Nero's Fiddle

by Kerry Thomas

July 18, 2006

On his website, John Gard says “In 2001, John Gard was the author of Wisconsin's Senior Care program.” But, according to John Gard’s latest campaign ad, he “helped crate Senior Care.”

If you ask the legislators who were in the Assembly during the Senior Care battles, the honest ones will tell you it was first proposed and championed by Rep. Steve Wieckert.

In 1999, Wieckert’s proposal was modeled after similar programs enacted in other states. His proposal passed the Assembly, but failed in the Senate. So in 2001 the proposal was re-introduced. And, as is customary in legislative debates, other legislators contributed to the final bill. As chairman of the finance committee, John Gard did control the debate, but his contribution to the bill was miniscule. 95% of the final bill was a result of work done by Rep. Wieckert’s office.

Of course, Rep. Wieckert won’t tell you this, on the record. He can’t, if he hopes to have a future in Wisconsin politics.

This is just one example of the kind of tactics and gamesmanship that have been going on behind the scenes this year in the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW), in an all out effort to ensure John Gard’s election to Congress.

Then there’s the story about a film crew showing up at Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, where they make fire trucks. The film crew showed up, and asked the employees if they’d like to be in a film. Thinking it was for a company promotional video or commercial, several employees volunteered.

They were made up and given scripted lines to read. One woman was told to say “John will help us with our retirement, and he will help us keep our jobs.” She said she assumed "John" was John Randjelovic, President of Pierce Manufacturing. Other employees were given similar lines to deliver.

Only after the filming had been completed did the employees find out that “John” was John Gard. When one of the film crew asked the employees if they were going to vote for John Gard, one of them told the film crew "I don't even know who he is!" The employees were upset, and said they felt they had been used. Now they’ve stopped talking to the media, out of fear for their jobs.

And speaking of being used, why was Bart Starr paid $1600 to attend the event where he endorsed John Gard?

The leaders in the party have been busy, cutting deals and twisting arms to ensure they present a united front. Anyone who challenges the leadership’s official positions or who challenges their anointed candidates soon learns they suddenly are the enemy. They find their records challenged, their loyalty questioned. Anyone who dares to come forward and tell the truth is ostracized.

At a recent event to honor veterans, Mark Green was supposed to be the featured guest. But there was John Gard, claiming credit for the idea that veterans should get a break on their property taxes. Most legislators know that was Terri McCormick’s idea. But few people know that John Gard used his position as Assembly Speaker to block her bill, the very bill that would have delivered the property tax break for veterans that Gard was trying to take credit for. Can you say chutzpah?

It is predictably ironic that John Gard is claiming credit for a lot of good proposals that he never really seemed to care about until he decided to run for Governor, oops, I mean Congress.

When Georgia Pacific announced it was requesting a suspension (not a withdrawal) of it’s EPA application to dispose of PCB-contaminated soils in local landfills, John Gard issued a press release. Where was he when Terri McCormick was meeting with officials from Hobart, Howard & Ashwaubenon, and also with the Governor, in efforts to delay putting the contaminated soils into landfills while alternatives were explored? Did the fact that the Georgia Pacific Employee Fund PAC made a large donation to Gard’s campaign have anything to do with his actions? Or is Georgia Pacific just biding its time, by suspending rather than withdrawing its application, waiting for John Gard to get to Congress, where he just might be able to help with the cleanup costs?

Given his propensity to claim credit for other people’s work (a no-no most of us learned about in school), it won’t be a surprise when John Gard tries to take credit for Howard Fuller’s school choice proposals, Bob Gilpatrick’s work in public school choice, and even Terri McCormick’s work in founding the charter school initiatives in Wisconsin.

I guess after nearly twenty years in office, some people might just forget about who really came up with the ideas and who just takes credit for them. Must be one of the perks that comes with the leadership office. Well, if you’re going to take the credit, you might as well get the blame, too.

Earlier this year, the RPW was plastering the media with press releases critical of Governor Jim Doyle’s budget. And with good reason. Under Governor Doyle, Wisconsin’s state budgets have exploded with reckless spending. We’re going to be paying for these programs for years to come.

Both Jim Doyle and John Gard can be blamed for the state’s budget problems. Jim Doyle was never presented a single budget that did not first get approval from John Gard’s Assembly. While these two were playing games, we’re stuck with the bills.

It almost took an act of God (or was it Mark Belling?) to get John Gard to change his mind and vote to end the automatic gas tax increase every year. When Belling interviewed him live on the air, Gard was adamant that he would not vote to end the automatic tax increases. He said it would hurt road construction in Wisconsin. Then Belling let his listeners know just how much the road builders had contributed to Gard’s campaign. In the end, Gard caved. It would have damaged his campaign if he had not.

The Senior Care program may have been well intended, to provide benefits to Wisconsin’s seniors while the federal government ironed out the wrinkles in their prescription drug benefit program. But Senior Care’s generous benefits exceeded the state’s ability to pay for them. If you’re taking the credit, you get the blame, too. Governor Doyle and John Gard have both claimed credit for Senior Care. They’ve also both asked the federal government for help with the program for another year (until after their elections).

John Gard likes to tell people how he’s spent almost twenty years “building a movement” in Wisconsin. (Sounds to me like he’s running for proctologist, not Congress.) Now, he wants to do the same thing in Congress. John Gard has put a lot of time and effort into positioning his RPW players on his political game board.

As the world stands at the brink of another world war, can we really afford to send someone to Washington who plays games with people’s lives?

Do we want a Representative in Congress who’ll be busy building his movement? Do we want a Representative who spends his time lining up the next corporate PAC donation? Do we want another slick cookie cutter politician who’s more interested in plotting ways to get himself elected than in meeting his constituents? Do we want a Representative who spends his time going to fundraisers instead of answering questions at public forums? Do we want a Representative who puts his party loyalty before his constituents’ interests?

As the war on terror escalates in the Middle East and throughout the world, as North Korea and Iran stall for time to enable their scientists to build missiles and nuclear weapons, as terrorist bombs explode in Japan, India, Spain, France and England, as the leader of Venezuela incites hatred of America here in the Western hemisphere, as terrorist groups are caught sneaking across our borders from Canada and Mexico, our elected officials must be able to rise above petty political gamesmanship.

We, the People, are tired of political games. We’re tired of candidates trying to buy our votes. We’re tired of the spin, of the doublespeak, and the lies. As President Bush said in January, “People are not happy with the status quo. People want honest government.”

Will we vote for the best candidate this year, or will we only get to choose the lesser of two bad choices? Will our actions at the ballot box this time reflect our principles, or just political expediency? The future of the world may well hinge on our choices.

It’s not a game any more.