Doyle’s Gone, Good Riddance

People all over Wisconsin were happy Monday to see Gov. Jim Doyle announce his intention to not seek reelection.

One thing that progressive Democrats and rightwing Republicans agree on is that Jim Doyle is a liar, a vindictive and corrupt politician.

That’s who he is as governor. A lot of Democrats cannot stand the guy on a personal level. And Republicans are sad to see him go as Doyle would have given them a clear shot at the governor’s office.

That’s not really news and it’s not entirely clear how this reality fits into Doyle’ decision to not seek reelection.

According to Doyle, he reached his decision some seven to 10 days ago [WisPolitics], coming around to his belief that he claims to have held since being first elected governor in 2002: He will only serve two terms, the “norm” for governors.

"I think this national norm serves good purpose. It keeps the political world from becoming stagnant. It allows new leaders to develop. It gives the voters more choices,” said Doyle Monday.

Why then did Doyle raise more than $2 million for reelection?

Republicans are demanding that Doyle return the campaign money, but he’ll likely give it to a worthy cause to polish his legacy.

In the face of declining poll numbers, a few weeks before the time that Doyle says he was deciding not to run again Doyle announced the appointment of an over-the-top, former anti-drug prosecutor as a finalist to a Dane County Judgeship, Amy Smith.

Smith was rejected by a judicial advisory selection committee but inserted by Doyle as a finalist though Smith was “rebuked for dishonesty on two separate occasions by appellate court judges” during her tenure as an anti-drug prosecutor.

“His judicial selection process … was besmirched by his decision to add the name of a longtime aide and campaign donor to the list of finalists for a Dane County judgeship -- and then to appoint the woman [Amy Smith],” reads the Capital Times editorial reacting to Doyle's announcement, Memo to would-be governors: Embrace real reform.

On July 8, Doyle announced the appointment of Smith.

Doyle is corrupt to the bone and his legacy will be remembered as politics as usual, dishonest and self-serving.

At least he’s leaving now. Memo to would-be governors: Don’t be Jim Doyle.

Anti-drug Crusader Takes a Hit

Amy Smith, the last-minute finalist for Dane County Judge rejected by a selection committee and then added by Gov. Jim Doyle is the focus of a piece today by John Nichols in the Cap Times.

Truly, the nicest thing I have heard from practicing members of the Wisconsin Bar is that prosecutor Amy Smith is lying and overzealous.

Writes Nichols:

Members of the selection committee ... would neither confirm nor deny that Smith's name was left off the list because she had on two separate occasions been rebuke by appellate court judges for dishonesty, including one instance where an entire three-judge panel on a drug case chastised the prosecutor for lying about a potential trial witness.

Smith refused repeated requests for her side of the story, even as her name was associated with the most controversial judicial appointment the county has seen in some years.

Nichols see Smith as an example of what is wrong with the proposed so-called merit selection process that would replace the the election of judges, in favor of other judicial election reform.

Smith's crusade against drugs, including that weed sent from the devil Marijuana, was fanatical during her tenure as a prosecutor in Dane County. That she was rebuked as a liar is no great surprise.

See also WKOW's (Madison) report on the selection committee rejecting Smith.

We can't be hating, so let's let Bob take it from here:

Doyle Names Drug NAZI as Judge Finalist

Amy Smith for Dane County Judge? You have got to be kidding me?

The nicest thing I have heard about Amy Smith is that she is a lying, overzealous drug NAZI, most of it done within the ethics of the bar if not simple decency.

What, Gov. Doyle figured this demographic is underrepresented on the bench?

The state DOJ did not rescue Smith from her past deeds at the DA's office (for which she has not apologized to the people of Wisconsin), no matter how much money she gives Governor Doyle's campaign.

From WKOW:

MADISON (WKOW) -- A spokesperson for Governor Doyle told 27 News, Doyle added the name of Amy Smith as a finalist for Dane County Judge after an advisory committee failed to include her in a recommended list of finalists. ...

Madison attorney Michelle Behnke, a member of the advisory committee, declined any comment about Doyle's insertion of Smith into the final process.

‘We take our work seriously,’ Behnke told 27 News. ‘We were comfortable with the list of seven (original) recommended finalists.’

A review of campaign finance records shows Smith's $1,750 in campaign
contributions to Doyle since 2005 were the highest of any of 28 applicants for the judge positions.

