Sunday, April 15, 2012

Who's The Wrongdoer Here?

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looks at the issue of the timing of any further charges stemming from Walkergate.  He asks all sorts of legal professionals, from former judges and prosecutors to law professors about this.  The long story short is that Milwaukee County District Attorney is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

If he files more charges before the recall election, Republicans will scream bloody murder about partisan politics and trying to interfere with the election.  And if Chisholm files charges after the election, especially if Walker won, they'd be screaming about trying to interfere with the people's will or some such nonsense.  Bice also states that if Chisholm doesn't file charges before the election, the Democrats will be screaming about that.

But while Bice states there is no clear precedent for this, he cites a number of examples when politicians of both parties were charged just before elections.

Bill Christofferson posts on this issue and vouches that Chisholm is not going to allow partisan politics are concern about the timing affect his decisions on when and who to charge.  He also cites another example of a Democratic DA filing charges against a Democratic politician just before an election.

My take on this is different from that of Bice and Christofferson.

To me, Chisholm isn't the person who needs to be scrutinized. To fret over when Chisholm might issue more charges misses the point.  It would be like a speeder blaming the cop who pulled him over for making him late.  If the speeder hadn't been speeding, the cop wouldn't have pulled him over.

Instead of trying to blame or excuse Chisholm for the timing of any charges, put the responsibility where it belongs - on Walker and his people that committed and allegedly committed the crimes.  If they hadn't been doing illegal campaigning, there would be no Walkergate and thus no charges to worry about.

8 comments:

  1. I've been thinking about this. Although I'm not a patient person, I don't want Chisolm to charge until he is ready. I think the right is trying to speed it up in hopes that he trips up and makes a mistake. I hope that he waits until he is sure that his case is solid and that in the end (whenever that is) Walker is locked up where he belongs.

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  2. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to "blame or excuse" Chisholm for whatever decision he makes -- just saying that whatever it is, it will not be politically motivated. And Chisholm will be scrutinized. That's already begun.

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    1. I agree, and that was the point I was trying to make. The focus shouldn't be on Chisolm at all, especially regarding the timing or any alleged political motivation. The focus should be on Walker and his people who chose to break the law in the first place.

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  3. I forgot about Xoff, its been a long time since I read his blog. He once told me that if there was a blue Dog on the democrat ticket that's who he would vote for. Its pretty close now!
    The fact that he feels the need to start making excuses for the DA re-affirms my belief that some charges will be timed to attempt to sway some voters. If its 20 felony counts, its justified, but 1 or 2 campaigning on taxpyer time charges will be viewed as a political stunt.

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    1. The act of campaigning on the taxpayers' dime was the actual political stunt.

      What a skewed perspective you have. It's a wonder you can even see straight enough to walk.

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  4. I remember all too well the 1972 election, when most voters were uninformed as to what WaPo was uncovering -- because most other media were not picking up the Watergate coverage as yet -- and they elected a crook to the White House again.

    I am hoping that Chisholm (the actual spelling of his name, I think) is old enough or schooled enough in recent history to remember that, too -- and the devastation for years to our country as we endured Watergate and its aftermath. We cannot have that in Wisconsin, after all that we already have been through this year.

    So I am hoping that Chisholm will continue to charge when he's ready to charge -- not too soon but not delaying for political reasons, either. Delaying justice would not be doing his job.

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  5. Right-wing writers and right-wing media-promoters tried the same approach with Siricca, Kleindeist. The GOP will try anything to deflect from the fact that Walker hired these people and had to be fully aware of all that went on in his office. He had employment files containing letters and notes warning him about the people he wanted to hire. He CAN NOT claim plausible deniability, and, that is why his right-wing buddies are attacking the DA, who is above reproach. I hope the DA puts together an air-tight case, and, whenEVER he feels ready...throws the book at Scott Walker.

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  6. If they're worried about the timing, they must be certain that Walker is John Doe.

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