Commentary For July 8, 2002: Highlight Show, Campaign Finance Fraud, Brian Burke, Scandal Minimizers, Nichols and Breuer on Pledge of Allegiance, Frank Zappa Crap Detector
Hello Commentary Fans,
Jim Mather and I hope that everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.
"Commentary" will not be on the air on Monday, July 8th. The UW
Oshkosh Center for Community Partnerships has requested a one time airing of
Daniel Burrus's appearance on campus. Burrus, a graduate of UW Oshkosh,
is a highly regarded "futurist." Seems like an interesting guy, in
an Alvin Tofflerish kind of way: http://www.burrus.com/spkabout.html
Commentary returns on July 9th with a highlight show of clips from the past
year and some material much older than that. The highlights include state Senator
Mike Ellis, Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and Jay Heck
of Common Cause talking about campaign finance reform. We have a very old clip
from 1991 in which former guest Stan Stricker (then news director at WNAM in
Neenah), Mather and I talked about some campaign finance abuses going on then.
We close the campaign segment with a clip from out interview with the legendary
"sewer Socialist" Mayor of Milwaukee Frank Zeidler talking about fundraising
in the 1950s. Zeidler claims that his successor, Mayor Henry Meier, began the
trend of incumbents bundling huge sums of money during their term in anticipation
of the next election.
Speaking of campaign finances, the budget repair bill actually includes what campaign finance "reform" in it. The Madison Capital Times sees it as a fraud http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/editorial/28500.php, as does Common Cause http://www.wispolitics.com/freeser/pr/pr0207/jul03/pr02070341.html. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is a bit more positive http://www.wisdc.org/pr070302.html.
We found a clip from 1992 in which Mather, UW Oshkosh Poltical Scientist
Jim Simmons and I talk about a "profile of the Wisconsin voter."
Back then one of the Milwaukee papers had divided voters up into the "contented,"
the "worried middle," the "socially concerned," the "economic
strugglers," and the "angry traditionalists." We take the profile
and apply it to this year's governor's race. I have a feeling that "worried
middle" might swing the election this year.
A major issue in the governor's race will be corruption. State Senator
Brian Burke, slapped with 18 felony counts last week by Dane County District
Attorney Blanchard, has decided to go on the offensive. He went after Blanchard
on the floor of the Senate:
http://www.wispolitics.com/freeser/features/f0207/f02070304.html
Personally, I think Burke would benefit from the Bill Clinton school of defense.
It would go something like this:
Blanchard: Is there a pay to play relationship between the joint Finance Committee
and lobbyists?
Burke: It depends on what the definition of "is" is.
Meanwhile, UW Madison Political Science Professor Ken Mayer has joined the
ranks of the scandal minimizers:
http://www.madisonmagazine.com/index.php?section_id=918&xstate=view_story&story_id=113808
I'd like to see Mayer, along with Alan Ehrenhalt of governing.com, former Republican
Party chair R.J. Johnson, and Democratic Representative Gary Sherman, start
a new lobbying group in Madison: WASM (Wisconsin Association of Scandal Minimizers).
WASM could lobby to get Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" as
the official state song. More important, as WMC (Wisconsin Manufacturers and
Commerce) and WEAC (Wisconsin Education Association Council), the state's two
most powerful lobbying organizations, solidify their control of virtually every
key election district in the state in what can only be described as a form of
legalized corruption, WASM could produce a stream of press releases and op-ed
pieces urging everyone to realize that the situation is no worse than anywhere
else. The group's letterhead slogan would say "WASM: Because it's never
as bad as it looks."
Back to the highlight show. We spend quite a bit of time on Commentary talking
about local government. Highlights include our local pundit Dan Rylance giving
former Oshkosh Mayor Melanie Bloechl the "Little Spender" award. We
also have an interesting segment of County Executive Jane Van De Hey and County
Board Chair Joe Maehl talking about division in the local Republican party.
One of our favorite shows from the past year was the interview with recently
retired Oshkosh North English/Journalism teacher Ron Harrell. We have a clip
of Ron talking about local media. We follow that up with a clip from the show
we did with two high school students, Kim Christensen and Sabrina Peter.
The highlight show closes with a clip from the interview we did with Robert
L "Doc" Snyder, the founder of Titan television. Doc is recovering
nicely from a recent stroke. I saw him about a week ago and he was in great
spirits, still as fired up about his jazz radio show as he was during the first
broadcast 35 years ago. In our highlight clip, Doc talks about his recent induction
to the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
On Thursday, July 11 Jim and I are tentatively scheduled to interview District
Attorney candidates E.J. Jelinski and Brad Priebe (with a broadcast debut of
July 15). Commentary will then go on the road. On July 18 we travel to Madison
to interview Madison Capital Times columnist John Nichols. Then the following
week we travel to Milwaukee to interview legendary writer Joel McNally. Both
interviews should be fascinating, as Nichols and McNally are about as passionate
about the Wisconsin progressive tradition as any two people you will find in
the state.
Nichols also writes for The Nation magazine. He's very good at exposing
political hypocrisy, as he did recently in regards to the pledge of allegiance
flap:
http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/palmeri/jnonpledge.htm
Speaking of the pledge, the Appleton Post Crescent had some letters that
I believe represent the range of thinking on the matter found in the Fox Valley.
I have not taken a position, but I think Tom Breuer's letter makes sense:
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/opinion_4874832.shtml
Finally, the 4th of July weekend featured some great music at the Oshkosh
Sawdust Days Festival. Kristen and I were watching and listening to a contemporary
jazz group called Playtime when all of a sudden they broke into what I immediately
recognized as a Walt Fowler trumpet solo from Frank Zappa's "Broadway the
Hard Way" album. I consider Broadway the Hard Way to be one of the greatest
records ever made, and in 1995 I wrote a review of it that ended up on the website
of the American Communication Association: http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/www/zappa.html
Here's some information about Playtime: http://www.northnet.net/~playtime/
and also about trumpet player Brenda Theabo:
http://home.new.rr.com/trumpetb/#brenda
All the best,
-Tony