Tuesday, October 17, 2006

MARK GREEN -- EMPTY SUIT

The question isn’t whether Mark Green has been a rubber-stamp or a lap-dog during his years in Washington. The question is: Who is he a lap-dog for?

Yesterday, the Journal Sentinel tempered, as it must, a review of Green’s 90% pro-Bush voting record with a swipe at the Doyle campaign for "getting it wrong" by claiming Green’s record was 92% Bushie. While gently pointing out that Green had compiled a record more slavishly-Bush than any other Wisconsin House Republican (no small feat with Paul Ryan in the mix), the separate headline claims the study cited by Doyle for the 92% figure "doesn’t support" the ad (which, by the way, stopped running months ago).

The bulk of the ad itself, however, is fully supported and provides numerous reasons to question Green’s judgement, if he has any. Most of the ad outlines specific votes Green made against education funding, raising the minimum wage and for tax breaks for oil companies.

At the end, the 92% figure is noted, and cited as coming from the Congressional Observer. [Note: Have you seen any legitimate citations in all those lying Green ads? Didn’t think so...] According to the determined detail-checkers at the J-S – at least as far as Doyle ads are concerned – the Observer’s 92% figure was for votes with House leadership, not for the Bush agenda itself. So the Doyle claim was 2% off. Someone call the Ethics Board or, at least, that hysterical J-S former editor who is so distressed by both campaigns (see last post, below).

But, this begs the question: what possible difference could there be between Bush’s agenda and that of the House leadership? One of the reasons that the Bush team has been able to march the government this far to the edge of the cliff is that the Republicans have marched in lock-step with each other on virtually all issues. Every issue, each piece of legislation and every vote is run through Rove’s political office for content and timing. This is the primary reason that the House is likely to go back into Democratic hands in three weeks – to bring accountability back to Washington for the first time in six years. Or, as Diane Keaton commands to Al Pacino about his family business in The Godfather, "this all must end!"

Of more concern to Green, I would think, should be that the Observer study shows him to be even nuttier than Bush. On the few issues where the House leadership breaks from Bush, it is always to the Right. For instance, on immigration, the House (and Green) voted to make criminals out of anyone who would provide humanitarian assistance to illegal immigrants. It can’t be good for Green that it isn’t Bush that he has been too close to – it’s Tom DeLay.

But the more important issue is not whose bag Green is in, Bush’s or DeLay’s – it is that he is in the bag in the first place. Green is not a leader, but a flunky, a too-willing GOP functionary. Like Bush, Green is an empty suit, available to be filled with all manner of bad ideas and agendas.

What is Green going to do when he has to do more than just cast a vote as directed by his party leadership? When he is actually in the drivers seat, who is going to be holding the map and pointing the way for him? To this point in his political career, Green has proved either uninterested or incapable of going his own way, of exercising any independent judgement about anything.

As governor, Green would be the ultimate rubber-stamp for a radical Republican legislature that will rush bad ideas like concealed-carry and rigid property tax freezes to his desk. If you liked one-party rule in Washington for the past six year, you’ll love it in Wisconsin.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mark will champion issues that are important to the state and the party, in that order. I have talked with Mark on many occasions, his vision for Wisconsin is drastically different from the "stick it to the rich....ya know, the people with vision, money, skill" the one's that are always targeted to pay more, so the poor don't have to. Don't like the current tax ranking, get the Republican majority in all levels of state governance, watch taxes frozen, local government live within its means, exceed budget ONLY by a mandate of the people, do whatever is necessary to attract business to the state, reorganize and reign in the DNR, life the stupid moratorium on nuclear power plants in this state and clean up the moronic liberal mess that passes for the UW System by forcing them to sit up and fly right. Get rid of the damn illegals and the riff-raff that screw the system in this state by passing themselves off as residents and collecting benefits. Pass the death penalty, clean out the prisons of convicted killers...instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars per prisioner, spend a few cents, buy a bullet, and rid the state of these sub human pieces of human waste.

Mike Plaisted said...

Alright! Good to get the attention of the "other side", however unvarnished. I wonder who's linking to me on in Wing-nut Land.

By the way, I was a cab driver for about 30 seconds about 30 years ago. Besides, what's wrong with cab drivers?

atarijpb said...

Wasn't it the esteemed Conrad Burns, Senator from Montana, who said that the security threats we face in the future "Drive cabs by day and plot against us at night." What a surprise - Republican. I'm pretty sure GWC Shadow gets his line of talking points from people like that.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you check the WI dems voting record with Clinton. I'm sure they would all have percentages in mid to high 90% range. This is a bogus comparison.

Anonymous said...

Uh oh, the right wing wackos are coming out to defend "America" by making sure that anyone who is below them "buy a bullet, and rid the state of these sub human pieces of human waste." Gee I wonder was that from the Book of John, or was that from Leviticus?

See you at the Karl Rove event!

Mike Plaisted said...

Yo, Anonymous:

I would love to compare Wis Dems and Clinton agenda record and would be glad to see 90% or more support, though I doubt it. Democrats are much more independent than the DeLay/Rove era Repubs could ever be.

But, 90%+ support for a deservedly popular president who knew what he was doing and had the right agenda for the country? I hope so. I'll take it.

The problem -- and the difference -- with Green is that he has walked right down the line with one of the worst presidents in U.S History, with a record that had lead to disaster in Iraq and everywhere else. With Bush the lamest of ducks (especially in 3 weeks), that's now Green's problem.

If Bush were popular or knew what he was doing, Green would be a happy, proud lap-dog, sitting on his master's lap with tougue and tail a-waggin'. As it is, he's run out of the yard, hiding under the brush in the neighbor's yard.

Mark, get back here!. Bad dog. Bad DOG!