Congdon’s term is up in 2010. Hysterically, Doyle’s breathless press release announcing Congdon’s appointment never mentioned Congdon’s work with the local Democrats. (As recently as 2008, Congdon donated money to the Democratic Party.)

The Freeman editorialized that Doyle wasn’t likely to pick Antonin Scalia anyway. True. But couldn’t he at least pick Lloyd Carter (a respected prosecutor who applied), instead of a politically connected divorce attorney?

In November, as Democratic Party chairman, Congdon expressed hope that Obama’s election means Waukesha can be turned more liberal. He told the media that Americans needed to restore faith in themselves.

During a Waukesha County Assembly race, Congdon absurdly demanded that conservative candidate and eventual winner Scott Newcomer be investigated for a felony for voting in Delafield. A special prosecutor exonerated Newcomer.

Congdon once snidely referred to County Executive Dan Vrakas as the “anointed one.” Congdon represented a woman trying to keep a day care license after a young girl was allegedly sexually assaulted under her care. According to media reports, he argued she shouldn’t be expected to watch the children constantly. He once called former Republican state Rep. Scott Jensen the “Michael Jackson” of Wisconsin politics.

Congdon’s been a loyal foot soldier and partisan flamethrower. So, Doyle should give him a canned fruitcake for Christmas. Does he have to give him a judgeship? I’m sure Congdon will now try to remake himself as non-partisan, just like Mayor Larry Nelson.

You may recall, I suggested we start disliking Congdon’s appointment right away and suggested the party line up for former assistant DA Dennis Krueger.

Dennis Krueger commented:

Thanks for the prop Wiggy. I will not be a candidate in the spring election for Branch 2 in April 2010. I work for JB at the State Department of Juistice and thoroughly enjoy serving the people of this state in that role.

Lloyd Carter applied for the appointment to Branch 2 as well. He has been an Assistant DA in Waukesha since the early 90s. Steady, thorough, dedicated and hard-working he would serve Waukesha well as a judge. Watch for him in the future if there is a contested election

So that’s one early endorsement for Lloyd Carter, whom McBride also described as “a respected prosecutor.”

However, in her column McBride endorsed Jennifer Dorow:

Dorow didn’t seek the appointment from Doyle, but she’ll likely announce a challenge to Congdon soon.

As one local Republican lawyer said, “She’s savvy, smart, a fresh spirit, law and order with a heart, precisely what Waukesha County needs at this time.”

Troy Fullerton concurs in the comments here:

From all I’ve heard Carter would have been a much better pick than Congdon, but moving toward a contested election I think conservatives would be much better with Jennifer Dorow. She will have far more support and resources from the politically active community here, and I think will run a much better campaign.

Here’s my prediction. Congdon will be the most watched judge in Waukesha County this year and will face very stiff opposition in 2010. Don’t know yet who it will be, but there’s a line of potential candidates forming already, and they look more qualified than the appointed incumbent.

Not to pick on Owen Robinson (although, that is what we do around here), but I begin to wonder if some people even know anything about fireplaces. After noting that he and Mrs. Robinson were supposedly there when it happened, the only insight he offers is,

It really stinks that their child burned her hands, but I don’t think the hotel is to blame. It’s a fireplace. There isn’t any way to keep it from being hot other than turning it off. This was a tragic accident. Nothing more.

1) I have a wood fireplace with glass doors in my own home. Despite the heat generated by the fires I’ve made, I cannot recall anytime the glass doors were hot enough to send a child to the emergency room.

2) The fireplace in question is a gas fireplace. If there’s a chance the darn thing is too hot, someone could just adjust the gas accordingly just like a gas grill in the backyard.

I’m tempted to bring in the personal injury attorney that I know as an expert, but I don’t think I can afford his consulting fee. Since I don’t see any other personal injury attorney experts out there writing on this, let me just note that nobody knows what is really going on. And given that this is likely to be settled in mediation, probably none of us will. I could ask the Buchers, and there’s a chance they would tell me, but it’s none of my business. Yours either, really.

But some of the commenters over at Boots & Sabers seemed to be of the opinion that conservatives like the Buchers should not be allowed to file lawsuits because supposedly conservatives don’t believe in lawsuits. I would take the argument seriously except I think it was not advanced seriously at all. Instead it was the result of animus towards the Buchers.

