Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce: Attitude Adjustment. Not

This week's Isthmus says, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce tones it down a notch.

Correctly noting that the tone of this fall's election television advertisements designed to elect Republicans are by WMC's own admission, "reposition(ed)." Erik Gunn reports:

Such ads are a departure for WMC, which is better known for its spots trashing state Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler as "Loophole Louie" or, earlier, portraying Gov. Jim Doyle during his successful 2006 re-election bid in a green, toxic haze to suggest he is a crook.

We recall that it took enormous pressure to get WMC to make these modifications to its political message. They only did so  when the image of the individual members was tarnished by the trash they produced in previous elections.

Left to their own devices, WMC would resume creating more "Willie Horton" style messages.

It is clear that WMC's market position was assumed by such groups as the Coalition for America's Families, the Club for Growth and All Children Matter which continues to produce WMC-style attack ads.

All Children Matter is running nasty spots that have nothing to do with children or the truth.

The Government Accountability Board may or may not get the power to regulate these ads so that the public knows who is paying, but the WMC misinformation machine will continue to roll.

These public advertisements are just one face of the WMC propaganda effort.

When the new session of the legislature opens next year, expect WMC to continue to publish distortion and after distortion about Wisconsin tax levies, expenditures for compensation packages of public employees, and of course, the record of Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson.

WMC is not going to go quietly into the night.

Fresh Problems At Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce

Life at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is beginning to resemble the George Steinbrenner New York Yankees.

Fresh from another win last spring, when they purchased Max Gableman's seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, WMC's life, both on and off the field, is filled with uncertainty, recrimination and bitterness.

The problem is simple. Successive victories in Supreme Court races does not translate into control of the other branches of government. In 2006 WMC choose to go after Governor Jim Doyle. While they managed to elect the Attorney General, WMC failed to dislodge the incumbent Governor and simultaneously lost the State Senate to the Democrats.

With the November elections less then three months away, WMC must retain a majority in the Wisconsin Assembly, a daunting task, and attempt to win back control of the Senate, an almost impossible challenge.

To make matters worse, the most potent WMC weapon, massive vicious attack ads on television, which work in state-wide elections, rarely work in legislative races because of the large number of small legislative districts within each large TV market.

Faced with this difficult challenge, WMC is carving out radio markets in an attempt to surgically protect about a dozen Republican Assembly seats. Because it is radio, not TV, these ads will have to be more vicious, even by WMC standards. Some blanket TV ads will also be used, but they run the risk of producing more of a backlash than Republican voters in an election that will be dominated by the presidential election.

The problem is more than a strategic one as to how to purchase the media and run the attack ads.

It is complicated by the fact that Democratic legislators, the victim of the contemplated  media blitz, unlike Supreme Court justices, can mount an offensive and if they win, and subsequently orchestrate a payback. Add to all of this the higher than normal  dissension  in the WMC ranks, and life on E. Washington resembles the Steinbrenner-Billy Martin-Reggie Jackson clubhouse.

Someone may take a hike before this is all over.

Law and Order American Style: Fascist Home Wreckers

Last week's story from Prince George's County, Maryland was not unusual or rare except that the facts in this instance are so clear and unconverted. A police dog found a package at a shipping facility that contained thirty pounds of marijuana. They followed the delivery to the nice middle class home and then conducted a raid.

There was a problem. They knew nothing about the intended recipients of the package. Police raid Md. mayor's home and kill his dogs

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table. Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package...

...Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

Before this chaotic event was resolved, the two family dogs were shot,

Calvo insisted the couple's two black Labradors were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them "for sport," gunning down one of them as it was running away.

and Calvo's mother in law was treated like the victim of a Fascist state:

But officials insisted they acted within the law, saying the operation was compromised when Calvo's mother-in-law saw officers approaching the house and screamed...

...when she was handcuffed and interrogated for several hours.

Nothing surprising here. Nor should you be stunned or shocked by the response of the police department:

Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High.. defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologize for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened...But officials insisted they acted within the law, saying the operation was compromised when Calvo's mother-in-law saw officers approaching the house and screamed.

Years ago I had a discussion with Madison police officers on city policy regarding searches and intrusions without a warrant. One officer defended departmental policy saying, "Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions allow us to do it, it is within the law."

