WMC and The Supreme Court - Wish I Said That

Bruce* Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine looks at WMC and the Supreme court race in:

Why Business Backs Judge Ziegler for Supreme Court

The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has spoken: State Supreme Court candidate Linda Clifford is an activist who will legislate from the bench while her opponent Annette Ziegler will practice judicial restraint. The WMC message couldn’t be simpler, or more simple-minded: Ziegler good; Clifford bad...

...the WMC set out to discover the truth. Sort of. Their press release claims they examined Ziegler’s rulings as a circuit court judge and found, well, nothing. Ziegler was infrequently overturned on appeal, the WMC claimed. But we’re told in a footnote that, when it comes to “possibly relevant civil cases,” Ziegler was overturned twice. Since we’re not told how many of her cases were “possibly relevant,” what percentage of all cases were overturned, or how this compares to the record for other judges, we’re left to wonder what this means.

Beyond that, the WMC offered not one word that analyzed her rulings. But the group is certain Ziegler will suit them because she used the magic words in discussing her candidacy: She will “act with restraint” and “not legislate from the bench.”

Meanwhile, the WMC is certain Clifford is an activist because in 2004 she argued that a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages would violate the U.S. Constitution. So now an activist is someone who wants our laws and amendments to conform to our nation’s founding document? This would tickle James Madison.

Finally, Clifford has received donations from “a long list of plaintiff’s lawyers,” the WMC tut-tutted, while conceding this might “simply reflect her husband’s business colleagues,” since her husband is a medical malpractice lawyer.

Scintillating research, this isn’t. We already knew that Clifford, who once described herself as liberal, is getting more support from Democrats, while Ziegler, who once described herself as a Republican, is getting more support from the GOP.

This is good stuff. Now that bloggers and magazine cloumnists are watching WMC, perhaps the daily press will start asking tough questions:

• WMC keeps pushing for 'judicial reform.' Ever wonder how the attorneys on the WMC Board of Directors feel?
• WMC keeps pushing for TABOR. You have to wonder how the WMC health care providers feel about that one.

*thanks

Comments

[Jorge]

Paul - it's Bruce Murphy, not Jim. Cheers -

[Mike K]

Hi, Paul,

I had no idea you had a website until I saw the brief (but pithy, very pithy and concise) paragraph in yesterday's "Crossroads" section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I logged in here, to see what you're up to, and went to the "LeftyBlogs.com" site to look for one specific url:

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

It's not listed, so I'm not sure you know the guy. By no small coincidence, he's got a short piece in today's J-S.

If you don't already know about Wayne, you just might find interesting (however challengine, sometimes, to verify) work there.