That’s the problem created by a three-judge panel’sruling last week stating that the scummy, Willie Horton-style campaign adpersonally approved by state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman did notwarrant discipline by the state Supreme Court. According to the panel, becauseevery individual statement in the ad, when taken alone, was trueeven thoughthe implied meaning of the entire statement was falsethe complaint filed bythe Wisconsin Judicial Commission against Gableman should be dismissed. What’smore, the panel noted that Gableman didn’t break binding rulesjust, you know,rules that are sort of nice to follow if you feel like it. Appellate CourtJudge Ralph Adam Fine went even further, finding that regulating campaignspeech at all, “in my view, violates the First Amendment.”
This ruling should be trashed and the state SupremeCourt should ignore it and discipline Gableman. This misguided finding willonly encourage future judicial candidates to draw on Gableman’s stated “rightto lie” in campaign ads and further erodethis state’s confidence in the integrity of our judicial system. Desperatecandidates like Gableman shouldn’t be allowed to lie their way to the top whilehonest candidates get smeared.
Hero of theWeek
MattieHollingsworth
A sudden rise in unemployment can be devastating atany time, but perhaps more so at the start of the holiday season. The Milwaukeebranch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP), with the help of two local groups, Ambassadors for Peace and Sharingwith Families, is taking direct action to help area families who have beenaffected by the current economic downturn by collecting clothing, food,household items and toys and delivering them to those in need. They have beendoing this for years, but it appears that this year may have the greatest needsince the recession of 1982. Mattie Hollingsworth, of Sharing with Families,has been involved with this annual drive for the last 16 years. At age 78,Hollingsworth is still an active participant, personally collecting anddelivering these needed relief items. The ShepherdExpress thanks Mrs. Hollingsworth and her fellow volunteers involved inthis drive for being true community heroes, and urges readers who wish to helpwith a donation of money, items or volunteer time to contact the NAACP at (414)562-1000.
Jerk of theWeek
Gov. JimDoyle
This week’s honor goes to Gov. Jim Doyle for cavingin to the special interest polluters and reversing his position on restoringthe citizen Department of Natural Resources (DNR) board with the power to hirethe DNR secretary (currently, the governor appoints the secretary). There aresome legitimate arguments on both sides of this issue, but a strong bipartisanmajority in the Legislature felt that the strongest arguments were for acitizen DNR board. Since Wisconsin’snatural resources are one of its greatest assets and a citizen DNR boardprovides a barrier of sorts from political interference, both Republicans andDemocrats supported this policy change. Interestingly, so did Doyle as early aslast year. Then the business community made it clear that it would rather dealwith the governor, whose campaign business leaders contribute to, than anindependently selected professional DNR secretary. The governor quickly changedhis mind, went back on his promises and vetoed the effort to re-establish thecitizen DNR board. Kerry Schumann, head of the Wisconsin League of ConservationVoters, said, “It’s as simple as this: Governor Doyle made a promise to thepeople of this state and he broke it. The many conservationists we’ve heardfrom since his veto on Friday aren’t disappointed; they’re angryangry thatthey were lied to.”
