Donald Fish Public Statements
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2002
Barrett is the best choice
Tom Barrett is the best choice in tomorrow’s Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor. Kathleen Falk is also a good choice, but Barrett tops the list because of the courage he has shown in calling attention to the possible use of state resources by Jim Doyle in his election campaign.
When Barrett stood up and made his voice heard on the issue, he knew full well that he would be charged with negative campaigning, but he also understood that our leaders too often put on blinders for12-Step Program the sake of elections. I do not know if Barrett’s stand will hurt or help his election efforts, but it helped Wisconsin.
It is very concerning how Doyle’s answers to the charges changed as more evidence became known, and how his responses sounded, as noted in a Wisconsin State Journal editorial last week, “a lot like the explanations legislators used last year to justify sending state employees all over Wisconsin to work on campaigns while taxpayers assumed they were working for them.”
I believe our leaders have taken advantage of the citizens. In the years I have been in the inner circles of politicians and politics, I have become all too aware of a culture that believes anything is okay in the pursuit of winning, and those involved seem to have an infinite capacity for rationalization. If they should get caught, they just ‘spin’ their way out of it.
I am reminded that Abraham Lincoln once asked, “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”
While working for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, I was always impressed in how Barrett tried to separate his congressional staff from his election campaigns, which was the exception and not the rule when compared to most of his colleagues, and he has come out with the start of a credible plan to do something real about the problem.
Doyle is part of the old guard. Tom Barrett can give Wisconsin a fresh start and can return to the state its former reputation of clean government.