The Bradley Scramble

By Jeff Simpson


By now, everyone in Wisconsin has heard about the hate speech op-eds of a young Rebecca Bradley.  
When Ms. Bradley was at Marquette, she had such strong hatred of the LGBQT community and almost as strong a hatred towards Democrats.

 

Ms. Bradley's heart and sould appear to be as empty as her calendar!  

Scott walker has a habit of hiring people for strictly partisan purposes and not caring too muchof their background.   He has been burned over and over(Dennis Smith for instance) for that but continues to do so.    Because vetting or rresearch was not part of the process, when One Wisconsin Now found these revolting op-eds, the right wing echo chamber was unprepared to defend her.  

Her good friend Vicki Mckenna tried to throw the reputation of Beloit College under the bus to save her but was unsuccessful.  

Vicki Pyzimski was not alone in poor attempts to justify the indefensible.  

This, from Rick Esenberg the well paid leader of the Bradley funded Wisconsin Institute Law and Liberty, was disgusted with the press for running with the story.  

Esenberg defended her and argued the race has become too focused on the politics of "personal destruction" rather than comparing judicial philosophies.
"This is one of the most vile and disgusting attack campaigns against anybody that I've seen in Wisconsin politics," Esenberg said.

Obviously Mr. Esenberg has a very very very short memory.  See Mr. Esenberg was one of the people who continually pushed the long debunked story that Mary Burke was fired from the company her family owned in 1993(one year after Bradley's hate speech).  The Journal Sentinel, actually practicing journalsim, realized that the one person making the 23 year old claim was head of the Jefferson County Republican party and also a lover of Swatikas.

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Gary Ellerman, who was fired from Trek, had this on his facebook page comparing our President to Hitler and then, out of the blue, a couple weeks before the election, magically remembered that Mary Burke was "fired"from her family's company in 1993.  No respectable newspaper could possibly run with the obvious smear job.   Mr. Eseneberg not only did not get the memo he refused to let it die.   

I don't know if the story about Mary Burke is accurate. I am sure that a dime store sexual politics won't help us answer the question.
Normally, I'd prefer a campaign limited to issues. But the Democrats have chosen to run someone for Governor whose resume, regardless of whether she was forced out in 1993, is astonishingly thin. To bolster the absence of a record , she has made claims about her long ago tenure at Trek that cannot be verified. Under those circumstances, this story matters and it can't be dismissed by attacking those who tell it.

For thsoe of you scoring at home, lets review.....   A local republican chairman, who was fired from Trek himself, suddenly remembered(amazingly a couple weeks before the election) that in 1993 Mary Burke was fired from the company she owned.  The word of one incredibly unreliable source, about in event that might or might not have happened in 1993 and that was very important to the election for Governor.  

Now we have the ACTUAL words of a Supreme Court Justice in 1992 that were full of hate and ignorance, and we know she also carried on an extramarital affair AND represented the man she was dating in court(while not illegal, highly unethical) and reporting on the ACTUAL documented events and facts of MS. Bradley's career is a "vile and disgusting attack".  

The Republicans need for power is all consuming too them!  

It's a Sad Affair

By Jeff Simpson

When Corporations have higher standards than our Government!



Johnson Controls CEO, Alex Molinaroli, recently had an affair with one of Johnson Controls consultants.   The information became public in court records of his divorce from his wife of 28 years.  

This led to a conflict of interest and ethics violations for the CEO who had a total compensation package of $19.5 Million/yr.   After an internal investigation, they did find that Mr. Molinaroli did violate the company's ethics policy.

Tuesday's filing marked the first time that the company had announced that its executive committee found that Molinaroli had violated the Johnson Controls ethics policy, which required him "to timely alert the Audit Committee to a situation that could be perceived to raise issues of conflict of interest," the filing says.

After the investigation, they ended up reducing his compensation by $1,000,000 and firing the consultant.

As a result, the compensation committee of the board reduced Molinaroli's annual incentive performance payment program by 20%. His performance payment was $3.9 million, which the filing says is 20% or $1 million below the maximum payment of $4.9 million that he could have received for his performance last year.
The proxy statement said the board decided to terminate its long-term engagement with Ihle's firm, Lichter & Ihle, "in light of the nature of the work performed by the outside consulting firm for the company and to avoid any perception of conflicts or potential future conflicts.

 If only our elected officials had such an ethics code they had to live up to!

Dennis Smith!

