Another Love Torn Asunder

Jessie McB is no longer in love with the neoconservative Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

That would be the second of McBride's loves that Milwaukee's top cop, Ed Flynn, has ruined.

And they want to give Flynn more control over public safety?

Headlines Of The Damned

Doing their own story on the alleged continuation/reoccurrence of the McBride/Flynn affair, Matt Wild comes up with this headline:

You can read his article here.

Is McBride In Like Flynn Again?

Image courtesy of
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A couple of weeks ago, we pointed out that the former columnist/reporter/squawk radio hostess Jessica McBride had filed for a divorce from her husband, former Waukesha County DA and current hinderer of justice, Paul Bucher.

This would be the second time in the past three years that the couple found themselves in divorce court. The first time was when Bucher filed for divorce after McBride was caught with Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and his night stick. Bucher withdrew his motion a week later, stating that they were going to try to make their tattered marriage work.

At the time, it created quite the hullabaloo, with all sorts of juicy gossip popping up, including the love letters between the adulterous paramours.

Both McBride and Flynn swore off their adulterous ways and promised that it would never happen again.

However, it is being alleged that the two love birds have been at it again:

Sunday night, 12 News revealed a letter that alleges the chief continued his affair with McBride.

McBride's husband, former Waukesha District Attorney Paul Bucher, told 12 News he sent the letter to Flynn's wife. Copies were received by both the mayor's office and the Fire and Police Commission, which released it to WISN 12 News.

It begins: "I never thought I would be writing this to you, but I feel you have to know the type of person Ed Flynn is. He has continued his affair with Jessica McBride..."

The one thing that I find curious is that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel hasn't touched this story yet. When the affair was first discovered three years ago, Dan Bice was all over it. And in recent months, the paper's been riding the police chief's behind on anything and everything the could find on him.

So why are they being quiet now?

McBride, Bucher Back In Divorce Court

Three years ago, after former radio squawk show host Jessica McBride got caught handling Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn's night stick, her husband, former Waukesha County DA Paul Bucher, filed for a divorce.

Less than a week later, the couple reconciled and the divorce petition was withdrawn.

Sad to say, but those wacky kids are back for another round in Divorce Court, but this time, McBride is the petitioner:

Those poor kids.  Obviously, their marriage lost its sanctity when Barney Frank got married.

Jessica McBride takes on talk radio, defends public workers

Jessica McBride, who once aspired to talk radio fame and fortune, wants to know what's the matter with Tommy Thompson? He's running into a lot of flak from conservatives, and McBride, who once worshiped at the feet of Charlie Sykes, now says:

Thompson has run into the “new Republican party,” inspired by a tea party hold-theline ethos, a zero-tax-levy governor, and a talkradio machine that demands absolute fealty to a message. Or else.

She defends Tommy's spending, and even says:

Tommy is also out of step with current conservative dogma because he grew the size of the state work force. In other words, he didn’t ascribe to the “public workers are greedy people at the trough” rhetoric. Well, those jobs employed people and put them to work, so they could put their money back into the economy. (Now Republicans tout stimulus job creation in Rick Perry’s Texas). Scott Walker didn’t lay a bunch of people off, either. I am sure Tommy needed some more workers in the prison system because he was so tough on crime. Remember truth in sentencing and all that?

Of course, her husband was a state employee for quite awhile, and she still is. That tends to make one a little more empathetic.

If you must, read it here.

Milwaukee's Collective IQ Is About To Experience A Significant Jump

Just like we did when Jessica McBride was given the boot or when Paddy-Mac performed the ultimate hypocrisy, Milwaukee is about to be blessed with a significant spike to our collective intelligence.

Drama Queen James T. Harris is leaving the great and about to become greater state of Wisconsin to spew his hatred, bigotry and sexism across the deserts of Arizona.  Gilas will no longer be the only monsters slithering across the sands there.

The funniest part of it is that his mentor, Charlie Sykes, couldn't even let a small time conservative blogger her moment of glory by being the one to break the news, but had to hog it for his own vain self.

