Apr 2, 2008

Butler Defeat and Lessons Learned

Despite winning by large margins in Wisconsin's two most populous counties, Dane and Milwaukee Counties, Louis Butler lost a narrow race to to a contemptible politician who will remembered in the same muck as Joe McCarthy, Bob Kasten, and Annette Ziegler.

Lessons learned:

- Never let WMC get on the air first

- Speak clearly about what the campaign is about, as in a narrow, corrupt band of liars seeking power versus the rule of law

- Educate the public about the role of the office; it's an appellate court demanding impartiality

- Faced with money and lies, the Democrats need to sound an all hands and get public support from every Democratic official. I only heard from Herb Kohl this election.

6 comments:

  1. Could it be that the majority of Wisconsin voters just want more conservative judges?

    Whenever a conservative judge wins, you always say that there must have been cheating, or missleading,or voter suppression or voter stupidity.

    Could it be that the majority of Wisconsin voters just want more conservative judges?

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  2. Congrats on your win; but I have to say that the term "conservative" has lost a lot of meaning the last three decades.

    Conservative used to mean a small government with the people as directors in the Lockian "classical liberal" sense.

    Now, as the "drug war," and "lock 'em up" ethos has taken hold of the rightwing which manipulates a depoliticized electorate through appeals to fear and racism, orgs like WMC use a winning formula that they do not wish to disgard.

    Gableman lacks the intelligence to know what conservative means. He's just a frontman, a fool and a tool.

    Truth is most of the electorate has no idea that the SC is an appelate court that by state statute is to rule impartially on all arguments of the litigants.

    Under this uncontroversial premise, there is no such thing as a conservative or liberal judge.

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  3. your "lessons learned" piece is about as wrong as yesterday's "Butler a Likely Victor"

    The Greater Wisconsin Committee went up on the air first, running a negative TV ad attcking Gableman and using the image of a bobblehead doll. WMC did not go up until almost two weeks later, adn then they went up with a positive ad. WisPolitics has the ads and the dates they went up here... //www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Content=24&record_start=21

    Perhaps the lesson learned will be for Governor Doyle not to appoint someone who lost a democratic primary because they were too liberal for WI. Maybe then Doyle won't have to flee to North Carolina on election night so he won't be around when his nominee is rejected.

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  4. Acutally Club for Growth was on first; WMC a day later. And a comparison of expenditures by the groups makes my point.

    Too liberal? I think too black and too beholden to the rule of law.

    Such commitments have a way of getting under the skin of the rightwing who spend millions to put yes-men on the Court.

    The problem for the rule-of-law crowd is to determine a political message to overcome money and appeals to fear and racism.

    What do you think? Gableman became the nominee because of his intellect and scholarship? He’s a yes-man who will do what he’s told.

    WMC, CFG and others did not spend millions to put on a jurist, they want a vote they can count on.

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  5. MAL gets it wrong again. The first TV ad was run by GWC on, which was also the first negative spot, "Meet Mike Gableman" It first aired on February 20th. CFG came up the next day with a negative spot, and WMC didn't show up for two weeks, hitting the airwaves on March 10th with a positive spot about Gableman.

    A quick glance at wispolitcs will give you the relative dates of airing, accurate within a day or so, if you are at all interested in the truth.

    But go ahead and drown your sorrows by telling yourself lies that make you feel good. In an environment that saw a few million dollars of ads on both sides, blame it all on racism because of of a crappy ad by Gableman that had little money behind it and didn't even run statewide.

    Pretend this "natiest campaign ever" suppressed turnout, even though your side went negative first and turnout was the same as last year.

    Maybe even pull a loophole louis and say you accept the will of the voters and then call for the vote to be taken away from the people. Or make up some song and dance about how we are all supposed to celebrate your defense of the rights of rapists and murderers, while you propose to trample on the first amendment rights of anyone who dares criticize a politician near an election.

    Keep living in the dream world, keep smoking, whatever it is you are smoking. You keep on whining, we'll keep on winning. Thanks, and have a great day.

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  6. Acutally Club for Growth was on first; WMC a day later, from wiscpolitics, the source you cited. And the total money spent by the rightwing dwarfed the rule-of-law crowd.

    You whine; we'll fight for the rule of law and the Constitution-you know that document all those liberals like so much, and that you seem to despise, especially the First, Fourth and Sixth Amendments, but that's just liberal stuff, right?

    Have a nice day.

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