A bad night for the Buchers, Vol. 2

Ya gotta love it.

Laurel Walker, the Journal Sentinel columnist that Jessica McBride keeps trying to have fired or sent to Siberia, to be replaced by McBride's choice, Republican Radio's Jeff Wagner, couldn't resist. Notes Walker:

In the partisan-like non-partisan race for the District 2 Court of Appeals, former prosecutor and now defense attorney Paul Bucher was the main man who went to bat in radio and television ads for fellow Waukesha County attorney William Gleisner of Merton.

Bucher, a Republican whose last loss was the 2006 primary for attorney general, touted his affinity for Gleisner's "conservative values."

But neither Bucher, nor Gleisner, could deliver.

Gleisner didn't even carry his home county, where Bucher had been district attorney or an assistant for 23 years. Lisa Neubauer of Racine was appointed in January by Gov. Jim Doyle to finish retired Judge Neal Nettesheim's term ending in July. In the race for a full six-year term, she carried Waukesha County with 54% of the vote and the entire district with 63%.

As a journalism "professor," McBride should know the old adage about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Earlier post, same subject.

A bad night for the Buchers

Working in tandem, Paul Bucher and Jessica McBride put on a full-court press for Appeals Court candidate Bill Gleisner, a trial lawyer posing as a conservative, whom the Bucher-McBrides seemed to favor mostly because he was running against Lisa Neubauer, who was appointed by Jim Doyle.

May we have the envelope, please?

Results: Neubauer won all 12 counties in the judicial district, and 63 per cent of the vote. Mike Gableman, the conservative's choice for Supreme Court, also won every county and got 62 per cent.

Milwaukee County is not part of the district, but all of the suburban counties are.

Despite saturation rotation of a commercial featuring a Bucher endorsement of Gleisner on right-wing talk radio, and two straight weeks of pro-Gleisner Waukesha Freeman columns by McBride, the dynamic duo couldn't even sell Gleisner in Waukesha County, their home base.

Neubauer won Waukesha County with 54 per cent of the vote while Gableman was carrying the county 2 to 1.

So when everyone's making their "winners and losers" lists, let's not forget this power couple.

McBride Promotes Judicial Activism

Every time a seat on the Wisconsin State Supreme Court comes up, or any other judicial seat for that matter, the right often latches on to the person they hate and label that person as an "activist judge" and accusing them of "legislating from the bench." Usually this means that the judge in question has upheld the law, and that they disagree with the law (more on this later).

However, when their candidate advocates a position that is against the law, well, that's different. That's just good old conservative and/or family values.

McBride displays this in her most recent post. Since even Sykes bashed Bill Gleisner, and Paul Bucher for shilling for him, McBride must have felt an irresistible urge to defend her man. She emailed the Gleisner camp and received a letter from them. The letter is from a Catholic priest that vouches for Gleisner's pro-life stance.

The question McBride doesn't, and probably won't ever, answer is: So what?

The freedom for women to control their bodies is still legal. This was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which trumps the state's Supreme Court. At best, his stance is irrelevant. At worst, she is promoting an activist judge, which makes her a hypocrite (again).

And she hasn't answered all of the other allegations of liberalism that have been shown regarding Gleisner.

Perhaps, McBride's support of Gleisner goes deeper than just because her husband is a tool for him. Perhaps she appreciates him as being another trial lawyer, just like Paul, and filing frivolous lawsuits. Perhaps there is some other, deeper connection, that we're just not aware of.

McBride Promotes Liberalism

McBride takes up space in Saturday's Waukesha Freeman again, this time in an effort to convince people why they should vote for Bill Gleisner instead of Lisa Neubauer. The gist of her lame argument is that Neubauer is too liberal and has given donations to the people like Jim Doyle and the Clintons.

Unfortunately for McBride, and her hubby, McBride's arguments are a two-edged knife that cuts both ways. In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Daniel Bice does something McBride hasn't done in a long time, if ever. He does some investigation before writing a column. From Bice's article today:

Not long ago, he was asking Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle to give him the job that went to Neubauer. In the past, Gleisner has given $2,200 to the second-term governor, who is despised by many on the right.

Gleisner has also written checks to two liberal judicial candidates, to the Democratic Party and to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Gleisner has been active in the state and federal associations for trial attorneys, who are supporting his campaign. He has even spoken out in favor of judicial activism.

Now look for his gifts to GOP candidates or conservative political causes. You'll come up empty.

Furthermore, Paul's all-too-frequently-aired commercial plugging for Gleisner points out that Gleisner is pro-life, anti-gun control and pro-voter ID. Now, choice is the law of the land, whether one likes it or not. Likewise, Wisconsin is one of the few states with enough sense not to bow to the NRA. And even U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic has stated that there is no widespread voter fraud, thus no need to disenfranchise and suppress the votes of certain types of citizens.

To promote oneself to stating that these positions are wrong, whether directly or indirectly through Bucher, smacks of judicial activism. That is something that the right is continuously complaining about, or at least they do when the law doesn't favor their wishes.

I'm just glad that McBride isn't backing any of my candidates. I'd hate to have to start second guessing my sanity.

Racism And Politics

Over the past few days, Sykes has been besides himself. First, he shows his hypocrisy by condemning former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer for his extramarital dalliance. As if Sykes would have the right to criticize anyone on that account.

Yesterday, on his show, he continued his diatribe against Senator Barack Obama. First he condemns Obama for not distancing himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright, for what some on the right are trying to say is racist and anti-American speech. He seems to forget that the right have more than their fair share of crackpot religious leaders.

Then, when Obama did criticize the "hate speech", and removed the Reverend from his campaign committee. Sykes criticized him for throwing the Reverend "under the bus." Sykes is so vain that you know he's just has to have a mirror near him at all times, but does he ever really look at himself?

The local right wing media has more than their fair share of racism as well. Sykes' own brand of racism has been noted when he compared Jews to Nazis, and how he railed against people that asked him to remove his offensive post. Who can forget Belling's comment that got him suspended only after a hard long fight by community activists, as well as his racist smears against McGee and Lena Taylor? And there was McBride who was released from her radio show just after mocking the death of little girl, and after she made some offensive statements based on racial stereotyping after the death of a up-and-coming R & B star.

Given this repeated pattern of racist and hateful statements and attitudes of the local media, I demand and expect that Scott Walker, Michael Gableman and Bill Gleisner would condemn and distance themselves from these people immediately and their attitudes.