Rent-to-own veto -- no surprise

Gov. Jim Doyle disappointed a lot of people on Thursday.

The longest faces must belong to the rent-to-own industry, the predators whose "business" is charging poor people two or three or fours times what furniture, appliances, television sets and other goods are worth.

The rent-to-own industry has been trying for years to get an exemption from the state's tough consumer law, which requires them to tell people, among other things, how much interest they're paying, like 900%. The bill also would have made it easier for the companies to repossess the items, making it more like rent-not-to-own.

They got the legislature to pass a bill, thanks to the help of rent-to-own lawmakers like State Sen. Ron Brown, R-Eau Claire, who took some rent-to-own contributions and sponsored their bill. Capitol wags were calling it the Ron Brown Re-election Bill. But Brown's not one of the losers. He can raise more cash to bring it back next session.

For some reason, people had the idea that Doyle might sign the bill -- despite the fact that he has been on the other side during his entire political career, and did battle regularly with rent-to-own while serving as attorney general and the state's tough consumer advocate.

Maybe that's because he said he would read the bill and consider it without just rejecting it out of hand.

Having done that, he vetoed it on Thursday -- as he should have, and as people should have known he would do.

Besides the rent-to-own industry, others who must be disappointed:

-- The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's Mike McCabe, who issues press releases assuming that every decision Doyle makes is connected to campaign contributions. The group already had added up $22,500 in contributions it said Doyle got from supporters of the rent-to-own bill.

-- Journal Sentinel reporter Patrick Marley, who dutifully turns every McCabe press release into a front page "investigative" story, and

-- Journal Sentinel Managing Editor George Stanley, who splashes the McCabe-Marley stories on the front page. That's no doubt where today's story would have run if Doyle signed the bill. The veto story is buried in the business section, with a small headline on the bottom of the page. Marley didn't even get to write it.

Is there a bigger lesson here? Yes, but the people who are out to paint Doyle as an unprincipled politician who pays off political donors won't want to see it. Let's state the obvious anyway:

Sometimes people make contributions and get what they want from government. But that's not prima facie evidence of cause and effect, because ...

Some people make contributions and don't get what they want.

And some people make no contributions and get what they want.

That's true whether we're talking about legislation or contracts. Some donate and get contracts. Some donate and don't get contracts. Some don't donate and still get contracts.

But that really ruins the McCabe version of how government works.

One more thing: Doyle's veto will add another to a long list of clear distinctions between him and his opponent, Mark Green. When Green was in the Assembly, he was the chief water boy for rent-to-own, sponsoring one of the bills that AG Doyle denounced.