Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Belling Mines That Bird

Mark Belling, Milwaukee’s top-rated racist demagogue, committed a flagrant act of bad prognostication last Friday, boldly swinging the big dick of his own investments in the often animal-abusive American horse racing industry (i.e.: he owns horses) as he made Kentucky Derby predictions on his web site. "If this horse wins," he wrote of surprise long-shot winner Mine That Bird, "I'll never bet on another race and will vote for Jim Doyle for re-election."

Oh, how we all laughed when Belling was faced with the perfect confluence of his pledge and the stunning race results. The question wasn’t whether he would weasel out on his promise, but rather – how? After carefully consulting with his own empty conscience and which ever dark knight he sold his soul to so many years ago, Belling brilliantly (to him) turned his miserable failure into an opportunity to conduct more smears and tell more lies. "If Governor Doyle withdraws his support for [insert various whiny complaints of revenue enhancements for the cash-strapped state], I will indeed vote for Governor Doyle for re-election."

Ho! Boo-yah! As late as Wednesday afternoon, he was still reveling in his own wonderfulness, bragging that he had gotten the goat of Doyle, state Democratic Chair Joe Wineke and anyone foolish enough to think that the radio clown who claims to "stand up" for anything, much less Milwaukee, might honor his condition-less bet without conditions.

The original prediction about the likelihood of Mine That Bird winning the Derby was a piffle of hyperbolic braggado, attempting to show how smart he was. Anyone listening to or reading it would take something like that even less seriously than they usually do with Belling. But he made it more serious by using his understandable failure (99% of the racing world agreed with him) to attack Gov. Doyle. But this is the kind of cheap political hackery we expect from Belling.

Of course, the truth being so dramatically against him, you can’t expect Belling to make a point without lying. Doyle’s supposed pledge, such as it was, had only to do with personal income, property and sales taxes. Only one of the budget items cited by Belling – a mere one-percent hike for those making over $300,000 – requires an actual tax increase of the kind Doyle was talking about. The rest of the tiresome right-wing litany Belling recites are not of that sort. But, hey, why let the facts get in the way of a cheap responsibility dodge?

The Belling Dodge has even gone national. Wednesday night, on his essential Countdown program on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann discussed the Belling renege during, appropriately, the Oddball segment. The Belling episode shows that "being a right-winger on the radio means you’re a welcher," said Olbermann, before showing hilarious footage of Prince Charles with an animated frog.

But Olbermann, not knowing him like we unfortunately do, lets Belling off too easy. "Welcher" is the least of it. Racist, liar, poisoner of political dialog, local embarassment – that’s more like it.

8 comments:

patrick said...

"We cannot, we will not, we must not raise taxes." Except he did. Rather than comment on Belling and the Durby, why not share your reflections on our wonderful Mr. Doyle who now has to lay off hundreds of workers (at least for a period) because he has managed us into a 6.5 Billion dollar deficit.

Wait...let me guess...the deficit was left over from McCallum and Thompson. Yeah, that's it. Or, perhaps Bush did it.

Maybe after Doyle decides to spend time with family instead of running for re-election, he can follow Mark Green into some obscure ambassadorship and do for some foriegn country what he has done to Wisconsin.

Publius said...

"Doyle’s supposed pledge, such as it was, had only to do with personal income, property and sales taxes."

Where in the original speech by Doyle do you find that? Or is it that you have bought into the spin and rationalization used by Doyle and his enablers after the fact?

Here is the link to the original speech if you need help:

http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/journal_media_detail_print.asp?prid=53&locid=19

Mike Plaisted said...

Publius:

I think there are several versions of the supposed "pledge" -- at least Sykes had different language in a propaganda piece in 2003: "Even after he was elected, he insisted this March that “whether it's income taxes or sales taxes or property taxes, the people of Wisconsin cannot afford a tax increase — and they shouldn't have to.”

http://www.wpri.org/WIInterest/Vol12no3/Sykes12.3.pdf

I don't when he said that (you'll have to ask Sykes or, maybe, his ghost writer), but that's where I got it, and it makes sense in the context of the State of the Union address you cite.

But these comments ignore the fact that what Doyle did or didn't do has nothing to do with Belling's lies, welching and racism. I love people who call Doyle all kinds of names he doesn't deserve and let people like Belling off the hook. He's your problem -- not mine.

patrick said...

Okay. Belling welched on a bet he made with .... people who read his piece on the race. Doyle, on the other hand, kept his promise the people of wisconsin by raising every tax and fee aside from "the big three" while he rang up the 6.5 billion dollar hole in the budget. While every person in Wisconsin will now have to cough up what...$1200 bucks to cover for Doyle, Mike's playing gottcha with belling. I'll be sure to get WISN on the line to express my outrage over Belling's lies, racism, and welching. I'll speak truth to power.

Publius said...

Below is the text of Belling's letter to the Democratic Party. It would appear to me that since it uses the exact same language as the 2003 State of the State speech, there is no way to differentiate what taxes Doyle is referring to as you claim in your original post.

The only way to do that would be to buy into the after-the-fact rationalization and spin which it appears you have done.

If you want, we can quibble over the amount of egg on Belling's face. Fine. That doesn't change the fact that you got caught regurgitating talking points and contributing to the echo chamber that you so despise.

Instead of worrying about what Sykes or whomever said/blogged about it, next time you should check the source documents.

________

Dear Mr. Wineke (aka "Joe"),

In 2003, Gov. Jim Doyle said, "My mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes." [emphasis mine]

I fully intend to honor my commitment to vote for Gov. Doyle if he honors his.

If Governor Doyle withdraws his support for: the oil franchise tax, the landfill tax, the income tax hike, the RTA taxes, the cigarette tax, the digital download tax, the 911 phone tax, and vetoes any increase in the gasoline tax or the sales taxes and cancels the new hospital tax and the new combined reporting tax and imposes no new tax of any kind between now and the next election, I will indeed vote for Governor Doyle for reelection.

If he does not honor his commitment, I will not honor mine. If that makes me a liar, I will be in the company of the governor of the State of Wisconsin.

It is, however, nice to know that the party of Bill "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" Clinton, and Jim "I am opposed to all expansion of gambling" Doyle, has suddenly reversed decades of course and is now in support of telling the truth.

Regards,

Mark Belling

P.S. If Doyle actually does kill all his taxes, I'll even donate to his campaign.

AnotherTosaVoter said...

Mike,

I'm sorry, but there's no objective way you can credibly claim that Doyle hasn't broken his no tax pledge. As a fiscal and policy specialist with experience at the federal, state, and local levels, I can assure you that in no way has this state's fiscal policy - as enacted by either party in the last 5-10 years - been sound.

That's not partisan, it's factual. This state has spent beyond its means and built up future liabilities it cannot afford without massive tax increases or spending cuts.

Both parties have absolutely awful records on fiscal policy and neither they nor their sychophants have any credibility on the issue.

Aside from that, Belling is an idiot for not simply accepting responsibility and eating crow.

But then, partisan hacks are always idiots. They always find some mind-bending rationalization that requires massive amounts of kool aid to accept. Whether their chosen party starts with a "D" or an "R", it makes no difference.

Deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Mike, since you're getting absolutely crushed with these replies...maybe it's time for you to write a blog about how much you hate James T. Harris?

Anonymous said...

Reagan and Bush also pledged not to raise taxes. THEY ALL do it. Get over it.