Political Heat

Gallagher’s moral courage is lacking, especially after crafting a deceptive campaign ad Republican candidate for Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional district Mike Gallagher is running a political advertisement calling out his opponent, Democratic candidate Tom Nelson, for saying he lacks courage. Gallagher has a U.S. military background. “Joining the Marines the day he graduated college, two combat tours, yet Nelson questions Gallagher’s courage?” the ad asks . Certainly Mike Gallagher has shown tremendous courage in serving his nation dutifully overseas. No one should question that service. Yet Nelson hasn’t questioned that service. The quote that the Gallagher campaign used in its ad deriding Nelson’s words is taken wildly out of context in an attempt to distort what Nelson was really talking about during a television interview. Tom Nelson did not question whether Gallagher served valiantly or not; rather, Nelson asked whether Gallagher demonstrated moral courage in conti...

His failure to take the issue seriously makes him unfit for a second term in office To hear Sen. Ron Johnson put it, global climate change isn’t a problem at all. Humans will actually thrive under the warming temperatures, he says. “Climate has already changed, always will. I’m just not an alarmist. We will adapt,” Johnson told a Wisconsin radio station recently. He was certain that the warmer temps would be welcomed. “How many people are moving up toward the Antarctica, or the Arctic?” he asked rhetorically. “Most people move down to Texas or Florida, where it’s a little bit warmer.” Johnson doesn’t want to do anything about climate change either, calling those who bring it up “alarmists,” adding that their actions and proposals will do “a great deal of harm on our economy.” He acts as though climate change is a propaganda tool for some hidden agenda. Ron Johnson, in short, has become Dale Gribble. But that sort of thinking is just plain idiotic. Yes, people love th...

Conservatives are inconsistent with their outrage, forgetting about governor's similar comments on instigators UPDATE : Scott Foval just released this statement : "This scheme to cast legitimate organizing activities as a sinister plot is nothing but a ruse. When O'Keefe's team of grifters attempted to find illegal activities going on , they were disappointed to discover, in fact, that I and my associates were only involved in above-board, legal, legitimate organizing work to counter Trump's campaign of division, misogyny, hatred, and xenophobia. Despite our attempts to redirect the conversation and actions towards positive, results-oriented, legal and ethical political organizing, O'Keefe's crew of imposters continued to walk down a path of deception and manipulation. Our team took the high road, deciding to not indulge the imposters in their dubious scheme, rather attempting to put our energies and intentions towards positive activities that garner ...

Paul Ryan attempts to create a divisive rewrite of history in order to score political points for the GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan gave a speech in Madison last week in which he chastised the “failures of liberal progressivism,” according to reporting done by the Cap Times’ Jessie Opoien . “Beneath all the ugliness” of this recent campaign, Ryan said, “lies a long running debate between two governing philosophies: one that is in keeping with our nation’s founding principles -- like freedom and equality -- and another that seeks to replace them.” Ryan equated the latter philosophy with progressivism. But he is wrong to do so. Indeed, the identity of being American itself is rooted in progressive changes in our nation’s history. And conversely, much of the resistance to that identity has come from conservative voices, especially in recent years. We can look to specific instances of our history to see how progressive ideals have shaped our country, all the way back to the May...

Gov. Walker can’t believe Feingold still supports the ACA. Meanwhile, Walker backs a candidate who bragged about sexual assault. I need to make an admission here -- I missed the debate between Sen. Ron Johnson and former Sen. Russ Feingold. And since I missed it, I shouldn’t comment on who won, who did better, and so forth until I watch a replay of it online later this weekend. But I was struck by an observation made online by Gov. Scott Walker following the debate. Walker tweeted out a criticism of Feingold for his support of the Affordable Care Act. The law, though it has its flaws, has produced more good for this nation’s uninsured and under-insured. Before the law, for example, insurers could refuse service to paying customers based on “pre-existing conditions,” ailments or conditions that individuals had in the past. These included pregnancy, cancer, and even acne . Women could be charged more for insurance before the health care reforms were passed. Because of the ACA...