The only real question is whether the Petty Child is leaving because he found a better deal for his soul or because he's leaving like a rat jumps from a sinking ship.

The Biggest Shtick In The State

Monday morning, Charlie Sykes spent part of his squawk show trying to take credit for the Prosser "mandate" of a victory. (Note to Charlie: 0.49% is far from a mandate. It's more like a mistake.)

Illy-T does the yeoman's work of breaking down just what influence Sykes might have had on the race:

What is sad, though, is Sykes's mincing triumphalism, because what he doesn't tell you is that if his special theory has validity, then the dissembling shouter managed to impede Justice Prosser's progress in almost every single one of the Wisconsin counties he mentions, by:

Milwaukee: 11 points
Racine: 6 points
Waukesha: 8 points
Washington: 5 points
Ozaukee: 9 points
Dodge: 11 points
Fond Du Lac: 11 points
Jefferson: 10 points
Walworth: 4 points

That's how much Prosser conceded, between the general election on April 5 and the primary election on February 15, which is when Sykes commenced his 50K-watt campaign of ludicrous propagandas

Can you imagine that? If the election was even just a week longer, Sykes might have managed to give the race to JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Sykes' delusions of grandeur isn't anything new though.  When she was still an overt political player, Jessica McBride had the same syndrome.

IOOKIARDI - Marriage Edition

In today's installment of "It's Only OK If A Republican Does It," we turn to James Wigderson.

Wigderson takes umbrage with the fact that the left has been pointing out "self-made millionaire" RoJo became self-made by marrying into it.

Wigderson then decides to bring up Russ Feingold's marriage history:

However, do Wisconsin Democrats really want to go into whether or not Johnson was “lucky” in whom he married (for over 30 years)? Which of Senator Russ Feingold’s three wives was the lucky charm for him? Or will it be number four? After all, the plural of spouse is “spice” and right now Feingold is on a pace to pass Larry King. I would assume that Feingold supporters would be doing everything they can to keep a candidate’s personal life off limits. Yet Feingold and his supporters keep going back to mentioning Johnson’s personal life.

We at Whallah! anxiously await Wigderson's pieces on Charlie Sykes and Jessica McBride's marital and extramarital exploits. The one on Sykes will probably be in a few weeks, to time it with Liz Woodhouse Day.

McBride 'stunningly ill-informed?'

Our gal Jessica McBride?

Authoring "a stunningly ill-informed article"?

On a racial topic?

Hard to believe.

Judge for yourself.

Well, The Captain Smiles

A couple years ago, before her tumultuous fall from mediocrity to laughingstock, Jessica McBride wrote a story for Milwaukee Magazine in which she explored the spate of drownings in La Crosse, WI. Her article fed into the conspiracy theory that there was some "demonic gang" that was responsible for these deaths, leaving behind a calling card of a smiley face.

Common sense and consensus concurred that it was most likely a series of young men getting drunk and falling into the Mississippi River. That was again reinforced here in Milwaukee:

Man was drunk when he fell in

A 55-year-old man had to be rescued from the Kinnickinnic River early this morning.

According to witnesses, the man appeared to be intoxicated when he fell in at 4th and Becher.

Well, in fairness to McBride, the Captain does smile.

Guns Protecting Us From Adultery

Is there anything guns can't do? Now they can help prevent adultery:

A former Appleton firefighter accused of shooting his estranged wife to death claims he was trying to stop her from committing the felony crime of adultery.

Scott Schmidt's attorney plans to argue that Schmidt thought force was necessary to prevent Kelly Wing Schmidt from meeting another man at a hotel and committing the felony because prosecutors don't take adultery seriously, according to a notice of intent filed in Outagamie County Court.Schmidt, 39, will go to trial in March on charges including first-degree intentional homicide and attempted homicide.

[...]

Because adultery cases are rarely prosecuted, Schmidt had the unreasonable belief that he had no other viable options "except for suffering in silence as the victim of a felony as perpetrated against him in the form of adultery," according to the court documents, filed Feb. 12 by attorney Greg Petit.

I think we can expect that a certain couple of squawkers will be changing their stances regarding gun control laws pretty soon.

