February 3, 2009
Do they think we are stupid? Yup!
The legislative Democrats should go on a retreat before tackling the next budget battle. Something is going very wrong and the new Democratic majority should take some time off to listen to their rhetoric, develop a progressive agenda, and stop trying to make, as my mother would say, "silk purses from sow's ears."
The Assembly Democrats, abandoning public financing of campaigns, have opted for a silly substitute they call "bold" and "significant." No longer do we hear the cry for public control of our elections, clean elections the end of graft. The Dems appear comfortable letting the money folks run things. Good Lord. Jim Haney controls despite the elections.
The Democratic plan--I'm not kidding--is no fund raising for incumbents while the budget is being debated. (Why not tie fund raising to snow emergencies? If a legislator is stuck in Madison, why not hold a little fundraiser?) Here is the best part: No penalties if the Assembly members violate the rule. None.
The Senate Democrats won't even pass that Milquetoast provision. And the Governor? Yikes! He seems to be opposing the Assembly provision based on some cockamamie notion of fairness, but his position is unclear. Get this: "It's completely unfair to have one side play by one set of rules and the other side play by another set of rules." What does he mean? When he says "side" how is side defined? And why is it unfair? C'mon, governor. You promised publicly financed elections--time to deliver.
I conclude with a quote from Tom Nelson, Dem Assemblyman from Kaukauna: "This is the most significant reform in a generation. We're getting the job done." Brings to mind the conversation between the optimist and the pessimist. The optimist said, "This is the best of all possible worlds." The pessimist responded, "You are right." Nelson says this is the most significant in a generation--he's right.
The governor of Illinois, oops!...the "former" governor, will probably go to prison because he bargained over the appointment of someone to the Senate. The governor of New Hampshire, a Democrat, bargained over the appointment of a Republican to fill Judd Gregg's seat so Gregg could join the Cabinet without giving Democrats a chance to stop filibusters. He goes, not to prison, but becomes an honorable, patriotic, public servant. I don't get it.
Calvin Trillin ends his ode to John A. Thain of Merrill Lynch in The Nation this way:
"And now they say, you'd search in vain for dimmer bulbs than John A. Thain."
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