Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Terrence Wall Rants: I Lost to Ron Johnson Because of "Deceit, Corruption and Buy Offs"

Terrence Wall tells us in his own words (and there's no doubt he wrote this himself; no professional ever touched this copy) why he lost the Republican Senatorial nomination to Ron Johnson.  Wall unburdens himself and the Wisconsin Republican Party officials must be hoping no one bothers to read it.

Here are a few morsels for the flavor; read it all for the full impact of the rant.

" ... a tale of deceit, corruption, and buy offs."

"...While I was busy shaking hands and greeting people around the state, Ron Johnson's team was readying its bag of dirty tricks..."

"...coercion was deployed and rules were broken."

"And in response to those that will claim we leaked the pedophile-priest story on Johnson, you're wrong. While we had that information long before the convention, I instructed my staff not to release it, naively believing that we would win by avoiding negative campaigning. (My second mistake.) As proof of that, we continue to hold other negative information on Johnson in confidence. (No doubt the Democrats will take care of that.)"

"...how many times did I hear my fellow Republicans remind us candidates not to make negative comments against each other - only to reward a candidate whose plan included spreading lies and rumors."

"...The kingmakers are counting on their lies and deceit being kept quiet; much like honor among thieves. Well, I care too much about this country to remain silent."

Don't hold back, TWall. Resist the Party's orders to STFU. Resist your friends' pleas to hire an editor.  In Business claims that next month you'll have more to tell and you'll be "more humorous." We can't wait.

- Barry Orton

WTF? Departing WMC Head Regrets "Extraordinary Polarization of the Political System"

In Sunday's Wisconsin State Journal, a Q & A with soon to be retired Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce president James Haney had this gut-buster:

...I’ve seen this extraordinary polarization of the political system, and it didn’t used to be that way. And I worry whether we’ve contributed to that in any way.

This notion that if you disagree with me you’re evil and you’re a vile person — that just is so offensive, and yet that’s kind of what we’ve degenerated to, and I don’t know how to fix it.

Maybe we just need to get more common sense and more camaraderie in the process. You’ve got to get the people in the middle flexing a little bit more, and saying, “We’re not going to go along with the extremes of the right or left.”

But the minute you say that, you’re (accused of being) unprincipled. We need to reach a reasonable compromise, and that’s not easy on some of these issues. But I just wish I’d been more effective in bringing people together.

Was he winking or simply having a little fun with a reporter doing a puff piece?  Knowing WMC's history, this is better deadpan comedy than Stephen Wright could ever manufacture. I laughed out loud when I read it.

One Wisconsin Now's The Duke Abides had a similar response:

Is he serious? Or has he just been totally absent from Wisconsin during the entirety of his 20+ year tenure as the head of WMC?

Mr. Haney, let me put your worries to rest. WMC has been the leader in denigrating Wisconsin’s political process, and has contributed more than any other organization to the polarization of politics here.

After laying out and linking to a series of WMC ads and campaigns that did nothing but smear, distort, demonize and fear-monger, the Duke concludes:

So what exactly is Haney talking about? Does he honestly not know the true extent of WMC’s poisoning of the well in Wisconsin? And if he’s “so worried whether they’ve contributed to [the polarization] in any way,” where was he in the run up to WMC’s launching of these campaigns? All of these worst-of moments came during Haney tenure at the head of WMC. He can’t actually be that thick, can he?

Haney has led the WMC for 25 very successful years; anyone who has ever met him knows he's not at all thick. So it must be some very dark and deadpan comedy.

- Barry Orton

Ron Johnson Wanted To Limit Liability Of Catholic Church; Opposed Child Victims Act

So Republican Senatorial hopeful Ron Johnson has a bit of a political past after all. Last January, at the suggestion of a Green Bay Catholic official, Johnson testified against the Child Victims Act before the Wisconsin Senate Judiciary Committee. Johnson, a Lutheran who served on the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay's finance council, feared that: "This bill could actually have the perverse effect of leading to additional victims of sexual abuse, if individuals, recognizing that their organizations are at risk, become less likely to report suspected abuse." 

Dan Bice broke the story today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Peter Isely, the Midwest director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the Catholic Church has been more likely to cover things up if it is not faced with court action.

"He's just wrong," said Isely, who was not aware that Johnson had testified.

...The proposal would have eliminated the statute of limitations for future victims of child sex abuse and opened a three-year window for past victims.

It was opposed by the insurance industry and church organizations, including the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which argued the bill could bankrupt it. The measure had the support of several police organizations, social workers and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.

The Child Victims Act bill did not pass.

Ron Johnson should ask Rep. Matt Flynn (D - 4th District) how taking the Catholic Church's side on this issue worked out for him politically.

- Barry Orton

Rest In Peace, Peter Orlovsky

Peter Orlovsky, Allen Ginsberg's longtime companion and a strong poet in his own right ("Clean Asshole Poems and Smiling Vegetable Songs"), died yesterday. A stalwart of the Beat generation and of modern American Buddhist culture, Orlovsky was a fixture whenever Ginsberg performed his wonderful reading/singing act in the 1970's and 1980's, playing the harmonium and chanting in harmony to Allen's nasal voice.

Here's Ginsberg singing "Do The Meditation Rock" with Orlovsky meditating in the background.

Worth reading: Steve Silberman's "Impossible Happiness: An Elegy for Peter Orlovsky:"

Together Peter and Allen traveled all over, sowing seeds of poetry, tenderness, public candor, and American Buddhism worldwide. They hung out with Burroughs in Tangier, smoked ganja and contemplated burning corpses in ghats along the Ganges, wrote Charlie Chaplin a fan letter from Benares, and visited the young Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. They also meditated side-by-side on railroad tracks in Denver to block a delivery of radioactive material to the leak-prone Rocky Flats nuclear power plant. Often, a reading by Allen at some illustrious academic institution would feature Peter unselfconsciously yodeling away with a banjo about the joys of shoveling shit on their farm.

- Barry Orton