McIlheran Deals From The Bottom

Patrick McIlheran has a snide little post up, in which he cites the psuedo-news organization McIver Institute* who found that former Governor Doyle had slotted a handful of people into state jobs before leaving.

Even though every politician leaving office at any level has done this, apparently now it is a bad thing.

I guess that is because Scott Walker needed those spots for his cronies. So far, we know he's only found a spot for his former Director of Administrative (Lying) Services, Cindy Archer, as reported by his own newspaper.**

But that isn't even the most egregious part of his post.

McIlheran then has to go on lying about Russ Feingold, labeling him as being for infanticide. Gutter press, indeed.***

*Just how does that propagandist group keep their 501(c)(3) status?

** A quasi-news organization

***Factoid: McIlheran only buys Bibles with that pesky commandment about not bearing false witness redacted.

Bad Decision Making

Now that we have a new state budget, I don't know of many people that are completely thrilled with it. I also know that not many people are overly enthused with Governor Jim Doyle, because of this budget.

But there are many things to complain about, both with the budget and with the governor.

One has to wonder if it was good decision making that led to Jessica McBride to complain that the governor broke a promise.

Republican Businessmen Don't Like Doyle

The Brawler has returned from his undisclosed location to tell us this not so breaking news: Republican business men don't like Doyle:

Patrick McIlheran prints, and Charlie Sykes, as ever, retreads, an email from businessman John Radke warning how the Doyleone budget will kill teh jobs in Wisconsin.

Unmentioned: Radke is active in an anti-Doyle Republican front group.

And while Radke hails Indiana's budget surplus, he fails to note that Mitch Daniels has raised sales taxes, cigarette taxes and other taxes have gone up as well.

Read the rest here.

In case you missed it...

...here's the call.

"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."
- W C Fields

Yakety Sax, Yakety Yak

This morning, on Charlie Syke's Incite show, as was promised, DPW ran the commercial slamming Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker for his flip-flops and outright lies regarding the stimulus money.

Sykes led a counter charge by devoting a segment to the commercial, in which they ran the commercial again. I'm sure that the DPW is very glad for the free plug. The main points of Charlie's attack was that it was all Governor Jim Doyle's doing, that Doyle was really scared of Walker and that this was some kind of record for launching an attack that hasn't even announced their candidacy yet (he kept repeating that it was nineteen months before the election.

Not once did Sykes or his panel address the charges in the commercial, which is rather telling in themselves. Apparently they were hoping to distract their viewers from the truth of that matter.

And considering that Doyle has little to be afraid of from Walker. Doyle has already four times the amount of money that Walker has, and a recent poll from a right wing group shows that Walker, despite six years of campaigning, still seven points behind Doyle, and in a virtual tie with Mark Neumann, who hasn't done much publicly in a decade.

And as the DPW's commercial setting a record, hardly. Nor is the DPW the only ones attacking a non-announced candidate.

Via Bruce at Badger Blogger, we find that even the Chicago Tribune covered this story. They had some very interesting facts that one would never find in the local newspaper, much less the radio station owned by the same parent company.

The Trib covers some of the common knowledge that regular readers of this site already know. Things like Walker's inconsistency regarding stimulus dollars or that he has been campaigning for months:

Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, is expected to seek the Republican nomination for governor next year. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle is widely expected to seek a third term.

Walker has spent months attacking Doyle's budget proposal and the federal stimulus package.

[...]

Walker said in January he wasn't going to seek federal stimulus money and didn't submit a list of potential projects to Doyle. In February, he wrote a column published in the Wall Street Journal that ran under the headline "Why I'm Not Lining Up for Stimulus Handouts."

But last month, Walker released a list of $130 million worth of potential stimulus projects in Milwaukee County that he said meets his criteria for accepting the money. Walker said he'll only accept the money if there is no long-term financial commitment, no required local match and no requirement for new operating or maintenance costs.

Walker said Thursday that has always been his position.

At the same time he released his list last month, Walker vetoed a county board resolution calling for aggressive pursuit of the stimulus money, calling the policy reckless and not in the best interest of taxpayers. A day later, the board overrode the veto and accused him of grandstanding as part of his expected gubernatorial run.

But then the Trib covers things that might not have been as commonly known among the public:

In a strongly worded November fundraising letter, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, Walker said Doyle and President Barack Obama "rolled out the red carpet for a cabal of militant activist thugs" who registered voters last year.

Walker accused Doyle of negligence, resulting in an election system "more akin to Hugo Chavez's rigged polls in Venezuela than the proud Wisconsin tradition."

Walker has also criticized tax increases in Doyle's budget and called for using some of Wisconsin's share of the federal stimulus money to cut taxes. He has called for eliminating sales taxes for the rest of the year and using stimulus money to fill that hole, instead of spending it on infrastructure or programs.

That idea has roundly been discounted as nearly impossible without an act of Congress.

If Doyle championed the idea, the sales tax cut could be a reality, Walker said.

So, Walker's been attacking Doyle, who hasn't announced whether he will seek re-election, at least 24 months before the election. That's a bit different than Sykes' assertions. But then again, Sykes, like Walker, has never been a strong one for being truthful or accurate.

I also get a kick out Walker comparing Wisconsin to Venezuela. If that is the case, what would one compare Milwaukee County to? Given its dying transit system, its decaying parks, and its recent history of not being able to deliver services as required by law, due to excessive staff shortages, I'd have to guess that it would have to be someplace in outer Mongolia or something.

I also like the last line. "If Doyle championed the idea, the sales tax could be a reality."