‘The public is going to look at that and say it has less to do with judicial qualifications and more to do with campaign contributions,’ said Mike McCabe, executive director of the government watchdog group, Wisconsin Democracy campaign. ...

‘A judge should be more than a lawyer who knows the governor.’Sensenbrenner said Doyle selected Smith because she was highly qualified. Sensenbrenner said Doyle took Smith's two public rebukes into account, but felt on balance, her legal career merited selection.

In 1992, an appeals court judge said Smith made a serious misrepresentation to a trial court about a potential witness in a drug case. In 1995, an appeals court stated Smith falsely denied making statements about a witness in another drug case.

Smith has declined comment to 27 News. In addition to her job as deputy secretary, Smith served under Doyle when Doyle was Wisconsin's attorney general.

If Doyle is that corrupt as to appoint Smith to the bench, I'm voting for Neumann or Walker.

The Race for Guv

A few items and observations:

- Anyone who underestimates the appeal of Mark Neumann [and on social policy I like to think that I am his biggest critic] is sorely mistaken. Look for an innovative and unexpected campaign from Neumann.

- Scott Walker is among other problems too slick by half.

- Governor Jim Doyle's campaign is like Rocky II going through a depression, while the audience is impatiently anticipating the dude finally training and getting ready for the big rematch.

Remember what Burgess Meredith says: "What are we waiting for?!" Declare your intentions now, Gov. Doyle. The July-August roll-out prohibition is obsolete.

- I hereby offer my services to any candidate who will stop our veterans in Wisconsin from being royally screwed over by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. These bureaucrats and cop-wannabes are not fit to hold a candle to the people who actually serve this country.

Wisconsin political junkies need fix

WisPolitics has an online poll up asking if Gov. Jim Doyle is running for reelection.

The GOP primary field looks set as Mark Neumann declared his intention to run. “While he'll file with the state, he plans to hold off on any formal announcements on his campaign until later this fall,” says WisPolitics.

Maybe that’s because the gubernatorial candidates can’t even begin to collect nomination signatures until June 1, 2010, or file nomination papers until July 13, 2010.

Seems like a long time.

The political site, Five-thirty-eight.com, ranks Jim Doyle at 45th among the 50 governors in political power.

Imprecise, but as the two major GOP candidates for governor are going to spend the next several months taking pot shots at Doyle, look for a very early gubernatorial campaign.

Doyle can’t just stand there and do nothing.

He has to fire back and declare his intentions early, and the fun begins fast.

"I held off as long as I could," Neumann said. (WisPolitics)

Heard that. And Governor Doyle: Hurry up too, man. It’s been over eight months since the last election!

Mark Neumann in His Own Words

As other bloggers and we have pointed out the anti-Catholic (and anti-Semitic and anti-gay) virulence of his church, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), Mark Neumann deserves to be heard.

Neumann is the first to say that his faith informs his decision-making in elected office.

Neumann served in the U.S. Congress (1995 -1999), and has indicated he will seek the governor's office in 2010.

WELS Communication Services Director, Joel Hochmuth, has a conversation up with Neumann recorded in November 2007 about Neumann living his faith as he served in Congress (podcast in right column entitled "Inspiration").

Nuemann comes across as amicable, well-spoken and earnest in talking with Hochmuth about his faith and his life, seemingly devoted to his family.

"What matters most in life is our faith, and being true to our faith and to our family," said Neumann.

He recounts being inspired by a trip to Washington D.C. and recalls later butting horns with Newt Gingrich for whom he later voted present in the election for Speaker in 1997, instead of voting for Gingrich.

Asked how he made his decisions in Congress, Neumann replied, "What we did in our office, and Sue (wife) helped me a lot with this, we established a checklist, so to speak, on any bill that would come before us. And we'd ask ourselves first, 'Is there a moral or ethical reason to a cast a vote in any particular way.' And if there was, it didn't' matter what anybody else said to me, we were going with the morals and ethics first."

Seems like a principled-enough guy, but if you happen to be Catholic, Jewish, gay or pluralistic, Neumann's extreme beliefs are worrying at best and deserve a hearing.

See, for example, his church's apparent blood feud with Roman Catholics:

Christians must take care during their lifetimes not to regularly associate with any group or organization that would take their focus off Christ alone as their salvation.

