Liberal hypocrisy
| In the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Burnett County Judge Michael Gableman defeated sitting Justice Louis Butler by winning 51 percent of the vote to Butler's 49 percent. Butler was appointed to a vacancy created when Justice Diane Sykes was appointed to the federal bench by Pres. George Bush. In the wake of the election, liberals are fit to be tied. Mike McCabe, of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a liberal front group, has declared, “Wisconsin is heading down a very dangerous path. This election did tremendous harm to the court. It did great harm to the public's confidence in and understanding of the court.” Oh really? The two issues raised by the liberals were negative campaigning and spending by “outside” groups. In an editorial, The Capital Times accused Gableman of running a racially tinged campaign. Anyone who supported Gableman was labeled a “special interest.” Butler said of his campaign that he did not run any negative ads. He accused other third party groups of running negative ads. He said that the system is broken and called for “meaningful campaign finance reform.” Meaningful campaign finance reform means that the people of the state of Wisconsin will have to give up their freedom for some imaginary benefit. It seems that liberals cannot win elections based on their beliefs, so they try to shut us up and run under false pretenses. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), a business trade group, spent lots of money trying to defeat Butler. A shadowy group, calling itself the Greater Wisconsin Committee, spent almost as much trying to defeat Gableman. In a fit of rage, the editor emeritus of The Capital Times, Dave Zweifel, published a list of directors of WMC. It seems that his intent is for people to harass the WMC directors. He was completely silent on the Greater Wisconsin Committee! In an article about the Supreme Court race, the Associated Press led off with the issue that really rankles liberals: “An election that likely will shift the leaning of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from liberal to conservative ...” The Supreme Court or any court, is supposed to make decisions based on the merits of the case. Unfortunately, in recent years, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has made decisions based on personal philosophy and not on the law.. For instance, the court ruled that any paint manufacturer (in effect, the whole industry) could be sued for lead paint injuries and not just the manufacturer of the said paint. How would you like to be sued for something you have not done? Other decisions, including one that swept away limitations on economic damages of medical malpractice, have needlessly hurt the business climate in Wisconsin. There are calls for appointing Supreme Court Justices to “take the politics out of it.” The appointment procedure will only make the court more political. Article VII, Section 4 states that justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be elected. This system has served us well and will continue to serve us well. The people are final arbiters of how our state is run. Mike McCabe went on to say, “ I think the sad thing is it's not possible for candidates to have an honest debate about the incumbent's record or the issues facing the Supreme Court.” On the contrary, Mr. McCabe, the people carefully looked at the incumbent's record and the issues facing the court and passed judgment. (Note: AW Editor Heidi Pascual endorsed Louis Butler in the recent election.) |
John Pinto's column