She is the best choice to lead us over the next four years of challenges This has certainly been an eventful presidential election cycle. The choice for president boils down to this: do we continue with the gains we have made under President Barack Obama? Or do we move in a different, darker direction? Image via U.S. State Department, Public Domain That darker direction is led by Republican nominee Donald Trump. He has, over the course of his campaign, exemplified the nastier side of campaign politics. He has verbally maligned his political opponents. He has denied press credentials to newspapers that have reported on facts of his campaign that he may not want publicized. He has called immigrants rapists and murderers despite evidence to the contrary, and has even suggested an American-born judge, the son of Mexican immigrants, couldn’t perform his judicial duties without bias. He has also suggested that an entire group of people, based on their religious beliefs, should...

Several Wisconsin Republicans still back a man who openly brags about using his celebrity status to grope women Is there no bottom, no low-point that Donald Trump can sink to, that can cause Speaker Paul Ryan to at some point say he will rescind his endorsement of the embattled presidential candidate? Religious tests for refugees, racist statements on African-Americans, calling immigrants criminals and rapists, promising to prosecute political opponents, and bragging about sexual assaults against women because of his celebrity status -- all of these issues, and more, are not enough for Ryan and several other Wisconsin Republicans to say “no” to Donald Trump. Ryan has stated that he will not campaign with or directly promote Trump’s candidacy. That proclamation came after it was revealed this weekend that Trump had bragged about grabbing women by their genitalia because, according to him, “when you’re a star ... you can do anything.” After his dismal debate performance last n...

Lawmakers who suggest loosening gun laws even further ought to consider how concealed carry, other gun laws, failed to make the state safer In July of this year, I criticized Attorney General Brad Schimel for insisting that Wisconsin was safer because of concealed carry becoming law in 2011. “Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites hold a concealed carry license, making our state a safer place to live, work, and raise a family,” he said then. I pointed out that his assumption was flawed -- the state wasn’t safer under the recent years of concealed carry . FBI data for the years 2011-2014 showed that violent crime and murder went up, and preliminary data from 2015 showed it went up dramatically. Concealed carry, when it was being debated on in the state legislature, was sold based on the idea that it would prevent crime from happening. If a criminal couldn’t be sure that a law-abiding citizen was carrying a gun or not, surely that criminal would be less likely to try and com...

Pence won the debate in the moment; Kaine will seem more-the-victor in days ahead Republican Mike Pence (left) and  Democrat Tim Kaine (right). Images via Wikipedia Here’s my very-quick take on the vice presidential debate last night between Mike Pence and Tim Kaine. Everyone is concerned about who “won” and I’ll include my two cents on that as well. But first I want to Socratically ask, “when do we measure victory?” If we’re talking about who won in the moment , Mike Pence is the definite winner, though he didn’t win with a huge victory. He simply performed better than Tim Kaine. The Democratic nominee certainly had more facts on his side, but he frequently interrupted his opponent and pressed the same issues over and over. In watching the debate live, even I, one of his supporters, had to cringe at Kaine’s performance. Pence was less factual, but more composed. I tried putting myself in the shoes of an undecided, low-information voter who doesn’t regularly follow pol...

Supreme Court decides not to hear John Doe case I predicted that the Supreme Court of the United States would hear arguments in favor of allowing the John Doe investigation in Wisconsin to continue. Today, it was revealed that the Court won’t hear those arguments after all. I was wrong in my guess. But my reasons to hope for the outcome I wrongly predicted were as true as ever. The Court needed to hear the case to restore integrity to Wisconsin’s political process. As it stands today, the method of campaigning, of candidates diverting funds secretly to third party interest groups to allow both unlimited and secretive contributions, is legal. Many citizens don’t support this type of electioneering. They don’t want corporations donating large sums of money to a candidate’s cause, and then “poof,” like magic, that corporation mysteriously benefits from laws passed by the very same candidates they supported. In one such instance, legislation benefitting companies that dealt...