Political Heat

Trump offered hate and anger in his responses; Clinton gave thoughtful and measured answers to questions After watching the Clinton/Trump debate last night, I want to say that Donald Trump’s performance could be summed up in one short video clip from the Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison : The crux of his performance last night is that simple. Listening to Donald Trump makes you dumber. In all seriousness, my major takeaway from the debate, without going into too many details, was that it was a clear Hillary Clinton win. There can be no doubt about it. She wasn’t perfect, but she answered questions with intelligence. She likely would have won the debate even if Donald Trump wasn’t the nominee. Perhaps Donald was trying to reach his base. Indeed, Trump said many of the things his supporters wanted him to. But he came off as bullyish, ill-prepared, obnoxious, rude, and unable to respond to simple questions from moderator Lester Holt or from Secretary Clinton herself. And he c...

The integrity of our nation depends on the High Court correcting our state's wrongs If a left-leaning organization had coordinated with a Democratic candidate to shift funds from wealthy donors to themselves in an effort to keep millions of dollars in campaign cash hidden, you can best believe we’d be hearing from conservative media across Wisconsin about the blatant and criminal actions of that candidate and organization. And if that same left-leaning group had influenced the elections of state Supreme Court justices by disseminating millions of dollars collectively in support of several liberal justices, that same conservative media would likely demand that those justices recuse themselves in any cases involving that organization. Those demands would be justified, too -- the judicial ethics code in Wisconsin requires judges and justices to avoid impropriety (and even the APPEARANCE of impropriety), defining such actions as conduct which “would create in reasonable mind...

Walker suggests “a lot of people” may not feel the need to fund DA offices if they continue investigations into political figures (namely himself) Is Scott Walker suggesting he might use political retaliation against district attorneys across the state that may investigate his criminal behavior? That’s what it sure seems like. In speaking with reporters in Beloit, Walker suggested that some may question the need for additional staff in attorneys’ offices if investigations like the John Doe case are pursued further. From the reporting of Jessie Opoien of the Capital Times : Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday suggested there could be broader implications for district attorney staffing levels throughout the state if Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm were to continue to pursue a John Doe investigation into Walker's campaign after the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on it. ... Walker was asked by reporters Thursday at an event in Beloit whether he expects to hear mor...

Democrats are right: Gov. Walker should call a special session of the state legislature Image by Karen Barefoot The mistreatment of patients and deplorable conditions of facilities meant to serve those living at Wisconsin Veterans Home at King have been well-documented. Katelyn Ferral and Saiyna Bashir at the Cap Times put words and pictures to good use in revealing what exactly was going on at King, including providing insights into outdated medical equipment, bad drinking water, overmedicating of patients, and possible retaliation of those who dared to tell. And FOX 6 in Milwaukee recently interviewed family members of a late resident of the vet home, who described in grim detail how terrifying the ordeal had been for him: "My dad loved helping other veterans," Sharon Blando said. But during his final years, Blando says officials at the Wisconsin Veterans Home at King ignored and overmedicated her father. "'They just overdosed him. That's what...

Lawmakers that made it easier to hide money in politics need to be removed from office I want to do something that I rarely do in my political writing, on this site and elsewhere. I want to share with you a personal story. I don’t typically get into personal narratives or share my history on this blog, but in light of the recent John Doe leak from last week, I felt it was important to tell this particular story. In 2008, freshly graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, I was trying to find work that might be pertinent to my degree in political science and journalism. What I didn’t expect was the recession to coincide directly with when I graduated from school. I didn’t find work right away, and what I eventually found was temporary in nature. I took what work I could, and in the meantime I decided to continue pursuing my political aspirations by applying for a summer internship with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin . I learned a lot of things in my few months ...

His refusal to be upfront with Wisconsin citizens casts more doubts on his leadership, ethics as governor Much has already been said about the leaked John Doe documents that were released by the Guardian  this week (the US version of the UK newspaper). Gov. Scott Walker and other legislative Republicans were clearly coordinating with third party groups like Wisconsin Club For Growth in attempts to circumvent campaign finance laws. It’s evident that Walker and his recall campaign for governor told potential donors to give to third party groups in hopes of coordinating a singular message. This allowed donors to give unlimited sums, and to give anonymously, whereas giving to Walker’s campaign directly would require openness that some corporate leaders might not like. Such coordination was illegal at the time it was occurring. Several district attorneys (aligned with both major parties) and nonpartisan judges from the now-defunct Government Accountability Board saw ample evi...

