Political Heat

Incident in Janesville demonstrates a growing trend toward violence within Trump's base Donald Trump’s candidacy worries me. His policies and rhetoric are dangerous for this country, and should he become the president or even just the nominee for the Republican Party, it would signal a very concerning shift in this country’s attitudes, especially among conservative voters. The most worrisome part about Trump’s candidacy is the hate that it’s inspired in regular people. But perhaps that word is a bit too generous -- there’s nothing “regular” about the hatred and violence several of them engage in, both rhetorically and physically. What transpired in Janesville this past week shouldn’t be considered regular or normal . A young, 15-year old woman who had come to protest Trump’s presence in the city was allegedly groped by an older male Trump supporter. A verbal fight ensued, which culminated in the woman pushing the man back, and another member of the pro-Trump crowd dousing he...

Scott Manley praises Scalia Bradley, even though she lacks explanations for her judicial philosopy Scott Manley, VP of Government Relations for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (the state’s largest corporate lobby), penned a glowing endorsement for the upcoming state Supreme Court race set to be held April 5 between Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg and current Justice Rebecca Bradley. His endorsement couldn’t be clearer: Manley supports the late Antonin Scalia to fill the role . image from Wisconsin Business Voice All joking aside, one could seriously be forgiven for coming to that conclusion . In trying to offer support for Rebecca Bradley, seen as the conservative choice for the position, Manley takes great care to explain why he supports Scalia’s judicial beliefs, and why they’d make a good fit for the state’s highest court. “Even after his untimely death, Justice Scalia continues to remind us through his brilliant writings that the proper role of the courts is not to rem...

Kloppenburg has shown she should hold the position that Bradley currently has Click the play button to hear my commentary. Text of commentary appears below. Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg should be granted the opportunity to serve on the State Supreme Court. She has demonstrated, through more than two decades of working as an assistant Attorney General under both parties, that she has an in-depth knowledge of our state’s laws. With that type of background alone, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with more experience to serve on the court. But of course, Kloppenburg can also claim judicial experience as well. She has served for more than three years as a Court of Appeals judge, winning election to office to fill that role, and writing several opinions for the cases that landed before her and her peers. While also able to brag about a stellar career, Rebecca Bradley, the current incumbent justice on the Supreme Court that Kloppenburg is trying to unseat, can only boast incumb...

How we treat each other in a debate is sometimes more important than the debate itself I’m a strong believer in the idea that the art of the argument matters almost as much as the argument itself. How you set forth your argument can determine the paths that a conversation can take, and at times it can drastically alter the outcome of the debate itself. This isn’t some hidden wisdom -- “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” In other words, more people will come to your side of an argument (or even consider it) if you present something more positive than negative. But it’s not just about winning the argument either -- a poisoned rhetoric can damage bridges between you and your opposition , making it impossible to come to any reconciliation at a later date. Arguments can and should get heated, and passionate debaters shouldn’t necessarily try to temper their opinions. But a calmer dialogue, one that views separate actors as human beings and not enemies, is much more pr...

Bradley's campaign props up an anti-gay conservative voice following controversial comments from Bradley's past resurfacing “To those offended by comments I made as a young college student, I apologize, and assure you that those comments are not reflective of my worldview.” That was part of the apology that state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley made after it came out that she had written derogatory and offensive comments while she was an undergrad student at Marquette University. The writings, made more than two decades ago, revealed a younger and decidedly less mature Bradley (nee Grassl) who had terrifying views of homosexuals, and liberalism in general . Here’s some examples of what she wrote: "Heterosexual sex is very healthy in a loving marital relationship. Homosexual sex, however, kills". [Referring to Bill Clinton] "We have now elected a tree-hugging, baby-killing, pot-smoking, flag-burning, queer-loving, bull-spouting ‘60s radical socia...