He was right, but I responded, "Just because the Supreme Court has lowered the bar, compromised rights to protect citizens from abusive process of law, does not require us to lower our Constitutional standards."

This is the result of the cynical appointments to the United States Supreme Court by Reagan, Bush, and Bush.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court rulings are no different with the court now owned by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) The election of Anette Ziegler and Max Gableman ensured a right-wing majority that will do all within its power to limit citizens' protections against illegal search and seizures and unwarranted brutal force.

Years ago I created a Public Safety Review Committee for the city of Madison.  This is exactly the kind of subject they should examine. It would be wise for them to call in police officials and go over the Madison standards in these kind of situations. Nowhere is it written that we have to live by the lowest common denominator whether it is set by Clarence Thomas or Max Gableman.

These folks were white and middle class, and the mayor. Imagine being black and not so middle class, and not the mayor.

Wal-Mart Attacks Democrats. Again.

No less a source than the Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is calling in its managers to prepare them for an attack on the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.

Wal-Mart mobilizes against Democrats

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is mobilizing U.S. store managers to lobby against Democrats in November's presidential election, fearing they will make it easier for workers to unionize, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings...

America's retail giant is no stranger to partisan politics or immersing itself in the electoral process. Wal-Mart did not become the powerful retail force of modern America by sitting still while voters selcted moderate or progressive govenors, judges, or legislatures.

The company is one of the largest players in the effort to buy American - as in buying American courts and the American judiciary.

When Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) spends millions of dollars on Wisconsin judicial elections, it is rumored that a significant portion of that money comes from out of state corporations led by Wal-Mart.

Two Views on The Integrity of the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Sunday the Wisconsin State Journal, troubled by the large amounts of cash Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) spent to elect two justices and reflecting on the recent state Supreme Court decision in the Menasha tax case, observed, Restore public's trust in court:

This month the state Supreme Court decided a tax case that will result in refunds to Wisconsin businesses of up to nearly $300 million at the state 's expense...

...The problem was not the decision itself, which considered vexing legal questions regarding which kinds of software are exempt from sales tax...

...WMC 's influence in Ziegler 's election and Butler 's defeat and the potential for that influence to affect their decisions prompted Common Cause, a watchdog organization, to argue that both justices should have recused themselves from the case.

Clearly, the seeds of mistrust have been planted...

I am not ready to embrace appointed justices, but I share in the conclusion that pubic trust is shaken.

I observed in a post two weeks ago, without commenting about the substance of the decision, Best Joke of the Week. From WMC, of course.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business lobby, spent an estimated $2.2 million on behalf of Ziegler in her successful race for the Supreme Court last year.

In response  to this, conservative resident Wisconsin legal expert and ethicist Rick Esenberg wrote, Who's "swiftboating" the state Supreme Court?

My good friends at One Wisconsin Now weigh in and Paul Soglin does too. But here's the thing: None of them criticize the Court's reasoning...

...Nevertheless, questioning the integrity - as opposed to the the merits of the matter - of the Court is unwarranted.

Rick is correct, I did not get involved in the reasoning of the court. That is where his correctness begins and ends. The real issue is the the way the WMC activity in the Zielger campaign, unheard of in the entire history of Supreme Court elections, raised serious questions about her ability to independently rule in the matter.

The Wisconsin State Journal gets it, most of Wisconsin gets it, but the judicial ethicist does not.

Understanding Why J. P. Cullen Left Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) received a major setback this week with the announcement that J.P. Cullen Construction was not only leaving the board of directors of WMC but the organization as well. Previously some WMC members withdrew from the board but kept their WMC membership.

I was involved in all of this since first discussing the matter with Dave Cullen, the companies CEO, last year on behalf of the Original WMC Watch, not Epic Systems. The news stories do correctly note that the Cullen withdrawl came at the request of my former employer, Epic Systems Incorporated.

What is critical to understand is that Epic did not force Cullen out of the organization, but rather persuaded the major construction company.

It is important to get this right for two reasons. First, the story should be accurately told. Secondly, understanding what happened plays a significant role in motivating other WMC companies to take similar action.

Cullen, like many of the WMC board members, did not buy into the savage attack ads that the business organization runs.  Dave Cullen is concerned about Wisconsin's business climate but is not a true believer when it comes to the WMC right wing agenda.

