Pot calls the kettle partisan. The left is unhappy with Barack Obama appointing too many Republicans, like Defense Secretary Robert Gates. But Jessica McBride, who's never met a Republican she didn't like (except JB Van Hollen), disagrees. McBride's unique take on the resignation of US Attorney Steve Biskupic:
It’s standard procedure for U.S. attorneys to resign when there’s a new incoming president from the opposite party. The president picks his own team. But President-elect Barack Obama should have done whatever he could to keep Biskupic around anyway. Send the signal: We won’t ask you to leave when January rolls around.
Not doing so is a purely political maneuver from a supposedly bipartisan president.
Barack Obama, whose transition team has 350,000 resumes piled up, should have singled out Steve Biskupic and asked him to stay on?
Failing to do so is "a purely politican maneuver"?
Biskupic, you may recall, is the guy whose job was reputedly in jeapordy because he wasn't being aggressive enough in prosecuting voter fraud, but made up for it by prosecuting a low-level state employee, Georgia Thompson, in hopes of implicating Gov. Jim Doyle in a corruption scandal.
Biskupic got a conviction of Thompson on a charge of steering a state contract to a Doyle donor, but an appeals court embarrassed him by overturning it out of hand, freeing her immediately, and calling the evidence he had presented "beyond thin."
In announcing his resignation, Biskupic:
acknowledged that he had "pushed the envelope a little bit" on some public corruption cases. Although Georgia Thompson's name remained unspoken, Biskupic was undoubtedly referring to the case against the state Department of Administration worker, whose mail fraud conviction was overturned on appeal.
"Pushing the envelope a little bit" is how he describes sending an innocent woman to prison and basically ruining her life in ways for which she will never be compensated.
Biskupic should be in the military. He'd have no problem with the concept that killing innocent civilians is merely "collateral damage."
Back to McBride, who acknowledges that a change in the US attorney's office is standard practice. Can't recall her speaking up and asking George Bush to keep Peg Lautenschlager or Joan Kessler on as US Attorneys after the Supreme Court gave him the presidency.
She's disappointed that Biskupic says he won't run for office; she has one in mind for him -- attorney general, even though it's held by a Republican, Van Hollen, who whipped McBride's hubby, Paul Bucher, in the GOP primary in 2006.
Improvement? Speaking of Van Hollen, WisPolitics, reporting on a recent statewide survey:
The overall numbers -- 20 percent fav, 18 percent unfav -- are an improvement for Van Hollen compared to a similar survey conducted in early December 2007....
That 2007 poll found 77 percent of respondents either had no opinion of Van Hollen or hadn’t heard of him. About a year ago, 13 percent of state residents had a favorable impression of the AG, who is in his first term, while 10 percent had an unfavorable impression.
His positive rating went up 7 per cent while his negatives went up 8. That's improving?
All the news that fits our point of view: Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine:
To assure there was no voter fraud on Nov. 4, the Milwaukee County Elections Fraud Task Force was created, comprised of members of the district attorney’s office, the Milwaukee Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. So how successful was the effort?
The two key members of the team pronounced it a success. “We have made substantial progress,” said Milwaukee County D.A. John Chisholm. Said Kevin St. John, who serves Republican state Attorney General JB Van Hollen: “There is no evidence to suggest the election results … were tainted or manipulated by fraudulent activity.”
So was this bipartisan consensus reported by the newspaper of record, the Journal Sentinel, the paper that has run countless front-page headlines at any sign of an election irregularity? Nope, the story and these quotes were reported in a Shepherd Express article. And not a word from Chisholm and St. John in the JS, which instead did a story saying there were a few votes under investigation for fraud.
Honestly, has the daily paper given up even the pretence of reporting this issue in an even-handed fashion?
You asking me? I'd have to say yes.
Good luck with that. Three former Journal Co. employees say they are running for the board of Journal Communications in the spring. They're unhappy with the company's performance, and who can blame them, since they no doubt hold stock as part of their retirement, and its price has dropped from 420 to $2 a share.
According to the announcement, the three are backed by retired Journal Sentinel publisher and president Keith Spore.
While their candidacies are not as hostile, it reminds me of when I ran for the board of directors of Lee Enterprises, the newspaper conglomerate that owns the Wisconsin State Journal, LaCrosse Tribune, Racine Journal Times and many papers in other states.
At the time, I was the president of the newsroom union at the State Journal, and we were in the midst of a long, terrible strike against the newspaper.
I don't recall the exact numbers, but I think I got several hundred votes. The slate backed by the company got something like 2.2 million.