Holder's "stacked" Redistricting Commission Biased, Gableman's stacked Commission "open to all different kinds of 'evidence' and different people's comments."

I have reached my peak frustration level with reporters and our very quiet Democratic representatives. And no, "Wisconsin deserves better" press releases are not serious responses. 

Just say it, "the Gableman "investigation" is a Trumpian witch-hunt designed as an in-your-face owning of Democratic voters, using their tax dollars, while revving up their base for the midterm elections.  

Partisan Example #1-Eric Holder's not so Partisan Redistricting...Bad? Who's partisan. Is it so hard is it to remember all the phony Republican outrage over Eric Holder's attempts to kill gerrymandering? Vos-Republicans accused Holder of political bias. Totally different from the Gableman debacle? Here's a sample of GOP whining from the Journal Sentinel, October 1, 2020:

Gov. Tony Evers' redistricting commission heard from former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at its first meeting, as Republicans and Democrats squabbled over whether the panel's work will be tainted by partisanship.

1. "The commission is hardly nonpartisan with (Gov. Scott) Walker recall signers, contributors to political candidates, members of a liberal organization and (a role for) a judge who just endorsed Joe Biden for president," said a statement from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester.

2. Andrew Hitt, chairman of the state Republican Party, said having Holder testify made it plain that the commission is stacked for Democrats. “The idea that Governor Evers’ commission is somehow ‘nonpartisan’ is a joke."

Partisan Example #2-Surprise! Gableman's Partisan Election Witch-hunt...Good: Decertifying Election: With Vos's biting "the commission is hardly nonpartisan" still echoing in our heads, here's another Republicans a bit more "open" to "different" biased partisan "comments:" WKOW Capital City Sunday:

There are more than three dozen mentions of Erick Kaardal in the records. Kaardal, a Minnesota lawyer, was referred for possible discipline by a D.C. judge over what the judge considered to be a frivolous that sought to block the 2020 election from being certified.

Rep. David Murphy (R-Greenville) said he disagreed with the notion such close collaboration with Kaardal amounted to a conflict of interest or that it was a sign Gableman hadn't started his investigation with a blank slate. "I don't feel like we're starting from an assumption," Murphy said. "And certainly, as an Assembly committee, I felt totally open to all kinds of evidence and different people's comments."

Members include a former Trump administration official and the head of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance, which unsuccessfully asked the state Supreme Court to throw out the results of Wisconsin's presidential election and force the Legislature to certify the state's presidential electors instead.

Stacked against Biden election? That couldn't be. The team includes:

Andrew Kloster, a former Trump administration official who has falsely claimed the election was stolen from the former president. Kloster is paid $5,000 per month.

Carol Matheis, a California attorney active with the Federalist Society. Matheis is paid $5,000 per month.

Ron Heuer, president of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance. Heuer is an investigator and paid $3,250 a month.

Arkansas attorney Clint Lancaster, who represented a woman who sued Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, for paternity last year. Lancaster is paid $10,000 a month. 

Erick Kaardal in the records. Kaardal, a Minnesota lawyer, was referred for possible discipline by a D.C. judge over what the judge considered to be a frivolous

• Not to mention My Pillow gatherings and GOP campaign parties. Not biased at all, just different "comments." 
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•  

• 
  
  

  60 Minutes: Gableman, who also ignored our requests for an interview, draws a salary of $11,000 a month. He's made little attempt to be transparent or bipartisan. He revealed his staff only under pressure from the press and Democrats; some were found to have worked in the Trump administration or with stop the steal efforts. His investigation has been so secretive a judge ruled it violated Wisconsin's public records law. This month, Gableman released his interim report - live on cable TV from the state capitol.
  
  Michael Gableman: I believe the legislature ought to take a very hard look at the option of decertification of the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election.

  Vos still receiving Trump pressure? Sure:

• 
  
  

AP: One of those who will at the meeting with Vos on Wednesday is former Menomonee Falls village president Jefferson Davis. He has organized a pair of rallies at the Capitol attended by Tim Ramthun, a Republican candidate for governor and state representative who has introduced resolutions to decertify the vote.