Dave Cullen, like many of the WMC board members, is fully occupied in running his company, particulalry during these difficult economic times.
Consequently, when Epic expressed its displeasure about WMC and Cullen's role, the die was cast. Cullen was uncomfortable with WMC and its own role.

If Cullen was already motivated to leave the organization, it means that there are dozens of other WMC board member who need only a gentle push from others to break the bonds of camaraderie which is all that holds them to WMC.

The Empire Strikes Back: WMC and Pals at WPRI Take the Offensive

It was about a year ago that we started focusing on Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce  (WMC) and their ultra right-wing cronies in deception. Since then the powerful business lobby has not been the same.

Highly visible members quit. Key companies will not serve on the WMC board. Others have demanded reform despite the WMC success in defeating judicial candidates Linda Clifford and Justice Louis Butler along with Attorney General candidate Kathleen Falk.

Despite these victories the cost is exorbitant. WMC is racked with internal dissent, the most recent board meeting a case in point.

Many of the key businesses realize that the unfavorable publicity and backlash from the despicable ads is not worth losing sales and distressing shareholders.

Waxing America, dozens of other bloggers, One Wisconsin Now, (with their own WMC Watch) and individual citizens have incessantly pounded not only at WMC, but at the businesses that hide behind the WMC logo.

The right has decided to fight back. It is not a coincidence that last week the  Wisconsin Policy Research Institute  (WPRI) posted two of its most recent 'commentaries' on Wisopinion.com.

Deb Jordahl contributed Wisconsin State Bar History is Repeating Itself.  For those who care to wade through the 2300 word attack on the mandatory bar, an issue worth discussing, will find that the real focus is the Wisconsin Judicial Integrity Committee which was created,  "allegedly to monitor the activity of candidates and other organizations during the April 2008 State Supreme Court election."

Jordahl was accompanied to the Internet by George Lighbourn with his The New WEAC , a treacherous (to the reader) 3,500 word tome that explains that the Wisconsin Education Association Council, while changed over the past 20 years, is as dangerous as ever. While I call such transformations 'putting lipstick on the pig,'  Ligtbourn likens WEAC to the Rottweiler masquerading as a Poodle, but still a vicious junkyard dog. A communist dog at that:

As with the aftermath of the Soviet Union, the rise of the new WEAC could possibly change the face of Wisconsin politics and government in ways that no one can predict. A perceptive yard sign for today might read: Fear the Poodle.

The ultra right-wing perceives lawyers and teachers to be the villians on the left that stand between them and accomplishing the Grover Norquist goal of "shrinking government down to the size when it can be drowned in a bathtub."

Expect more from WMC and WPRI in the coming months as the fall elections approach as they attack lawyers, teachers, social workers, union members, environmentalists, and grandparents.

Expect even more from us as we stand up for America and Wisconsin.

Isthmus Peels Back The WMC Onion

In a front page story not yet available online, Isthmus the Madison weekly newspaper offers this query:

Bad for Business? WMC is winning elections, but hurting the state's image.

As the sunlight pours in, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) begins to wilt. When the story becomes available on line, I will post again and link, but here are some observations from WMC's chief lobbyist, Jim Buchen (That would be James for the rest of you.):

"'I think it's kind of laughable in the sense that you have Paul Soglin and Dave Zweifel trying to define what's in the best interest of the business community...Buchen dismisses these critics as people who want "higher taxes..."

The funny thing is that when I was in office as mayor of Madison, our per capita spending was below the average of the major Wisconsin cities.  We accomplished that despite the fact that WMC was successful in shifting taxes from businesses in a manner that drove up residential property taxes.

When WMC spends its millions on 'issue ads,' the source of the money is never disclosed. Rumor has it that as Wisconsin corporations shy away from opening their wallets, the money is coming in directly from national chains such as Wal-mart, Home Depot, and multi-nationals or lobbying organization that are their fronts:

Soglin believes much of the money comes from shadowy national groups seeking to remake the nation's courts along right-wing lines.

Asked where WMC, gets the money it uses to run these ads, Buchen declines to be specific, "it comes from business," he says, "That's all I'm going to say."

Buchen does not claim that even half of the money comes from Wisconsin.

Wisconsin businesses may or may not be putting money into these issue ads.

WMC has the right to run the ads.

