Gray Matter

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Greed and the Wisconsin Supreme Court

If you’ve been in front of a television recently, you’ve probably seen those ads trying to influence the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Incumbent Louis Butler is being challenged by Butler County Circuit Judge Mike Gableman. Gableman is the bobblehead who allegedly bought his seat on the bench and Butler is the alleged criminal coddler.

For years and years candidates for state Supreme Court conducted low-key campaigns awash in decorum and highfalutin legal principles. But that was then and this is now. Over the last two contests, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business group has decided to spend an inordinately large amount of money to elect candidates to the state Supreme Court who are friendlier to business interests.

Last year, the group spent big bucks to elect Annette Ziegler to the court, despite the ethical lapses that led to her being sanctioned for failing to disclose her ties to a bank that was involved in a case before her. Now it is throwing its girth into a campaign to unseat a respected incumbent on the court by attempting to portray Louis Butler as soft on crime.

The business leaders who have signed off on this transparent effort to make the court more pliant to the state’s wealthy corporate interests should be ashamed. This isn’t about crime, this is about greed.

Newsweek did a fairly comprehensive analysis of this race and cited “uncanny parallels” between the election in Wisconsin and the plot of John Grisham’s novel, “The Appeal,” where business interests fund attacks on an African-American member of the state Supreme Court in Mississippi. In both cases, the business groups falsely accuse the sitting justice of acting to release a convicted sexual predator.

The Greater Wisconsin Committee, a liberal advocacy group, has responded to these horrid attacks with ads questioning the challenger’s record on crime. To his credit, Butler has called on all third party groups on both sides to “stand down” and allow the candidates to make their own cases.

Unfortunately, challenger Gableman has engaged in his own outrageous attack campaign which is drawing fire from the state’s good government groups, including the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign , Wisconsin Judicial Integrity Campaign Committee, Common Cause and Citizen Action, for false statements and misrepresenting Butler’s record.

But those fine, upstanding folks at the WMC definitely deserve a dubious achievement award for acting so selfishly and egregiously on behalf of the state’s wealthiest interests. Former Madison mayor and liberal blogger Paul Soglin is engaged in a personal campaign to call the members of the WMC to account for this greedy behavior.

The members of the WMC board are ultimately responsible for this reprehensible slander of Justice Butler. These business executives probably support token good causes and are undoubtedly regarded as respected pillars in their communities. But they shouldn’t be able to hide behind the relative anonymity of the front group they control.

How can we expect citizens to have faith in our government when the groups with the deepest pockets try to subvert the institutions we rely on the most to serve the public interest objectively and honestly? Isn’t it time we told the WMC leadership and their ilk to focus more attention on the quality of their products and providing decent wages and benefits to their workers rather than spending gobs of money to stack the judiciary?

There goes one of the WMC ads on television again. Excuse me, I need to take a shower.

(1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

A Stunning Fall

One of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies is when George Bailey, Jimmy Stewart’s character in Frank Capra’s great Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, pleads with a group of customers at the savings and loan not to withdraw all of their money.

George says the money isn’t in the vault, it’s helping build their neighbors’ homes and start their businesses. He eventually persuades them to only take out what they need, thereby allowing the bank to remain open.

But, for me, the “money shot” is when the sound of fire trucks or ambulances or police cars distracts the crowd and everyone moves to the window to see what’s going on. Our attention is riveted by the crisis in the bank but they can't help but turn their gaze to the street.

Which brings me to the news that uber-prosecutor turned New York governor, Eliot Spitzer, has been implicated in a sex-for-money scandal. Nothing sucks up the public’s attention more than a story that combines sex, scandal and celebrity.

And when the celebrity in question is a stuffed shirt politician who has made a career out of prosecuting wealthy businessmen who were caught stealing, cheating or otherwise taking advantage of their high positions in society, well, the hypocrisy is stunning and overwhelming.

While the story is unfortunate in that, once again, parents are having to explain terms like “prostitution” and “call girls” to their children who happen to be watching the news with them it brings some relief to those of us who have been overdosing on the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

After yesterday’s Mississippi primary, which was won decisively by Obama, the next contest isn’t until April 22 in Pennsylvania. There will continue to be news relating to the presidential contest, most notably the expected resolution of the imbroglio involving the Florida and Michigan delegation to the Democratic convention. But this amounts to something of a news blackout for six weeks. Six weeks!

Of course, locally we have important elections coming up on April 1st including the Wisconsin Supreme Court race between incumbent Justice Louis Butler and challenger Mike Gableman. But the Spitzer story is filling a void with the overwhelming power of a raging tide (sorry, sorry, sorry!).

Spitzer announced his resignation today. Some will say he should have stayed and defended himself since this is such a personal matter and, after all, Bill Clinton didn’t leave office after he was involved in a sex scandal.

But Clinton’s Affaire Lewinsky did not break any law (though, of course, he was charged with perjury for denying the relationship in grand jury testimony) and the campaign to impeach Clinton was such a political witch hunt.

Spitzer was caught in an investigation launched by the IRS and the FBI based on the unusual transfers of funds that he was using to funnel money to the “escort service.” Arguably, the investigators expected to find evidence of a bribe or other form of public corruption and were disappointed to find the trail led to a mere case of “in flagrante delicto.”

There are endless angles to the Spitzer story but in a few days I expect we will tire of it and return to the minutiae of more important political stories. In the meantime, political wags are soaking up all the details involving Kristen, Client #9, and the Mayflower Hotel.

Now what was that you were saying, George?

(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Friday, March 07, 2008

Whose Supreme Court Is It?

