Uppity Wisconsin

Scott Walker calls his video "90 Days to Victory."

One Wisconsin Now might call it 90 Days and 90 Facts Short of Victory, judging from this fact check video.

From those intrepid researchers at One Wisconsin now comes the Scott Walker Failure Files, documenting his long record of failed leadership, mismanagement and skewed priorities.  Here's the interactive website. Check it out. An amazing collection.

Courtesy of One Wisconsin Now, a look at Scott Walker's "accomplishments" as Milwaukee County executive.

So let me get this straight.

Wisconsin's facing a budget deficit of something like $2-billion, and Scott Walker's idea is to dig the hole deeper with a big corporate tax break? And the news media treat him seriously?

As Gov. Jim Doyle was getting ready to deliver his State of the State speech, Walker, surrounded by a bunch of Republican leggies, proposed repealing the state's combined reporting law -- the one that plugged what was widely known as the Las Vegas Loophole.

The Las Vegas Loophole let corporations avoid paying taxes on income they made in Wisconsin by registering their business in some other state, like Nevada, without a corporate income tax. Re-opening the loophole would add another $375-million to the deficit in the next budget cycle.

 How would Walker balance the budget while giving hundreds of millions in tax breaks to corporations?

by "redefining the way we provide government, looking at wages and benefits." He said all options would be on the table.

Everyone always says all options are on the table, but it's pretty clear that Walker wants to take the money out of the hides of state workers, following the same anti-worker, privatization policies he's used to create a disaster in Milwaukee County government.

The $375-million is just the tip of the iceberg, by the way.

The Capital Times became the first daily newspaper to call for the resignation of Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Annette Ziegler.

We can expect more calls for Ziegler's resignation to follow in the coming months.

Ziegler, elected in the spring of 2007, was hit with denunciations for her conduct as a Washington County judge during her successful campaign that drew little attention from Wisconsin voters.

Ziegler, in violation of Wisconsin judicial conflict of interest rules, presided over dozens of cases in which her family had a financial interest, and failed to disclose to the litigants the conflicts in each case.

Now, Ziegler, awaiting discipline for her conduct on the bench as a county judge, is taking criticism for refusing to recuse herself, as a current Supreme Court justice, from a case that is a high priority of the corporate lobbying group, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, that spent over $2 million (surpassing the amount spent by Ziegler’s campaign) to elect Ziegler to her current judgeship.

Update III:  SCR 60.03  A judge shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all of the judge’s activities.
A.  SCR 60.03(1) states: "A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary."

That's cited from a decision (March 22, 2004) of the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee (OPINION 03-1) deciding that "a judge (is) required, after a contested election, to recuse himself or herself from contested matters involving a former campaign manager," for "a reasonable period of time."

Surely, Ziegler's conflicts, her pattern of conflicts, are much more serious and cause much more damage in not avoiding the "impropriety and the appearance of impropriety," promoting the public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. 

Update II: Hearing ended.

The Capital Times recently ran an article on Cory Liebmann of One Wisconsin Now . Cory is one of the few bloggers in the state of any persuasion to do serious investigative reporting in his blog. 

We'd like to thank Cory for his continuing work on behalf of progressive issues in the state. One Wisconsin Now and his blog have made a difference in the state.  We all need to work toward bringing more serious and effective voices to the debate, and toward building out the progressive infrastructure so that more progressive news can be brought to the forefront.