From the CapTimes: The Broken Politics of Speaker Robin Vos by John Nichols NOTE: All bold-facing is mine. There is something profoundly wrong about the ominous statements Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been making with regard to businesspeople who have not aligned with Vos and his fellow Republicans. The speaker has gotten a good deal of blowback for suggesting that Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry made a mistake when he joined civic leaders in welcoming President Obama at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport last month. Obama was in town to campaign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, and Lasry’s a Democratic donor. But the Bucks owner is also pushing a plan to build a new multipurpose arena in Milwaukee, and the arena’s financing package is likely to require state aid. That’s where Vos sees a problem. If youre looking to people for support, you certainly dont want to poke people in the eye, he told Milwaukee’s Business Journal. On UpFront with Mike Gousha, Vos said Lasry’s greeting of the president “wasn’t the wisest decision” because “having us give hundreds of millions of dollars to big-time donors who give to Democrats” would be a tough sell with legislative Republicans. Those statements have earned criticism and calls for inquiries. They should also cause Wisconsinites to pause and consider just how broken our political process has become. This runs deeper than Vos, and goes beyond the Republican-controlled Legislature. The speaker’s casual disregard for the basics of ethical governing illustrates the crisis of the pay-to-play politics in which leaders of both parties engage. When fundraising totals for election cycles stretch into the billions nationally, and into the tens of millions for Wisconsin gubernatorial contests, the pursuit of money becomes definitional. And destructive. Several years ago, retired Deloitte Touche CEO Ed Kangas explained: “Our political system is so badly corrupted that it is imploding in front of our eyes. Our politicians are so obsessed with maintaining power and being re-elected that they engage in two corrosive practices … they accept and support huge political contributions and related spending by the powerful and the rich: individuals, corporations, unions, and special-interest groups. And they, in return, grant access and favoritism.” Things have only grown worse since Kangas and the Committee for Economic Development released a poll of business executives that concluded: “According to nine in 10 business leaders surveyed, corporate America contributes to political campaigns to gain access to influence the legislative process; to avoid adverse legislative consequences; or to promote a certain ideological position.” When a legislative leader suggests that a business leader might face adverse legislative consequences for greeting the president, the basic premise of American democracy — that after an election, the winners must govern in the public interest — is abandoned. It is easy, and appropriate, to criticize Vos. But it is foolish to think this crisis begins or ends with one politician or one issue. It is an epidemic, and it is consuming Wisconsin and America. Read more: host.madison/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-the-broken-politics-of-speaker-robin-vos/article_31956efb-7bab-5fb1-bc4e-8ffc3cfd06ea.html#ixzz3JHMdtAoo
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 00:58:53 +0000
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