Oshkosh News announced today that Jim The New Democrat Doyle will be holding a Town Hall Meeting (i.e. carefully scripted schmooze-fest) in Oshkosh on January 5th. Doyle was here for the Democratic Party convention last June, when he blew the opportunity to deliver a speech I had written especially for him, "We are the lesser evil."
Jim Doyle came to office on promises of reforming the state's corrupt politics, putting some integrity back into the budget process, and reviving the state's economy. He's failed miserably at each one: the legislature and governor have resisted all attempts at meaningful reform of the influence peddling culture that exists in Madison, the budget is still mired in a structural deficit and accounting tricks, while Doyle's budget assaults on the UW system have made the state's economic prospects even bleaker. Continuing to blame all these problems on John Gard and the Republicans is a dog that just won't hunt anymore.
The guv has been hard at work raising money. an activity which he pursues with a vigor that would make even Tommy Thompson blush. The fund raising mania of the Doyle Administration helps to explain the guv's contempt for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. From the Wisconsin State Journal:
In October, [US Attorney Steve] Biskupic, a Republican appointee, said he and Lautenschlager, a Democrat, were launching a joint investigation into the $750,000, three-year state employee travel contract that was awarded to Adelman Travel Group of Milwaukee after an evaluation committee initially scored a competing company slightly higher.
Adelman's chief executive and a board member each gave Doyle's campaign a total of $10,000 - the maximum allowed - in the months before and after the contract was announced in March. The firm eventually beat out Omega World Travel of Fairfaix, Va., after the state challenged the two to submit a "best and final" offer.
You can bet that all serious questions raised at the schmooze fest will be met with the typical smoke and mirrors responses. Doyle, we have learned, is only a politician willing say what it takes to get through an election cycle. But the last thing Wisconsin generally and the city of Oshkosh specifically needs right now is smoke and mirrors. We need political reform and jobs, and won't get the latter without the former.
12 comments:
So, will you be going to The Carefully Scripted Schmooze-Fest?
I would like to go to the CSSF, but like most CSSFs, it is held at a time (noon) when people with jobs cannot easily get there. I will be teaching a class until noon on that day and then I have a department of communication meeting right after that. So it looks like there will be no CSSF for me. I'm sure some other Greens will be in attendance (I'm going to advise them to eat lunch AFTER the CSSF so as to minimize the chances of falling asleep or throwing up). --TP
Don't you think Doyle is just doing the best he can after the mess the Republicans left the state in? You can't win a campaign these days without a lot of money, isn't it necessary to continue to fundraise in order to be able to compete with well financed Republicans?
I don't think that Doyle raising money in and of itself is a problem. What's a problem is what appears to be a pattern of quid-pro-quo/pay-to-play in Doyle's relationships with the givers. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Common Cause in Wisconsin, both nonpartisan organizations, have documented this pattern rather extensively, while AG Lautenschlager and US Attorney Biskupic could conceivably press charges against Doyle in the near future.
I agree with you that the Republicans, or more accurately Tommy Thompson and Scott McCallum, left the state in a mess after 16 years. But rather than reverse the state's perilous course, Doyle has enhanced it. He has:
*Undermined more than 30 years worth of environmental protection legislation with the ill named "Jobs Creation Act."
*Been a cheerleader for "Single Sales" taxation for big business, a corporate welfare scam that not even Tommy Thompson supported.
*Proposed and succeeded in getting the deepest cuts ever seen to the UW system (while telling students asking for a tuition freeze that they are "living in a dream world").
*Made an asinine pledge to cut the state workforce by 10,000 employees at the same time using state dollars for private contractors that cost _more_ than state workers.
*Completely reneged on his promise to fight for campaign reform. When he ran for office he said repeatedly that "My number one priority will be campaign reform."
There's much, much more that could be said about Doyle's sorry record, but I better stop now before I talk myself into running! --TP
Suggesting that Greens may vomit merely by listening what the Govenor of Wisconsin has to say simply undermines your credibility and open-mindedness. Doyle could say nothing that would not induce nausea among you holier-than-though Green party members? That shows a tolerance as miniscule as Hitlers.
Tony sez -
I'm rubber,
You're glue.
Whatever you say
Bounces off me
And sticks back on you.
Oh wait, that was me. You know, when we hear our leaders, with all the power and influence they have, with all their ablity to effect the way we live our lives - when we hear these people say stuff that we strongly disagree with it upsets us. Especially when they "say" it with our hard-earned.
Republican or Democrat, Communist or Holier-than Thou-Green. You, we get upset.
And I think upset people start saying vividly expressive things like "Oh Edna! I could just Throw Up" about I dunno, for sure by 6th grade. Pretty sure you say stuff like that yourself, Anon # 367,890. See, it's supposed to be a kind of silly, humorous way of expressing frustration.
So I guess you're showing about as much understanding of human nature and as much of a sense of humor as, Ohmigod!
Hitler!
bounce....stick!
And you forgot your apostrophe in "Hitler's".
Who are you then, Eva Braun, doing all of Tony's bidding? He's a big boy, let him blog for himself.
So, what are you saying then.....
I'm a BRAUN-noser??
*sigh*
Ja sicher. Ich bin Eva.
Seien Sie vorsichtig! Erinnern Sie sich an, den Adler nie stirbt.
Tony Über Alles!!!!!!
Ja, It's me, Eva back again. I think there are some bad mistakes in that last bit but you get the idea.
I have to admit I'm about as good at grammar as...
Hitler.
The Fuhrer actually had a well-documented grammar problem. It was set to music by Wagner. Perhaps you are familiar with the "Grammardämmerung"?
"Whenever I listen to Wagner I get an urge to invade Poland"
-Woody Allen
(Woody Allen does everything Tony tells him to do too)
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