Blogging Blue

I love what some people consider to be a “journalist” nowadays.

Take Jessica McBride for example. Young Jessica is a teacher of young journalists - a molder of minds if you will. The future of journalism is in her hands, a thought that absolutely frightens me to no end.

I happened to surf on over to Young Miss Jessica’s blog, and an entry of hers on the scandal involving Senator Larry Craig (R - Bathroom Stalls) caught my eye. What caught my eye was not the groundbreaking content (there’s not much of that to be found in her blog), but rather the fact that Young Miss Jessica directly contradicts herself in the same blog entry. In said entry, YMJ states:

Enough with the “he’s innocent until proven guilty” stuff and “if he did it” stuff that I’ve been hearing on some conservative shows. Regardless of what he says now, Larry Craig PLEADED GUILTY in a court of law and was convicted. That should mean something. He’s not innocent until proven guilty. He’s guilty.

Then she follows up the whole, “HE’S GUILTY” point with this doozy (I added my own emphasis):

Bill Clinton was accused of raping a woman. Ted Kennedy was accused of leaving a woman to die. They enjoy respect from the Democratic party and the media. Larry Craig was accused of nudging the foot of an undercover cop, and the Democrats want to put him in a stockade in the public square.

Now maybe I dwell in a different reality than YMJ, but in my reality you can’t follow up a statement like, “HE’S NOT INNOCENT, HE’S BEEN PROVEN GUILTY!” with, “He was accused of…” without directly contradicting yourself. I can only hope YMJ isn’t teaching that trick to her students, because it’s bad form to directly contradict yourself when reporting the news.

No Comments »

I haven’t talked much about ongoing negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to get a budget passed for the 2007-2009 biennium, but as I was reading through some press releases, I came across this gem written by Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, which represents thousands of state employees. The press release is highly critical of Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch’s hypocrisy when it comes to getting a budget deal done.

Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch and his committee sidekicks the Fitzgerald brothers will spend all day Thursday running from fundraiser to fundraiser – in direct conflict with the Conference Committee schedule and with Huebsch’s pious proclamations at the beginning of the process that he would work at least 40 hours a week to get the budget done.

[...]

In the next 10 days, Huebsch is scheduled to be at no fewer than six fundraising events while no meetings of the Conference Committee he co-chairs are scheduled.

Now maybe I’m just dense, but I haven’t noticed a lot being done by the Conference Committee to get a budget deal done, so I can’t help but wonder if Mike Huebsch told a little white lie when he said he’d work at least 40 hours a week to get a budget deal done. After all, playing a few rounds of golf with campaign donors hardly seems like work to me…

No Comments »

CNN is reporting Senator Larry Craig (R-Bathroom Stalls) will be resigning his Senate seat today, under increasing (but not public) pressure from both the Republican National Committee and folks in his home state. According to CNN, the RNC was going to actually take the step of publicly calling for Craig to resign, but backed off on that once word leaked that Craig was seriously considering resigning on his own.

What’s been most amusing about this entire situation - besides Senator Craig’s continued insistence he’s not gay - is the disparate reactions we’ve seen from the left and the right in response to Senator Craig’s situation. On the right we’ve seen all sorts of teeth gnashing and nastiness directed at Senator Craig, while the left has done a good job of not commenting on the situation, preferring instead to let the Republican Party do all the hard work of tearing down one of their own.

As I look at this situation, the fact that Senator Craig may have been trolling a public bathroom for sex doesn’t surprise or bother me, considering how popular a past time that seems to be for some Republican lawmakers. What really bothers me is the allegation that Senator Craig presented the police officer who arrested him with a business card identifying himself as a U.S. Senator, allegedly saying, “How does that make you feel?” Senator Craig’s attempt to influence his arresting officer through the use of his office is downright despicable, and it reeks of the kind of unethical and contemptible behavior that’s been a hallmark of the Republican Party in recent memory. I hope Senator Craig resigns, and not just because he’s fond of trolling public bathrooms for sex, but because his behavior after his arrest has been both contemptible and disgraceful.

No Comments »

My new favorite Republican lawmaker (as if I have many) is Republican State Senator Carol Roessler of Oshkosh. Senator Roessler is the first Republican to “fly the coop,” breaking with Assembly Republicans on spending cuts they want to make in state prisons and in the reserve fund used to give state employees pay raises. Senator Roessler’s break from the Republican Party line makes a state employee like yours truly very happy.

Senator Roessler said Senate Republicans should not agree to the Assembly GOP’s plan to hire private companies to provide medical care for inmates, to not hire 50 new prison guards and to abolish the jobs of 40 jobs of prison unit managers. Considering Senator Roessler’s district includes Oshkosh Correctional Institution and a number of other correctional centers, it’s nice to see she came down on the side of so many of her constituents in rejecting a budget that would have had a negative impact on many state employees.

Hopefully this is just the first Republican defection, because there has to come a point where Republicans finally realize no matter how hard they fight they’re not going to win the budget battle. Sure, they may win a few small victories here and there, but they’re not going to win the larger fight, especially not with Governor Jim Doyle wielding the famed “Frankenstein Veto”.

Click here to see the text of Senator Roessler’s letter to Republican Senate leader Scott Fitzgerald

No Comments »

Apparently Senator Chris Dodd has received the endorsement of the IAFF, the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents 281,000 members. The IAFF isn’t a huge union by membership standards, but they are among the most politically active of all the unions. The endorsement of the IAFF is also prized for its symbolic nature in a post-9/11 political landscape, given the tremendous heroism and sacrifice shown by firefighters on 9/11. The formal endorsement of Senator Dodd’s campaign will come this morning when the IAFF executive board meets in Washington, D.C.

I was initially surprised the IAFF chose to endorse Senator Dodd, but after looking at his record of support for firefighters during his time in Washington, I can certainly understand why they chose to endorse his campaign. What most interests me about this endorsement is the fact that the IAFF was the only union to endorse Senator John Kerry before the Democratic primaries in 2004, and some attribute the boost their endorsement gave to his campaign with helping his campaign exceed expectations in the early contests, thus vaulting him to the Democratic nomination. In most national polls, Dodd’s polling at somewhere around one percent, so I’ll be curious to see if this endorsement has the same kind of impact on his campaign.

As news of the IAFF’s endorsement started to break, Hillary Clinton’s campaign was quick to announce and endorsement of their own, presumably in an attempt to soften the blow from Dodd’s announcement. The Clinton campaign has announced Hillary has won the endorsement of the United Transportation Union, which represents railroad, bus and public transit workers. While that’s certainly good news for Clinton’s campaign, the UTU doesn’t have nearly the clout of the IAFF, so no matter how her campaign spins this, it’s a loss.

No Comments »