Free Republic

The leaders of the Legislature's budget committee on Wednesday abandoned Gov. Scott Walker's plan to strip the state Natural Resources Board and the state Agriculture Board of their policy-making powers. They also removed 13 other pieces of policy from Walker's budget, including one that would exempt research at the University of Wisconsin System from the open records law. Another one that was dropped would have had property assessment duties shifted from most municipalities to counties. In other action, the Joint Finance Committee voted to cut staff for Secretary of State Doug La Follette and reshape how courts are funded. Wednesday's...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Longtime Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette plans to file paperwork on Thursday that would allow him to run for governor if a recall election is ordered against Republican Gov. Scott Walker. La Follette said Wednesday he still hasn't decided whether he will actually get into the race. But he says he wants to create a campaign committee so he can better gauge interest in him running and better determine if he would be a strong candidate. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout have announced they are running. La Follette...

Madison -- Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.

Secretary of State Doug La Follette said after spending much time talking to people this weekend and thinking over when to publish the collective bargaining bill, he'd decided the bill will be published March 25. La Follette, a Democrat, said he wants to give local officials and employees time to sort out the ramifications of the new law. "There literally are hundreds of school boards, municipalities, cities and their employees who are working together -- that's what impressed me, both management and labor working together -- that are tyring to sort out the best way to deal with this," La...

Oh, Meghan. We're very proud of you for having the courage to speak before the Log Cabin Republicans, as woman running for pundit. You can read Meghan's full remarks to the gay Republican group here, in case you are interested in learning about how highly Meghan thinks of herself for being so young and progressive and young. Whee. The politics of failure have failed, Meghan announces, and Republicans can't just join Twitter and expect to win young voters! They have to join Twitter and have kicky gay hairstylists and read Pitchfork! This is her explanation of "what it means to...

The first published use of the term political correctness occurs in Chapter 1 of Senator Robert LaFollette's Autobiography published in 1912. Speaking of his education at the University of Wisconsin, he says "In those days we did not so much get correct political and economic views, for there was then little teaching of sociology or political economy worthy the name". Sen. La Follette of Wisconsin later ran for President in 1924 on the Progressive Party platform. The University of Wisconsin Madison campus has often been cited as the birthplace of political correctness. Donna Schalala, former Clinton Secretary of Health &...