Gableman was the offender, not the victim

Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign isn’t one to let the facts spoil a good story when he’s on a crusade for his version of clean politics.

Case in point: The Badger Herald’s upbeat story, headlined, “Candidates to run cleaner Supreme Court race,” which says:

After the negative tone of last election, during which one candidate accused the other of being sympathetic toward child molesters, both candidates are making an effort to help clean up this year’s election, which will be held April 7.

What made the last election so negative? Just ask McCabe:

Despite efforts by both candidates to run positive campaigns, most of the negativity voters see is often a result of the efforts of third party special interest groups, according to Wisconsin Democracy campaign director Mike McCabe.

“The problem is that in both races the candidates were pushed to the sideline by special interest groups,” McCabe said.

What McCabe chose to ignore, of course, is the fact that the most vile, untruthful, negative claim of last year’s race did not come from any “special interest group.”

The television commercial, which attracted national attention for its Willie Horton style sleaziness and was roundly condemned, falsely claimed Louis Butler had sprung a rapist from prison so he could rape again. The sleaze came not from some independent group but from — Ta da! — Butler’s opponent, one Michael Gableman. That’s Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to you.

If Gableman lost control of his campaign, it wasn’t to some independent group, but to the slime merchants who advised him and ran his campaign.

(Disclosure: I am affiliated with one of those so-called “shadowy” independent groups McCabe loves to hate.)