Childish GOP need to grow up, begin nomination hearings on Merrick Garland President Barack Obama has fulfilled his constitutional duties and selected a nominee for consideration to replace the late Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. It’s time that the Senate fulfill its constitutional duties as well. Merrick Garland is a fitting nominee. He has plenty of judicial experience, and what’s more he has glowing bipartisan praise from his hearings during previous appointments. Any obstruction on forwarding him to the Senate for consideration would be purely political, and unprecedented, for the Republicans to engage in. Consistently, the American people agree. Poll after poll shows a majority believe that the president’s nominee deserves a fair shot, a chance to be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration to a full Senate vote. But Republicans have a different plan . They say that since we’re in an election year that the nominee deserves to be chosen by the ne...

On experience and temperament, Kloppenburg is the better choice An election for the state Supreme Court is being held on April 5. The incumbent candidate, herself never elected to the position but instead appointed to it by the current governor, is facing a strong challenge from another candidate who nearly unseated a different justice five years ago. Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg is deserving of the seat currently held by Justice Rebecca Bradley , and I happily throw my endorsement behind her knowing that she will be a great addition to the court. Kloppenburg has several years of experience dealing with Wisconsin law, dating as far back as 1989 when she was appointed by a Republican to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for the state. She served in that capacity for 23 years under both Democratic and Republican Attorneys General before becoming a judge for Wisconsin’s Fourth District Court of Appeals. She has been on both sides of the bench, arguing cases before judges and jus...

When job numbers go bad, Walker relies on labor participation rate to make himself look better -- but that's not all that great, either The latest “gold standard” private sector jobs report for Wisconsin showed that we are experiencing a slowdown under Scott Walker’s watch. What’s more, our ranking among the rest of the nation is dismal -- we are 40th out of 50 in job creation since September 2011. Ordinarily when one jobs report shows trouble, the Walker administration switches gears and goes with a different jobs report. But even the monthly jobs reports are showing a trend in the wrong direction: January was the third straight month of private sector job losses for the state. From the Cap Times : Since October, Wisconsin has lost 4,600 private sector jobs in figures compiled as part of the Current Employment Statistics program, which samples a small number of employers. So what’s a governor to do when both types of jobs reports show negative numbers? Why, tout the l...

Another excellent must watch video from our friends at Wi Waterwatch about Waukesha Water diversion:

Even staunch conservatives recognize that federal government plays a role in emergency situations “I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Ronald Reagan was fast to pass judgment on government programs meant to give aid to those in need. It’s funny, though: when localities or states need the help, they’re willing to shed this line of thinking without hesitation in favor of aid from the federal government. When a hurricane ravaged the east coast, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, was happy to accept aid (and a hug) from President Barack Obama, a move that likely contributed to his unpopularity during his run for president himself. When floods ravaged cities across Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz (who voted against Hurricane Sandy relief) sought funds from the government to rebuild and aid those in need. It seems Republicans have changed their tune a bit. Help from the government isn’t all...

State continues to struggle, lags behind border states and nation since Walker took office Earlier this month the Walker administration released its estimates (PDF) for total jobs created in the state from September 2014 to September 2015. At the time they released it, it was unclear how Wisconsin did compared to the rest of the nation. The early report couldn’t be compared to other states until the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its full findings, and so we could only look at the how the state did compared to its previous yearly reports. I assessed that outcome and came to the conclusion that Wisconsin was (still) experiencing a slowdown under Scott Walker. In fact, the best year of the past five third quarter reports came when Walker’s predecessor Gov. Jim Doyle’s final year of his last budget was in play for nine of the twelve months included. The state has failed to reproduce those numbers since that time. Today, the BLS released the national numbers . Wisconsin d...

How Bradley comes to her opinions is still something we don't know much about I’ve had time to develop some additional thoughts on state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley’s college writings ( see my original post here ). Her disturbing words were written more than 20 years ago, and many have suggested that it’s silly to believe she can’t change her opinion from that time. I have no doubt in my mind that Rebecca Bradley’s opinions can change (and HAVE changed) from what they were in the early 1990s. Certainly opinions have changed from those on the left as well, and President Barack Obama’s “evolved” views on same-sex marriage have been well-documented as an example. What troubles me, though, is how Bradley comes up with her views today -- specifically, are her court decisions derived from precedents and research, or does she justify her decisions through politically conservative viewpoints consistent with the point in time she makes them in? Her recent political as...

