Roseleip to Reynolds

In days of yore, Wisconsin had a state senator named Gordon Roseleip, a candy store owner from southwestern Wisconsin sometimes had a way of saying too clearly what he thought -- and sometimes garbling it so badly no one was quite sure. A red-blooded, flag-waving conservative (he wasn't a neocon; would you call him an oldcon?), he often helped the other side more than his own by speaking out.

Now, in the tradition, comes State Sen. Tom Reynolds, a West Allis Republican who has mostly managed to fly under the media's radar since beating Peggy Rosenzweig in a primary in 2002, in the first purge of a GOP moderate from the Senate.

But Reynolds has started to speak up lately. As he gets going, it promises to be some fun.

On why he opposes raising the minimum wage, which has been at $5.15 since 1997: "As hard as it is to believe, the value of that labor is not worth it [the increased minimum wage]. It is hard to believe. The 200,000 Wisconsinites who work hard every day for minimum wage would certainly disagree with him. But Reynolds doesn't want to hear from them, or from the WMC, Restaurant Assn., Merchants Federation or Grocers Assn., all of whom support it. So he has refused to call a hearing of his committee, which has the bill.

On election law reform, when Reynolds chaired a hearing, Service Employees union members wore stickers saying, “Voting is a Right.” In one especially revealing exchange during the hearing, the SEIU reports, a witness declared that “voting is not a right, it’s a privilege.” In an unusual breech of Legislative etiquette, Senator Reynolds responded that this was an idea worthy of applause, and supporters of the bill reacted with an enthusiastic ovation .

Stay tuned. Reynolds is just getting warmed up. The 06 campaign could be some fun.