Madison's Isthmus: Terminator of the GOP

Current gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann sounded whiny after he lost a close race to first-term incumbent Senator Russ Feingold (D-Middleton) in 1998.

Appearing petulant for a politician on election night, Neumann singled out "one county" - Dane County - and blamed the voters there for costing him the election to which he appeared to see himself entitled after a hard-fought campaign.

Never complain Mr. Neumann, a safe bet that this 2010 candidate won't make that mistake again.

Of course Neumann neglected to mention that Waukesha County, where Neumann now resides, gave him a similar winning margin as Dane County gave Feingold in '98.

More importantly, Neumann might have noted that votes by folks in Dane County municipalities like Sun Prairie, Middleton, Fitchburg and Madison count just as much as anywhere else in a democracy.

But Neumann had a valid point.

In the same energetic election year that saw Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) first win her seat to Congress in a historic campaign 10 years ago, polling sites all over Madison (including the undergraduate dormitory wards of UW-Madison) ran out of ballots and City poll workers frantically scrambled, sometimes asking voters to come back when more ballots became available.

The Isthmus

And nowhere as much as in the densely populated and high-turnout Isthmus wards did Mark Neumann meet electoral defeat.

The Isthmus wards supplied 15-to-one victory margins for Feingold and Baldwin, as is typical, and campaign volunteers' addresses often indicated Isthmus residency.

The people who live and work on the Isthmus are self-conscious about their electoral power and are proud of it. They take the notion of a classical liberal democracy seriously, so don't look for Neumann or Walker to knock it.

Read one homemade sign on an East Dayton Street house in the heart of the Isthmus in the spring 1999, "one neighborhood" beat Mark Neumann. That's about right.

In the 1992 presidential general election, a UW-Madison law student working for a national exit-polling organization, was stationed outside of a polling site on Williamson Street. But the law student had to repeatedly confirm the results to her uninformed, national contact who could not believe that people were voting 20-to-one Democratic in this ward.

Of all of Dane County and Madison, the Isthmus wards have become the single most effective killing machine of GOP politicians running for county and statewide office. The stories are legion and the stuff of oral political history, and the power has only grown the last 10 years.

The GOP doesn't dare try its voter suppression tricks in the Isthmus; better not to irritate the electoral equivalent of a perpetually pissed-off badger.

This spring as Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk actually lost Dane County outside of Madison by running a heavy-handed campaign that saw many small town taverns sporting huge anti-Falk signs, the late-reporting Isthmus wards came in and saved the day, granting the Democrat Falk the usual winning margins and a countywide electoral blowout.

It doesn't hurt that the get-out-the-vote infrastructure in Madison is a well-oiled machine. But when GOP strategists plan their statewide campaigns, they have to contend with and plan for the 1,000s-vote Isthmus deficit that is as predictable as Mark Neumann not kissing another man on the lips in a TV spot.

Bohemian, hyper-educated, young, old, pro-jobs, pro-health care, anti-war and hyper-politicized, the Madison Isthmus traces its cultural and political history as far back as the progressive movement identified with Robert M. La Follette.

The country has trended more politicized and progressive after eight years of Bush-Cheney, and the Madison Isthmus is blazing the path to the future as the GOP holds staged tea parties and the tried-and-false politics of division, hate and corruption.

Now the Obama administration works into the first 100 days, and it seems the GOP is on precisely the wrong side of history and of the Isthmus that will be an electoral hell for Mark Neumann or Scott Walker in November 2010.

Mark Neumann for Gov. - Please Jesus, Yes!

Jim Klauser is a very smart GOP operative advocating that Mark Neumann throw his hat into the ring against Jim Doyle in 2010.

Writes Klauser in his open letter in WisPolitics:

Mark Neumann, a former Congressman who nearly defeated Russ Feingold [in 1998], is a potential candidate. Mark is a successful business man from Waukesha County (a growing county). He and his family are involved in choice and charter school reforms. He is involved in his community and church. While a Congressman, Mark worked with Speaker Newt Gingrich to develop a no tax increase alternative to Bill Clinton’s spend, spend, and spend. ... I have concluded that of the prospective candidates, Mark Neumann is best able to win and govern well. I encourage you to consider Mark Neumann for Governor.