Davis said he and others will be presenting evidence to Vos that shows there were between 250,000 and 300,000 fake ballots cast in the election and that decertification can legally be done.

“Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin in such a landslide it’s not even funny," Davis said. ”And we will have the evidence.”

Maddow shines national spotlight on Gableman Debacle destroying Confidence in Elections.

I thought the story I did about the Michael Gableman train wreck "investigation" was scary enough. Boy was I wrong. 

As the whole Gableman fraudit fiasco went from bad to ridiculous, Rachel Maddow decided to cover this now national embarrassment. Here's a screen capture and video segment: 

Besides energizing a gullible resentful base drooling for a Trump return, these investigations are meant to draw attention away from actual fraudulent votes by the party of projection. Beside the 5 Republican voter fraud cases in Pennsylvania, this trickled in...

Looking back now on this recent interview, Robin Vos looks even more arrogant, pathetic, and dug in to something he can't back out of now...

Speaker Vos also tells me he wants people who are questioning the election to be a part of Michael Gableman's investigation. https://t.co/OoiEn7yR2y https://t.co/jaQUCcLEN8

— Emilee Fannon (@Emilee_Fannon) December 9, 2021

And of course, this unimaginable partisan endorsement that no Democrat, liberal, or progressive could ever pull off if they were in charge...

 

Republican says Stop! But Ruthless Robin Vos stays with Bumbling "Justice" Gableman!

Even though Democrats have been saying the Gableman fraudit should end now, supposedly for partisan reasons, they are now oddly proven right since a Republican has jump on board calling the 2020 election audit a fraud and should be stopped:

 

"Mr. Gableman is coming to my county and I will attend that meeting along with my concealed carry permit, to be perfectly honest, because (the election review) keeps jazzing up the people who think they know what they're talking about, and they don't," Bernier said.

Just to give you an idea of what this guy looks, this former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice (not kidding) here's a classic Gableman moment: 

Gableman's seething outrage over the Mark Zuckerberg money that helped Democratic as well as Republican districts carry out the election is truly a surreal rage:

Court rulings have found nothing illegal about the more than $10 million in grants CTCL distributed to about 214 municipalities in 39 of Wisconsin’s 70 counties, including many in areas solidly won by former President Donald Trump. Nor did CTCL turn down grant requests from any of the Wisconsin municipalities that made them.

Gableman pulls off Endorsing Republican without objection from Vos Legislature: Then, this just happened...

JSOnline: "I knew there would be criticism. I did not know there would be this universal defense mechanism even among some people in the leadership of the Republican Party, who would rather just let — who would rather just let this go. But we can't let it go. We can't let it go. … They come for us in tiny, tiny steps. They come for us in millimeters. And if you give a millimeter, they're going to push and you've got to back up more. You back up, they're going to push you again and you've got to back up more. I am done backing up. And I hope you are, too."

Gableman made the comments at the Rock County Republican Party’s "Merry Politics" event. He's slated to attend a similar event on Dec. 20 with the Chippewa County Republican Party.

Imagine a Democratic former Justice doing this?

Sen. Kathy Bernier, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Elections, wasn't the only person calling for end to this slow moving and costly taxpayer debacle:

She was joined by Ben Ginsberg, who spent nearly four decades representing Republicans in election disputes. "We are here today because Wisconsin has found itself really in the middle of a harmful and disturbing national trend that involves the intimidation of election officials — the people who are supposed to call balls and strikes in our elections," Ginsberg said

Bob Bauer, who served as White House counsel during Barack Obama's presidency said Gableman's comments — "and the partisan context in which he received this assignment" — show Gableman is not right for the job. The partisan reviews in Wisconsin and other states are “pseudo audits being organized for partisan political purposes by those who do not have the wherewithal to meet any kinds of standards whatsoever," Bauer said.

