Scott Walker exhorts the state GOP to raise money for Republican senators who are being recalled because of his recklessness.
I've just finished reading Nathaniel Philbrick's great new book on George Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn; I see some similarities between Walker and these recalled GOP senators and the troopers who rode over the ridge with Custer, stood, then fell with him.
The number of Republican Senators who vote against Wisconsin Wunderkind Paul Ryan's Medicare demolition plan later this week will tell us how toxic it is.
I figure at least half-a-dozen - - some are already saying they are being given a pass by leadership - - though I am sure there will be the requisite compliment-laden windbaggery for Ryan first.
Conservative GOP Senate candidates, like Virginia's George Allen, are already distancing themselves from the plan; which incumbents with seats to defend in 2012 want angry constituents showing up at their town hall meetings for the next year-and-a-half?
Ron Johnson might think people will forget his "Yes" vote: prove him wrong.
Don Behm lays out the steps ahead assuming the DNR begins its formal review of a precedent-setting bid by the City of Waukesha to divert water from Lake Michigan.
Aall eight Great Lakes states must give their approval.
Among the unanswered qeustions: whether the neighboring Town of Waukesha wants to remain in the application's proposed water delivery area.
Thanks for sticking with me.
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I'm glad that PolitiFact reports Scott Walker is breaking a pledge against raising taxes - - something we've been following here for months by showing that Walker's own proposed budget raises state income taxes on some lower-income workers.
Also telling: even with that budget language visible for all to see, Walker still repeated his false no-tax-increase claim on that Twitter account we're supposed to believe he writes.
Yes, in extremis -"in the farthest reaches."
Look at the 180-degree turn by State Senator Alberta Darling, (R-River Hills) - - from former Planned Parenthood board member to current co-chair of the Joint Committee on Finance that stripped away PP's entire state grant.
Her flip speaks volumes about the decline of the Wisconsin Republican Party into extremism, and its more relatively-moderate members into panic.
The far-right wanted the grant eliminated to punish the organization for providing abortion services, but all the grant was to be used for the 97% of Planned Parenthood's non-abortion-related services, and none of the state grant would be used for abortion services.
But to be a Republican in the state party leadership these days - - and one facing a recall election, too - - means being and behaving as an ideologue, with no room for the shades of grey that make up the real world.
So to stay alive in her party, Darling will follow and lead the party to the Right.
Also take the party's shamefully spun and passed Voter ID bill - - (Republicans' real #1 state priority, with job creation being no higher than #3, behind Walker's union-busting "bomb.") - - a solution, like the swine flu fiasco vaccine of a few decades ago, in search of a problem.
There have been a handful of phony ballots cast statewide, but nothing on any scale to objectively justify our purportedly-broke State of Wisconsin getting ready to spend millions on a new, ID-based election system - - and then another huge sum defending in court a blatantly unconstitutional and grievously-immoral scheme to use state power to prevent eligible citizens from voting.
In this case, the GOP is choosing wasteful spending over law and facts while pretending there is no partisan advantage in tamping down turnout in lower-income cities and on college campuses.
The obfuscating even comes from sometime moderates like State Sen. Neal Kedzie, (R-Elkhorn), who have no intention of standing in the way of the state GOP's full-blown partisan and political push rightward.
Says Kedzie:
As members of the electorate, we are afforded the opportunity to actively participate in representative democracy in this state and nation, which should neither be taken lightly nor for granted. When that opportunity is compromised by incidents of voter fraud, it is both necessary and appropriate for election reform measures such as this to be implemented and administered to its fullest extent. The photo ID bill is a reasonable requirement which will maintain the integrity of our elections and uphold an established standard of 'one person - one vote'.Finally, you can't escape the message sent all week by conservatives who are bashing fellow Republican Tommy Thompson - - a moderate - - with harsh words and even an attack ad for merely thinking about running for the US Senate seat opening next year.
The Waukesha Patch online reporting service follows the city's cut-out-the-Mayor politicking.
Government by fiefdom in Waukesha city and county is nothing new.
With Bill Lueders leaving Isthmus next month, the job of News Editor becomes available.
The search is on.
For information, contact Dean Robbins, Editor, at:
Isthmus Publishing Company
101 King Street
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 251-5627
Somebody's been doing her homework up in River Hills.
State Sen. Alberta Darling's absurd explanation that cutting 30%, and hundreds of millions of dollars through 2020 from the state's signature land conservation fund, is not "backpedaling" on interest in stewardship reminded me Scott Walker's of saying his anti-union plan was a "modest" proposal.
I collected a few other examples of WalkerTalk a few weeks ago, and the title, lede and last line of that post suggest Darling can walk the Walker walk, and talk the talk, too:
ScottWalkerTalk Obscures
The Scott Walker Gang has been taking Rhetoric 101 and talking like they aced the class...
The conclusion of today's lesson in Political Speak: when you hear warm and fuzzy terminology from this bunch, think the opposite.
Amen.
But which Republican legislative leader has the independence from Scott Walker AND the highway lobby to make this case?