Neumann is independently wealthy and did fight against Clinton and those huge budget deficits [oh, wait Clinton had giant budget surpluses, and was on a path to zero national debt]. Nevermind, Cheney proved facts don't matter and Wisconsin does not want Scott Walker getting killed in 20 months. And people in Wisconsin love Newt Gingrich.

The Knockdown

Neumann's problem is that he is a rabidly anti-gay, rightwing extremist with a long record of hateful ideological baggage that would make George W. Bush blush.

In a widely reported address to the La Crosse Christian Coalition in 1997, Neumann said that he would not hire a person who applied for a position in his legislative office after stating a gay or lesbian orientation.

“If somebody walks in to me and say, ‘I’m a gay person; I want a job in your office.’ I would say, ‘that’s inappropriate’ and they wouldn’t be hired because that would mean they are promoting their agenda. The gay and lesbian lifestyle (is) unacceptable, lest there be any question about that.”

In a March 9, 1997 address to the Madison Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) church [preaches no abortion even in cases of rape, women need to submit to men and gays are to spend eternity in hell], Neumann said his political advisers warned him not to mention his religion in his 1998 run for the Senate against Sen. Russ Feingold who is also up for reelection in 2010.

“When I first ran I had all kinds of consultants telling me not to mention religion. They told me to tone down any discussion we might have. … they did ask me to tone down the concept of religion or values that are taught in our churches and synagogues as being a part of what we were,” said Neumann.

I think Klauser is thinking that Scott Walker would wash out, and Neumann has lots of money and just might be crazy enough to run.

Open Brief Letter to Mark Neumann

Did you know that Jim Doyle has proposed a statewide domestic partner registry, is an elitist (went to Harvard Law School and was in the Peace Corp) and that he talks to gay people, like all the time.

Mr. Neumann, Jesus wants you to run. Just remember that Satan is closer than the shirt on your own body, to paraphrase Martin Luther’s admonition about the proximity of the Devil. And in Wisconsin politics this intimacy with the Devil emanates from another fallen man with five letters in his name: D-o-y-l-e.

And I think he's Catholic.

- via mal contends

Falk Sees Mandate for Police Roadblocks

The race between Democrat Kathleen Falk and Republican Nancy Mistele for Dane County Executive was in many ways business as usual.

The Madison second and sixth aldermanic districts (comprising proud and traditionally progressive populations) went overwhelmingly for Falk, giving her 83 percent and 91 percent of the vote respectively.

Madison Alder District 2 - Votes for Mistele - Falk

0111 C MADISON WD 37 ----------------94-------- 492
0112 C MADISON WD 38 ---------------54--------- 454
0113 C MADISON WD 39 ---------------114 --------431
0114 C MADISON WD 40 ---------------40--------- 183


*Total Votes-------------------------- 302-------- 1,560

Madison Alder District 6 - Votes for Mistele - Falk

0107 C MADISON WD 33---------------108 --------1,084
0108 C MADISON WD 34 ---------------97 --------1,110
0109 C MADISON WD 35 ---------------42--------- 578
0110 C MADISON WD 36 ---------------27--------- 124

*Total Votes -------------------------274--------- 2,896

* Unofficial results

As Matthew DeFour notes in the State Journal, rural Dane County went for Mistele who "won in Sun Prairie, Waunakee and the vast majority of the rural towns and villages, but not by as much as she needed to keep the race close" when the Madison isthmus wards began reporting.

What is not traditional here is Falk's acclaiming a mandate from a pro-civil liberties electorate for installing police roadblocks to catch drunk drivers [see Michigan Department of State Police v. Sitz (1988); Rehnquist says police roadblocks are fine; Brennan, Marshall and Stevens dissent].

Citizens calling for police roadblocks? Not the Dane County I know.

Yet Falk spent a lot of television time on election night talking about how the victory means no more "alcohol misuse" in the name of "public safety." And this means it's time to install police roadblocks, says Falk, without mentioning police roadblocks by name in her victory interviews. One has to read the fine print in her "alcohol initiative" in which she refers to "checkpoints".

Makes search and seizure seem so much more palatable, though, again, where is the outcry for eviscerating the Fourth Amendment from Madison and rural Dane County?

Does Falk really believe police roadblocks are what Madison and Dane County want?

I'm betting that Falk might actually get around to reading the late authoritarian jurist William Rehnquist's opinion on roadblocks and back off. But who knows?

Let's hope that the necessary state legislation, already floated by Gov. Jim Doyle, dies fast.