GRAEME

By Jeff Simpson

I really tried to not get involved in the Graeme Zelinski twitter Battle, I really really did.  However, the self righteousness of the democrats and dripping hypocrisy of the right wing, along with the cowering to the right wing pressure meant that Graeme Zelinski lost his position today.

It was the wrong move, done by a party notorious for making wrong moves, and everyone in Wisconsin will suffer for the consequences.

Graeme posted a tweet comparing the Jeffrey Dahmer legal bills to the Scott Walker legal defense fund spending upwards of $500,000 to skirt charges.   Well the corporate media, lazy as ever, turned the story onto Graeme and not the fact that "son of a preacher man" is the ONLY governor in the US with a legal defense fund.  

It is beyond the pale to compare anyone and anything to Jeffrey Dahmer so Zieleinski had to go because the right wingers said so.  Thank Goodness, no one on the right ever said or did anyting stupid.


*  It is not like Robin Vos compared recall elections to having cancer right?    As a cancer survivor, that would offend me and a few million people.  If he did that there is no way the republicans would reward him with the speaker position right?

*  If Roger Rivard had ever said that "some girls rape easy" regarding a story about a 14 year old girl who had been raped, there is no way that the republicans would have supported him and cried when he lost right? 

*  Its not like radio hate sqwuaker Charlie Sykes has never libeled someone on the air right? If he had then there is no way he would be rewarded by JSONLINE with his own website!

* It is not like Graeme is  local blogger,  who advocated shooting volunteers who supported the recall effort. 

*  Its not like he is a republican senator who wants to get rid of a national holiday that many African Americans in the United States celebrate 

* It is not like he is a republican senator who went on a childish democrat name calling rant and people still pretend to take him seriously. 

*  It is not like he is a "non-partisan" independent Supreme Court Justice who sat front row and cheered said Senator's childish extreme partisan rant. 

* It is not like he seriously considered adding agent provocateurs to the protest, then refused to answer questions from the local police chief about it.   I took my 4 year old daughter and 7 year old son, to the protests, if our Governor had said that, the press would have skewered him with questions right?

Finally, I get it, any comparison to Jeffrey Dahmer should be the end of your political career.  There is no way the republicans would ever forgive this sin, so the democrats shouldn't either.

I actually agree with Robert Mentzer that Graeme has a checkered history, with much to answer for, BUT i do not agree that this is a fireable offense.  

It is too bad we allowed the right wing noise machine to set Democratic policy.   

Well, Hello Wausau!

Here at Cog Dis, we not only break the news, we make the news.

Last weekend, I posted the raw footage, taken at great risk of life and limb, of Sean Duffy trying to boost morale of party members at a WISGOP strategy summit.

That post, and the video, was picked up by Robert Mentzer, Opinion Editor for the Wausau Daily Herald.

First off, I'd like to thank and commend Mr. Mentzer for the reference. That is something that most media outlets don't do.

When I broke the story of Sean Duffy and his supporters, including his wife, Rachel, harassing his political opponent at a teahadist rally two years ago, several media outlets picked up on my story, but not one gave me the credit for breaking the story or citing me has their source.

That said, I also want to point out a snippet from Mr. Mentzer column which I found to be not only interesting but insightful:

I recommend that you take a listen to the tape because it’s interesting. But I admit that part of me wonders what we really get out of these sorts of illicit-seeming secret-hidden-camera videos. We assume that something a politician says in a closed room is more true than something a politician says in the open, but why should that necessarily be the case? It’s not as if this video — or, for that matter, the Romney “47 percent” video — captured the politician alone with his thoughts, or speaking to trusted advisers. Closed doors or not, both men were speaking to an audience, and if I know politicians that means both were still feeling that magnetic pull to pander and self-aggrandize.

The presidential race in Wisconsin is going to be tight. It’s going to be a 1 point to 2 point race either way. That could easily be true. But it also is exactly what you would want to tell a room full of activists for your side, isn’t it? Seems to me we’re left back where we started, not knowing quite what to make of what’s on that hidden camera.