OK, maybe just this one more post

[Goober McTuber]

This why people were upset about the budget bill. A whole lot more shit in there than just the collective bargaining. Our governor is evil.

With FBI officers raiding the home of one of Gov. Scott Walker’s top political appointees, now would seem to be a very good time for Wisconsin legislators to address the governor’s scandalous moves to turn what have historically been civil service positions into political sinecures for his cronies.

Last week’s raid on the Madison home of Cynthia Archer, who served as an aide to Walker when was the Milwaukee County executive and then became the governor’s deputy secretary of the Department of Administration, was the latest development in a John Doe investigation that has already seen at least three of Walker’s political appointees come under serious scrutiny for possibly abusing positions of public trust. As part of the same investigation, one of Walker’s main political donors is now on two years’ probation after admitting to felony violations of state campaign finance laws and money laundering.

Where the John Doe investigation leads remains to be seen. But there can be no question that, when Walker has been given the opportunity to go around civil service laws and appoint cronies, he has used the opening to empower controversial individuals whose respect for the ethical standards and values of the state is suspect.

Additionally, Walker’s penchant for pay-to-play politics, including the awarding of high-paying state jobs to the under-qualified family members of big donors, has been so pronounced that this usually unyielding governor has been forced to remove cronies from key positions.

All of this scandal and turmoil suggests that Wisconsin’s historic reputation for clean government is under severe strain.

What can legislators do to reverse the damage that has been done and to begin cleaning up the mess?

They can start by reversing one of Walker’s most egregious power grabs.

In the same “budget repair bill” that the governor and his legislative allies used to gut the collective bargaining rights of state, county and municipal employees, as well as teachers, Walker included a provision that replaced 39 civil service positions in state agencies with his own political appointees. Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, correctly identifies the latter move as “a key element in one of biggest power grabs in state history.”

Barca and Assistant Democratic Leader Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, have joined with Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, D-Monona, to introduce a bill to remove politics from the hiring process and restore civil service protections for the 39 state positions.

During the debate on the budget repair bill, Barca, Seidel, Miller and other Democratic legislators warned against converting the civil service positions to political posts. They argued that those political appointees would be more loyal to the governor than to the public interest, and that this misplaced loyalty would lead to unnecessary expenditures and ethical lapses.

The Democrats lost their fight to amend the budget repair bill. But it did not take long for their worst fears to be confirmed.

In addition to the FBI raid on the home of one of the governor’s top political appointees, and the resignation from state government of another appointee whose actions are reportedly under scrutiny as part of the John Doe probe, there have now been several instances where well-connected political appointees in the Walker administration have been given exceptionally high salaries despite evidence that they lack basic qualifications for their jobs. In one instance, a Walker appointee was given a salary 61 percent higher than the appointee’s predecessor.

“These appointments send a terrible message to the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites who have lost their jobs or have seen their incomes decrease because of the economic downturn,” argues Seidel, who adds that the Democratic move to restore civil service protections for the 39 positions Walker has politicized “is a very basic good government proposal, and it should receive bipartisan support.”

She’s right, of course.

As the scandals surrounding the governor grow more serious, Republicans in the Legislature are going to have to decide — as did Republicans in the House and Senate during the Watergate era — whether they are going to go down with an increasingly unpopular leader or start to think for themselves.

There is nothing liberal or conservative, Republican or Democratic about clean government.

Creating positions to be filled by political cronies invariably leads to waste and corruption.

Democrats know that, and so do Republicans.

The Democrats have responded appropriately, with legislation that reverses the slide toward cronyism. Republicans should join them in recognizing that Barca is right when he says: “This bill would help restore Wisconsin’s tradition of clean and open government and ensure we have civil servants who are working for the public interest, not cronies working for the political interest of Gov. Walker or any future governor. We need to focus on jobs for all Wisconsin workers – not just those who are politically connected.”

[Screw_Michigan]

I thought Wisconsin was open for corruption business? Wanker's gonna get his.

[mvscal]

Creating positions to be filled by political cronies invariably leads to waste and corruption.

True enough. So does creating positions to be filled by career civil servants.

[Dinsdale]

Goobs' took up the cause of unions' collective bargaining "rights."

No, he's decrying cronyism and corruption.

Nah, no logical disconect there.

Dude seems fully blinded by the letter next to politicians' names.

[Goober McTuber]

Dude seems fully blinded by the letter next to politicians' names.

No. Our last governor was a Democrat, and he was the worst governor we’ve had since Scott McCallum. :wink: No, he was seriously a political hack.

The only three representatives I’ve voted for in my lifetime are Robert Kastenmeier (D), Scott Klug (R) and Tammy Baldwin (D). At one time or another, I voted for all of them. I thought Kastenmeier was a decent rep, worked well with others and got things done.

Klug surprised me. He was a local TV anchorman when he upset Kastenmeier. He turned out to be a moderate Republican who was interested in smaller government, a balanced budget amendment, limiting welfare to two years, all stuff I could support. I wound up voting for him a couple of times, and he honored his promise of serving no more than four terms. I kind of wish he would have run again.

Tammy? I’ve voted for her and been totally underwhelmed. I’d be hard-pressed to think of any consequential legislation she initiated. I’ve been even more underwhelmed by her opposition candidates. I’m kind of happy that she’s running for Herb Kohl’s seat because she’s been in the House too long. And I don’t think she can win a statewide election.

No, Dins, I don’t vote a straight party ticket. I undoubtedly vote D more than R because they tend to more closely match my views. As for the collective bargaining deal, I’ve said more than once that it’s not that I opposed bringing that up for discussion. It just didn’t belong in the budget bill. But then, there was a lot of shit that didn’t belong in the budget bill.