Uppity Wisconsin

Neil Shively, retired Capitol bureau chief of the old Milwaukee Sentinel, writes a "Where are they now?" piece for WisPolitics.com every now and then. Recently featured was ex-US Sen. Robert Kasten. Shively treats him kindly:

Bob Kasten is still in Washington, however -- and in New York City, and Egypt and the Middle East. And he's still a major player, though now in the field of defense contracting using lessons he learned in the Senate. Heard of Oshkosh Corp.'s bonanza with billions in defense contracts? Well, Kasten helped stimulate deals for Oshkosh with foreign nations, such as Egypt.

“My business is not so much a lobbying business. When I was in the Senate, I was chairman of the sub-committee on foreign operations, security and economics,” he said, offering the path to his business today. “We (the U.S.) give large numbers of military and economic aid … $1 billion to Egypt, for example.“So I work for U.S. businesses and try to help them sell to Egypt and other countries in the Middle East,” he said.

What does that business sound like to you?

The Associated Press pops Scott Walker's brown bag campaign, reporting on the expensive meals his campaign has paid for while he pretends to carry his lunch.

More on Walker's campaign eating habits.

One more thing: If someone lights one of Walker's brown bags on fire, leaves it on your porch and rings the doorbell, don't stomp on it. You know what it's filled with.

The party line from people trying to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act is that there's no reason to worry about the changes that would make it much easier to build a new nuclear reactor in Wisconsin.

No one wants to do that anytime soon, they say, so it's not a big deal.

Sen. Spencer Black, D-Madison, co-chair the Assembly clean energy committee. "stressed this week that the state only has a de facto moratorium on nuclear power anyway, since new plants could be built if they are deemed cost-effective and are supported by a federally approved site to store nuclear waste," WisPolitics reported. "But Black said reducing those standards won't spark a wave of new plants since Wisconsin's energy production is currently outpacing demand.

"Black added that by investing in energy efficiency, the state could push off the need for more power plants -- nuclear or otherwise -- for decades."

State Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee), co-chair of teh Senate committee working on the bill -- and a nuclear advocate -- also downplays the nuclear changes.

"The likelihood of a nuclear power plant being built in Wisconsin any time soon is virtually nil," he told WisPolitics.

WisPolitics: Conservatives rally for freedom, revolution and opposition to Dem policies.

It's not exactly a non-partisan revolution.

"Is there any group of people held in lower regard than lobbyists? Car salesmen? Journalists? Here's one possibility: Lobbyists who are thinking about becoming politicians."-- Dan Bice column in the Journal Sentinel,Dec. 6, 2007.

Bill McCoshen's all over the news these days, talking like the unofficial spokesman for the might-be, could-be but maybe-not Tommy Thompson campaign for US Senate.

McCoshen also took time this week to trash the state's (and Democrat Jim Doyle's) record on job creation, in an appearance in Beloit where he relied on data from the conservative (read Republican) Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. "Forward may be the state motto, but it's going backward," McCoshen said. Cute.

Some people watching and reading the news may be wondering just who this McCoshen guy is.

527 contributions: Wisconsin donors gave secretive 527 groups more than $1.5 million in 2009, a record for a non-election year. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign also finds that Dem 527s pulled in about two-thirds of the overall money given to the organizations, continuing a trend that began in 2006.-- WisPolitics report.

Quick early observations on the latest WPRI poll, which -- surprise! -- finds good news for Republicans. Tommy Thompson, who's not running, is winning the Senate race, and Scott Walker, who is running, is ahead for governor, they say.

Since the University of Wisconsin has severed ties with this project, maybe Ken Golstein could team up with the Rasmussen folks and save us having to read this drivel quite so often.

A couple of points to ponder:

-- We've eliminated the question of whether the Journal Sentinel will continue to report this as if it means something. The paper, whose managing editor leans the same was WPRI does, has swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. (WisPolitics at least acknowledged the questions that have been raised about the group's polling.)

-- According to WPRI, it only took a few weeks of mediocre TV spots for Neumann to get ahead of Walker everywhere but Walker's home media market of Milwaukee. No wonder Walker went on the air yesterday -- everywhere but Milwaukee.

-- Bad news for Terrence Wall.

"People create jobs, not government."

                        -- Scott Walker, who has been on the government payroll since June 1993.

Just days from embarrassing national media exposure questioning its ethics and credibility, WPRI is back with another poll, coming your way soon.

WPRI is the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, although some suggest it is We Push Republican Ideas, like school choice, which didn't look as good in the last poll as the numbers WPRI decided to emphasize made it appear.

