Mark Twain had a great line about Richard Wagner’s music being “better than it sounds.” Our political system is better than you would guess from listening to politicians.
Category: Money & Politics Column
Posted inMoney & Politics Column, Scott Walker's Wisconsin
Spring cleaning turns up news nuggets ranging from guns to schnapps
The columnist is cleaning off his desk, emptying his inbox. Here are a few unused news nuggets that seem a shame to throw away.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column, Scott Walker's Wisconsin
Have John Doe probes trashed rule of law in Wisconsin?
Conservative commentators have embraced the narrative put forth by critics of the two John Doe probes involving Walker and others. Wisconsin is being defamed as a place where unethical law enforcers driven by naked political partisanship have run amok.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column, Scott Walker's Wisconsin
Groups let Gov. Scott Walker’s backers give unlimited sums
Walker’s committee, Our American Revival, can raise and spend unlimited sums. At least two donors have given Walker $100,000 or more, according to press accounts. Had they so desired, these donors could have given $100 million.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Advocate Mike McCabe launches new movement for the ‘politically homeless’
What McCabe wants to build is not a third party, which he jokes is a lock to come in third. His concept, similar to progressive movements in the past and the tea party movement of recent years, is to create a “first party” — one that demands change from within the existing political structure.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Did judge fail to report outside income?
Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis’ Statements of Economic Interests do not appear to list police training session income from the city of Appleton for years in which other records show he was receiving substantial sums.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Goals clash as Wisconsin prepares to rewrite campaign finance law
Chapter 11 of the state statutes, governing campaign financing, clearly needs a rewrite. Court rulings have blown huge holes in the law, which dates to 1974. One lawyer called the result “a confusing mess.” But there is vast disagreement over what changes should be made.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Deer disease keeps worsening in Wisconsin, as predicted
Thirteen years after CWD was first discovered in Wisconsin, a state wildlife expert says many hunters “just want things to go back to normal.” That’s not likely to happen. A far more plausible scenario is that the disease will continue to spread, infecting and killing deer, until the number of animals available for hunters is seriously depleted.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Do policymakers care what people think? It depends
Gov. Scott Walker proclaimed the right-to-work bill a victory for workers’ rights. Yet precious few workers turned out to show their support for the freedom he and other Republicans delivered, using language taken almost verbatim from a corporate-funded national conservative group.
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Iron mine is halted, but battle scars remain
Former state Sen. Bob Jauch says the bruising political battle over the mining bill “tore the community apart. It pitted neighbor versus neighbor. It destroyed relationships. And for what? All to come to the conclusion that this thing was never feasible in the first place.”
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Supreme Court candidates differ on campaign funding, recusal
Bradley is often described as a liberal, a term she avoids applying to herself, preferring such descriptors as “tough, fair and independent.” Daley has sent out tweets using the hashtag #tcot, which stands for “top conservatives on Twitter.”
Posted inMoney & Politics Column
Law against political falsehoods sets high bar for prosecution
To run afoul of the law, it seems, a statement made during a political campaign must be both apparently credible and knowingly untrue.