We have every right to out the companies that approve the airing of these ads and their contents. The board of directors of WMC are responsible.

We are going to make sure that every Wisconsin consumer knows if thier health care provider, their food provider, or anyone else that enjoys their shopping dollar is paying to go after Justice Louis Butler, Governor Jim Doyle, Chief Justice Shirley Abrahmson, or Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk when she ran for Attorney General.

Kathleen Falk will be serving Johnsonville Brats at the Brat Fest this Memorial day weekend. We just want her and her friends to know that she is far more generous to Johnsonville than they were to her.

 

Johnsonville Sausage Reheats Hot Topic

Yesterday's post regarding Johnsonville Sausage selling its brats at Madison's Memorial Day weekend Brat Fest did not sit well with some readers. And the complaints were not from vegetarians.

It appears that many have a nasty taste in their mouths leftover from the last election.

For those with a short memory, one of the most incredible hit jobs in recent history on an honorable and fair man, Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, was approved, in part, by Johnsonville Sausage, LLC of Sheboygan Falls.

Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce  (WMC) paid the bill, perhaps as much as $2 million dollars for a series of radio and television ads that besmirched Butler. When you got done listening to the trash put out by WMC and its comrades one had the impression that Butler, while a justice, was spending most of his time freeing rapists.

WMC is run by a board of directors who authorize the content and publication of its issues ads. Johnsonville Sausage, CEO William R. Morgan, sits on the board of directors.

This is the same organization that trashed Governor Jim Doyle in 2006, Kathleen Falk when she ran for Attorney General in November 0f 2006, and Linda Clifford in April, 2007. The ads against Clifford gave the impression that she was personally carrying illegal aliens across the Rio Grande on her back.

WMC ads were nasty, cruel, and also tragically misleading. They make no apologies for what they do.

Next spring they plan to go after Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, the "Queen Bee" as they call her. Meantime, we as consumers, buy the products of WMC members who use the profits to buy savage, false, ads that avoid the laws regarding political finance reporting.

(If anyone has knowledge about rumors that WMC met with Michael Gableman directly or though intermediates and made a commitment to raise a minimum amount of money to trash Louis Butler, please contact me.)

U.S. Supreme Court Engages in Activism: Ask Scalia

One of the phoniest, opportunistic ploys in recent years is the conservative assault on an independent judiciary calling for "judicial restraint" and attacking liberal or progressive justices as "judicial activists."

Rick Esenberg of the Federalist Society, takes this up in a paper used by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in the last judicial race, A Court Unbound? The Recent Jurisprudence of the Wisconsin Supreme Court:

Judges who seek to exercise restraint will tend to adopt techniques of construction that confine, rather than expand, their discretion...Judges practicing restraint will exhibit a sensitivity for the role of other branches of government....

Someone better get Esenberg's paper into the hands of the justices serving on the United States Supreme Court, starting with Anthony Scalia who Esenberg fondly quotes: "[a] text should not be construed strictly, and it should not be construed leniently; it should be construed reasonably, to contain all that it fairly means."

Scalia, Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are having a difficult time following their own admonitions when it comes time to the "Millionaire's Amendment" to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act.

The issue is simple enough. Under the law individuals can contribute a maximum of $2,300 to a campaign. The candidate can spend as much as they like. If a wealthy candidate contributes over $350,000 of her own money, then the individual contributors of the opponent can go as high as $6,900.

Simple enough.

Now enter the reactionary justices on the Supreme Court. Hearing a case challenging the act, these conservative justices are wallowing in judicial activism.

Justices Assail 'Millionaires' Amendment'

"The campaign finance regimes we've approved up to now, the significant limitations, have had an anti-corruption rationale," Scalia said. "The only purpose of this is to level the playing field. And I am deeply suspicious of allowing elections to be conducted under a regime whereby Congress levels the playing field. That seems to be very dangerous."

and

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said he found it "a particular vice" of the amendment that it allows the opponent of a self-financing candidate to have greater ties and to receive more money from his political party. "It puts this statute in the position of preferring one kind of speech over another. And we simply do not do that," Kennedy said.

Obviously these justices are substituting their own judgment for that of the legislative body, the United States Congress.

I am waiting for the critics of Louis Butler and Shirley Abrahamson to assail Scalia and Roberts for this exercise in judicial activism.

You can hear the crickets chirping.