Our nation’s founders celebrated leaders who were careerists In one of his latest political ads, current Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is returning to a familiar theme : attacking his opponent, Russ Feingold, for being a “career politician.” In Congress today, Johnson contends, “there are 54 lawyers, one manufacturer -- that’d be me -- still way too many career politicians, and now Senator Feingold wants to add another one. Himself.” It’s a trope that many are familiar with in this bewildering election season, where the rules and mores of yesteryear have been tossed out completely. A sizable number of Americans are supporting billionaire Donald Trump, for example, because of his “outsider” status in the political world. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina sums up what many people see in Trump : “It’s going to take an outsider to clean up Washington,” he said in July. We’re witnessing this language in some of Wisconsin’s local races also. In the 8th Congressional Di...

Wisconsin GOP lawmaker chooses to ignore historical reasoning behind founder’s words Rep. Jesse Kremer, a Republican from Kewaskum, published a blistering press release on September 8 in which he criticized the idea of judicial review, insisting that unelected judges should “serve God” while issuing out their rulings. Kremer’s release tried to answer the question of why several issues in Wisconsin are the way they are. His answer? “Unelected, federal judges have decided that they can write law and become ‘gods’ in their own right.” The Republican legislator further tries to tie his beliefs to those of James Madison, quoting the founder’s own words: As James Madison once said, "As the courts are generally the last in making the decision, it results to them, by refusing or not refusing to execute a law, to stamp it with its final character. This makes the Judiciary department paramount in fact to the Legislature, which was never intended, and can never be proper." T...

Gov. Walker’s promise to generate more job growth in the state remains unfulfilled When it comes to job creation, Wisconsin continues to lag behind the rest of the nation. Job creation was a pivotal part of then-candidate for governor Scott Walker’s campaign pledge in 2010, when he successfully defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett to win the position. His victory in that election was due in large part to what he said he would do on jobs: Walker had promised to create more than 250,000 private sector jobs in his first term (2011-2015). So confident was he that he would succeed that he called the number his floor. He came up short in that endeavor, big time. Wisconsin only created about 65 percent of Walker’s promise , or around 130,153 private sector jobs in four years’ time. The latest jobs report that came out this week demonstrates we’re still creating jobs at a slow pace, especially when compared to the rest of the nation. Wisconsin ranks 33rd out of the 50 United Stat...

GOP legislator creates fictional boogeymen that he believes are “indoctrinating” students at state’s flagship university State Sen. Steve Nass is no friend to the University of Wisconsin. He’s also apparently not familiar with Google, because if he were he wouldn’t be making such outrageous claims against the state’s flagship university without doing the basic research beforehand. Nass, a Republican from Whitewater, is upset about the UW spending money to train incoming students and staff about diversity. Sensitivity towards students from different backgrounds is needed, as evidenced by several alarming events on the UW campus in the recent past. From Maggie Angst at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : After a series of concerning incidents last year — "war cry sounds" made during an American Indian healing circle, an anonymous note with racial threats made to a student of color and swastikas taped to a Jewish student's dorm room door — the university is trying...

Tweet from Walker -- linking to a seven-month-old article -- raises suspicions Scott Walker tweeted out a curious comment on Thursday. “Nice column on the Wisconsin Comeback,” Walker wrote , which was followed by a link to a Forbes article by Patrick Gleason (the article itself is highly misleading, neglecting to mention shortages in transportation funding as well as the teacher shortages now facing the state as a direct result of Act 10; its author is a member of the far right-wing Americans for Tax Reform , which is run by noted conservative Grover Norquist). The odd thing about the tweet? The column it references was written seven months ago . There’s nothing new about it, and it’s kind of weird for Walker to be pushing it to his Twitter followers at this point in time. Regular readers of this blog will know that when Scott Walker starts talking about the “Wisconsin Comeback” it’s usually because of some other economic news that is about to break that’s not to the likin...