by Kerry Thomas
January 15, 2006
It’s that time of year.
Time to pull the boots out of the closet and put ‘em on. It’s getting pretty deep around here. No, not the snow. I’m talking about the Republican rhetoric and double speak.
Like most storms, this one started innocuously enough. Just a simple email sent out by a local
Republican leader to his favorite supporters.
It spoke of recruiting one Tim Michels as a candidate to run against
Senator Herb Kohl in this year’s Senate race in Wisconsin.
Now Tim Michels is a nice guy. But he is the guy who lost the last Senate race against Russ
Feingold in 2004, garnering about 44% of the votes in that
race. And so far he hasn’t
announced any plans to run in this year’s race.
Meanwhile, there are three Republican candidates who have
declared they will be candidates
in 2006. They are Marc Gumz,
of Baraboo, Robert Gerald Lorge, of Bear Creek, and David Redick, of
Madison. These three candidates have
their work cut out for them, as does any candidate in the Republican Senate
race this year. Herb Kohl’s had the
past six years to accumulate campaign cash, in addition to his own personal
money.
But
this year’s Republican candidates have more to be concerned about than just
their Democrat opponents. This year’s
Republican candidates also have to watch out for their own Party officials and
what they’re up to behind closed doors.
Consider
this from an email from Republican 8th Congressional District
Chairman Bill Ross: “Marc
Gumz of Baraboo is best known for bad teeth and breath and using his farm to
host the annual pot fest. Robert Gerald Lorge of Bear Creek didn't get
many votes last time and has the problem of the Lorge name.”
I also received this email from Vilas County
Republican vice-Chair Jim Knuth: “I don't know David Redick, but the other two
don't stand a chance and won't be backed by the Republican Party.”
Ross also had a few other interesting
comments. “Leaders have to be activists
as I are the most informed.” [That’s
not a typo – that’s how he wrote it.]
“I have a good idea of who is a good candidate and who is not because of
past training and experience.”
When I pointed out that this sounded like an
elitist attitude, all he could respond with was “Are you a Democrat
plant? You certainly sound like it, complaining that we are a party of
elitists. That's the Democrat line.”
It might be, but it’s also becoming more and more clear. GOP “leaders” like Bill Ross seem to think
Republican candidates should be selected by (as he puts it) “our best
informed Republicans.”
And this isn’t the only race where Republican
“leaders” are maneuvering behind the scenes to position their anointed
candidates at the head of the field.
All while insisting to the rest of us that the official Party line of
neutrality and equal opportunity must be observed. I guess some of our candidates are just more equal than others.
Consider for example this
story from the January 14, 2006 edition of the Appleton
Post-Crescent, written by Brian Tumulty from the
Post-Crescent’s Washington bureau. “The
Wisconsin Republican Party already [has] given special permission to the
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which almost always remains
neutral in GOP primaries, to support state Assembly Speaker John Gard of
Peshtigo for the party's nomination.”
Gard is running for Congress in the 8th Congressional
District, facing primary opponent Wisconsin Assemblywoman Terri McCormick.
When
McCormick learned Friday [January 13] from a reporter about the arrangement,
she was nearly speechless. "This goes beyond the boys' club," she
said. "This goes to engineering an election and electioneering, trying to
fix an election before the primary."
Tumulty’s
story continues. “Gard already
has locked up the support U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Hobart) to fill the seat
Green is vacating to run for Wisconsin Governor, and that frees the national
committee to back a candidate in the primary, committee spokesman Carl Forti
said.”
"It's something that happens occasionally," Forti
said Friday [January 13] evening.
"In a primary situation, it's difficult to get the Republican
establishment behind a candidate. In a
case like this, where you have an exceptional candidate like John Gard, it's a
little easier."
[And it didn’t take John Gard very long to cherry-pick this
quote for his weekly e-newsletter, either.
That’s the only quote he used, completely ignoring the rest of the
article that actually points out the very insider tactics Gard is using to
garner his support among the GOP leadership.
Talk about chutzpah.]
“Although the NRCC is not yet officially backing Gard, Rep.
Thomas Reynolds of New York, the group's chairman, has donated money from his
political action committee to Gard's campaign.
And so have House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-WI).”
According
to Tumulty’s article “McCormick was not told during her Friday [January 13]
afternoon meeting at the organization's Washington headquarters that the state
party had sent the NRCC permission to support Gard. ‘They said they would be fair-minded,’ she said.”
For years I’ve listened to Republicans reiterate
how the Party has to remain neutral in their primary elections. All candidates are supposed to be treated
equally. It looks like some Republican
candidates are just more equal than others this year.
The Republican Revolution that began with the
election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980, and which was solidified with the
Contract With America in 1994, has become arrogant with power. The Republican leadership has become complacent. They continue to promise smaller government,
lower taxes and other conservative ideology.
But what they deliver is somewhat less than what they promise.
On the federal level, spending levels just keep
rising, spending more and more of taxpayers’ money on everything
imaginable. The federal government has
grown far beyond what is authorized by the Constitution, expanding into areas
of our daily lives in ways that would make the Founding Fathers stage another
Revolution. Right here in Wisconsin we’ve
had Republican control of either the Legislature or the Governorship for
years. Yet, State spending is through
the roof.
We’re supposed to accept the Republican line
that somehow lower than forecast increases in spending is the same as
actual lower spending levels. We’re
supposed to accept that not raising taxes is the same as reducing taxes.
John Gard’s campaign website, for
example, says he “has cut income, sales and property taxes.” Really?
Year to year, has your property tax bill gone up or down? The sales tax went from 4% statewide to 5% years
ago. This was supposed to be a
temporary measure, to overcome huge budget deficits at the time. It’s become permanent. We’ve even added an additional 0.5% county
sales tax in 58 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, and added an additional 0.10% sales
tax in a few more “Stadium Districts.”
(Click Here
to see Wisconsin Department of Revenue Tax Rates.) So where’s the “cut” in the sales tax?
Unchallenged statements like Gard’s play right
into the perception that these career politicians are somehow “well qualified”
to advance in their careers as professional politicians.
I come from a different school. I go back to the Founders’ beliefs, that
those who serve in public office should come with real world experience. They should serve only a limited time in
office, then return to the private sector.
There was never supposed to be a professional politicians class in
society. How times have changed.
Politics has become big business in
America. Along with the power has come
corruption. Principles have been
compromised. Those things that
Republicans used to stand for have fallen aside, in the quest to retain
control. Absent are the new ideas. Gone is innovation and creativity. The leadership has been blinded by their
absurd lust for power. The classic
back-room deals behind closed doors and no-record agreements between power
brokers have infiltrated the Republican Party.
Charlie Rich would be proud.