Blame Democrats for Lousy Inept Gableman Fraudit? Sure, why not: 

Robin Vos said it was Democrats who were preventing Gableman from completing his work sooner. "Instead, invoking McCarthyism has been their only motive, trying to discredit the investigation rather than finding ways to improve the system and prevent fraud going forward."

Milwaukee CBS58's Emilee Fannon asked the right question and got the ever-arrogant Vos to confidently...stop lying for one moment: 

And well before the clown car known as the Gableman "investigation" began, the escalation of death threats to election workers were still not even on Vos-Republican radar. Seriously, there was not one attempt to stop what were essentially Trumpian terrorist threats against public servants and their families. It didn't even muster an investigation:

Reuters reported last week that an article on Gateway Pundit, the far-right website known for spreading hoaxes, alleging "thousands of fake votes" had been discovered in Madison resulted in angry calls and death threats against Madison city clerk Maribeth Witzel-Behl. Witzel-Behl is among 25 election officials who have been targeted by more than 100 threats arising out of the Gateway Pundit post, Reuters reported. Messages to at least five of the officials, including Witzel-Behl, were deemed serious enough to report to law enforcement.

Gableman's "friendly court" to Arrest Madison and Milwaukee's Democratic Mayors? You can't make this up. From WPT's Here and Now: 

Meme Governor Candidate Becky Kleefisch Blissfully sees no Problem: Kleefisch even "thinks" the investigation will restore confidence in Wisconsin elections, never mind that a Republican loss will only be reversed someday anyway:

The bumbling Gableman Fraudit sh*t hits the fan...

There is no question who's to blame for the cluster f**k election "fraudit" in Wisconsin; Robin Vos take a bow:

UPDATE Thurs. 10/28/2021: Cloaked in secrecy despite being paid for by taxpayers, the Gableman debacle takes an even more bizarre turn for the worse. From my JSonline email:

A woman named Carol is helping Wisconsin Republicans review the 2020 election. No one will provide her last name.

• Assembly Republicans have hired someone named Carol to help answer their questions about the 2020 election. Just don’t ask Carol or her bosses what her last name is. "No comment," she said Wednesday before hanging up on a reporter. • The hiring of Carol is the latest example of the opacity of a review of the 2020 election being overseen by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman at a cost to taxpayers of $676,000. The names of state employees and their contractors are ordinarily public. No one has offered any justification for not disclosing Carol's last name. • The woman, who signs her emails “Carol M.,” has been contacting attorneys for election officials recently to discuss subpoenas Gableman has issued. She has not told them whether she is a lawyer, an administrative assistant or holds some other post, the attorneys said.

How bad can it get? Rachel Maddow deconstructs this election fraud witch hunt by former Justice Michael Gableman. Never mind how bad this is also making our activist rightwing Wisconsin's State Supreme Court look, again:

And this isn't embarrassing or a career ending fiasco from Robin Vos? Republicans seeking to discredit Wisconsin elections off to a bumbling start https://t.co/4FP5j3gfAZ via @msnbc

— John Peterson (@democurmudgeon) October 9, 2021

The Millwaukee Journal Sentinal followed up with a few important developements: 

...and...

Assembly Republicans are using an attorney for their review of last year's election who has maintained without evidence that the election was stolen and argued that conservatives need prosecutors who will "let our boys off the hook."

The lawyer, Andrew Kloster, worked in the White House under former President Donald Trump. He told the Assembly Elections Committee in March he is not an election attorney and has a "limited understanding" of election laws.

WI Republicans push "boondoggle" clown show, even after Arizona audit gave Biden bigger Win over Trump!

ALERT!!! I had to include this incredible comment from Republican Robin Vos that appeared in this mornings paper. Uh, talk about shaping the "fraudit" around this predetermined outcome. WOW:

Vos said, “I am supremely confident that at the end of the day, Justice Gableman will produce a report that will show that there are issues with the 2020 election, where potentially changes could be made to make it better."

Okay then...back to the original post:

For starters, consider this:

Gableman told a group of Trump supporters in November that he thought the election was stolen.

