Swimming in the Mud

I don't claim to know much about state politics. Hell, I could, for the most part, care less about local politics. I like the big, juicy stuff like baseball trades, the abortion wars, the weird and defenseless of marriage, etc. However, I have read a bit lately about the beginnings of...gasp...dare I say it...Travelgate...in Madison (Watergate really did us a disservice...we need to come up with other ways to describe travesty rather than by adding the word "gate"). It has seemed interesting. I've read Xoff's points of views. I have read Charlie Yikes'. I've read stuff from other blogs on both sides.

However, the following item was gotten from Xoff (hat tip) and was really well done...and it's ostensibly from a conservative. At least that was my assumption after reading Xoff state that it came from an unexpected source. I jumped over to Playground Politics to see for myself and found a dose of conservativism with lots of pragmatism.

Anyway, the main points of the piece are below. The entire piece can be reached here. It's recommended reading...for the two or three who read stuff here (thanks Mom). Good work, Playground Politics.

Those who try to paint Thompson as a Doyle ally are missing the point that she was hired while Scott McCallum was governor. She is not, as Mark Green would have you believe, "an official of Governor Doyle's administration." Doyle had nothing to do with her hiring and Thompson, having passed her review process, has job protection that precludes her from being disciplined prior to the outcome of this case. She can be transferred into another job, and that's about it. And Mark Green, as a former legislator, damn well knows that.

Scott Walker's release, on the other hand, shows only that the man is incapable of understanding what the indictment actually says. Walker would like to infer that Thompson was pressured into using political considerations in the course of her work, something not indicated anywhere in the actual indictment. Of course, Scott's a college dropout.