Wisconsin: welcome to a state of hideousness

Well, Burgher Wa*ker got his way - barring potential court challenges to the way he rammed his "budget repair" power grab through the Wisconsin legislature - but judging by the way the public and newspapers like the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel turned on him, he's not going to enjoy a particularly long political career. From the aforementioned paper:

In these days of massive budget deficits, the cost of government labor at all levels must be reined in. Limits on collective bargaining, carefully drawn, are reasonable. The state is $137 million short for the rest of this year alone.

But the Republicans went too far in their zeal to bust the unions and too far in their stubborn tactics to accomplish that mission. They are forcing these changes on an unwilling state at great cost - and they still haven't filled the budget hole the original measure was designed to fill (emphasis mine). 

The Republican's blinkered blitz may have violated the state's open meetings law. Robert Dreps, an attorney and expert in the law, said he didn't think the conference committee could meet on such short notice. Normally, 24 hours are required, although an "emergency" meeting can be held with just two hours' notice. The furious pace raises a question: Once Republicans decided to split up the bill, why not debate it? What are they afraid of?

Both sides in this sorry affair have opened wide the door to extremism. The Democrats should not have fled the state. The Republicans did not need to resort to the petty contrivances of the Fitzgerald brothers - Scott in the Senate, Jeff in the Assembly - who called votes without Democrats in the room, played games with Democratic paychecks and even resorted to fining their absent colleagues.

Why the rush? This is, in my opinion, the best part - but only if you actually like gawking at the political equivalent of a multiple-fatality car crash:

Republicans, in the end, did what they had said they would not do: They cast aside provisions in the "budget-repair" bill that actually dealt with the budget and took an up-or-down vote on ending most collective bargaining. Fiscal matters require a Senate quorum of 20; the Republicans have only 19 members.

That's right. The Repubs in the Senate effectively did this as a naked, entirely opportunistic "get the unions" move and not much more despite all protests to the contrary. And the Journal Sentinel smells an ugly precedent being set in the offing:

Both parties are playing with fire. A walkout to thwart legislation will be as attractive to Republicans when they are no longer in power as it is to Democrats now. And scorched-earth tactics, such as those practiced by Fitzgerald & Fitzgerald, will seem just as attractive to Democrats when they regain control of the matches and accelerant.

Walker never campaigned on disenfranchising public-employee unions. If he had, he would not have been elected. He got a spare 52% of the vote - hardly a mandate for what he is trying to do.

My guess is that more than a few of the 52% who voted for Der Burgher greatly regret making that decision. They should.

When vainglorious failed pols resort to f*cknuttery

Yes, Newt Gingrich - a perfect example of  a man who couldn't quit while he was behind, much less ahead - really, really did make the following statement on fellow wackjob Pat Robertson's CBN (and quoted by Marcus Paden here):

 “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.” Mr. Gingrich says he cheated on his wives because of his political passion.

Paden finds that a bit...er...self-serving. He goes on to remind us why:

Here is what Newt Gingrich did for the American people: He served his first wife Jackie with divorce papers while in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. It is alleged he brought his children with him along with a legal pad to write out the terms of the divorce. Jackie and the children relied to help from their church because Newt refused to pay child support. He was having an affair with his second wife before divorcing his first.

His second wife Marianne married him six months after the divorce from his first wife was finalized. After 18 years of marriage, he sought to divorce Marianne. An excerpt from Esquire magazine reveals, “But Marianne was having problems of her own. After going to the doctor for a mysterious tingling in her hand, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Early in May, she went out to Ohio for her mother's birthday. A day and a half went by and Newt didn't return her calls, which was strange. They always talked every day, often ten times a day, so she was frantic by the time he called to say he needed to talk to her.

"About what?"

He wanted to talk in person, he said.

"I said, 'No, we need to talk now.' "

He went quiet.

"There's somebody else, isn't there?"

She kind of guessed it, of course. Women usually do. But did she know the woman was in her apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed?

She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. " 'I can't handle a Jaguar right now.' He said that many times. 'All I want is a Chevrolet.' "

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He'd just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he'd given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, "How do you give that speech and do what you're doing?"

"It doesn't matter what I do," he answered. "People need to hear what I have to say. There's no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn't matter what I live."

Gingrich was having an affair with a former Congressional aide. She is now his third wife. Republicans are speaking out about Newt and his past lives. Former Bush speechwriter David Brooks says of a Gingrich presidency, “I wouldn't let that guy run a 7-Eleven, let alone a country.”

And yeah, Newt is the same guy who got on his moral high-horse about Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs. But hey, he's a failed professional politician desperately trying anything to get back in The Game Again. Just don't let him near your checkbook, okay?

Absolutely nothing to do with politics

As loathe as I am to pick over the bones of a dying Borders, I found a copy of Free for All by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers for less than $8.50 new (the wonders a 25% discount on a CD priced $9.99 will do  for you)  and am therefore happy about at least one thing today.