Scooting Over The Top

So some conservative/Republican bloggers are defending convicted State Rep. Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) by attacking the judicial system.

Emotionally, that's understandable - - but politically and tactically, that's an error because it makes these conservative opinion-makers look whiney and hypocritical.

Conservative politics nationally and in Wisconsin have been built on personal responsibility. Whether schooling your kids, providing for your family, getting ahead at work, or saving for retirement, the mantra has consistently been:

Take responsibility.

Make choices, live by the consequences, enjoy the outcome of your good decisions, but don't blame other people or institutions when things don't go your way - - because the decisions were yours.

Intertwined is (was?) respect for the law. Hasn't it been Democrats who have had to fend off criticism from the right about being "soft on crime?"

Arguing that Jensen selectively was prosecuted forgets that Democratic leaders caught up in the scandal were also charged and convicted - - Democrats who made bad choices and accepted their responsibility by entering guilty pleas.

Bashing the judicial system for convicting Jensen also overlooks interviews with jurors who said they convicted Jensen on the evidence, including testimony from Jensen that they said was not believable.

These were regular citizens upholding law and order: why make them targets?

Seeing their champion take such a hard fall is no doubt painful, but Jensen's allies are weakening themselves by turning their backs on the law and the philosophy of personal responsbility.

It's hard to imagine that some conservatives could have figured out a way to continue to offer Democrats a PR advantage in the wake of Jensen's decision to go to trial and in his resulting conviction, but it seems they have, twice:

First, there is Republican Assembly Speaker John Gard's indecision about whether to remove Jensen from the Committee on Joint Finance.

Now there are Jensen supporters pointing the finger of blame far from where it is deserved.