Yesterday I argued that Democrats had better grow a pair before even thinking about beating Scott Walker. Today let's turn our attention to why so many Democrats have no balls to begin with.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Anywhere you go in Wisconsin, if you run into someone from the Democratic Party's rank and file, you get the same question: Who's going to run against Walker?
A legislative committee has decided to ignore advice from one of its nonpartisan policy experts and keep Republican Governor Scott Walker's plan to create up to nine school voucher programs in the proposed 2013-15 state budget.
Governor Scott Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature say they will block efforts to enhance background checks on gun sales in Wisconsin because it's unnecessary, burdensome and doesn't have enough legislative support.
The Wisconsin Legislature used to be full of Dale Schultzes. Now he is a rare bird, hunted by a mob of his political genus if not his species. If he seeks reelection, he will face a primary challenge. His sin? Being what almost all Wisconsin Republicans were in the not-so-distant past.
Some years ago, sunset clauses were all the rage. Politicians on the prowl for waste, fraud and abuse in government wanted every law and every program to have one, to guard against laws that outlive their usefulness and get rid of government programs that do not work.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson's unsuccessful threat to prevent gun regulation legislation from being considered in the U.S. Senate this week shouldn't be much of a surprise.
It's said there are stages of grief. Could be five. Or seven. Or 10. The point being, in any case, that there are identifiable phases of the grieving process. Experts more or less agree it's some variation on the following theme: Denial. Anger. Guilt or blame. (This stage is full of "what ifs" and "if onlys" and some call it "bargaining," as in "I'll never do such and such ever again if I'm spared this miserable fate.) Then comes depression. Followed by acceptance.
The Wisconsin Realtors Association plans to spend more than $200,000 to reelect a state Supreme Court justice who voted to approve court rules the group helped write that say justices don't have to remove themselves from cases involving parties who helped get them elected.
The ALEC model for influencing state lawmaking is spreading, especially in the insurance industry. We're now seeing evidence on campaign finance reports that Wisconsin legislators are essentially being paid to be lobbied on insurance issues...getting "scholarships" to attend insurance industry conferences where they are educated on insurance-related legislation and regulation and given model bills to pass.
Get a load of the name of one of these outfits that has made payments to at least one Wisconsin lawmaker.... The Insurance Legislators Foundation is an arm of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators. A New York address is listed for ILF on the campaign reports we've examined. Also showing up on campaign finance reports are Griffith Foundation scholarships. This outfit sponsored an "Insurance 101" program for state legislators in conjunction with the NCOIL annual meeting in Alabama last November and is doing another one in Oklahoma later this month. Griffith is affiliated with another group called the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, which lists a Pennsylvania address and is described as "the leader in delivering proven knowledge solutions that drive powerful business results for the risk management and property-casualty insurance industry."Good grief.
Posted by Mike McCabe at 10:56 AM