Septuagenarian supper club owner is the future of the Brown County GOP

Seriously Brown County, is it asking too much for you guys to branch out beyond septuagenarian supper club owners in terms of putting a public face on the GOP up there?

Vern Krawczyk won't go so far as to say that the Republican Party of Brown County is healthy, but the local party head is certain it is in the midst of a rebirth.

"There are things working on our side now," said Krawczyk, the 75-year-old former supper club owner who agreed to step into the county party chairmanship two months ago on an interim basis. "The health-care issue and the governor's office, for example."

Certainly this is a step up from a guy who allegedly provided booze and pot to scantily-clad minors, but there's still room for improvement here. The Brown County GOP now must break its obvious addiction to the smell of beef tips, fish fry, and reconstituted mashed potatoes.

Brett Davis is done being the new Rick Skindrud

Best wishes to Brett Davis as he openly begins his campaign for lieutenant governor. If Davis wins, he'll no longer have to bust his ass every two years to win in a Dem-leaning district. If he loses, he'll graduate to a better paying job in the private sector. And either way, he frees himself of serving in the den of partisan idiocy that the Assembly has become.

There is no scenario in which this is not a good career move for Davis. Meanwhile, we'll tentatively move the 80th AD into the Dem column for 2010, leaving the AssGOP to pick up four seats to reclaim the majority.

Linda McMahon to run for Senate

I can't wait to see what her finishing move will be.

World Wresting Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon (R) will formally enter the Connecticut Senate race today, adding a celebrity element to a contest that promises to be among the most competitive in the country.

"Washington is out of control, and sadly, Senator Chris Dodd has lost his way and our trust," McMahon will say, according to a copy of her remarks obtained by the Fix. "I can't sit by on the sidelines anymore knowing that I have both the experience and the strength to stand up to special interests and bring badly needed change to Washington."

I couldn't find any footage of her announcement, but I did find this.




She's also survived the tombstone piledriver. That'd be enough to get my vote against Chris Dodd.

How much work could lawyers make if lawyers could make work?

Personally, I think the assorted legal matters involving Dan Kapanke and his office are a bit ticky-tack. Yes, it's stupid for employees to forward work email to home accounts, especially when it's very easy for employees to access their work accounts from home. At the same time, the Legislature basically grants itself an enormous pass on the open records law and historically does a poor job of educating employees on how to handle open records requests.

But that said, how in the hell does the Democratic Party of Wisconsin generate $38k in legal bills in just a few months over an open records request? Is this the full employment act for partisan attorneys?

A year into the caucus scandal and Sherry Schultz sought reimbursement for $35k in bills, and that was for a pending criminal defense. Tanya Bjork had only submitted $24k for her extracurricular work in Sen. Brian Burke's office.

Whether Kapanke and his staff were right or wrong, the $38k in legal bills show that Democrats don't spend their own money any better than they spend that of the taxpayers. And either way, it doesn't change the fact that if Ron Kind runs for governor, the Democrats still don't have a good fall-back option in the 3rd CD.

Wisconsin Democrats roll out fall agenda

And it appears to be filled with real keepers...

TO: Legislative Colleagues
FROM: Representatives Gary Hebl and Amy Sue Vruwink
DATE: September 10, 2009
RE: Co-sponsorship of LRB 2957 Adopting L. lactis as the State Microbe

Deadline: Friday, September 25, 2009

This bill honors Wisconsin’s tradition of dairy production while promoting Wisconsin as a biotechnology hub by establishing Lactococcus lactis as the State Microbe of Wisconsin. It will make Wisconsin the first state in the nation to adopt a state microbe and will bring needed attention and publicity to two important Wisconsin industries: dairy production and biotechnology. This bill will help define Wisconsin as a center for biotechnology, will focus attention on the extensive research conducted in our state to improve our economic future in agriculture, biological sciences, and manufacturing, and best of all, it will do so with no cost to taxpayers. This bill offers a creative way to promote Wisconsin at a time when all budgets, both private and public, are tight.

L. lactis is the microbe chiefly responsible for the production of Cheddar and Colby cheeses as well as various other dairy products. The use of this microbe as the principal starter culture by Wisconsin’s cheese industry arguably makes L. lactis the most vital organism for our state’s economy contributing upwards of $18 billion annually. Through new research into alternative uses of this microbe conducted locally at our state universities, L. lactis has also shown potential for producing new vaccine delivery methods putting Wisconsin once again at the forefront of biotechnological research.

First of all, I'd like to point out how insensitive this is to those who are lactose intolerant - a population that includes the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin's Native American population. It's bad enough that the state's domesticated animal is the dairy cow. Frankly, I'd expect a little more sensitivity from liberals, especially considering who funds their political campaigns. Why do Amy Sue and Gary hate Indians so much?

But beyond that, what a total waste of time and money forcing legislative drafters to spend their professional skills and talents on meaningless garbage like this. Guess this is what happens when there's no money to spend and you cram all of your major policy initiatives into the budget.

Here's a hint for our policy-challenged Democratic friends: if Wisconsin's going to compete economically going forward, you'd be well-served to stop emphasizing this ridiculous stereotype of Wisconsin being a manure-filled, cheese-eating, drunk driver-coddling grassland between Minneapolis and Chicago.

State microbe? My vote's for Bullshittis democratis. All of Wisconsin seems infected by it these days.

Buchen: Wisconsin is a tax hell...

... unless it's corporate welfare we're talking about. That stuff's okay.

"We spend tax dollars on a lot of things that are less important than job creation," said James Buchen, vice president for governmental relations at Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, a business lobbying organization. "At least in this case, (taxpayers) know what it is going for."

Big surprise that WMC just loves the idea of a county initiating a sales tax solely for the purpose of turning the revenue over to the skilled extortionists at Mercury Marine. So Merc joins GM and Citibank and a boatload of other companies that can't hack it without being propped up by government money. Pathetic.

The real tragedy here, as noted over on OWN, is that backwards communities like Fond du Lac have allowed themselves to become so dependent on a single employer that when the employer says jump, the community has virtually no choice but to capitulate. The people in charge of Fond du Lac County should be ashamed that they've allowed things to deteriorate to this point.

Trendsetter

I couldn't help but smile in seeing this story from a few days ago about Connecticut legislators amusing themselves with their laptops during session. It brings back such fond memories of the Assembly Late Night post from December 2005. These Connecticut legislators should get in touch with Phil Montgomery at some legislative junket. Phil likes to play solitaire too.

Of course, unlike Connecticut leggies, Wisconsin leggies are smart enough to implement policies that keep the press away from positions in the chamber that would allow them to take photos like this. They might not be great at governance, but when it comes to covering their own asses, Wisconsin legislators are among the best in the nation.