It's good to be the king. Just ask Jim Doyle, Wisconsin's Imperial Governor.
Ordinary State employees - and everybody in the private sector - is required to submit receipts following business travel or else they're not reimbursed. This rule only applies to the little people though - not King Jim.
Ordinary State employees - and almost everybody in the private sector - has to fly Coach Class when they travel. This rule also only applies to the little people though - not King Jim when he wants to fly to Europe. After all, we can't risk having the Governor get sick by having to mingle with the great unwashed!
Ordinary State employees - and everybody in the private sector - has to account for their travel decisions and explain themselves to the people that pay the bills. Again though, this rule only applies to the little people - not King Jim.
The Imperial Governorship goes well beyond travel expenses though. For example, look at the way Doyle is circumventing procedures he set up in order to reward cronies and contributors with Circuit Court Judgeships.
When a sitting Wisconsin judge decides to step down, the Governor gets to appoint his or her replacement. Since Doyle is a liberal Democrat, this means that many of his appointees over the last seven years have been people who share his philosophy. In many cases, his appointees have also had pre-existing relationships with him and/or have been financial contributors.
Fine. This is why elections matter. If you don't like the type of judges that Doyle's appointing, vote him out.
However, to help him screen applicants for judgeships, Doyle has created something called the Governor's Advisory Council on Judicial Selection. Traditionally, the Advisory Council recommends three names to the Governor - and he then selects one. The dirty not-so-secret thing about this process though is that the Governor has a great deal of control over the composition of the Advisory Council. As such, it's rare that someone that Doyle wants to appoint doesn't make the final three.
Which brings us to the recent selection of Amy Smith to a judgeship in Dane County.
Amy Smith, a Madison attorney, was one of 28 applicants for three judicial vacancies. She was not one of the seven candidates recommended by the screening committee.
Smith however had something working for her that a lot of applicants didn't. She was a long-standing crony of King Jim. In fact, Smith had worked for him when he was Attorney General and had been hired by his Administration to work in the Department of Corrections. Of the 28 applicants for the three vacancies, Smith was also the largest campaign donor to Doyle.
As an aside, all three attorneys chosen for judgeships were the three largest donors to Doyle among the original 28 applicants. A coincidence, I'm sure!
To me, the issue isn't whether Doyle has a right to appoint Smith - he does. The issue also isn't whether Smith is qualified to be a judge. I think she is (even though she was twice rebuked by appellate court judges for dishonesty).
The real issue is why set up a process to select judges if you're not going to abide by the results?
The fact that Smith, with all her connections to the Governor, didn't make the cut says an awful lot. The fact that Doyle chose not to follow the process he established says even more. Even some of Doyle's most reliable supporters are breaking bad on him as a result of this one.
Whether it's accounting for travel or selecting judges, our present Governor seems to think that his own rules don't apply to him. Maybe he's right.
On the other hand, maybe about 16 months from now the citizens of this State will decide that it's time to end the reign of King Jim.
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