By Jeff Simpson

Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis G. Smith

Dennis Smith was appointed by Governor Scott Walker to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health Services on January 3, 2011. The agency is responsible for Wisconsin Medicaid programs which provide health care and long-term care services to more than 1 million enrollees, operates four mental health facilities, regulates state hospitals and coordinates the public health response for the state of Wisconsin.

In addition to his state and federal government service, Secretary Smith has worked as Managing Director of Medicaid Practice at Leavitt Partners, a partnership that advises clients in the practice areas of health, environment and trade. He was also a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C. think tank(term used loosely).
Smith has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from George Mason University and completed his undergraduate work at Illinois State University. Smith and his wife Laurel have four daughters.

Dennis Smith now is known for two things in his time in the Walker Administration. The first being he wants to destroy Medicaid (and with the help of Scott Walker he looks like he is going to be successful in that) and using Wisconsin taxpayer money to hire his high school crush and bring her to Madison.

It seems as though Mr. Smith, when interviewing for the position of chief legal counsel, interviewed a total of one candidate.    Working in the back yard of one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, Mr. Smith felt that no one in Wisconsin could possibly do the job as well as someone that he allegedly, once took to senior prom in high school.    Apparently she looked good enough in her dress that night that she did not need to be practicing law at the time nor have any working knowledge of WI.

Last August this all came to head, because while Dennis Smith was using our taxpayer dollars to bring his high school crush to Madison(using our taxpayer dollars to do so), it seems that her husband was not so excited about it.   Andrew Spear, allegedly came across some emails, confirming his suspicion that Smith and his wife were having an affair.

This led to a very ugly incident between the two, that was not covered very well in the media.  The one thing that consistently came out of this and was covered, was Dennis Smith's denial of the affair!
 
In a statement from Smith, he acknowledged a lifelong friendship with Mary Spear, and denied having an affair with her.

"I categorically and unequivocally deny that I have ever had a relationship with Mary Spear beyond friendship," Smith stated.

Smith was so adamant that he denied his affair, that he had to take some more WI  taxpayer money to hire a consultant and put a press release saying he really really didnt have an affair....honest!    Smith also pointed out that he will no longer have any public comments.  He was not kidding.

It seems that Mr. Spear has been trying to get the relevant phone/email records of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Spear that will prove that what he has to say about their affair is true.   After all the emails that Mr. Spear found are key in every version of the story.   Dennis Smith, who promised that he would not have any more comments, holds true to that even if it means breaking open records laws to do so!

However, Mr. Smith does not need to really comment anymore, as the motions filed in Dane County Branch 7 speak volumes.  In this motion we learn that allegedly:

1.  After the altercation at the storage shed, Mary drove Andrew home grabbed her computer and tried to leave.  Andrew stopped her from leaving, police were called and all the while she was very protective of her computer.

2.  Mary Spear admitted to the police that this whole altercation started when Andrew found the emails on her hard drive.

3.  The State has possession of all computers.

Then the next motion was filed and has even more interesting alleged claims: where Mr. Spear says that Mrs. Spear went into this panic when he threatened to tell Mrs. Smith!   We also find that Mrs. Spear told different people different versions of what happened in the storage shed. 


 The Spears had the ultimate tragedy happen to them a few years ago and that is something no one should have to live with.  I render no judgements on them and what happened in the storage shed.  That is for them and the courts of Wisconsin to sort out!

I do however hold serious concerns about Mr. Dennis Smith.   The person who heads the Department of Health Services and makes $122,568/yr,  the person who is in charge of hundreds of thousands of peoples healthcare in Wisconsin, should have better judgement then to get himself involved in the middle of a volatile marriage like the Spears.

Dennis Smith should also answer for why we as Wisconsin taxpayers, have to pay so much money to overcome his lapses in judgement.  Mr. Smith should also answer why he would only interview one person for such an important job with the state of WI!  Mr. Smith also needs to answer if he takes his job seriously and why he would get so involved in the life of someone who reports to him(irregardless if there was an affair).   if the court documents do get released and they show an affair, then Mr. Smith needs to explain that to the taxpayers of Wisconsin and Governor Walker will have to answer questions on his hiring practices and if Mr. Smith is fit to be in his position!  Governor Walker should also explain why he would be hiring people from the Heritage Foundation, does ideology trump competence?  

In the meantime, while we wait for the answers to come out for those questions, maybe Mr Smith can start out by answering this question.   If there was no affair, why would you communicate so much with Mrs. Spear via your state provided and owned blackberry and say this:

 in which Mary declared her love for Dennis and wondered if he was leaving her to which he responded " My dearest, I did not know that you had called. I am sorry you think I left you. Stupidly left my Blackberry at the office."

Stay tuned, this case will get very interesting!