No Difference Between The Parties

It's been a while since I got to go to the Wisconsin State Democratic Convention. I had attended from 2003-2005 but skipped last year because it was in La Crosse and that's quite a hike from Milwaukee. This year I was lucky enough for it to be in Milwaukee and could attend again.

Going into it we knew there were issues. First our State Party Chairman, Joe Wineke, got himself in quite a bit of trouble when it was discovered he was lobbying for AT&T openly while holding the Chairman position. He didn't seem to see this as a conflict of interest and his supporters, mainly the very DLC centrists who are comfortable with the way things run mainly because it stays profitable for them, defended him to the core claiming it wasn't an issue.

The local press got onto the story and the progressives in the party made a big deal about it and only because of that pressure and embarrassment did he resign from AT&T. He even went out to trash the "liberal wing of the party" for it.

I scoff at the term, "liberal wing". Hey Joe, here's a hint, there's a hell of a lot more of us than you in this party. That liberal wing are the grassroots who knock on doors, phone bank, donate money, hold house parties for candidates and are the very backbone of the party. The centrists hate these people because they like to take PAC money from corporate lobbyists and don't want to upset the gravy train. Even Joe who is not an elected State or Federal Government official, was in the position he was in with AT&T because as State Party Chair, he was an influence peddler. Someone with access to the elected incumbents and future candidates who need him to give state support to their campaigns.

I find that funny as well because Joe doesn't dole out money to places where the DPW has a chance to lose. He centers the money and State Party efforts in retaining Democratic safe havens like Madison and Milwaukee where other candidates pretty much get zilch in state support. Ask Bryan Kennedy how much help he got in his two election bids against James Sensenbrenner. Bryan is a good soldier though and is willing to keep working within the party structure to bring people to the fold.

The State Party takes credit for the wins in 2006 but most of the people on the ground were put there by Howard Dean's DNC 50 State Strategy. He placed the people on the ground to help win elections, not Joe. Yet Joe was all over the radio before the convention touting gains he had little to do with.

Actually since Joe has been in the Chair's position you can't find too many positive things he has done at all with the party. There are still serious questions about the voter identification lists they distribute to campaigns and it appears to need a serious database overhaul. He hasn't used the party's website to reach out and organize (which is why groups like MoveOn are so much more popular... they hold events and find ways to be online activists even for those who cannot get out and be as active). And this year's convention was a disaster.

Disaster you say? Why would that be?

Well first a lack of planning ended up putting the Democratic Convention 2 weeks off their regular schedule. Usually they have their convention the second weekend of June. This year they had scheduling issues, all of which could have likely been prevented and instead of the Four Points Sheraton they used in 2003 by the Airport (an easier location to reach with free parking), they chose the excessively pricey Downtown Hilton hotel with $10/day parking costs. The Hilton was a nightmare as the ballroom was oddly shaped and people were seated in strange formations including behind pillars and were unable to see speeches, as well as having tiny hallways in which there were deadlocked lines of people wedged and stuck together when trying to enter or exit a hospitality suite (Senator Feingold and Rep. Gwen Moore's in particular).

They also made the critical thinking error of scheduling the last weekend of June. Anyone in Milwaukee knows that this is the opening weekend for Summerfest and it made traffic downtown as well as availability of convention-goers a bit more impossible. The last weekend in June was also the end of another Presidential Campaign reporting cycle so every single Presidential Candidate (that was invited, this was another question we raised) turned down the chance to speak to the Wisconsin Democrats. In 2003, we had every candidate minus Bob Graham (although his daughter spoke for him), Joe Lieberman (yuck), Al Sharpton and I think Carol Mosely Braun. The big names were here.

In fact they failed to get any Democratic keynote speaker at all, which drew jeers from the Journal-Sentinel as well. Governor Jim Doyle who speaks at these conventions yearly anyways (and is a fairly boring speaker) ended up taking his boring speech and extending it as the keynote.

The Convention failure falls squarely on Wineke's DPW. In 2005 when I was present for the Oshkosh planning meeting between the DPW and Winnebago County they made it clear that they ran the show, the county was good for printing materials and gathering volunteers and that any suggestions on how to make the Convention more entertaining or to open it up to draw more non-party members as guests were shot down. The convention is an oversized business meeting, similar to the bulk of most smaller local county meetings.

What fun for the people that drive 5-6 hours across state huh? Let's go over finances, listen to pompous self congratulatory speeches and pass resolutions that really don't have any teeth outside of the party. Sounds like a great way to spend a couple hundred dollars (hotel, convention costs, parking, party membership fees and gas).

I like the speeches myself, well aside from party leadership bullshitting about all the great things that happened under their watch. But the real draw is the hospitality suites. Don't kid yourself, free food, mingling with the candidates and other convention-goers... far more exciting than sitting through Jim Doyle boring us with smoke-free Wisconsin concepts that alienate many smoking Democrats.

When the resolutions hit the floor on Saturday (oh yeah, this wonderful experience runs a whole whopping 24 hours.. It's done by Saturday afternoon. Have fun driving back 6 hours!) one included a resolution requesting DPW leadership to refrain from lobbying posts during their elected terms.

Then the rest was high comedy. I had to leave Friday night but a very reliable source told me the following:

Joe Wineke tried to promise this wouldn't hit the floor and then used a staged uproar about 50 paper copies of each resolution to get his people in the door to save his ass from the resolution. He changed the rules of the debate to prevent alternating for and against points on the resolution and then his people held the mic for the entire 6 minutes of the debate. He also walked up and down the floor screaming that Bill Scanlon had to go and spouted obscenities like, "he is just an ass".

His supporters came out on Democratic Underground and tried to say it was an easily rejected resolution and that there was no uproar against Wineke. I suppose not when you prevent debate against your side and then hold the mic the entire time.

The sad thing is his supporters just don't get it.

It's just plain obvious as to why you cannot be the chair of our state party and a corporate lobbyist. The fact that Wineke doesn't get it shows why he is unfit for the position.

The Republican Party is the party that represents the rich and the corporations. (check back in the next few days for a post with a quick commentary on how they trick middle class and poor voters)

We are SUPPOSED to be the alternative.

When I was 10 years old in 1988, I started getting interested in politics. I watched the Dukakis-Bush and Bentsen-Quayle debates with my Mother. My first question to her was, "Mom, why are you a Democrat?". Her answer wraps up Joe's problem very succinctly.

"Because Democrats represent regular people and Republicans represent businesses and rich people."

That seemed to clear it up for me. And for the most part that has been true. We KNOW what they stand for. They are blatant about it. The Iraq War was about Halliburton and Big Oil. The Medicare Prescription bill was about HMOs and Pharmaceuticals. Everything they have done has been centered around enriching their corporate friends. In turn those friends give tons of money to these politicians and make them rich. They also use the media they own to slander their opponents as if their entire channel was a non-stop political ad and distort the facts to confuse the American viewers and voters and protect the status quo.

The Democratic Party is SUPPOSED to be the ALTERNATIVE. We represent the people, not the corporations. AT&T's current work is based on pushing through legislation state by state that will fleece customers and eliminate any oversight. How is that representing the regular people?

Joe is the face of our party as the chair. We ALL get linked to AT&T because of him now.

Too bad he and the other corporatists that want to make the Democratic Party, Republican-lite have no moral conscience and only care about their wallets. Sure he resigned, but because he had to and lashed out against the majority of the party who disagrees with the entire concept of our leadership co-representing us and corporations.

He is wrong and needs to go. But joy for him. His money, connections, and party hacks helped him run unopposed this year and win another two year term.

This is exactly why people think there are No Difference Between The Parties.

-Rp