Blogging Blue

While she doesn’t come out and say it directly, that’s the impression I get from reading a recent blog entry by State Senator Mary Lazich. Now while one can’t be completely sure if Senator Lazich wrote that blog entry - or if it was written by Kevin Fischer, her loyal aide - it’s curious that Senator Lazich would opine that Wal-Mart should run our health care system, considering the problems Wal-Mart has in running its own health care plan. Here’s just a few points about how well Wal-Mart has administered health care coverage for its employees:

• Wal-Mart reported in January 2006 that its health insurance only covers 43% of their 1.39 million employees, leaving over 775,000 employees without health insurance coverage.
• Wal-Mart doesn’t even cover as high a percentage of its employees as other large companies. On average for 2005, large companies (200 or more workers) cover approximately 66% of their employees, while Wal-Mart only covers 43%.
• Since the average full-time Wal-Mart employee earned $17,114 in 2005, he or she would have to spend between 7 and 25 percent of his or her income just to cover the premiums and medical deductibles, if electing for single coverage.
• Between 2000-2005, the cost of premiums rose 169 percent for single coverage and 117 percent for family coverage.

Now maybe I’m crazy, but that doesn’t sound like a health care plan I’d want to be a part of, nor does it sound like a health care plan that’s well administered. Then again, considering the generosity Wal-Mart has shown to Senator Lazich, I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised that she thinks Wal-Mart has done a great job of insuring its employees. If I were her, I wouldn’t want to anger my corporate benefactors either.

H/T to Greg over at Metro Milwaukee Today.

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I suppose urine is better than beer, especially given Fischer’s past predilections, but still….I how desperate does someone have to be to drink urine?

I also found an interesting link to this little nugget from the latest edition of Murphy’s Law in my emailbox this morning:

-Has controversial legislative aide and Channel 10 pundit Kevin Fischer been discussing the proposal to increase drunk driving penalties without disclosing that he has past violations? Fairly Conservative offers an expose.

Cindy over at Fairly Conservative has done a great job of shining a little light on some of Mr. Fischer’s shenanigans in the blogosphere and as a state employee, and while I haven’t done as much leg work as Cindy, I’ve written a few things on Mr. Fischer as well.

I’ve asked Kevin Fischer if he has any comment on the recent mention in Michael Murphy’s column, but as I write this I have not yet received a response.

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As demonstrated by yours truly and capper earlier this week, Kevin Fischer is no fan of ethics. Cindy Kilkenny over at Fairly Conservative has also done a great job of detailing all Kevin Fischer’s foibles and ethical lapses, but today I want to take a trip in the Wayback Machine…destination 1996 (emphasis mine):

October 15, 1996, Tim Cuprison in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“Quit all the speculating out there about why reporter/ conservative commentator Kevin Fischer got fired last week by WTMJ-AM (620). Despite reading here that it had nothing to do with his political views, folks who saw conspiracies out there inundated my voice mail.

Well, as is the case with most companies, the Journal Broadcast Group won’t talk about why Fischer was axed, except to say that it wasn’t for anything he did on the air.

But nosing behind the scenes, it’s clear that WTMJ management was concerned about a possible violation of the company’s ethics code. While away on vacation, it seems, Fischer took a freebie to Walt Disney World’s 25th anniversary celebration in Orlando, Fla., a huge media event. Fischer didn’t file any reports from the bash. The next week, he lost his job. Word is that after Fischer was fired, WTMJ’s radio news folks were called into a meeting and the ethics policy was restated to prevent a repeat of the situation. Fischer, by the way, won’t talk about it. In fact, he angrily told me to stop typing what he said when I called him Monday afternoon, because he wouldn’t talk to me on the record. He wouldn’t talk off the record, for that matter. KUDOS FOR KEVIN: Meanwhile, big bucks consultant and conservative policy wonk George Mitchell wrote to Fischer’s bosses praising his reporting style: “Kevin did not cloak his reporting or commentary with phony objectivity which characterizes so much of the print and broadcast journalism today. With Kevin, listeners got a clear and open expression of news and opinion. “They knew just where he was coming from, not unlike listeners to Paul Harvey, for example,” Mitchell wrote. For the record, Paul Harvey isn’t a reporter. He’s a commentator.”

So let’s recap…

• Allegedly fired for violating ethics code at WTMJ? CHECK!
• Used more vacation time in 2006 than what he was alloted as a state employee? CHECK!
• Used more vacation time in 2007 - at least 46 hours worth - than what he was alloted? CHECK!

It’s no wonder why Kevin Fischer says “Ethics Schmethics.”

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In light of Kevin Fischer’s recent problems relating to his abuse of his vacation time, I think it’s only fitting that he himself finally acknowledge his proclivity for playing fast and loose with ethics and the rules that govern him as a state employee. So without further ado, I present the following screen capture from one of Fischer’s most recent blog entries:

I’m just glad to see Fischer’s finally coming clean about his true feelings on ethics, but I wonder if we’ll ever see him take ownership of the questionable things he’s done as a state employee, because I’d be keen to see him explain his vacation leave shenanigans - shenanigans that came at the expense of taxpayers all across Wisconsin.

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First of all, many thanks to Cindy Kilkenny over at Fairly Conservative for all her hard work to help break this story and bring to light a gross abuse of taxpayer dollars, not to mention a willful violation of state employee leave policies.

As first reported by Cindy, it’s been confirmed Kevin Fischer, a legislative aide in State Senator Mary Lazich’s office, used more vacation time in 2007 than he was allotted. In fact, Fischer used up 46 more hours of vacation than what he was allotted, which given his yearly salary, equates to roughly $2,000 in pay (if my math is correct). In other words, Kevin Fischer milked the taxpayers of Wisconsin for more than $2,000 worth of pay for vacation time he wasn’t entitled to take. What’s more, this isn’t the first year Kevin Fischer has overused (abused) the vacation time allotted to him, as Fischer went negative on vacation hours in 2006, too, to the tune of 46 more hours that had to be returned in 2007.

Here’s the real money quote from Cindy’s blog entry:

Kevin Fischer likes his vacation time. Let’s hope 2008 is a little more true to what he earns. The Senate administrator that just gave me a call indicates they are doing their best to tighten up these policies. He also indicates that there are very few employees that have this much trouble keeping their vacation resources in check.

First of all, I’m of the belief this is a little more than an employee having “trouble” keeping his or her vacation resources in check. I don’t know about Kevin Fischer’s paychecks, but most other state employees get an updated accounting of their leave balances with each new paycheck stub they receive, so there’s absolutely no excuse for a state employee not being able to keep track of how much vacation, personal, or sick leave time they have, other than willful disregard of course. However, while I believe Kevin Fischer should be held responsible for his continued pattern of abuse of the state’s vacation leave policies, I’m not holding my breath, simply because he’s been allowed to continue to abuse his vacation leave time by his supervisor, who seems oblivious - or unconcerned - about his abuses.

State employees are disciplined all the time for these kinds of abuses of their leave time, and I can only hope Kevin Fischer is held accountable in some way for his chronic abuse of his vacation time.

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