We Must Cultivate Our Gardens

“Tawdry and Despicable” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A “Tragedy” — Gov. Doyle

“Unfit to be a judge or hold any public office — Bill Lueders

Others have reflected on the awful campaign leading to the defeat of Justice Louis Butler by Burnett County Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman in Tuesday’s election.

My reaction was disappointment and anger. Justice Butler, a highly-respected, ethical and accomplished jurist was taken out by a truly mean-spirited, vicious and cynical campaign.

But let’s stop putting the blame on how shady, anonymous third party groups manipulated the process.

For one thing, the Gableman campaign itself was responsible for the most reprehensible ad. It was the one that flashed Butler’s picture on the screen next to the face of a child molester who Butler represented in his role as a public defender more than twenty years ago.

Leaving aside the racist implications that led to comparisons with the Willie Horton ad of the 1988 Lee Atwater-George H.W. Bush campaign, Gableman’s ad crossed a clear line by suggesting that Butler was tainted for serving as a public defender offering competent defense to an indigent client.

Gableman refused to withdraw the ad or apologize for it, insisting that he was simply drawing a distinction between his experience as a prosecutor and Butler’s experience as a defense attorney.

A number of legal experts believe that this ad violated the prohibition of judges engaging in behavior detrimental to public confidence in the judicial system. Even many of his supporters, including the estimable Charlie Sykes, criticized the ad. So Gableman will join the court with an ethical cloud surrounding him much as Annette Ziegler did last year.

But let no one be confused about those third party groups. They are neither anonymous nor obscure. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business group, bellied up to the bar and opened its wallet to make sure that the balance of power on the Supreme Court swung in its favor. These greedy, Gordon Gecko-wannabes shouldn’t be given the cloak of invisibility or unaccountability.

Take a look at the WMC board.

These are the folks responsible for replacing Louis Butler with Michael Gableman. Each one probably considers him or herself a civic leader, with ties to the community and charitable causes they support. I’ll bet they love their mothers, are good parents and maybe even have really, really cute pets. Maybe you know one of them or more.

I suggest you do what I did. Contact them and ask them if they were involved in the decision to conduct this campaign and, if so, why.

I exchanged emails with John B. Torinus, Jr., Chairman of Serigraph, Inc. of West Bend. Mr. Torinus, who also pens a business column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, responded that he personally favors public financing of Supreme Court elections though he acknowledged that would be useless unless third party spending was reined in.

We have no choice but to operate under the rules as they exist. So it seems somewhat disingenuous, especially for our corporate leaders, to blame our actions on the system. It’s kind of like blaming the “man” for street crime.

Mr. Torinus also said that Gableman engaged in “bottom fishing” aka negative campaigning. You think?

But I don’t want to end this piece by wringing my hands at those awful people who supported Gableman. As the wise Walt Kelly’s alter ego Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

The ultimate responsibility for Tuesday’s outcome is with us, the voters. Turnout was low and the Gableman camp did a better job at getting its people out. Shame on us.

So, as the idealistic youth, Candide, learned so many centuries ago, we must pay more attention to cultivating our garden!

We have another important election coming up in November. We simply can’t be out-maneuvered or out-organized even if it is inevitable that we will be out-spent.

So let’s get busy. Our gardens need cultivating.