April 1st is shaping up as an important election day for Wisconsin, perhaps rivaling the presidential primary of February 19th.

Locally, we have State Sen. Lena Taylor challenging Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. Walker was elected on a one-note platform of opposing new taxes and he has stuck to that mantra even as financial shortfalls and poor management have lead to cutbacks and fee increases in transit services and park programs.

The Journal Sentinel has published exposes documenting gross lapses in the supervision of mental health patients resulting in some deaths and insufficient staffing of the county detention center leading to criminals escaping and committing heinous new crimes.

Walker famously dismissed the announcement that regional leaders were creating the Milwaukee 7 initiative to improve the community’s profile as an attempt to “put lipstick on a pig.” Maybe it’s time for voters to elect someone who is more committed to making government work rather than making excuses for its failures.

A number of city aldermanic and county supervisor seats are either open or being challenged. For example, Patrick Flaherty and Nic Kovac are engaged in a spirited race to fill Ald. Mike D’Amato’s open seat representing the city’s third district and, of course, imprisoned Alderman Michael McGee faces Milele Coggs.

But perhaps no contest holds as much significance for the state of Wisconsin as the election to decide whether Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler should be returned to his seat. Once again the state’s largest business group, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, is preparing to spend millions of dollars in order to elect a justice more supportive of the state’s corporate interests.

You may have already seen the attack ads run by the WMC and the Club for Growth, another pro-business organization. They resort to the time-honored tactic of charging Butler with being soft on criminals. The evidence? He voted along with a 4-3 majority to require a new trial for a convicted murderer since new analysis of DNA samples indicate it may not have been him. How could he!

The truth is pretty transparent. Go to WMC’s web site and you see little mention of crime. Their stated priorities are “lower taxes, reduce regulation, and reform the legal system” and they go on to explain that government intervention and nuisance lawsuits interfere with an open business environment. Aren’t you glad they care about public safety? I mean they feature a quote from Milton Friedman, fer chrissakes!

The Greater Wisconsin Committee, a liberal advocacy group isn’t taking this sitting down. They are running ads charging Butler’s opponent, Burnett County Circuit Judge Michael Gableman with buying his appointment from former Gov. Scott McCallum with campaign contributions.

Check out the competing ads and judge for yourself.

Gov. Jim Doyle appointed Butler to the Supreme Court following his 14 years of experience as a judge in Milwaukee. He has been endorsed by five major law enforcement organizations including the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the Wisconsin Troopers’ Association and the Milwaukee Police Association, more than 200 judges, 25 district attorneys and sheriffs, Sens. Kohl and Feingold, and more than 15 mayors and village presidents.

Former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is conducting something of a one-man campaign to call attention to the business community’s misguided attacks on Butler. He has organized protests at health care facilities and other businesses where WMC planned to hold presentations criticizing Butler.

It has been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant and the more attention focused on the business community’s attacks on Butler the worse it looks.

(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Keep Your Hands to Yourself and Eat Your Own Food!

An editorial in The New York Times today makes the strongest case yet that the tight race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be good for the country as long as the candidates keep the focus on the issues. Unfortunately, both have demonstrated that they are willing to pander to voters and attack their opponent which risks alienating he public and screwing up their party’s chances in the November election.

Who would have thought that this contest not only wouldn’t be decided by now but that it could actually continue on to the convention in Denver in August!

New York Times columnist Gail Collins has some fun dissecting what happened in Ohio and Texas. Can you imagine a better metaphor for this competition than an elementary school cafeteria?

Keep your hands to yourself and eat your own food!

(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

On to Pennsylvania … and Possibly Denver!!!

So Hillary Clinton did what she had to do.

Her victories in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island gave her the justification she needed to keep this battle going. She still trails Barack Obama in pledged delegates and it does not appear likely that she can catch him.

But Obama is unlikely to get to the 2025 delegates necessary to claim victory before the August convention in Denver.

So what is the party to do?

Well, just as President Bush remained officially neutral until John McCain won the requisite delegates to secure the nomination (though his father endorsed the Arizona senator weeks ago), the party big shots need to hold their fire, urge the two combatants to fight fair, and let the process play out.

Yes, that means on to Pennsylvania on April 22 (seven weeks away!) and maybe even on to a contested convention. If that’s what it takes, so be it.

What we have here is basically the same as a heavyweight title fight when neither of the two palookas has been able to land the knockout punch. When that happens the outcome is decided by a panel of judges who award points based on their expertise and judgment. That’s where the superdelegates come in.

Folks who complain that letting these party insiders decide the nominee is undemocratic are missing the point. Former Congresswoman, and Vice Presidential nominee in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro said on NPR today that the role of the party leaders returns some fairness to the process since many states (including Wisconsin) allow independents and even Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary, possible interfering with the best interests of the party.

The role of the superdelegates serves as a safety valve to insure that the nominee accurately reflects the best interests of the party. All hell would break out if they overturned the strong wishes of the voters. I say let’s see where this leads.

One outstanding issue for the party leaders is what to do about Florida and Michigan. Both were banished from having their delegates seated at the convention because they dared hold their primaries before the party wanted them to. Those were the rules that all the candidates agreed to so the easiest thing would be to stick to that position. But Hillary Clinton won both states so her camp will push to seat both delegations. Holding new primaries or caucuses would be costly and impractical. There are no easy answers to this dilemma.

In the meantime the candidates should continue making their best cases for support and avoid launching unnecessarily negative attacks on each other. Hillary Clinton already has dabbled in this area with her “kitchen sink strategy” and it finally appears to have worked.

Party leaders may need to step in and warn her about low blows then tell them to come out from their corners.

May the most worthy candidate win.

(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink