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4/10/2007
Gov. Doyle proves himself a hypocrite
This Isthmus article is a good one. Puts Governor Doyle side by side next to – Governor Doyle! What a riot. On one hand, April 6, 2007, Mr. Doyle “angrily lashed out at the media for sensationalizing the case” calling the Thompson conviction ‘a terrible injustice.” And he magnanimously offered Ms. Thompson her job back, including back pay and benefits. He even offered to pay her legal fees. Wow. (See Isthmus article here.)
Doyle said Thompson would be entitled to resume her $75,000-a-year job as well as receive back pay and other benefits. He also said she could be eligible to have her legal bills paid, since state employees who face legal action in performing their official duties are eligible for reimbursement. Doyle called Thompson an “innocent woman who was used as a apolitical football.”
"Can you imagine the horror of this? She's doing her job and then she gets caught up in all this," he said.
But here’s the question. Where was the generous sugar daddy in June of 2006, as “travel-gate” was unwinding?
Doyle said Tuesday the trial made clear Thompson acted alone and that he was moving to fire her, saying he has "zero tolerance for ethical lapses in government."
"The fact is that this was a verdict about one state employee, a woman to this day I've never met," Doyle said Tuesday.
"All of the testimony was that this was Georgia Thompson acting alone, that the decisions she made were hers alone, there was no evidence at all that any superior in any way made any suggestion to her…"
...before the ink was dry on the verdicts, he basically ordered the firing of convicted Department of Administration procurement officer Georgia Thompson after she was found guilty of rigging a state bidding process to favor a Doyle contributor.
Doyle, who is not too popular with state employees after pledging to cut 10,000 state positions, climbed ahead of Ebenezer Scrooge and Ken Lay on the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels list with his precipitous call for Thompson's head on a platter hours after the verdicts came down.
Ok, he had a campaign to run. And he had an election to win. The sad thing is we’re not even shocked by the hypocrisy, because that’s what politicians do. They diss friends, foes and loyal employees alike. And we tolerate it. That’s sad.
COMMENTS
Thanks for bringing to our attention the Isthmus article regarding the latest twist in the Georgia Thompson saga. You correctly identify the hypocrisy behind Mr. Doyle's decision to maintain silence when Thompson was convicted followed by trying to score politically when her conviction was overturned. Political hypocrisy is deplorable. But please explain why you failed to comment on the other key point of the article, the item suggesting that Federal Prosecutor Biskupic abused his powerful position to affect an upcoming election while costing a staffer her freedom. Biskupic's action, if the suggestion is valid, was far more damaging and therefore far more important news than Doyle's activity. Moreover, it relates directly to perhaps the hottest issue in the country, abuse of the justice department for political reasons. While I generally see things from a liberal bias, I try to develop an inmdependent viewpoint by reading your news articles along with other conservative media venues. While I expect your views to favor the conservatives in your readership, it seems to me that headlining one of the two main points of an article and completely ignoring the other is irresponsibly polarizing. This country (and this globe) doesn't need and arguably can't afford any more of that. Please try to be a little more fair and balanced.
Larry, let's wait to see what further information comes out about any Biskupic connection to the administration or the GOP. JE
larry w. cain (Tue Apr 10 09:09:45 2007)
Jo, I can't help but detect a little hypocrisy in the criticism, actually. If the governor HADN'T come down so harshly on Thompson then, methinks critics (possibly including yourself, although that's only an assumption) would have drilled him for coddling her or not being tough enough on political corruption. So he either goes easy on her then and gets criticized, or he goes tough on her then and modifies his position once the courts modify theirs, which he's now being criticized for. Essentially a no-win situation, which is why it seems a bit hypocritical to bash him now. What should he have done to avoid looking hypocritical that wouldn't have engendered any criticism?
Yes, I take your point. In my (and the governor's) defense, the peice does mention that at the time of the trial Gov. Doyle had a campaign to run and an election to win. And as you mentioned, it is we voters who would have been critical (unjustifiably, if he had NO connection with Travel-gate) of his defense of Ms. Thompson. So, I place blame on us voters as well as on our politicians who must - and do - appeal to our vagaries. Therein lies the root of what could be called hypocrisy on my part. JE
Matt Neistein (Tue Apr 10 10:47:55 2007)
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