I know that Walker dropped out of college, but does he really not know that a governor of a state does not have authority over the federal government? Shouldn't there be some kind of basic aptitude test before one is allowed to run for office? (Well, maybe not, then there wouldn't be enough politicians to go around. Then again, would that be so bad?)

Either way, Sykes is as misleading in the truth of who did what as Walker is about where he stands, or doesn't stand, regarding stimulus money. It does make one stop and wonder why either of them even hold the jobs they have now.

Cross posted at Cog Dis.

(Flip) Flop Sweat

The DPW is set to air this ad on TV:



The sweet part is that the first airing will be on Sunday morning, during Sykes' Incite show.

Reince Priebus, taking a break from doing damage control for Michael Steele, says that it is outrageous that this add will appear on Easter Sunday. I concur.

After all, Easter is one of the two days that Sykesian Christians make it to church. They should have waited another week when Sykes would have had his usual audience.

Also as funny is Preview Paddy's desperate spin, trying to paint as Governor Jim Doyle showing nervousness. The truth is that it is just more of Walker's self-inflicted bad luck.

Inspired Letter Writing

Xoff already mentioned Wagner's desperate attempt at trying to bolster his apparently fragile ego by going after Governor Doyle, who handily defeated Wagner to become the Wisconsin Attorney General, all those years ago. I followed it up with a little screen cap fun.

This apparently spurred a concerned citizen to directly confront Wagner on the subject. From the mailbox:

Jim Doyle - Biggest Loser
Jim Doyle beats Jeff Wagner in race for AG.... Could you please on your show, so we can know, what that makes you?

Just asking.

Talker Watcher

Wagner's wishful thinking rewrites history

Republican radio talker Jeff Wagner, Charlie Sykes's little brother, tries to use Tuesday's election to bludgeon every liberal he doesn't like, starting with Jim Doyle, who once whupped Wagner's butt in a race for attorney general. Says Wagner:

Interestingly, it appears that in the wake of yesterday's electoral flameouts, Doyle is hitting the road to campaign for Obama in North Carolina. Hillary Clinton can only hope that Doyle will bring the same reverse Midas touch to the Obama campaign that he brought to so many campaigns in Wisconsin yesterday.

How soon they forget. It seems like just six weeks ago that Doyle was stumping Wisconsin for Obama, who trounced Clinton in the Feb. 19 primary. (What? Oh, it was just six weeks ago.)

Then there's this:

Another big loser last night was the liberal attack group, The Greater Wisconsin Committee ... This is now the third consecutive statewide race that candidates opposed by The Greater Wisconsin Committee (and the special interest groups that provide it's [sic] financing) have won.

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and being surprised that the results aren't different. How many more elections will the backers of The Greater Wisconsin Committee have to lose before they realize that their slimeball tactics simply aren't working?

Let's get the disclaimer out of the way: I'm a former consultant to GWC, but retired a year ago and now serve as a member of its board.

Wagner must be referring to last year's Supreme Court race, when the ethically challenged Annette Ziegler won, and, I guess, to Kathleen Falk's loss in the AG's race in 2006 to J.B. Van Hollen.

GWC did a little other work in 2006, too, which Wagner seems to have forgotten. Except for some spending done by its political action committee, GWC does not advocate for or against candidates, but publicizes the records and positions of public officials on issues.

In 2006, GWC was involved in issue advertising involving Gov. Jim Doyle and Rep. Mark Green, and in four State Senate districts. My recollection is that Doyle was reelected handily and that Democrats won all four of those Senate seats, defeating Republican incumbents in three of them and taking control of the State Senate. Perhaps Wagner has a different recollection, but he could always check the Blue Book.

Those Darn Lawyers

If one would actually heed what McBride says, they're heads would pop from all of the hypocrisy and self-contradictions. A prime example is her position regarding lawyers and trial lawyers.

For the longest time, McBride warns of the dangers of trial lawyers, that they support such terrible people like Governor Jim Doyle . There is also more current showings of affections to lawyers like Mike Plaisted and Illusory Tenant.

Something must have changed in the last 36 hours as that she now loves lawyers. Or maybe only if they're "super lawyers." I know Mark Chmura thinks Paul is a super lawyer.

Broken Promises

Over the past several weeks, Charlie Sykes has been leading every segment of his show with an audio of Governor Jim Doyle saying:

Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes. Wisconsin's problem is not that we tax too little. It is that we spend too much.

This was picked up and parroted by almost everyone on the right, from PaddyMac to McBride to various bloggers. There is just one problem with this. They make it seem like Doyle made this statement recently, say, as a campaign promise in last year's election.

In reality, it came from his 2003 State of the State Address. Even the slowest on the right should have figured out that was almost five years ago. But no. They still use it to hammer on Doyle as they carp about the 2007-9 budget. They complain about how high taxes are going to be, complete with the obligatory hair-pulling, teeth-gnashing and frothing at the mouth.

Too bad they weren't a little more selective in the speeches they chose. If they raised the same ruckus about the real lies told in 2003, they could have saved the country hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of American lives, and the integrity of the nation. All they had to do was call out Bush for the lies he told on January 28, 2003 in his State of the Union Address.

But they didn't. They chose to do the "right" thing, instead of the proper thing.

UPDATE: A commenter on McBride's side brought up the fact that the quote that she and others on the right are using was from Doyle's 2003 speech. She and her followers respond with a "So what? He lied other times too," type of response. Again, it is a shame that they choose to focus on the "right" thing, instead of the proper thing, and holding the true liar's feet to the fire.