Colin Benedict interviews Republican Candidate for Governor Scott Walker:

He won by promising to be frugal and restoring ethics, a blueprint he’s following again.
“As Governor, right off the bat, that first day in office, I would call a special session to pass a true property tax freeze on all four years I’m in office,” said Walker. “On all levels of government.” Walker admits Gov.Doyle’s plan has helped some people but calls it a phony freeze because on average tax bills went up. He criticizes Doyle saying the governor essentially borrowed the money to pay for it instead of cutting programs.

Steven Walters and Patrick Marley:

Asked why he made sure the Democratic senator from Madison personally got a $40,000 check from what was then called SBC/Ameritech for a shadowy campaign fund Chvala secretly controlled, Broydrick said: “It was very clear to me that, if you played ball, you got what you wanted.”

The regional phone company, one of Broydrick’s many clients, got what it wanted in the summer of 2001.

Before the $40,000 corporate check was written, the state budget contained a tax-code change that would have cost the telecommunications industry money. After the check was delivered, the provision was removed from the budget, which Chvala and Assembly Republicans wrote over the next two weeks.

Filling up my car recently, I stood next to a woman doing the same to her 3-Series. The trunk and bumper were filled with anti-national political figure stickers. I told her that I agreed with many of her concerns but simply asked that she put some energy into local issues such as public schools or city/county government.

I feel the same way about Paul Soglin’s daily national political blasts. In my view, the local scene could use much more attention. There’s no shortage of national political commentary and criticism.

I hope Paul turns his considerable talents back toward Madison.

Fabius Maximus:

For what?

To establish some form of Kurdish state? The Turkish Government, among our stronger allies, will not thank us for this.

To establish Islamic State(s) in the Arab regions of Iraq? Probably difficult to sell this to the American people as “victory.” Certainly an odd aspect of our “War on Terror.”

To establish a Shiite State in southern Iraq? Good news for Iran, a charter member of the “Axis of Evil.” Bad news for Iraq’s southern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, most of whose oil fields lie in Shiite tribal areas.

Perhaps we can redeem ourselves by learning lessons of sufficient value.

My one fleeting contact with Bill Proxmire occured many, many years ago (I was perhaps 10 years old). I recall walking around the Dodge County Fair (Beaver Dam) and my hand suddenly swung away. I looked up and a tall lanky guy shook it and said “Hi, I’m Bill Proxmire”. He was on the campaign trail, one handshake at a time.
We could use his “Golden Fleece Awards” today.
Richard Severo:

Another Golden Fleece Award went to the National Institute for Mental Health, which spent $97,000 to study, among other things, what went on in a Peruvian brothel. The researchers said they made repeated visits in the interests of accuracy.
The Federal Aviation Administration also felt Mr. Proxmire’s wrath, for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the “length of the buttocks” and how their knees were arranged when they were seated. Other Fleece recipients were the Justice Department, for spending $27,000 to determine why prisoners wanted to get out of jail, and the Pentagon, for a $3,000 study to determine if people in the military should carry umbrellas in the rain.
He returned to Harvard, earned a second master’s degree – this one in public administration – and moved to Wisconsin to be a reporter for The Capital Times in Madison.
“They fired me after I’d been there seven months, for labor activities and impertinence,” he once said, conceding that his dismissal was merited.