Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Proposing political welfare

My column for the West Bend Daily News is online.  In it, I take on the governor’s special session to take up campaign finance reform.  It’s called, “Proposing political welfare.”

Here’s a little slice:

Governor Doyle has never been a strict adherent to his past statements, so he flip- flopped and decided to call the special session. But he did not present a comprehensive campaign finance reform plan as he said he would. Instead, he merely urged the Legislature to pass some pending campaign finance reform bills and made a few suggestions. Given the fact that the Legislature is currently divided, it is unlikely that anything of any substance will pass. Doyle knows this, but at least he can claim to be a leader on campaign finance reform at cocktail parties. Results matter less than appearances in the Doyle camp.

In the end, it is likely that nobody will be satisfied with the results of the special session. Perhaps Senator Fitzgerald got it right when he said about the special session, “This is nothing more than an insincere political stunt masquerading as reform.”

(1) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1838 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Nice one Owen, you really got me chuckling on this one.

    I guess we could hash out our differences over the freedom of speech aspects….again. Or the dimmunition of individual equity that the introduction of money brings into the free speech equation. But we have already been there and done that.

    Didn’t you use an example of the anonymous pamphleteer as an example of free speech in one of those dialogues? Gotta love the irony.

    I guess your column leaves me with some questions. I am just going to pull a couple of quotes quotes that left me scratching my head.

    The people from whom they raise money have an uncomfortable habit of trying to hold the politician accountable and the politician would rather not deal with it.

    Eliminating special interest influence in governmental decision making is a bad thing? Walk me through that one please.

    Corrupt people will be corrupt regardless of the rules….......

    ......The goal should be to identify the corrupt as quickly as possible and oust them from office.

    I guess I am wondering what you consider “corrupt”?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 04, 2007 at 2324 hrs


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