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Saturday
March 2010
20
Community Blogs
cur-mud-geon: anyone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so; anyone with the habit of pointing out unpleasant facts in an engaging and humorous manner
Will He Or Won't He?
Will Tommy Thompson finally decide to get back into the political fray and run against Feingold for the Senate seat that is up for grabs?
Tommy is an institution in the
I confess that I am not as strong an admirer of Tommy Thompson as others may be. He was a much better governor than has been Jim Doyle; about that there is no doubt in my mind. But that is not a huge statement of endorsement by any means.
Our taxes went up under Thompson’s reign as governor; he was not the conservative many of us would’ve preferred.
He has now, after his stint in the federal government, moved on to making big bucks for himself and his family. He is doing a great job of that by all accounts. The relationships he has fostered in that span of time have some sharp political edges that would be fodder for Feingold in any race. There is a real question of whether or not Tommy would run because he really wanted to be senator or run, instead, to prove that he could defeat Feingold and to re-establish himself in his home state as the consummate political professional.
If I had my ‘druthers’, I’d rather that he stop the grandstanding once and for all, and let others pick up the gauntlet without his shadow constantly blocking out the sunshine cast by any of the other candidates.
If I really had my ‘druthers’, I’d rather see Mark Neumann end his quest for governor, and move to the senate race to take on Feingold. That would, in my opinion, be the best of all worlds.
I used to admire Tommy Thompson and the way he ran Wisconsin as Governor. Then I became Village President and saw all of the things he was forcing onto municipalities that we ended up paying for. He was our leader during some very good times financially in the State. However, he expanded government by increasing employees to the tune of 13,500. That after campaigning that government was too big. There was plenty of money coming into Madison's coffer because taxes were high but income was also high so most people didn't think much about it. That would have been the time to keep some restraints on and really get Wisconsin into a lower tax status, which would have brought more businesses instead of seeing them leave.
Not only did local municipalities have to fund some of the mandates put on us, we saw our funding being cut for roads, schools, etc. The lucrative years of the eighties and nineties could have been a stepping stone into the futture. Instead, it brought more programs that needed to be funded and when the economy fell apart, we saw high debt needed to maintain them.
All that being said, I think Tommy Thompson would be head & shoulders above the so-called representation we've had by Sen. Feingold. He has made Wisconsin look foolish too many times with his radical voting record.
Mr. Hargan............ What mandates pertaining to the Village government, excluding schools, are you speaking of?
Tags: Political : Wisconsin
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