In an interview with Upfront, Gableman "clarifies" his comment by essentially saying it was just raw meat for his audience:

Gableman: "I didn't say it was a stolen election...I can't think of anything more unjust, than a corrupt or unlawful election in a democracy. Whether that occurred here is very much a question to be examined."

Host: "So you're saying you weren't saying that after the election, at a pro-Trump rally, because you believe it was a stolen election?"

Gableman: "I try to be very careful about my words, obviously most of the attendees there had a very particular viewpoint."

Now take a look at this important detail from Matthew Rothschild's recent column, at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign website. This major jaw-dropper about special counsel Michael Gableman's "forensic audit" says it all:

One of the most grotesque things that former Justice Michael Gableman has done recently is to team up with Andrew Kloster, an attorney from the Trump Administration. He’s the guy who sent the email to clerks from an unsecured gmail account.

 An unsecured gmail account? You can't make this stuff up...

Gableman's first email to election clerks confused many, as it came from a Gmail address under the name “John Delta” and contained an attachment. Many counties flagged it as a potential scam and it landed in the junk email folder for others.

Kloster, in an April 12 posting, glorified the Proud Boys and rightwing violence, as Patrick Marley reported in the Journal Sentinel..

Kloster: “We need our irate hooligans (incidentally, this is why the left and our national security apparatus hates the Proud Boys) and our own captured DA offices to let our boys off the hook.”

That quote alone is grounds for Gableman and Kloster to be fired immediately.

Arizona's "audit" didn't put their taxpayers on the hook like Wisconsin's audit, especially liberal and independent voters who are being forced to help pay for the partisan Vos-Republican "boondoggle:" 

Gov. Tony Evers: “It’s a $700,000 boondoggle to prove something that’s already been proven probably 100 times. You don’t have to prove a negative in court, you don’t have to prove a negative in any other place except Justice Gableman’s court here.

I hate to see an inquisition like this, especially when you're being told you have to prove it was a good election. Everybody knows it was a good election."

Even this Republican seems to have had enough:

State Sen. Kathy Bernier, chair of the Senate elections committee: “There is not a reason to spread misinformation about this past election when we have all the evidence that shows otherwise.”

FINAL WORD: Dumb Ron Johnson's know-it-all arrogance betrays the Trump lie. You gotta laugh:

Of course, what Vos-Republicans want to do is drag this to the election next year, keeping the base agitated. 

But even a forensic audit will never be good enough. Take a look at this bizarre reaction out of Arizona:

With the Supreme Court in shambles, Justices go on Loony Tunes Rants Trashing election law, like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce intended.

Imagine, after 4 decades (and coincidentally with Republicans firmly in charge), the 4 partisan conservative activist Justices suddenly noticed our campaign laws have been too broad and unconstitutional. The actual unambiguous law blocking coordination between campaigns and outside groups is now seen as ambiguous and too broad. Who knew? Just like that…

…Justice Michael Gableman found collaboration between issue groups and campaigns was not illegal … the special prosecutor has employed theories of law that do not exist.

And while the leaders of big money special interests whined and released private information barred by the John Doe law, the Justices decided to prevent the investigators from offering their side:

The justices didn't hold oral arguments to avoid disclosing private information. Key details about the probe have emerged in news reports, opinion pieces and a wave of litigation against investigators.

The most ridiculous complaint centered on the investigations lack of arrests and convictions. Hmm, I wonder why…

…stalled for 18 months after a lower court judge…

The tortured logic of the majority conservative justices...:

…found collaboration between campaigns and issue groups is allowed because such groups don't explicitly tell people how to vote.

I guess if the message is the same between the two groups, that’s just a coincidence from like-minded conservatives. And suspicions of lawbreaking, all theoretical, cannot be investigated because that would infringe on the 1^st Amendment:

…it makes clear campaigns can work closely with outside groups … R.J. Johnson simultaneously served as an adviser to the club and Walker's campaign … allowing more political money to flow without the names of donors being disclosed.