And since the Buchers are not seeking special treament in this case or behaving in any manner contrary to their own expectations of the limits of the legal system, I would suggest their critics find something else to get in a tizzy about.

But it’s estimated that more than 1,500 people would attend each of the 34 games. That’s a lot of people in a pretty small park, even if it’s down from the completely unmanageable 4,000 in plans past. When the baseball team starts deterring other free community uses, like taking my kid to the playground, I start drawing the line. Good luck trying to park!

Furthermore, high school teams should have first dibs at the diamond. Moving their games to days to accommodate a commercial venture is not acceptable.

The best reason to oppose the move is that maybe we can have it both ways. We should invite the baseball team to come to Waukesha County but ask it to play somewhere other than Frame Park. The developer has already scouted out other county spots. The rhetoric should cool down on both sides.

We shouldn’t keep meeting this developer with only a refrain of “no, no, no.” He has a good idea. This is a big county with a lot of still-rural space. County Executive Dan Vrakas? You’re at bat. Let’s not lose the franchise, even as we acknowledge that the Frame Park idea is a non-starter.

Badger Blogger has been tracking the idiotic behavior of State Representative Jason Fields (D-Milwaukee). Fields, you may recall, was arrested not that long ago for driving under the influence. What made it ironic was Fields’ participation in the effort to get Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk to run against then-incumbent Peg Lautenschlager in the Democratic Primary for State Attorney General. Fields avoided the “Idiot Politician of the Week” prize by promising to accept the consequences of his actions.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and Fields has suddenly found Alan Eisenberg. Fields entered a plea of “not guilty” and then claimed it was a miscommunication with his attorney. Meanwhile, Fields found himself in sympathy with someone from the Hmong community who was stopped for drunk driving and then decided to resist arrest. As Bruce at Badger Blogger put it so well, Fields decided to side with someone who was seen on video resisting arrest over the police officers that protect his neighborhood. But Fields knows his natural constituency: ethnic drunk drivers.

Speaking of public drinkers, I’d pick on Senator Hillary Clinton for not being able to get coffee from a coffee machine, but until I have my first cup of the day I’m pretty helpless myself. Besides, remember the good old days when you could just get a cup of coffee? When your choices were black, cream, sugar? No, but we are going to pick on the Senator for choosing a product that clearly exploits the poor campesinos in a way that’s harmful to the environment. After being befuddled by a coffee maker, the Senator should have announced loudly, “There’s no Fair-Trade, environmentally friendly, high-tariff coffee option on this machine! I bet this stuff got into the country because of NAFTA, which my opponent secretly supports!”

Back to Wisconsin, State Representative Don Pridemore (R) once again demonstrates a skin thin enough to be translucent. Rather than let the matter drop, the state representative again lashes out at the McBride-Bucher-WRTL-Robinson cabal determined to challenge him in a primary election all because he might be opposed to anonymous political speech. You see, it’s the Democrats driving him to paranoia. Meanwhile, he knows that McBride and her husband have stolen the frozen strawberries and if he’s given just a little more time he can prove it. There’s a duplicate key to his office. He knows that because of the WRTL robocalls to his district. But he’s outsmarted them, you see. Even if they’re anonymously whispering behind his back. And please ignore the ball bearings in his hand.

The runner-up Idiot Politician of the Week is Racine Mayor Gary Becker. Becker found himself the featured speaker at the May 1st rally for illegal aliens sponsored by the dubious Voces De La Frontera. Becker is obviously not nearly as clever as the mayor of Racine’s northern neighbor. Mayor Barrett showed up, shook a few hands, and um, er, had a “previous engagement” to attend rather than be seen supporting calls for general amnesty for every illegal alien. Nope, Becker stuck it out among the sombreros, Mexican flags and Spanish chants. You know, all those great indicators of how even illegal immigrants are assimilating into our culture.

But this week’s Idiot Politician of the Week is Baltimore City Councilman James Kraft. Kraft took the prize when he declared that the choice between paper and plastic at the grocery store is the choice between freedom and The Holocaust. (ht: Fred Dooley)

A broad slate of environmental proposals that would ban plastic bags from city grocery stores and add a 10-cent deposit for all types of bottles purchased in Baltimore came under fire Thursday at a citywide hearing.

The measures, sponsored by City Councilman James Kraft, include banning plastic bags and Styrofoam cups, and adding a 10-cent deposit for plastic and glass bottles of soda and beer — all part of an aggressive green agenda touted by Kraft, solidifying his reputation as the council’s environmental crusader.

