Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Cullen Threatens to Bolt Patty

Via WisPolitics.

Sen. Tim Cullen sent an email to his Dem colleagues this afternoon announcing he is leaving he caucus, calling the committee assignments doled out by new Majority Leader Mark Miller “an insult to me and the people of the 15th Senate District.”

Cullen wrote he will take the new few days to decide whether he will become an independent, but he will not join the GOP.

Cullen is the only one of the 17-member Dem caucus who was not appointed to chair a committee after Dems took back the majority 17-16 following this summer’s recall elections.

“This entire episode makes clear to me that Sen. Miller has no time for my independent ideas and my support of bipartisan solutions to the state’s problems,” Cullen wrote.

Weeeee… This is fun. It looks like Cullen is in a bit of a snit but he is leaving room to be lured back into the fold. And even if he bolts, without caucusing with the GOP, it leaves a Dem majority with Zipperer’s seat being vacated for now. But it sure does show the fractures in the Dem party and just how radical the Dem leadership is behaving. Remember that it was just last year that Cullen was fleeing the state with them and now they are too radical for him to even caucus with.

(10) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2113 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. To be fair to Cullen, I’m pretty sure that he didn’t flee to Illinois so much as he was abducted by Chris Larson’s Twitter account.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on July 25, 2012 at 0012 hrs


  2. Bolt Patty?? smile

    Last year, Cullen did runaway with the rest of them, but he truly did want to come home and try and negotiate with the GOP.  Miller wouldn’t let him and has hated him ever since. 

    While both caucuses certainly have their personality problems, the Dems are famous for exposing theirs publicly.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 0539 hrs


  3. And it’s a good idea for dysfunctional politicians, like this, to run our health care????

    Why?

    I wouldn’t trust these Democratic politicians to properly manage the hot and cold water taps on my kitchen sink.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 0648 hrs


  4. Millions of people already have government health insurance. It costs less and people are pretty happy with it.  Besides, most of us will not even be able to have government health insurance. We’re stuck with private, albeit with some improved regulations.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 0958 hrs


  5. Scott?

    It costs less?  Have you seen the 800 stories a year on the billions in waste, fraud, and abuse???

    Also, because the government sets rates, health care providers have to spread their expenses to private ins. and health care payers.  So the government is conducting its “programs” on the backs of others…as hidden tax.

    Having dysfunctional Democrats like this decide any health care policy…it’s like asking the alcoholic to look after the beer warehouse.

    There is enough dysfunction in society without forcing people to dysfunctional government programs.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 1015 hrs


  6. I wonder what got Tim’s goat the most, not getting his committee preferences or Lena “Don’t You Know Who I Am” Taylor getting Co-Chair of Finance? I’m just a run of the mill taxpayer, and I’m pissed about that!

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 1136 hrs


  7. As I opined on a lefty blog earlier today, it probably didn’t help that Cullen asked for education or corrections and Miller gave both to John Lehman, who’s nothing more than a dead man walking until he has to run in his new district in 2014.

    For as loopy and stupid as some of these new Senate committees are, nobody could reasonably argue that Miller couldn’t accommodate Cullen.  Miller didn’t want to accommodate Cullen.  So then we have to ask why.  And it’s all kind of funny to me, because in my time in the legislature, Miller was always a pretty level-headed and thoughtful guy.  We did a handful of land use forums together and he couldn’t have been easier to work with.  So I wonder if it’s just that he’s listening to the wrong people in that caucus.

    There’s a certainly a vocal and liberal and strident handful in that group - Chris Larson, Lena Taylor, etc.  But even so, most of the Senate Democrats are pretty rational and reasonable people (Vinehout, Shilling, Lassa, Holperin, Erpenbach, Carpenter, etc.).

    It’s all very confusing, and yet, given the recent history of legislative Democrats, entirely unsurprising.

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on July 25, 2012 at 1450 hrs


  8. Kevin Scheunemann,

    I would love to see the “800 stories a year on the billions in waste, fraud, and abuse???”

    Pucker up, Bitch.

    Gonna start with the armed forces or veterans?

    Name names, or are you full of sh*t?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 25, 2012 at 2226 hrs


  9. OK,

    Let’s start by discussing this story:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-5414390.html

    Scott made the fraudulent assertion government health care “costs less”.  This is merely one of the stories in a mountain of government fraud and abuse stories in the health care programs run by government.

    When you waste $60 billion off the top…just one this one story…that is not costing society “less”.

    Did the private health ins. industry even profit $60 bil last year?

    This is where defenders of bad government have a disconnect.  Marxists rail on health insurer profits, but then government wastes more than that in one year with hardly a peep.

    Given the tone of your post, have you been using cardboard and duct tape at a local West Bend business recently?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 26, 2012 at 0630 hrs


  10. I know this, Kevin: Medicare has done a much better job at controlling costs than the private insurance industry has.  And without rescissions.  Both negotiate what they’ll pay to providers.  Who’s been more successful?  It could be that Medicare costs more per person, but if so that’s certainly because the people who are on it are,you know, old.  Also, Medicare has far lower administrative costs.  These are facts, man.  Medicare isn’t the problem.  It’s part of the solution.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on July 26, 2012 at 1524 hrs


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.