WPRI says it's a non-partisan think tank, but its roster is filled with refugees from previous Republican administrations and campaigns, including a lot of Tommy Thompson sycophants -- Jim Klauser, Ave Bie, Gerald Whitburn, Rick Graber, etc. etc.

the new poll, of course, will include questions on the races for governor and US Senate. You might wonder why a non-partisan think tank even cares about politics. Or you might not. You might wonder what the spin will be, and that would be an appropriate question.

Anyway, here's your invitation. See you there?

It seems like everywhere you look these days, someone’s trying to spread...The Fear.

All around us...in every town...on every corner...a massive Army Of Fear is standing by, according to the Messengers, ready at a moment’s notice to obey the dictates of some unappointed Czar or another.

Just ask Glenn Beck: concentration camps for the white people, jackbooted stormtroopers ready to snatch the guns from your cold dead fingers...Socialist Government-Controlled Healthcare That Threatens Your Not Socialist Medicare...it’s all coming, my friends—and unless we organize, as a community, to return to the values of the Founding Fathers, The Government, meaning that awful Obama and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and George Soros and all the other Evil Community Organizers, will win.

There’s no government, we’re told, like no government.

You know who would find all of this fear of self-government just entirely bizarre?

The Founding Fathers.

In today’s conversation we’ll consider the fundamentals of American patriotism, we’ll ask one of those Founding Fathers how he saw the role of Government—and we’ll toss in a few words from Abraham Lincoln, just for good measure.

An interesting piece of Wisconsin political history surfaced today, courtesy of the Democratic Party -- the audio of Tommy Thompson's "Stick it to 'em!" campaign to stick southeastern Wisconsin with the costs of Miller Park through a new tax.

You have to wonder how that would play in a Senate campaign if Thompson finally decides to run.

If Tommy were the GOP nominee for Senate and Scott Walker won the nomination for governor, they could do a tandem act, since both were up to their eyeballs in sticking it to the Milwaukee area on the stadium issue.

Walker, then a state legislator who hadn't yet seen the political value in posing as a tax cutter, enthusiastically voted for the new tax.

In fact, Walker not only voted for taxpayers to foot the bill for Miller Park, but consistently voted against amendments to the stadium bill that would have protected fans and taxpayers. He even voted against a proposal to give Wisconsin residents the first chance to buy the Brewers if the team went bankrupt or considered moving out of state.

Fortunately, the Selig family found an owner who could afford to own the team and was willing to keep them in Milwaukee.

When Steve Walters was reporting for the Journal Sentinel's Madison bureau, a lot of Democrats thought he just put Tommy Thompson's news releases -- or Jim Klauser's memos -- right in the newspaper, without bothering to edit them or ask anyone for an opposing viewpoint.

So it was a pleasant surprise when Walters, now a producer at Wisconsin Eye and a WisPolitics columnist, said he has a few questions for Scott Walker about his tax cutting plans if he's elected governor.

Unfortunately, Walters is asking the wrong questions:

By “employers,” Scott, do you mean all Wisconsin businesses? (Scott? Sounds a little chummy, ain'a?)

Specifically, will you recommend cutting -- or even abolishing -- the $700 million corporate income tax?

Scott, would you freeze property taxes only on homes, or also on other types of property (manufacturing, commercial, farmland, utilities)?

Interesting questions, perhaps, but irrelevant to a large extent. Walker has already said quite clearly what he wants to do.

“He [Scott Walker] either has to come up on TV and spend his money to match us or he doesn’t and he allows our message to sink in." -- Mark Neumann to WisPolitics on Monday.

Walker placed a TV buy Tuesday, to start Thursday in every market except Miilwaukee.

And Neumann, who's been on TV already in every market but Milwaukee, starts in that market on Friday.

The Inside Baseball Report, which may be more than you want to know about this subject:

Rumors are rampant in the Capitol about a new version of the Clean Energy Jobs Act now being prepared for rollout sometime in the next week.

It's being done in private, as usual, so it's impossible to say exactly what will be in the substitute version or omnibus amendment being drafted.

But if you're part of the Carbon Free Nuclear Free coalition that's been fighting against relaxing the laws on new nuclear reactors, this is guaranteed not to be good news.

Pro-nuclear forces do not have a majority in the legislature. On its own merits, the nuclear section of the bill would never pass.

But it is tied to some positive renewable energy policies that many nuclear opponents want to see passed. They seem willing to swallow hard and support the bill, even though they oppose expanding nuclear power.

The bill is in much the same status that the health care bill is in Congress. There are no Republican votes for it, so Democrats must round up enough votes to pass it themselves. With narrow majorities in each house, it only takes two defecting Democrats to derail the bill -- or to get a concession.

"Instead of taking on the special interests, he's been taking them on as clients." -- Russ Feingold on Tommy Thompson.