It's Morning In Wisconsin

A candidate for Assembly votes to give his campaign treasurer/ girlfriend a raise and the right side of the blogosphere shrugs. "It's no big deal," they say. Wigderson takes the flak like a champ.

A Candidate in Racine County formed a company specifically to do business with the county and received no-bid contracts. "Keep moving. Nothing to see here," the right side says.

It's refreshing that we'll no longer be seeing those blog posts that huff and puff about "airs of impropriety" and "whiffs of corruption." The BBA is figuring out that sometimes these things are just coincidence.

For my two cents; the McReynolds thing is, truly, a non-starter. He formed a company to help the county find a local supplier and lost his investment doing it. He should be a poster boy for small business over the last 6 years.

I also think folks are taking the wrong approach to the Kramer story. Maybe he wasn't voting to give payback to his Sweetie, who happens to be his campaign treasurer, maybe he was "voting for the office." The point is that he couldn't see the consequences of his own actions far enough ahead to recuse himself.
Why leave the doubt? The vote to increase the salaries passed unanimously. Bill Kramer wasn't a good enough politician to count the votes and figure out that his vote wasn't needed. If he had the skill to see what was going on around him and the foresight to recuse himself from a vote that had a fishy smell we wouldn't be having this discussion.

As for the bloggers who are in a tizzy over the mere thought that someone could falsely accuse a candidate of impropriety I say, "get over yourself." There are things that do matter going on while you waste your time and energy accusing Jim Doyle of shaking down Kimberly Clark every time he uses a Kleenex.