GOP can't defend its misplaced priorities

Wisconsin residents think the politicians they elect to office put their own interests, or those of special interests, ahead of the people's, a Wisconsin Policy Research Institute poll discovered.

The only real surprise was how overwhelming the numbers were. The poll said 47% thought politicians worked for their self-interest, 41% for special interests, and only 6% thought they represented the public interest. Story.

State Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, the Senate minority leader, suggested that maybe people would like to see the legislature working on something besides the kind of right-wing social agenda that has dominated recent sessions -- like the recent day when the Senate spent all day on four bills backed by Wisconsin Right-to-Life.

From Robson's news release:

“What I hear people talking about is how long they can hold off turning on their furnaces. They’re talking about how they are going to pay their property taxes at the end of the year while paying heat bills that are $600 higher than last year. Wisconsinites are worried about the high cost of home heating, gasoline, property taxes, and health care.

“Democrats are trying to address these pocketbook issues, but the Republicans refuse to move our bills forward...

“Last week Democrats announced the Action Plan for Affordable Health Care to set a timeline to bring health care costs down by 15 percent over a two-year period...

“The response from the Republicans was to say there is no health care crisis. Tell that to the small businesses that are dropping their health insurance benefits. When Wisconsin has eight of the top 10 costliest cities in the nation in terms of physician costs, there is a crisis. The cost of a family health insurance premium has increased 73 percent since 2000. Instead of making affordable health care a priority, Republicans are ignoring the issue like they are ignoring every other kitchen-table issue that is on the minds of Wisconsinites.”

The Repubs, as you might expect, didn't like what Robson had to say. (I don't know if you've noticed, but they don't take criticism well.) They fired off a news release of their own, blaming the Democrats and Gov. Jim Doyle for poisoning the public's attitudes.

The Rs were quick on the trigger with a release, but when Wisconsin Public Radio offered them a chance to debate Robson on the issue and discuss the WPRI poll on an hour-long statewide call-in show, there was not a single Republican to be found. Robson accepted the invitation, but in the interest of "fairness" the producers decided to go with an analyst instead of elected officials.

Was every Republican legislator too busy working for the public interest to appear with Robson for an hour?

More likely, no one felt up to defending the misplaced priorities of the GOP-run legislature that has neglected the real issues that people care about, while playing political games on divisive issues that do nothing to improve people's quality of life. The Republican agenda is all about trying to score political points, but that is beginning to wear thin with the voters.

The same day, the Republican leadership agreed to pay for lawyers to represent two Republican legislators who want to keep the state's attorney general from seeing the draft of a bill allowing people to carry concealed weapons. Would you want to defend that? No wonder the GOP hides behind press releases.