Where do Bradley's opinions derive from, sound empirical evidence or conservative talking points? Justice Rebecca Bradley UPDATE : I've since written another post on this subject with some additional thoughts to offer. Please read this post below, and then the following one by clicking here . Thanks! Current state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley apparently had some very hateful opinions on gay people , specifically those who had contracted HIV, in the early 1990s. She also targeted vitriolic commentary towards then President-elect Bill Clinton and those that voted for him in the 1992 election. The sitting justice, who is seeking to retain her seat in a contentious re-election campaign this spring, wrote inciteful and troubling words during her time as an undergrad student at Marquette University. One Wisconsin Now, a progressive advocacy group, discovered the writings and made them public this week. Director Scot Ross said that they warranted Bradley’s immedia...

WEDC took WMC advice to not retain jobs; Sup. Ct. Justice Rebecca Bradley skips oral arguments to campaign The influence that corporations wield on our state’s political system is alarming . What’s more troubling, however, is how little attention Republican leaders are giving to this crisis, and to a great extent are playing a part in transforming the state into a budding corporatocracy . This week it was revealed that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, the quasi-private-public entity charged with creating and retaining jobs in the state, failed to act on the planned closing of the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison -- because the state’s chamber of commerce directed it not to. Officials with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, an organization representing conservative business interests in the state, suggested that the WEDC stay clear of trying to retain Kraft-Heinz plants in Wisconsin. No contact was made between the WEDC and Kraft-Heinz, and the results speak f...

Walker has yet to surpass former Gov. Jim Doyle's final budget year in terms of jobs creation Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development released yearly jobs gains ending in the third quarter for last year (PDF). The news isn’t that stellar. Because Wisconsin releases its preliminary numbers ahead of the rest of the nation, there’s no way to compare our state to others. So we can’t look at how we did versus Illinois or Minnesota, but we can look at how we did compared to ourselves in previous years. Though the state gained 30,235 from September 2014 to September 2015, when compared to what happened before Walker took office it’s clear that number isn’t anything to brag about. Growth from year-to-year was similar to what it was in 2013 and 2014. But gains in those years were also consistent with a slowdown , especially when contrasted with the year ending in September 2011 -- the last year that involved Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s final budget. During that time (S...

Some pledges are meant to be broken, including Walker's pledge to back his party's eventual nominee Gov. Scott Walker will support Donald Trump if he is to become the next presidential nominee for the Republican Party. The Associated Press reports that Walker will remain a “person of his word,” and would back the loud-mouthed GOP frontrunner should he win the nomination, after pledging in August that he would back whoever the nominee would be . I give Walker props for standing by what he pledged last fall. Although he has backtracked on other pledges in the past ( including claiming his pledge to create 250,000 jobs in Wisconsin was more of a “lofty goal”), standing by his word to support the GOP nominee, no matter who it is, is a noteworthy stance to take. It’s also foolish. Some pledges are worth breaking . A woman who endures abuse from her husband is right to break her bonds of marriage, to dissolve the promises she made on her wedding day, for the betterment o...

Event with prominent Republicans gives the appearance of impropriety Earlier this week I discussed how candidate for state Supreme Court Rebecca Bradley had shown she was willing to kowtow to special interests like the NRA in her campaign flyers. Though she doesn’t currently have a hunting license, her campaign took creative liberties and donned her in hunting attire, including a hat with the NRA insignia scrawled across the front in bold lettering. If that didn’t show a blatant disregard for judicial impartiality, her latest stunt makes it clear enough for every Wisconsinite to see. Bradley is set to host a fundraiser later this month with two special guests, Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. John Nygren, the Republican co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee in the state legislature. While many have pointed out how difficult it is for Bradley to remain an impartial member of the judiciary after hosting events with partisan figures -- entrance fees ranging from $100 minimum to ...