Lautenschlager Must Quit As (WI) State's Top Cop

Green Bay Press-Gazette Editorial ^ | 03/04/2004 | Green Bay Press-Gazette

[ServesURight]

Try as she might, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager can

[ServesURight]

If Lautenschlager were a Republican, here's what the next day's headlines would be:

"Right-wing, racist GOP Attorney General Cited For OWI, Rejects Calls To Step Down"

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

She's a former Clinton appointee, whatta ya expect?

Doesn't matter, she's toast in 2006. She's already a lame duck with no credibility.

[Honcho Bongs]

Even MADD of Wisconsin admitted that their membership was not asking, but demanding that Lautenschlager quit.

Of course, in today's Post-Crescent they edited that part out of the story. Fortunately it was available in a press release on http://www.thewheelerreport.com.

Before the Internet I wouldn't have been able to see the blatant bias as easily.

[zip]

ping

[CPT Clay]

Intresting... the article never mentioned her political affiliation.

[abovethefray]

Any comment from Roz Doyle, producer of the Frasier Crane show in Seattle ?

[Clinging Bitterly]

I'm sorta mixed on this. There are plenty of good reasons to want most Democrats out of office, and there is probably plenty of real good dirt on this woman, but I don't think getting a DUI should necessarily be unforgivable. Don't forget, the present leader of the free world, our own GWB, has one on his record, and if it's a good enough charge to oust a lowly state AG, somebody will figger it fair to make it a national issue.

[stylin19a]

I don't think President Bush held any elected position, nor was he driving a giverment car when he got the DUI.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Any comment from Roz Doyle, producer of the Frasier Crane show in Seattle ?

What?

[Clinging Bitterly]

None of that is going to matter if the media chooses to make an issue of it. If it brings down a state AG, they'll say it's fair to bring down the President, even as they say sexual misconduct on the job (the Oval Office is a workplace) is a private matter.

I don't have much use for drunks. My nearest cousin was a drunk, his funeral is tomorrow. He spent the last month in a stupor and ultimately shot himself, and what is going on in the family in the aftermath of that is no picnic. He has hurt many more than himself here, his drinking and the action it brought about has left a hole in our hearts.

So I'm not saying a drinking problem shouldn't be addressed (and it seems as though the President addressed his), but absent other serious character flaws, I wouldn't treat a first offense DUI as a blemish serious enough to oust a politician or to not consider voting for them. In Oregon we see them now and then from both parties get nabbed up in the Salem area, and it almost seems the media conspires to ruin them at that point. Most of us know and work with people who have had one (and no, I have never had one), and they have paid the consequences and moved on. It's what they learn from it and how they deal with it in the future that matters, it can actually improve one's character. I know some good examples of that myself, and who knows, one at the right time might have helped my cousin, but he was always "lucky" and never got caught. Most states, I think, see that possibility of redemption, else they wouldn't have the graduated scale of offense level and penalties for first, second, and subsequent offenses. A first offense wouldn't and shouldn't cause most people to lose a job that doesn't require driving.

And being in the state car doesn't matter. It is as serious and potentially deadly no matter who owns the car. She should pay for the damage, if any, to the car, along with the other civil responsibilities she appears to have accepted, then let the voters weigh that along with all the other character and job performance factors at the next election. She sounds to me like someone who should never have been elected in the first place, and if this event tips the scale and prevents a reelection, I wouldn't have a problem with that.