{"id":872,"date":"2015-04-30T17:38:24","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T22:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=872"},"modified":"2015-04-30T17:38:24","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T22:38:24","slug":"wisconsin-petty-politics-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2015\/04\/30\/wisconsin-petty-politics-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Petty Politics Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From the realm of partisan politics comes what appears to be a dirty little bit of Democratic laundry now plowing through the courts.\u00a0 Imagine this: the cops invade your home at 3 in the morning, make off with your computers, phones, and files – and then tell you that you may not discuss this with anyone, even your lawyer.\u00a0 From Legal Newsline<\/a>:<\/div>\n
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The case began in 2009 when then-Milwaukee County Executive Walker\u2019s staff uncovered that $11,242.24 had apparently been embezzled from a county charity. Walker\u2019s staff asked the district attorney for a criminal investigation.While the thief was ultimately convicted, District Attorney Chisholm took the opportunity to focus his investigation mainly on Walker\u2019s personal staff.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s team would not learn of the secret investigation for more than a year, when Walker was first campaigning for governor in 2010. Walker\u2019s then-chief of staff, the late Tom Nardelli, learned that Chisholm\u2019s staff had won a court order in May 2010 to start a secretive \u201cJohn Doe\u201d probe into the \u201corigin\u201d of the allegedly embezzled $11,242.24.<\/p>\n

A \u201cJohn Doe\u201d is a legal proceeding under Wisconsin law that allows prosecutors, with a judge\u2019s approval, to require complete secrecy from any one involved. This \u201cgag order\u201d provision, almost unique in American law, effectively disables targets or witnesses from publicly defending themselves or responding to damaging leaks. …<\/p>\n

The New York Times ran a front-page article highlighting prosecutors\u2019 claims of \u201can elaborate effort to illegally coordinate fundraising and spending between [Walker’s] campaign and conservative groups.\u201d Buried in paragraphs 10 and 11 was the fact that both a federal judge and a state judge had ruled that the investigation should be shut down as legally groundless.<\/p>\n

Amid the debate over whether it is Gov. Walker and conservative activists like O\u2019Keefe \u2013 or Chisholm and his fellow prosecutors \u2013 who are corrupting Wisconsin politics, one issue emerges: Campaign finance laws designed by reformers to stop the corruption of American politics can take a toll on the freedom of speech. The question that the federal courts will decide is whether the benefits are worth the costs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

David French at National Review chose to cover it in a rather emotional manner<\/a>, no doubt to stir up the base – not without good reason:<\/div>\n

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Cindy Archer, one of the lead architects of Wisconsin\u2019s Act 10 \u2014 also called the \u201cWisconsin Budget Repair Bill,\u201d it limited public-employee benefits and altered collective-bargaining rules for public-employee unions \u2014 was jolted awake by yelling, loud pounding at the door, and her dogs\u2019 frantic barking. The entire house \u2014 the windows and walls \u2014 was shaking. She looked outside to see up to a dozen police officers, yelling to open the door. They were carrying a battering ram. …<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
They wouldn\u2019t let her speak to a lawyer. She looked outside and saw a person who appeared to be a reporter. Someone had tipped him off.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Assuming the DA gets his head handed to himself again by the courts, I’m disgusted by his behavior; I’m appalled at the law; I’m even more appalled that no legislator who voted for it thought to consider the repercussions for those subjected to what I would call a thoroughly un-American requirement – that you keep your mouth shut about a perceived injustice.\u00a0 What were they thinking?\u00a0 This is the sort of thing that divide citizens from the law enforcement and from their governments.\u00a0 Unfortunately, you can only punish legislators by kicking them out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And a hat tip to Lydia McGrew <\/a>on What’s Wrong with the World, a blog with a tagline iconic of drama queens throughout history:<\/div>\n

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\n… dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/div>\n

I will say her comments section are far more civilized than most.\u00a0 Maybe that blog is diligently edited….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the realm of partisan politics comes what appears to be a dirty little bit of Democratic laundry now plowing through the courts.\u00a0 Imagine this: the cops invade your home at 3 in the morning, make off with your computers, phones, and files – and then tell you that you \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions\/874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}