The Wisconsin State Journal (or, as my Dad called it, not that nutty liberal paper) this morning has a few good stories about Wisconsin Republicans and what they've been able to accomplish over the past few years. I thought that taken together they made kind of a nice introduction for the WisGOP (think of it as the Weak Tea Party) convention which is about to start in Milwaukee.
The MJS is reporting that Scott Walker has pissed away any surplus that 2009 medical cost reductions may have given him.
Just five weeks after learning it had posted a surplus for 2009, MilwaukeeRunning a government is hard work and Walker is just not up to the task. He is good at slash and burn as well as the politics of divisiveness but not much else.
County faces a projected $6.6 million deficit this year, according to a report
issued Thursday.
The Pubbies had to move the convention to the Frontier Airlines Center after being unable, once again, to plan and allocate resources necessary for the task at hand. Of course, they didn't tell everybody that they were moving from the Hyatt.
But she'll get her chance when the GOP goes back to giving out endorsements for the first time since 1978. We all remember how well that coronation of Bob Kasten before the primary went over with the rank and file.
Dreyfus' victory led Republican Party leaders to stop - at least
temporarily - the practice of endorsing gubernatorial candidates in contested
primaries. Embarrassment over the issue led the Wisconsin State Journal that
year to state in a story that the Republican practice was "comatose."
"No party wants to have its leadership look ridiculous in an
election," Franklin said.
Reince never got the word. My advice to Mark Neumann is to start wearing a red vest.
But the big news for the Republican Party is that Scott Jensen gets his name in the headlines just in time to remind Wisconsin voters what happens when you let the GOP have the big chair. Justice delayed is justice enough according to the scofflaws in the GOP and Jensen heads home to a familiar wallow for his retrial.
Jensen doesn't really deny the charges. He just wants special treatment for his case. If Brad Schimmel has any sense of irony at all he'll bring this back into the headlines just before Halloween so that the festering lump of self-pity and Public Defenders that is Jensen is fresh in the mind when voters head to the polls in November.
The Journal adds (but the emphasis is mine): Jensen and other topSo we come back to the Party elite picking the chosen few for the voters to swallow. It should be the theme for the weekend in Milwaukee.
lawmakers - Democrats and Republicans - used public money and resources to pay for their campaigns and those of favored candidates. The devious goal was to
unfairly tip elections - including party primaries - in favor of hand-picked loyalists who would keep Jensen and the other leaders in power. Other top state leaders from Jensen's era have already pleaded guilty and served time behind bars.
In other pre-convention musings:
I predict that the Party faithful will endorse the far-right wallet of Ron Johnson over the not-sufficiently-nutty wallet of T Wall. David Westlake will have his Road to Damascus moment this weekend and be back in civvies by Tuesday.
The Light Governor endorsement will go four ballots and come down to Sykes' handpicked media darling and the guy who thinks the Humane Society is a fringe organization. At that point reality will set in and "No Endorsement" will carry the night.
As for me, I'll be following the convention coverage of Kyle Maichle. I took the over on Mismatched Verb Tense for $200 and put $150 on Inappropriate Hockey References +6.
Mazel Tov
