsin red in presidential years, for example?

Walker said he didn't want Wisconsin to become another Milwaukee.

So instead, Wisconsin will become another Ohio or Florida, where monkey-wrenching the vote put those states in the news as hostile to preserving basic rights, particularly in cities with big minority populations.

Go sell that to businesses, students or young entrepreneurs looking to locate in an open-minded state.

Cross-posted at Purple Wisconsin.

Newsletter news: Glenn Grothman refutes himself

It isn't exactly breaking news to discover a logic deficit in the official world of Glenn Grothman - - see Grothman, money or Grothman, parenting- - but when the deficit actually has to do with deficits, notice must be taken.

You may have seen the story about Grothman spending about three times as much on taxpayer-paid newsletters than the average spent by others in the WI House of Representatives delegation.

The story is worth a read if for no other reason than seeing Glenn justify, in part, his big spending of taxpayer money on newsletters because he says he's being outspent in his race for re-election by someone who has more money than does he.

Such unfairness has never been visited on anyone running against a wealthier Republican, like, say, Jim Sensenbrenner or Paul Ryan, but let's get back to Glenn's deficit thinking by consulting his e-newletters.

Specifically, in this recent newsletter paen to Paul Ryan, there was this - - "As Speaker, possibly his greatest achievement was ushering in the historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act..."

Then followed by these paragraphs:

We are $21 trillion in debt. That is more than $65,000 for every man, woman and child in America. The reckless government spending today will be a burden to our children and grandchildren tomorrow. With that in mind, the House brought H.J.Res. 2 to the floor for a vote. This bill proposed the idea of adding an amendment to our Constitution stating that for each fiscal year, government spending could not be greater than revenue. Unfortunately for our country, the vast majority of Democrats voted against this resolution, striking it down. Voting no on this bill was in essence voting yes for more debt, more partisanship and kicking the can down the road. I voted voted yes on H.J.Res. 2 and no on the recently passed omnibus because we desparately [Sic] need to get our fiscal house in order. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Somehow Grothman missed the deficit-accelerating implications of Ryan's tax bill : Paul Ryan's Most Lasting Legacy: Permanent Trillion-Dollar Deficits He's not going to be in office when they start to happen, but Paul Ryan's (R-WI) most lasting legacy as speaker of the House of  Representatives will be as the person who enabled permanent trillion-dollar deficits in the United States. Ryan's announcement today that he would not seek reelection came less than 48 hours after the Congressional Budget Office released a report that for the first time officially confirmed what private sector analysts have been saying for months: Because of last year's big tax cut and this year's big spending increase, even in good economic times the federal deficit will be very close to $1 trillion in 2019, will reach $1 trillion in 2020 and will exceed $1 trillion every year through at least 2028. Ryan not only made all this happen, he is taking a great deal of satisfaction from having done it. He specifically cited the tax bill during his announcement today as one of his proudest accomplishments.

Glenn Grothman Finally Gets Win Over Garter Snake

GOP State Senator and noted herpetologist Glenn Grothman has long been hunting for a way to get the Butler's garter snake off Wisconsin's official endangered/threatened species lists.

Now that the DNR is run by Grothman's ex-legislative colleague and former home builder Cathy Stepp, the agency has done just that, so crank up the bulldozers.

Grothman had shared his snake-related bona fides with The Washington Post in 2006:

It is unclear how many Butler's garter snakes live in Wisconsin. Grothman says there are plenty. 

"The snake is everywhere. There are probably as many snakes as people," he said... 

Conservationists say the number of snakes is meaningless. The important figure is how many protected habitats exist for the Butler's garter snake.

Note that this is not the first time that Grothman has brought his technical skills to an environmental issue: Remember when he suggested that a well potentially threatened by the world's largest open-pit iron ore mine nearby could be kept safe with some caulk?

True story.

And Grothman sees other unnecessary protections by the state, like the law that prevents an employer from implementing a seven-day work week.

Garter snakes, worker health, family life - - hey - - if it's in the way of business, bulldoze it.

He had also opined in recent years about the valueless Kwanzaa holiday, the false need for equal pay for women, and the connections of child abuse to single-parenting.

For the record, the long-time State Senator from West Bend is not married and has no children.

Glenn Grothman selling 'concern' to gullible buyers

[Updated] One of the oldest tricks in politics is worrying aloud that fund raising is going poorly and then raking in cash from low-information voters who can't see through the con.

The occasionally transparent but gerrymander-protected, perpetually-embarrassing Congressman and long-time sociological oracle Glenn Grothman has just had  one of these crying wolf/begging for money moments:

I am very apprehensive about the future. Right now it’s kind of the calm before the storm. The fundraising is not going as well as I’d like,” the Glenbeulah Republican told WISN-AM (1130) host Jay Weber."
...this is the toughest race of my political career..."

 
I would say 'stop the madness,' but it's hard to stay just when it started. 

Though there are documented clues posted on this blog:

...it's hard to chalk up the reported rant against Kwanzaa by State Sen. Glenn Grothman, (R-West Bend), to anything other than gross ignorance and intolerance:  

Calling it a holiday that "almost no black people today care about," state Sen. Glenn Grothman is characterizing Kwanzaa as a false holiday conjured up by a racist college professor and perpetuated by hard-core liberals.

"Why must we still hear about Kwanzaa?" the Republican lawmaker from West Bend asked in a press release. "Why are hard-core left wingers still trying to talk about Kwanzaa — the supposed African-American holiday celebration between Christmas and New Year’s?" 

 ...Grothman will not apologize.

When did he become the arbiter of whose holidays are authentic and whose culture is worth respecting? And should taxpayers pick up the cost of his misuse of state, news-release resources?

This is not the first time Grothman demeaned a large swath of the citizenry:

About time he takes flak for equating single-parenthood with child abuse.

The Huffington Post takes note.  

Or blathered on about large numbers of other people: