Wagner's Rule of Life Number Six says: "Take The ticket, shut your mouth"!
If Wisconsin State Senator "Screamin' Lena" Taylor had remembered this Rule, she wouldn't find herself joining Charlene Hardin, Elizabeth Jones and Toni Clark as the fourth elected official from the Milwaukee area to completely embarass herself in recent months.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, during rush hour a week ago Friday, Taylor crossed the center line of N. 35th Street and drove southbound in the northbound lane. Unfortunately for Taylor, two cops saw her do it.
When they stopped Taylor to give her a ticket, she went "Screamin' Lena" on them. According to the ticket, she became irate, said that she couldn't be expected to wait for the light and tried to provoke an argument with the officers. Alas for Taylor, this was all to no avail - because she got a citation anyways.
Not content to simply admit that she was wrong, sources say Taylor called the 3rd District Police Headquarters and somehow convinced Acting Captain Edith Hudson to drop the ticket. She is, after all, a State Senator who can't be expected to abide by those petty little traffic rules that the rest of us have to follow.
In any event, after learning of the decision to drop the ticket, Assistant Chief Greg Habeck and Police Chief Edward Flynn stepped in and ordered the citation reissued. Apparently Habeck and Flynn are not as impressed with "Screamin' Lena" as some others in his Department are.
What's most frustrating about this story however is that it's typical of the arrogance that some area elected officials routinely display.
Last July, soon-to-be former Milwaukee School Board member Charlene Hardin took a taxpayer-funded trip to Philadelphia purportedly to attend a conference. As we all now know though, she only showed up on the last day of the conference and then only to try to collect freebies. The District Attorney's Office ultimately decided that it couldn't prove that Hardin committed a crime (even though they didn't interview her). To this day, Hardin hasn't reimbursed the taxpayers for her sham junket.
Two weeks ago, we learned that Milwaukee County Supervisors Toni Clark and Elizabeth Coggs arranged for a taxpayer-funded trip to the Inauguration. Once the details of their junket became public, they agreed to repay the taxpayers for the cost of their trip. While it doesn't appear that the DA's Office will investigate the two for misconduct in public office, other supervisors are working on legislation to prevent future misuses of public funds in this fashion.
While Taylor's little stunt doesn't involve an abuse of taxpayer money, it does reflect an attitude on her part that the rules don't apply to her. Unfortunately, way too many public officials around here seem to believe the same thing.
In other words, "ask not what you County Supervisor/School Board Member/State Legislator can do for you, ask what you can do for your County Supervisor/School Board Member/State Legislator!"
Karma being what it is, these things have a way of working themselves out. In the meantime though, the next time that Taylor decides to drive the wrong way down the street, I'd advise her remember Rule Number Six: "Take the ticket, shut your mouth"!
One final note. All three of these stories were broken by Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. For a period of time after the demise of the old Spivak/Bice column, I thought that Bice was floundering as a solo act. HIs work over the past few months shows that he's got his fastball back!
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