By brazenly interfering in a state election while it is going on, the radically reactionary majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has once again exposed the deceit in all the high-minded talk from self-proclaimed "judicial conservatives" over the years about the perils of "activist judges" who "legislate from the bench."
Posted by Mike McCabe at 8:59 AM
Not that it matters, but I found myself standing pretty much alone in condemning the Wisconsin Supreme Court's decision to allow the Scott Jensen case to move to his home county. Jensen's attorneys, of course, were of the opinion that the matter was very well decided by the high court. The prosecutor who handled Jensen's first trial was circumspect, but then he would have been rid of the whole business in any case as he's soon to become an appeals court judge. Others, from newspaper editorialists to good government advocates, are resting assured that a new trial in Waukesha County will turn out exactly the same as the first one in Dane County.
The state Supreme Court ruled this morning that former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen should be re-tried for criminal misconduct in public office in his home county of Waukesha, not in Dane County where the offenses are alleged to have occurred.
A week after a Democratic smear group launched ads slamming the two GOP candidates for governor, an out-of-state pro-business group is sponsoring two television ads lauding Republican candidate Scott Walker.
A secretive Democratic electioneering group launched the first television ad of the 2010 Wisconsin governor's race criticizing Republican candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann for their positions on state tax policy.
Table showing Troha family contributions. Accompanies blog post.
Numerous candidates for statewide office and the legislature in every election try to hoodwink the public into believing the exorbitant amount of special interest cash they accept shows they are popular among voters.
Longer ago than seems possible, I served in the Peace Corps. I returned to the U.S. in 1991 after two years in the West African country of Mali realizing what pretty much every Peace Corps volunteer I've ever met realized. That you get far more from the experience than you give. That's not what surprised me most about my time overseas, though. Living in a different culture revealed how thoroughly American I am. That's the thing that blindsided me.
For years, we have been using our searchable database of campaign money to identify donors who exceed the legal limit on contributions. We issued another such report yesterday. No news organization in the state wrote so much as a word about our findings, save one college newspaper.