Frank Lassee- Dangerously Cheesy

You all remember Frank Lassee. He was front and center on the failed TABOR push two years ago and has steadily beat the drum for the proposal to wrest local government control and choke growth. When I dared to suggest that it was a legislator's job to make the hard choices about taxes he called me the worst name he could think of.

No, Frank. I'm not a government employee. But you are. The good people of Bellvue sent you to Madison to work in their best interests but you want to abdicate that job to a discredited formula, one which no sane person would adopt for their home or business.

Now, Glenn Grothman has been chosen to lead the Bride of TABOR along with Jeff Wood this time out. After the failures of Colorado it has been renamed the Taxpayer Protection Amendment to distance it from the earlier attempts.

Already the drums are beating on the right and calling for blood. Seth gives us the image of The Sopranos meeting the Donner Party as the tizzysphere starts calling for the head of anyone who dares to "water down" this poorly thought-through bill. Even the court-supporting tax hater, Orville Seymour is on board in that queue. He just doesn't want any cuts to the system that protects his rights as a landlord.

Now here we are, not quite two weeks into this new debate and Lassee is looking for his out-move. In a press release dated last Friday Lassee compared the TPA to several Wisconsin products.

“Let’s not make this the Swiss Cheese Amendment. Let’s make it good Wisconsin
cheddar or Colby – no holes.”

He can see the changes coming that will attempt to make this amendment smell less like good Lemke's Brick cheese.

“Now, right out of the gate, they’re talking about weakening it to exempt
fees, bonding,and special purpose districts,”

“I hope Senator Grothman can withstand the pressure he’s facing..."

Otherwise, Lassee says "it will be better to fail now, and try again next year."

Lassee is lining up his excuses early and edging toward the door to try to mitigate the wrath of the hardcore, tax-hating right wing of his party and lessen the amount of grief that will come his way. He seems to have forgotten The First Rule of Dancing With the Gorilla. The gorilla decides when you're done.