A writer from California sends this message:
I'm watching Neil Cavuto on Fox right now, and he was talking about how the media didn't have many nice things to say about Paul Ryan's plan, and he pulled up some headlines from Google News. Just wanted to let you know that he highlighted your site!
The Joint Committee on Finance approves deep short-and-long-term cuts in the borrowing and resources that fund Wisconsin's popular, bi-partisan land conservation and stewardship program - - where open space is preserved for hikers, hunters, anglers and other public users - - by 30% annually to $60 million annually, and by $234 million through 2020, no doubt making real estate and development interests real happy.
Committee co-chair Alberta Darling's take is that the reduction "does not reflect a backpedaling of interest in stewardship."
Yes it does.
Read the words in the Journal Sentinel story, headlined - -
Democrats on the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee on Finance should have tried to amend restrictions on poor women's access to health care that State Sen. Alberta Darling and 11 other committee Republicans wrote into the proposed state budget by mandating similar coverage restrictions to their taxpayer-subsidized state health plan.
Seems to me that if you impose cuts and costs on a class of state residents, you should set the example and welcome those same conditions on what is available to you as a routine employee benefit.
I'd have enjoyed seeing those 12 Republican "Aye" votes on health care access for poor women turn to "Nays," or have the GOP leadership table the amendment when the tables were turned.
They're not interested in bottling the water, or otherwise exploiting it, and to make their point, they've already walked each lake's perimeter, with more ambitious plans for this year.
Near Ashland, Wisconsin, and Lake Superior?
How about Baffin Island, too, thanks to climate change.
That's in the Arctic Archipelago, folks. From Ashland to the Arctic: I see an international coalition...
State Sen. Alberta Darling, (R-River Hills), had been a champion of women's rights and a member of Planned Parenthood's board.
Back in the day when a person could be a Republican and think independently, and not necessarily look for guidance from the Glenn Grothmans of the party, or its think-tank ideological commanders whose white papers and talking points have now become one-dimensional marching orders.
Them days are long gone: Darling has made the calculation that she does not want to end up like this guy.
By voting on Joint Finance to deny state aid to Planned Parenthood, to willfully starve the non-profit agency knowing that none of the funding would be used to finance abortions - - but would be used to provide medical service to low-income women - - Darling is playing to her farthest-right constituents to stave off defeat in the recall election she has certainly earned.
Planned Parenthood's clientele - - light years away from River Hills in more ways than you can count - - will suffer as a result.
Too bad Democrats didn't have a plan to force GOP committee members to put up or shut up.
The politics behind her vote and the 11 other Republicans on Joint Finance are beyond cynical.
Craven fits.
Darling is my State Senator, and is facing a recall election.
Her endorsing of a state prescription drug for seniors, a gesture less towards moderation and towards political survival with older voters at the polls is transparent window-dressing that fails to mask her support for Walker's destruction of public workers' bargaining rights.
She even thinks out loud about cuts to the state's support for recycling while Senate leadership was saying "no cuts," and pushing a 30% cut annually through 2020 in the state's signature, bi-partisan land stewardship and open space program - - while denying such a cut is "backpedaling."
Please!
I hope her tenure is coming to an end.
Republicans decided to walk away from the Ryan plan that Newt Gingrich called unacceptably "radical" because GOP pols saw the polling math and everyday people did the health care cost math.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that if adopted, seniors would see their share of medical expenses nearly triple:
"For example, by 2030, typical 65-year-olds would be required to pay 68 percent of the cost of their coverage, which includes premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, according to the CBO. They'd pay 25 percent under current law, the CBO said."Does the next generation of oldsters sell off their possessions, declare bankruptcy, and fall back on relatives to pay their bills once they have burned through the insubstantial voucher Ryan wants them endorse over to a private insurer - - or ask to be carted into the country somewhere and left on the hill to die?
Long-time friend and political ally Roberta Gassman has a great new gig at the US Department of Labor - - and given labor's travails under the Walker regime, what better place could there be right now for an influential Madisonian than the US Department of Labor?
The official announcement is here.
From Roberta tonight - - who also says she'll be maintaining her permanent residence in Madison:
I write to tell you about a new chapter in my professional life and to give you updated contact info for staying in touch. Monday I began a new job in the President’s administration, having been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training in the United States Department of Labor.
This is a wonderful opportunity for me given my deep respect and enormous admiration for our extraordinary President and my passion for these issues, especially as our country is recovering from what has been such a pounding national recession.I will be working with very talented colleagues. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been a national leader on health care, the green economy and improving the lives of working families.
At DOL she has advanced the agenda of “good jobs for everyone.” I especially appreciate that I’ll be working with Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary of DOL’s Employment and Training Administration, the largest grant-making part of the department. Following her service as Senior Policy Advisor to Senator Ted Kennedy and Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, she has brought great intellect and skill to the Employment and Training Administration since being appointed by President Obama in 2009.
DOL’s Employment and Training Administration oversees the country’s employment and training programs including Unemployment Insurance, Apprenticeship, Dislocated Worker Services, Foreign Labor Certification, Trade Adjustment, the Job Corps and more.