The Future Of Journalism Is Doomed!

The world has gone mad. Absolutely, stark raving, completely off its rocker, insane.

An alert reader sent this in:

from Jessica McBride's facebook page....

__________________

Jessica McBride is very happy today because the Chancellor officially approved her indefinite status! (the academic staff equivalent of tenure). This was the final step, and comes after a 7-0 positive vote from the review committee and a positive recommendation from the Dean. Thank you Chancellor Santiago and UWM!!!!! I am one of the ...fortunate people in that I love my job and love working with the students. Celebration time!!!!!

February 5 at 4:03pm

This was further confirmed in a tweet by James Wigderson.

I can't even imagine what would make the committee or Santiago think that this was a good idea.

Perhaps it was her catastrophically poor command of the English language.

Perhaps it was her not so high journalistic ethics standards.

But if I were a betting man, I would have to say that if you consider all the work she's been doing for WPRI lately, I would look for a very large monetary gift from the Bradley Foundation to UWM.

They Is It And It Am Them

We noted a few days ago that Jessica McBride is now doing some work* for the Republican front group WPRI.

Unfortunately, she is still working without an editor or proofreader. This is exemplified in the title of her latest post for them:

Does the State Know What Kind of Criminals They Are Sending Back Into Our Neighborhoods?

Singular, plural. Aw, what's the difference, right?

*Divorce attorneys don't come cheap. Don't believe me? Just ask Charlie Sykes.

No Honor Among Squawkers

Wow, talk about harsh.

Charlie Sykes, full time squawker and bloody poor editor of WPRI invites Jessica McBride to do a piece at their site. Then he links to it on his WTMJ site with this:

Kind of nervy for Sykes, of all people, to allude to McBride's affair. And just who is he calling loose?

Sykes finds a new Eliza

Charlie Higgins Sykes, having suffered a minor setback with the launch of his last protege, Jessica Doolittle McBride, has found another younger woman on whom to bestow his favors.

Enter Rebecca Doolitttle Kleefisch, the latest right wing blogger to win regular links and favorable comment from Sykes. Now this, from WisPolitics:

Former TV reporter Rebecca Kleefisch has filed papers to run for lt. gov as a Republican, and GOP sources say her official announcement is scheduled for Tuesday.

Kleefisch, who's married to state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, has been a regular feature on conservative talk show host Charlie Sykes' blog with her "Kleefisch Reports." She's a former anchor at WISN-TV in Milwaukee.

Perhaps McBride, having gained a lot of experience as an advisor to a statewide campaign for attorney general, can offer some guidance -- at least about what not to do.

Give Her A Scarlet Letter

Nothing like some good down home Puritan's anger.

Now McBride is really in for it. She has called down the wrath of Zeus.

Because The First Foot Tasted So Good

Last week, Jessica McBride wrote an ill-advised piece trying to defend her infidelity by acting offended that the media would even cover the story, trying to ignore the fact that her paramour was the Milwaukee Chief of Police.

Apparently liking the taste of her foot, this weekend McBride chose to put her second foot in her mouth as well.

She starts out complaining about the comments allowed to stand at the JSOnline blogpost about the affair, which I pointed out last week. This quickly degenerates into a rambling rant about bloggers in general. This ends up in her again playing the victim and that the whole internet is misogynistic.

To show how disjointed and ironic her ramblings are, here are a few puzzling excerpts:

The Internet is, in many ways, a sexist environment. Most of the citizen blog sites are run by older men without journalistic training or standards and, when a woman crashes into the parlor to join the political talk over the brandy, watch out – you’ll get harassed until you voluntarily leave the room. But I expect more of sites like jsonline.

Should she really be calling anyone out about journalistic training or standards?

Granted the name calling and vitriol isn’t limited to women, either. It’s part of a coarsening of discourse in general. Just ask Charlie Sykes. There are bloggers who basically spend all of their energy calling him names and attacking his personal life rather than challenging his ideas. They are small minds.