Acting as if they were at a bar ranting endlessly about issues not even before their court, the Justices didn’t just trotted out conservative radio talking points, they also played up the “Republicans are victims” card:

Those in the majority raised questions about the way the probe was conducted, with Gableman writing that the search warrants were executed as "pre-dawn, armed, paramilitary-style raids" and Prosser writing in a concurrence that the subpoenas were "so extensive that they make the fruits of the legendary Watergate break-in look insignificant by comparison." The appeals court ruled in favor of prosecutors in the challenge that dealt with technical issues about how the probe was conducted. 

Todd Graves, an attorney for the club and its director, Eric O'Keefe, said in a statement that Chisholm and the accountability board until now "acted like playground bullies without fear of restraint from the courts."

Attorney General Brad Schimel said the ruling "closes a divisive chapter in Wisconsin history."

This thing call “law” is so inconvenient. Maybe Schimel missed the time Scott Walker boasted how he would “divide and conquer” labor in the state. That chapter hasn’t closed.  

Unconstitutional for 4 decades: Thank god we discovered the mistake when the GOP took over:

The Government Accountability Board's Chairman, Gerald Nichol, said the ruling reverses how election officials have interpreted campaign finance laws for four decades. Daniel Weiner, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said in a statement the court "has made campaign finance law extraordinarily easy to evade. No other court has gone this far and for good reason — it is a misreading of the law and threatens fair and transparent elections."

Balls to the Wall Bizarro World: Connecting the dots on this one was easy. Jaw dropping and outrageous, here's how Wisconsin Manufactureres and Commerce (WMC) bought off the court. 

Step 1: Got their justices elected:

WMC, which has received some funding from the Wisconsin Club for Growth and is the state's largest business lobbying group, spent an estimated $2.2 million for Ziegler; $1.8 million for Gableman; $1.1 million for Prosser; and $500,000 for Roggensack.

Step 2: WMC then went ahead and wrote the Justices recusal rules that wiped "conflict of interest:"

2. In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court adopted the Realtors and WMC’s petitions. The petitions sought clarification that a judge does not need to seek recusal where it would be based solely on a party in the case sponsoring an independent expenditure or issue advocacy communication in favor of the judge. the and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (“WMC”) and Wisconsin Realtors Association (“Realtors”) filed separate petitions (that) sought to amend the Judicial Code of Conduct.

Step 3: WMC can now drum up taxpayer outrage over the cost of the public's futile effort to stop business from shredding campaign finance laws, and :

WMC president and CEO Kurt Bauer said, "Taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money was wasted on this unlawful and unconstitutional investigation, and the targets deserve an apology from the prosecutors and GAB regulators who have violated their rights."

Justice Gableman above Ethics, above Law! We’ve let Republicans Trash the judicial system, and we’re paying for it!

Conservatives think they can do no wrong, heck, we’re seeing that with the no apologies governor. Tough decisions may not be popular, but they’re doing it for our own good. They’re our leaders, our authority figures. And so it is with Justice Michael Gableman, a guy’s who’s had a dark cloud over his head since his election.

On a Friday afternoon, when scoundrels release information to the media to bury it, Gableman slinked out to give us his judicial opinion. And no one can do anything about it.

jsonline: State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman said Friday he would not step aside in three matters, including an attempt to reopen last year's decision that allowed a new law to take effect that curbed the power of public unions. The other cases Gableman was asked to step aside from were pending matters. One involves the siting of a large heifer facility in Rock County; the other is over whether to use old or new legislative maps for likely recall elections of state senators.

Attorneys in the cases asked Gableman to remove himself because other parties in the cases were represented by Michael Best & Friedrich, which defended Gableman against an ethics allegation without billing him. Lawyers have said the legal work was likely worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Now, the full court will have to decide whether to force Gableman from the cases.

Never before have we seen such arrogance in power, from all three branches of our Republican government. Here’s Mr. Perfects reasons for no longer recusing himself:

Gableman's written orders saying he was remaining on the case were released together and virtually identical. He cited state Supreme Court decisions from 2008 and 2011 that say justices can recuse themselves only when they cannot act fairly and impartially or where they give the appearance that they cannot do so. He also cited U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' recent report that said justices on the nation's highest court should not withdraw from cases because of "partisan demands, public clamor or considerations of personal popularity or notoriety."

