WMC, Buchen Behaving Badly; Boldt Boxed

When I met with Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) Board of Directors President Tom Boldt November 19, 2007, our conversation, like our telephone call the previous month was polite, respectful, and to the point.

Bolt was committed to WMC's Issues Committee and their election strategy. He knew I was not going to stop my efforts to reveal who paid for the WMC issue ads and that I was going to hold his board responsible since they authorized and spent the money for the TV advertisements.

The discourse has been tough. Others joined in.

Clullen construction joined TDS and Foley and Lardner and left the board and the organization. Now we hear from UW Chancellor John Wiley and over-the-top WMC government relations officer, Jim Buchen.

Now Tom Bolt has a problem. He can either support Buchen and further alienate the majority of WMC board members who have no stomach for these shenanigans, especially when their businesses are named, or he can disavow Buchen reaffirming the belief that at least two WMC staffers, Buchen and Pugh, are out of control.

In any case, it is no secret that we are please at the Original WMC Watch as are ourfriends at One Wisconsin Now with their WMC Watch.

Buchen took Wiley's localized Madison article and made it a state wide issue. He did it fast and furious.  This is not the kind of attention that moderate businesses appreciate.

Our response will not be fast. We will continue to engage WMC members in creative and constructive discussion. We will be supportive of those who wish to leave as we will also encourage those who believe they can change the organization and its culture.

In the meantime Dave Cullen who took his company out of WMC two months ago must be feeling pretty good about escaping this disaster.

We have a large playing field.  Consumers of member companies. Directors of member companies. Newspapers and the electronic media outside of Madison and Milwaukee. College students. Farmers and small businesses.

And  large Wisconsin businesses that realize that WMC does not know how to grow the econmony of Wisconsin.

Comments

[antpoppa]

Only Justice Can Stop a Curse

Dedicated to James A. Buchen and Tom Bolt

By Alice Walker
March 16, 1982

To the Man God: 0 Great One, I have been sorely tried by my enemies and have been blasphemed and lied against. My good thoughts and my honest actions have been turned to bad actions and dishonest ideas. My home has been ill-treated. My dear ones have been backbitten and their virtue questioned. 0 Man God, I beg that this that I ask for my enemies shall come to pass:
That the South wind shall scorch their bodies and make them wither and shall not be tempered to them. That the North wind shall freeze their blood and numb their muscles and that it shall not be tempered to them. That the West wind shall blow away their life's breath and will not leave their hair grow, and that their fingernails shall fall off and their bones shall crumble. That the East wind shall make their minds grow dark, their sight shall fall and their seed dry up so that they shall not multiply.
I ask that their fathers and mothers from their furthest generation will not intercede for them before the great throne, and that the wombs of their women shall not bear fruit except for strangers, and that they shall become extinct. I pray that the children who may come shall be weak of mind and paralyzed of limb and that they themselves shall curse them in their turn for ever turning the breath of life into their bodies. I pray that disease and death shall be forever with them and that their worldly goods shall not prosper, and that their crops shall not multiply and that their cows, their sheep, and their hogs and all the living beasts shall die of starvation and thirst. I pray that their house shall be unroofed and that the rain, the thunder and lightening shall find the innermost recesses of their home and that the foundation shall crumble and the floods tear it asunder. I pray that the sun shall not shed its rays on them in benevolence, but instead it shall beat down on them and bum them and destroy them. I pray that the moon shall not give them peace, but instead shall deride them and decry them and cause their minds to shrivel. I pray that their friends shall betray them and cause them loss of power, of gold and of silver, and that their enemies shall smite them until they beg for mercy which shall not be given them. I pray that their tongues shall forget how to speak in sweet words, and that it shall be paralyzed and that all about them shall be desolation, pestilence and death. 0 Man God, I ask you for all these things because they have dragged me in the dust and destroyed my good name; broken my heart and caused me to curse the day that I was born. So be it.

[Jon]

Paul-

The best way to beat WMC may be to work with sensible business leaders to establish a new business organization more representative of Wisconsin business professionals. Such an organization would fight for resources to improve our educational system, recognizing that the quality of their future workforce depends on it; fight to protect the environment in Wisconsin, because they understand that the environment in Wisconsin is a large reason businesses and workers choose to settle in Wisconsin; balance the needs of governments for resources with the needs of businesses and workers for affordable tax burdens; and most importantly, be willing to work with any politician of any party to make Wisconsin an even better place to live and work, and not just further a narrow political interest.

Such an organization would bleed WMC of sensible business leaders and leave it an empty shell of partisan blather. Just an only Nixon could go to China, perhaps only Soglin can found a business organization that is truly pro-Wisconsin.

Jon

[Katrina]

"Now Tom Bolt has a problem. He can either support Buchen and further alienate the majority of WMC board members who have no stomach for these shenanigans, especially when their businesses are named, or he can disavow Buchen reaffirming the belief that at least two WMC staffers, Buchen and Pugh, are out of control."

A fish stinks from it's head. No matter what, the board controls the staff. Pugh, Haney, Manley and Buchen were hired to be the ugly, arrogant face of WMC so that the board can shake hands with the rest of us and assure that while they agree with some of the pro business agenda of WMC, they are really nice people who just want what is best for Wisconsin. Tom Bolt and the rest of the board are very happy with the way things are going and probably see no reason to change anything.