Painting the proposed laws in broad strokes, Kraft likened his efforts as similar to confronting the threat of Nazi Germany prior to World War II.

“We don’t want to be criticized by future generations for not doing enough now as were those who dealt with the Germans then,” Kraft said at a hearing in the headquarters of the Living Classrooms in Fells Point.

Perhaps the councilman might consider breathing into a paper bag rather than mandating them at the grocery store. His penchant for hyperventilating may have already led to hypoxia, the resulting brain damage causing him to become our Idiot Politician of the Week. His prize will be delivered after we finish invading Poland.

In response to the robocalls, Pridemore whipped out a press release that, in disclosure, mentioned my husband. Flailing at an imaginary electoral strawman, Pridemore raised speculation that my husband is going to run against him and speculated that it couldn’t be a coincidence that Wisconsin Right to Life was putting out robocalls. Huh? My first thought upon seeing it was: Paul’s running? (Just kidding).

The speculation derived from a blogger who admits she was completely making it up. The best line came from Freeman columnist James Wigderson, who opined that he’d like to see my husband in the state Assembly because “after the first meeting he’d probably demand mandatory Breathalyzer checks for his colleagues.“

Good grief, now Pridemore’s really going to be engaged in conspiracy theories. “His wife wrote a column about me!” the next press release will say. It’s called freedom of speech.

Meanwhile, my husband, who has not considered running for state Assembly (but, thanks, Representative Pridemore for the idea), was working on some legal case blissfully unaware of it all.

Pridemore also took off after Wisconsin Right to Life, stating the group should be “ashamed” of itself. Pridemore insisted that he’s 100 percent pro life. That’s not the point. The group’s upset that there’s evidence he’s not 100 percent for free speech. Under fire, he tried to recast his actions as an attempt to assure voters “retain their rights” if Democrats try to appoint judges.

The way to assure voters retain their rights is to vote against Democratic attempts to appoint judges.

He continued: “The Democrats clearly cannot face the simple fact that their bought-and-paid-for WEAC candidate Louis Butler was defeated in this past election.”

That’s true. So why was Pridemore acting upset too?

Pridemore also stated, “I have told Wisconsin Right to Life that I have no intention of going forward with a bill that would require third party advocacy groups to list their donors, yet in today’s press release they insinuate exact (sic) that.”

Actually, it was an earlier press release from Don Pridemore that insinuated exactly that, one it took him a long time to publicly correct.

It announced: “State Representative Don Pridemore has called for interest group and third-party donor records to be made available to the public. ‘I’ve been considering this legislation for quite some time now, but in the wake of the judicial elections on April 1, it has become even more imperative.’”

Why was it so imperative if the bought-and-paid for WEAC candidate lost?

On Friday, Pridemore whipped out yet another press release, insisting that any reference to third-party donors has been removed from draft legislation, which he called “flexible.”

To me the funniest part of the story is that Paul Bucher was completely unaware that all of this was going on.

By the way, what does anyone think the over-under on the Breathalyzer failure rate is?

I re-listened to the program again today to confirm Hampden only touched on Illusory Tenant’s reputation as “the champagne of hateblogs.” Had Hampden done her research she would have asked Foley about the time he called Jessica McBride a c—. It’s not like Hampden didn’t have cause to ask Foley about the incident. After all, McBride is a lecturer at the university where WUWM operates and broadcasts. McBride was even a prior guest on Hampden’s show.

It’s not like there wasn’t anything to follow the McBride incident. After all, there was the time he called blogger Kathy Carpenter a “bitch.” Does he dislike women? Some women? Just women who speak their minds? Does he believe civil discussions are even possible on the internet? What other anonymous names has he used to insult women? Did he mind that a woman was asking him questions?

Who knows? Had Hampden asked those questions, maybe it would have been radio worth a few sales of commercials.

There were fewer independents voting in the GOP primary in Michigan than voted in New Hampshire. McCain has yet to show he can appeal to enough Republicans to win the primary. Then, again, he’s showing he can appeal to enough independents to win the presidency.

Mark Belling on WISN-AM compared Senator John McCain to Bob Dole in 1996. That’s a huge underestimation of McCain. I don’t like Senator McCain’s views on many, many issues, but even I concede he has a knack for appealing to independents and Democrats. The problem for McCain is that his appeal is based largely on the reasons conservatives like me dislike him.