In his orders, Gableman did not go into the merits of the allegations against him or explain why he did not believe there was an appearance of a conflict of interest.

Justice Gableman, again flaunts the law, this time taking free legal counsel.

We really shouldn't be reading about our State Supreme Court Justices as much as we have, unless there's an incredible underlying problem no one really wants to deal with. 

But here we go again. It's stunning to think any justice would make the following kind of error, unless they had a total disregard for the office or...law!

jsonline: State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman received free legal service worth thousands of dollars from one of Wisconsin's largest law firms as it defended him against an ethics charge, according to a letter released Thursday by the firm. The state's ethics code says state officials cannot receive anything of value for free because of their position. And a separate ethics code specifically for judges says they cannot accept gifts from anyone who is likely to appear before them.

A former state ethics official on Thursday said authorities should thoroughly investigate how the deal between Gableman and attorney Eric McLeod of Michael Best & Friedrich worked because Gableman did not end up paying any attorneys fees.

One Good Accusation Deserves another? Justice Gableman tries to prove Justice Anne Walsh Bradley the Court Abuser.

UPDATE: Yeah, right!!!  TPM:

Allegation that liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley hit him during a court meeting on September 18, 2008 -- a date when the court did not meet. Gableman's answer is that he is correcting a lapse of memory: It did happen on September 18 -- but in 2009. In any event, the incident happened exactly as I related it to the officers and as it was set forth in the report. While Justice Bradley might not be able to recall it, I certainly do." 

Justice Michael Gableman lied his way in the court, avoided punishment due to a decision by his conservative cohort Justice Prosser, and now has a tale to tell about Justice Bradley. What is it about the media pass these conservative activist justices are given for provably inaccurate statements?

One thing for sure, high court women justices are a tough intimidating bunch. 

WSJ: Three Wisconsin Supreme Court justices are disputing an allegation by Justice Michael Gableman that Justice Ann Walsh Bradley rapped him on the head during a 2008 meeting at which they were reportedly present.

Gableman relayed the alleged incident to Dane County Sheriff's deputies during the investigation into a June 13 altercation between Bradley and Justice David Prosser. The event took place during a meeting with the other justices on Sept. 18, 2008, Gableman said, a date he said he remembers because it was his birthday and just weeks after he joined the court … Gableman said he was in a meeting with other justices, including Justice Patrick Crooks, who he said was "reading the horoscopes." Gableman said he made a joking comment to Abrahamson, calling her by her first name … In response, Gableman said, "Justice Bradley came over to him, hit him on the back of the head and told him that he needed to show respect to the chief," according to sheriff's reports. He said he believed Bradley wasn't being playful because no one was laughing at the time.

Asked to respond to the allegation, Bradley said in an email to the Wisconsin State Journal that "Justice Gableman recounts an event that never happened on a date that, according to my records, it could not have occurred. "And Abrahamson said that, according to her records, "no meeting, conference or oral argument of the court occurred on September 18, 2008, or on any day that week." She said she asked Bradley and Crooks to check their records, which also show no meetings that week. And, she said, Justice Patience Roggensack earlier requested that the court not schedule anything between Sept. 15 and Sept. 29 that year.

Former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske called the contradiction between Gableman's account and the denials by the three justices "disturbing" and the account itself "bizarre." "I have known Justice Bradley for 20 years. I cannot imagine her hitting another justice in anger because he (Gableman) called Justice Abrahamson 'Shirley' — because everybody calls her Shirley," said Geske, adding that even the custodial staff at the court refers to the chief justice by her first name.

Gableman is a zealot conservative, bought and paid for Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce. His credibility dissipated quickly after this recent comment about his good friend David Prosser:

Gableman also insisted to the detectives that Prosser never put his hands on Bradley's neck. But even Prosser acknowledged doing that, calling it a "total reflex."