This is not a hearty, strong intellectual clash on the issues (I love those sorts of debates). These are playground antics. If people said to my face what some bloggers (or Journal Sentinel comment posters) have written about me (and others) on the Web, I’d get a temporary retraining order against them. It’s abuse.

Oh, the hypocrisy is enough to give me a headache. Was she serious when she typed that? Has she ever reviewed her own stuff, much less Sykes'. It is nothing but abuse to the subject of the post, as well as the poor souls that read the tripe.

But the most alarming thing is the last line:

Oh, one other thing: I might reactivate my blog soon. As anyone who knows me knows, I don’t silence easily, and certainly not through intimidation from Internet bullies.

Oh, the humanity!!

With a tip of the crown, go to Boots and Sabers (yeah, I know, one of the signs of the apocalypse when Owen and I agree), for more on the matter.

The Best Defense Is To Be Offended

The Jessica speaks!

However, the saga of my relationship with Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has hit the headlines again, so I suppose it’s time I say something about it. I’m a little sick of seeing my face on the TV news, and reading stuff about matters of profound privacy from people who know so little about it. In this column, I will confine myself to commenting on the media frenzy of last June, even though I suppose what everyone wants to know now is my take on the recent coverage. I’ve never written anything about this at all beyond a statement clearing up the media’s false timeline inferences.

I acknowledge that I am an imperfect human being. After the story broke in June, some people trashed me for not apologizing. Any apologies that I made (and I did make them) were made in private. I am not a public official; thus, I don’t see why I owed the public access to my apologies. The entire story felt like an invasion of privacy, and still does, right down to the “love letters” that were stolen and mailed anonymously to a newspaper which published excerpts without ever authenticating them.

McBride goes on to question why this is even a story. She points out that she is not a public official, and even though her paramour Flynn is a public official, he should be allowed a zone of privacy.

Well, it is a story because Flynn is a public official, and that he agreed to take on a job that requires him to be a pillar of the community. Adulterous affairs don't quite qualify. Neither does dishonesty, and there are some that question whether the allegations brought forth by Paul Bucher, McBride's current husband, could affect Flynn's ability to lead and to be used as a witness.

Secondly, if one wanted to be nit-picky about it, McBride is a public employee, who is being paid with tax dollars to teach journalism. If she doesn't follow the basic principles of journalistic ethics, are the taxpayers getting their money's worth?

But I do agree with McBride that any apologies she owes are private matters. She is only in the news because of who she had the affair with. If she had an affair with the plumber or someone else of less prominence, it probably would have stayed under the radar, or at worst, be the subject of some short lived giggles among her detractors.

But considering that she has been more than willing to publish personal, and even false, information about people, should she be complaining now?

Dan Bice has his coverage of it here. What is remarkable about it are some of the comments that they are allowing to stand. I wouldn't even allow them to stay up.

But the best line of McBride's column is this (emphasis mine):

Aren’t public officials entitled to a zone of privacy, especially appointed cops who are hired solely to reduce crime? Chief Flynn wasn’t the archbishop standing on a soap box spouting off about personal morality; as for me, I wrote a column supporting gay marriage.

What does gay marriage have to do with infidelity? Or is that just more evidence of the conservative mindset that all homosexual relations are nothing more than short-lived flings?

Equal treatment for lovebirds

Whether Jess and Eddie are still carrying on or not (and who cares, except Paul Bucher and Susan Flynn?), it's good to see that both are being treated fairly by their employers.

Ed Flynn is Milwaukee's chief of police, and his bosses, the mayor and the Fire and Police Commission, say they're sticking with him, affair or no affair, because he has been reducing crime in Milwaukee. Fair enough.

Meanwhile, Jessica McBride is a lecturer on journalism ethics and other matters at UW-Milwaukee's journalism department, whose executive committee recently voted 3-2 to give her what amounts to permanent status there. Presumably, that's because she has been reducing journalism ethics in Milwaukee. Fair's fair.

Deja Vu, All Over Again

He said, he said, and she's not saying.

Earlier: The Cookie Crumbled (although it appears that Flynn might not be the upright citizen I believed him to be then.)

Methinks that when this is said and done, they will all be covered in mud, instead of just two of them.