Vrakas-Finley dispute painful to watch; ongoing furor is politician's nightmare

This is a very slow news week, especially for politics, so reporters and bloggers in Wisconsin owe a real debt to Waukesha County Exec Dan Vrakas and his short-term, now departed chief of staff, Jenifer Finley.

By firing a volley every few days, they have managed to keep the story of Finley's departure/resignation/firing in the news for two weeks now. And there are enough unanswered questions that it's guaranteed to stay around awhile longer.

Vrakas, who has been pretty tight-lipped, even when Finley fired off a Christmas Eve greeting that basically accused him of being a sellout who didn't keep his promises, fired back today.

"Things weren't working" with her as his chief of staff, Vrakas told the newspaper.

In other words, it was her job performance, not her unhappiness over budget policy, that precipitated her departure, according to Vrakas.

"I asked Jenifer what she wanted to do about it. And I accepted her resignation," Vrakas said. In other words, he gave her the opportunity to resign rather than be fired.

Vrakas even threw in a letter of recommendation as part of the deal. But Finley's public statements since she left the office will make any public official think twice about hiring her.

Even now, Vrakas refuses to get into the messy details or publicly criticize Finley, although she has not hesitated to rip him. The JS reports:

Asked specifically what difficulties led Finley to resign six weeks into the administration, Vrakas declined to elaborate, saying he does not believe in criticizing other people publicly.

"It just wasn't working out," he said. "I don't know that it's necessary to assign blame."

Vrakas is taking the high road.

Finley, who is married to the only other county executive Waukesha has ever had, should know that political staffers come and go all the time. They serve "at the pleasure" of the elected official. When it's not working, for whatever reason, the official is free to make a change.

I hate to keep using John Norquist's time as mayor of Milwaukee as an example, but it illustrates the point. In almost 16 years in office, he had something like eight chiefs of staff. None had as short a tenure as Jenifer Finley, but they came and went with some regularity. Sometimes it was their idea, sometimes it was Norquist's, and sometimes it was mutual. But you never read more than a short story about anyone's departure, and it usually was in the context of who was coming into the job next.

Tommy Thompson, too, had a series of chiefs of staff during his years as governor, with never a murmur about why people came and went. They just did.

It all has to do with something called loyalty. A friend of mine who has served a number of prominent elected officials calls it honor.

Whatever that quality is, Jenifer Finley doesn't have it.

The Finley-Vrakas situation is a politician's nightmare. It's not even fun to watch.

Now the county board says one of its committee's may hold a hearing on the matter, guaranteeing more news coverage and more controversy.

Vrakas has handled this whole episode badly, starting with the first, terse news release that raised more questions than it answered. But, given the way it has played out, and Finley's decision to pour gasoline on the Yule log, it is hard to know what Vrakas could have done to prevent this public conflagration. It will eventually burn itself out, but the damage to his new administration will smolder for some time. And that's unfortunate.

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UPDATE: Dennis York offers another take. Jenifer Finley falls off her high horse.

Deb Jordahl, a self-described GOP activist, says: Don't go away mad, Jenifer -- Just go away.

Cory Liebmann at Eye on Wisconsin calls it Days of Our Lives (Waukesha Edition.)